1.
English country house
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An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of country houses were the hub. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle, increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses, those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, if fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name castle are fortified. The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians, as a description of a country house, the term was first used in a poem by Felicia Hemans, The Homes of England, originally published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1827. In the 20th century, the term was popularised in a song by Noël Coward. The books collection of homes also includes George IVs Brighton town palace. The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years, before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords, de facto overlords of their manors. The Tudor period of stability in the saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the Kings favourites, woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in the names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace, castle, court, hall, mansion, park, house, manor, and place. Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known examples of the prodigy house. Some of the best known of Englands country houses were built by one architect at one time, Montacute House, Chatsworth House. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century, an example of this is Brympton dEvercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone
2.
Sherborne St John
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Sherborne St John is a village and civil parish near Basingstoke in the English county of Hampshire. The village was named in the Domesday book as Sireburne and it became Shireburna, Schyreburne and Shirebourne Decani, Shireburn St. John in the 14th century. Sir Bernard Brocas, the 14th century soldier and friend of the Black Prince and his son, the rebel, also called Sir Bernard Brocas, made it the familys permanent home. The village of Sherborne St John is a parish and ward of Basingstoke. The borough council is a Non-metropolitan district of Hampshire County Council, Sherborne St. John has its own parish magazine, The Villager. A Greening Campaign has been launched to make all the locals eco friendly, annual events in the parish include the Sherborne St John Village Fayre and Monk Sherborne & District Horticultural Show. Beaurepaire, formerly a Tudor mansion, was almost entirely rebuilt after a fire in Victorian times and it was the home of the Brocas family for many centuries from the time of Sir Bernard Brocas, the hero of Crécy. The Sherborne St. John Church of England Primary School is over 150 years old and teaches year R, the school has approximately 17 children in each year, and approximately 115 students in total. In the SATS results of 2010 the school placed as the top school in Hampshire. Children aged 11 to 16 that receive state-funded education are likely to attend The Hurst Community College in Baughurst, List of places in Hampshire List of civil parishes in Hampshire Sherborne St John Parish Council Sherbornes with Pamber Church Sherborne St. John Church of England Primary School
3.
Basingstoke
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Basingstoke is the largest town in Hampshire. It is situated in south central England, and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon and it is located 30 miles northeast of Southampton,48 miles southwest of London, and 19 miles northeast of the county town and former capital Winchester. According to the 2011 census the town had a population of 107,355 and it is part of the borough of Basingstoke and Deane and part of the parliamentary constituency of Basingstoke. Basingstoke is often nicknamed Doughnut City or Roundabout City because of the number of large roundabouts, Basingstoke is an old market town expanded in the mid 1960s as a result of an agreement between London County Council and Hampshire County Council. Basingstoke market was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, at the start of World War II the population was little more than 13,000. It still has a market, but is now larger than Hampshire County Councils definition of a market town. It is also the location of the European headquarters of the TaylorMade-Adidas Golf Company, other industries include publishing, IT, telecommunications, insurance and electronics. The name Basingstoke is believed to have derived from the towns position as the outlying. The ending -stoke means outlying settlement or possibly refers to a stockade that surrounded the settlement in early medieval times. Basing, now Old Basing, a village 2 miles to the east, is thought to have the same etymology and it remained the main settlement until changes in the local church moved the religious base from St Marys Church, Basing, to the church in Basingstoke. The site of Winklebury camp is now home to Fort Hill Community School, nearby, to the west, Roman Road marks the course of a Roman road that ran from Winchester to Silchester. Further to the east, another Roman road ran from Chichester through the villages of Upton Grey. The Harrow Way is an Iron-age ancient route that runs to the south of the town, the first recorded historical event here was the victory gained by Æthelred of Wessex and Alfred the Great over the Danes in 871. Again, in 904, Basingstoke saw a battle between Edward the Elder, Alfreds only son, and his cousin Æthelwald. Basingstoke is recorded as being a site in the Domesday Book. During the Civil War, and the siege of Basing House between 1643 and 1645, the town played host to large numbers of Parliamentarians. During this time, St. Michaels Church was damaged whilst being used as a store and lead was stripped from the roof of the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. It had been incorporated in 1524, but was out of use after the Civil War
4.
