ON May 20, 1612, two gentlemen arrived at the village of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, with a royal commission to value the remains of the manor house there. This once magnificent building, erected in the 1440s, had fallen into neglect and its materials were a tempting source of money for the cash-strapped James I. Soon after the visit, therefore, the site was almost completely cleared and the brick, tile, stone, timber and iron sold off. The survey is one of several documents that can be used to reconstruct a uniquely detailed impression of this exceptional lost building and—by extension—the organisation, appearance and furnishing of a great English house in the 15th century.
Ewelme Manor was a favoured residence from 1435 of William de la Pole and his wife, Alice, the granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. William, who inherited the Earldom of Suffolk, secured the favour of the boy king Henry VI and—in the eyes of hostile critics —proceeded to usurp the resources of the realm to himself. He was elevated in 1444 to the estate of Marquess and then, in 1448, to that of Duke of Suffolk. Following English reverses in France, however, his enemies struck back and, in 1450, he was brutally murdered; decapitated with a rusty sword in a parody of a nobleman’s execution. Alice survived him for a further 25 years and, as a widow, proved a formidable power herself.
Denne historien er fra February 16, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 16, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
