SCION of diplomats, admirals, generals, politicians, colonial governors and adventurers, sportsman and inventor Peter de Sausmarez is the latest in his illustrious line to leave a mark on Guernsey's most ancient manorial seat, Sausmarez Manor. The de Sausmarezs first came here as Seigneurs of the Fief de Sausmarez in the 13th century, but their connection with the place might have died out had Philip de Sausmarez (1710-47) not been serving on HMS Centurion when it seized the Nuestra Senora de Covadonga off the Philippines in 1743. Philip, who played a leading role in the capture, was put in command of the highly prized Spanish galleon and sailed it to Canton, where it was sold. The cargo-36 cartloads of gold, silver and other treasures plundered in Acapulco-was divided up among the key participants and so great was its value that the de Sausmarez fortunes were transformed.
When Philip was killed at the second Battle of Cape Finisterre, he left his money to his brother, on condition that he buy back Sausmarez Manor, which had passed out of the male line in the 16th century. Thus, in 1748, this younger branch of the family regained its ancestral home. Some years later, the leading sculptor Sir Henry Cheere, who had carved the marble monument to Philip in Westminster Abbey, was commissioned to make a unicorn and greyhound for the Sausmarez Manor gate piers. Heralding the main entrance on the St Martin's to St Peter Port road, these splendid armorial beasts trumpet the family's reconnection with its Guernsey roots.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin August 17, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin August 17, 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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.