Hampshire
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Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, the capital city of England. The larger South Hampshire metropolitan area has a population of 1,547,000, Hampshire is notable for housing the birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. It is bordered by Dorset to the west, Wiltshire to the north-west, Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, the southern boundary is the coastline of the English Channel and the Solent, facing the Isle of Wight. At its greatest size in 1890, Hampshire was the fifth largest county in England and it now has an overall area of 3,700 square kilometres, and measures about 86 kilometres east–west and 76 kilometres north–south. Hampshires tourist attractions include many seaside resorts and two parks, the New Forest and the South Downs. Hampshire has a maritime history and two of Europes largest ports, Portsmouth and Southampton, lie on its coast. The county is famed as home of writers Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Hampshire takes its name from the settlement that is now the city of Southampton. Southampton was known in Old English as Hamtun, roughly meaning village-town, the old name was recorded in the Domesday book as Hantescire, and it is from this spelling that the modern abbreviation Hants derives. From 1889 until 1959, the county was named the County of Southampton and has also been known as Southamptonshire. The region is believed to have continuously occupied since the end of the last Ice Age about 12,000 BCE. At this time Britain was still attached to the European continent and was covered with deciduous woodland. The first inhabitants came overland from Europe, these were anatomically and behaviourally modern humans, notable sites from this period include Bouldnor Cliff. Agriculture had arrived in southern Britain by 4000 BCE, and with it a neolithic culture, some deforestation took place at that time, although it was during the Bronze Age, beginning in 2200 BCE, that this became more widespread and systematic. Hampshire has few monuments to show from early periods, although nearby Stonehenge was built in several phases at some time between 3100 BCE and 2200 BCE. It is maintained that by this period the people of Britain predominantly spoke a Celtic language, hillforts largely declined in importance in the second half of the second century BCE, with many being abandoned. Julius Caesar invaded southeastern England briefly in 55 and again in 54 BCE, notable sites from this period include Hengistbury Head, which was a major port. There is a Museum of the Iron Age in Andover, the Romans invaded Britain again in 43 CE, and Hampshire was incorporated into the Roman province of Britannia very quickly
5.
William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys
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William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys of the Vyne KG was an English Tudor diplomat, Lord Chamberlain and favourite of King Henry VIII. William was the son of Sir William Sandys of The Vyne, a Tudor mansion in Sherborne St. John, near Basingstoke, Hampshire and it now belongs to the National Trust. His mother was his fathers wife, Margaret, the daughter of Sir John Cheney of Shurland on the Isle of Sheppey. As a young man, he gained preferment at Court and was associated with Prince Henry, assisting at his knighthood. William remained a friend of Henry when he became king. He was made a Knight of the Garter the following year and was instrumental in organising the Royal meeting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was made Baron Sandys of the Vyne soon afterwards and he became Lord Chamberlain in 1526 and Henry visited him three times at the Vyne, once with Anne Boleyn whom Sandys was later to escort to her imprisonment in the Tower. Although his sister Edith had married Lord Darcy, one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, there is no evidence that Sandys played any part in the uprising, Sandys later retired from court life and died in Calais on 4 December 1540. He was the founder of the Guild of the Holy Ghost in Basingstoke and was buried in its chapel, amongst the ruins of which part of his tomb may still be seen. He had married Margaret, the daughter of his cousin, John Bray, half-brother to Sir Reginald Bray, the statesman and architect and he is a minor character in the historical novel The Man on a Donkey by H. F. M
6.
Henry VIII of England
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Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII, Henry is best known for his six marriages and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. Despite his resulting excommunication, Henry remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings to England. Besides asserting the supremacy over the Church of England, he greatly expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were commonly used to quash dissent, and he achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich and his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated, and accomplished king, and he has been described as one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne. He was an author and composer, as he aged, Henry became severely obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI, born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henrys six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary – survived infancy and he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, and was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York, in May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. Henry was given an education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king, as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, Arthurs death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public, as a result, the young Henry would later ascend the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship
7.
Lord Chamberlain
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The Lord Chamberlain is always sworn of the Privy Council, is usually a peer and before 1782 the post was of Cabinet rank. The position was a political one until 1924, the office dates from the Middle Ages when the Kings Chamberlain often acted as the Kings spokesman in Council and Parliament. The current Lord Chamberlain is The Earl Peel, who has been in office since 16 October 2006. During the early period, the Lord Chamberlain was one of the three principal officers of the Royal Household, the others being the Lord Steward and the Master of the Horse. His department not only furnished the servants and other personnel in attendance on the Sovereign but arranged and staffed ceremonies. As other responsibilities of government were devolved to ministers, the ordering of the Royal Household was largely left to the taste of the Sovereign. To ensure that the reflected the royal tastes, the Lord Chamberlain received commands directly from the sovereign to be transmitted to the heads of subordinate departments. This duty was abolished under the Theatres Act 1968, the first London performance of the musical Hair was delayed until the act was passed after a licence had been refused. The Lord Chamberlain also undertakes ceremonial duties and serves as the channel of communication between the Sovereign and the House of Lords, the Lord Chamberlains Office is a department of the Royal Household and is headed by the Comptroller. It is responsible for organising ceremonial activities including state visits, investitures, garden parties and he also regulates the design and the wearing of court uniform and dress and how insignia are worn. Lords Chamberlain since 1399 to the present, List of Lords Chamberlain to British royal consorts Stephens, the Censorship of English Drama 1824–1901. Shellard, Dominic, Nicholson, Steve, Handley, Miriam, a History of British Theatre Censorship. The Lord Chamberlain - Royal Household official website Chamber Administration, Lord Chamberlain, 1660–1837 The Lord Chamberlain and censorship at The Theatre Archive Project
8.
Portico
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A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was used in Ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures. Some noteworthy examples of porticos are the East Portico of the United States Capitol, the portico adorning the Pantheon in Rome, porticos are sometimes topped with pediments. Bologna, Italy, is famous for its porticos, in total, there are over 45 km of arcades, some 38 in the city center. The longest portico in the world, about 3.5 km, in Bologna, Italy, porticos stretch for 18 km. Palladio was a pioneer of using temple-fronts for secular buildings, in the UK, the temple-front applied to The Vyne, Hampshire was the first portico applied to an English country house. A pronaos is the area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple. Roman temples commonly had an open pronaos, usually with only columns and no walls, the word pronaos is Greek for before a temple. In Latin, a pronaos is also referred to as an anticum or prodomus, the different variants of porticos are named by the number of columns they have. The style suffix comes from the Greek στῦλος, column, the tetrastyle has four columns, it was commonly employed by the Greeks and the Etruscans for small structures such as public buildings and amphiprostyles. Roman provincial capitals also manifested tetrastyle construction, such as the Capitoline Temple in Volubilis, the North Portico of the White House is perhaps the most notable four-columned portico in the United States. Hexastyle buildings had six columns and were the standard façade in canonical Greek Doric architecture between the archaic period 600–550 BC up to the Age of Pericles 450–430 BC. With the colonization by the Greeks of Southern Italy, hexastyle was adopted by the Etruscans, Roman taste favoured narrow pseudoperipteral and amphiprostyle buildings with tall columns, raised on podiums for the added pomp and grandeur conferred by considerable height. The Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, is the best-preserved Roman hexastyle temple surviving from antiquity, octastyle buildings had eight columns, they were considerably rarer than the hexastyle ones in the classical Greek architectural canon. The best-known octastyle buildings surviving from antiquity are the Parthenon in Athens, built during the Age of Pericles, and the Pantheon in Rome. The destroyed Temple of Divus Augustus in Rome, the centre of the Augustan cult, is shown on Roman coins of the 2nd century AD as having built in octastyle. The decastyle has ten columns, as in the temple of Apollo Didymaeus at Miletus, the temple of Venus and Rome, built by Hadrian in Rome about 130 A. D. was decastyle, the only known example in Roman architecture. Classical architecture List of classical architecture terms Hypostyle Loggia Stoa Greek architecture, Encyclopædia Britannica,1968 Stierlin, Greece, From Mycenae to the Parthenon, TASCHEN,2004, Editor-in-chief Angelika Taschen, Cologne, ISBN 3-8228-1225-0 Stierlin, Henri
9.
Inigo Jones
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Inigo Jones was the first significant English architect in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable architect in England, Jones was the first person who introduced the classical architecture of Rome and he made major contributions to stage design by his work as theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson. Beyond the fact that he was born in Smithfield, London, the son of Inigo Jones, a Welsh cloth worker, at some point before 1603 a rich patron sent him to Italy to study drawing after being impressed by the quality of his sketches. From Italy he travelled to Denmark where he worked for King Christian on the design of the palaces of Rosenborg and Frederiksborg, Jones first became famous as a designer of costumes and stage settings, especially after he brought masques to the stage. Under Queen Annes patronage he is credited with introducing movable scenery and this development suggests a second visit to Italy, circa 1606, influenced by the ambassador Henry Wotton. Jones learned to speak Italian fluently and there is evidence that he owned an Italian copy of Andrea Palladios I quattro libri dellarchitettura with marginalia that refer to Wotton and his architectural work was particularly influenced by Palladio. To a lesser extent, he held to the architectural principles of the ancient Roman writer Vitruvius. Joness first recorded architectural design is for a monument to Lady Cotton, circa 1608 and he devised a masque for the Prince and was possibly involved in some alterations to St Jamess Palace. On this trip, Jones was exposed to the architecture of Rome, Padua, Florence, Vicenza, Genoa and his surviving sketchbook shows his preoccupation with such artists as Parmigianino and Schiavone. He is also known to have met Vincenzo Scamozzi at this time and he was probably the first Englishman to study these Roman remains first hand and this was key to the new architecture Jones introduced in England. In September 1615, Jones was appointed Surveyor-General of the Kings Works, fortunately, both James I and Charles I spent lavishly on their buildings, contrasting hugely with the economical court of Elizabeth I. As the Kings Surveyor, Jones built some of his key buildings in London, in 1616, work began on the Queens House, Greenwich, for James Is wife, Anne. With the foundations laid and the first storey built, work stopped suddenly when Anne died in 1619, work resumed in 1629, but this time for Charles Is Queen, Henrietta Maria. It was finished in 1635 as the first strictly classical building in England, employing ideas found in the architecture of Palladio and this is Joness earliest surviving work. The Banqueting House was one of several projects where Jones worked with his personal assistant, the Queens Chapel, St. Jamess Palace, was built between 1623 and 1627, for Charles Is Roman Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria. Parts of the design originate in the Pantheon of ancient Rome and these buildings show the realisation of a mature architect with a confident grasp of classical principles and an intellectual understanding of how to implement them. The other project in which Jones was involved is the design of Covent Garden square and he was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to build a residential square, which he did along the lines of the Italian piazza of Livorno. It is the first regularly planned square in London, the Earl felt obliged to provide a church and he warned Jones that he wanted to economise
10.
John Webb (architect)
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John Webb was an English architect and scholar. He was born in Little Britain, Smithfield London and died in Butleigh in Somerset and he had a close association with fellow architect and theatre designer Inigo Jones for whom he worked as an assistant from 1628. Jones and Webbs jointly designed Wilton House with its distinctive Single and Double Cube rooms, at the beginning of the English Civil War, Inigo Jones left London to attend the King at Oxford. He was later in Basing House and captured at the end of the siege, Webb stayed in London, having been appointed Deputy Surveyor by Inigo Jones. He acted as a spy for Charles I, probably out of rather than by appointment. Upon Jones death in 1652, Webb inherited a fortune as well as a library of drawings and designs. In 1654 Webb designed the first classical portico on an English country house, in the Corinthian style, this portico stamps this older house as Palladian,50 years before the birth of Lord Burlington. In the early 1660s Charles II commissioned Webb to rebuild Greenwich Palace in a more contemporary Baroque style and his plan was for three ranges around a courtyard, open on the north side towards the Thames. The buildings were to be aligned with Inigo Jones Queens House, the old buildings were demolished, but only one block of Webbs design was built. Webb also designed the enlargement of the Queens House in 1662, further afield they also share a connection with Kingston Lacy, a stately home in Dorset where Webb supervised early works on the building, following designs originally prepared by Jones. Webb also designed the rebuild of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire between 1654 and 1668, and made alterations to Northumberland House and he also designed Gunnersbury House in Ealing. An unconstructed design for a theatre attributed to Webb, discovered in the library of Worcester College, Oxford, was used as the basis for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London, opened in 2014. Webb was a scholar who collaborated with Inigo Jones and Walter Charleton to produce a book about Stonehenge. Ten years later, he published his own Vindication of Stone-henge Restored, having never visited China or mastered the language, he based his essay on the travelogues of the Jesuit missionaries. The National Trusts history of The Vyne
11.
Chaloner Chute
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Chaloner Chute was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1659. He was Speaker briefly in 1659, Chute was the son of Chaloner Chute of the Middle Temple. He was admitted to Middle Temple and was called to the bar, in 1653 he bought The Vyne, the Tudor palace which is located near Sherborne St John on the outskirts of Basingstoke in Hampshire. Chute was elected Member of Parliament for Middlesex in the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656 and he was elected MP for Middlesex again to the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659 and became its first Speaker. However he had to stand down because of ill health and died in April, Chute married Anne Place, widow of William Place of Dorking, Surrey and daughter of Sir John Scory of Wormesley, Herefordshire. He was succeeded by his surviving son Chaloner
12.
Horace Walpole
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Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford — also known as Horace Walpole — was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, south-west London and his literary reputation rests on his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto and his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. He was the son of the first British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, as Horace Walpole was childless, on his death his barony descended to his cousin of the same surname, who was created the new Earl of Orford. Walpole was born in London, the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, like his father, he received early education in Bexley, he was also educated at Eton College and Kings College, Cambridge. Walpoles first friends were probably his cousins Francis and Henry Conway, to whom Walpole became strongly attached, at Eton he formed with Charles Lyttelton and George Montagu the Triumvirate, a schoolboy confederacy. More important were another group of friends dubbed the Quadruple Alliance, Walpole, Thomas Gray, Richard West, at Cambridge Walpole came under the influence of Conyers Middleton, an unorthodox theologian. Walpole came to accept the nature of Middletons attitude to some essential Christian doctrines for the rest of his life, including a hatred of superstition. Walpole ceased to reside at Cambridge at the end of 1738, according to one biographer his love for his mother was the most powerful emotion of his entire life. the whole of his psychological history was dominated by it. Walpole did not have any relationships with women, he has been called a natural celibate. Walpoles sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation, many contemporaries described him as effeminate. Biographers such as Timothy Mowl explore his possible homosexuality, including a passionate, some previous biographers such as Lewis, Fothergill, and Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, however, have interpreted Walpole as asexual. Upon coming of age he became Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the Estreats which gave him an income of £300 per annum, Walpole decided to go travelling with Thomas Gray and wrote a will whereby he left Gray all his belongings. They left Dover on 29 March and arrived at Calais later that day and they then travelled through Boulogne, Amiens and Saint-Denis, arriving at Paris on 4 April. Here they met many aristocratic Englishmen, in early June they left Paris for Rheims, then in September going to Dijon, Lyons, Dauphiné, Savoy, Aix-les-Bains, Geneva, and then back to Lyons. In October they left for Italy, arriving in Turin in November, then going to Genoa, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, Modena, Bologna, and in December arriving at Florence. Here he struck up a friendship with Horace Mann, an assistant to the British Minister at the Court of Tuscany and wrote Epistle from Florence to Thomas Ashton, tutor to the Earl of Plymouth, a mixture of Whig history and Middletons teachings. In February 1740 Walpole and Gray left for Rome with the intention of witnessing the papal conclave upon the death of Pope Clement XII, Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities. At social occasions in Rome he saw the Old Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart, Walpole and Gray returned to Florence in July
13.
Palladian architecture
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Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. That which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladios original concepts, Palladios work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. From the 17th century Palladios interpretation of classical architecture was adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the end of the 18th century, Palladianism became popular briefly in Britain during the mid-17th century, but its flowering was cut short by the onset of the Civil War and the imposition of austerity which followed. In the early 18th century it returned to fashion, not only in England but also, the style continued to be popular in Europe throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, where it was frequently employed in the design of public and municipal buildings. However, as a style it has continued to be popular and to evolve, its pediments, symmetry. Buildings entirely designed by Palladio are all in Venice and the Veneto, with an especially rich grouping of palazzi in Vicenza and they include villas, and churches such as Redentore in Venice. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting, if on a hill, such as Villa Capra, facades were frequently designed to be of equal value so that occupants could have fine views in all directions. Also, in cases, porticos were built on all sides so that occupants could fully appreciate the countryside while being protected from the sun. Palladio sometimes used a loggia as an alternative to the portico and this can most simply be described as a recessed portico, or an internal single storey room, with pierced walls that are open to the elements. Occasionally a loggia would be placed at floor level over the top of a loggia below. Loggias were sometimes given significance in a facade by being surmounted by a pediment, Villa Godi has as its focal point a loggia rather than a portico, plus loggias terminating each end of the main building. Palladio would often model his villa elevations on Roman temple facades, the temple influence, often in a cruciform design, later became a trademark of his work. Palladian villas are built with three floors, a rusticated basement or ground floor, containing the service and minor rooms. The proportions of each room within the villa were calculated on simple mathematical ratios like 3,4 and 4,5, earlier architects had used these formulas for balancing a single symmetrical facade, however, Palladios designs related to the whole, usually square, villa. Palladio deeply considered the purpose of his villas as both farmhouses and palatial weekend retreats for wealthy merchant owners. These symmetrical temple-like houses often have symmetrical, but low, wings sweeping away from them to accommodate horses, farm animals. The wings, sometimes detached and connected to the villa by colonnades, were designed not only to be functional but also to complement, the Palladian, Serlian, or Venetian window features largely in Palladios work and is almost a trademark of his early career
14.
Royal Agricultural Society of England
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The Royal Agricultural Society of England promotes the scientific development of agriculture. It was established in the United Kingdom in 1838 with the motto Practice with Science, RASE is based in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. From its early days the society has held exhibitions around the country. The show was held in Stoneleigh Park near Stoneleigh in Warwickshire, an early venue for the show was at Park Royal, in northwest London. The last Royal Show took place in 2009, since then, the Society has concentrated on transfer of scientific knowledge to agricultural practitioners. The society makes a number of regular awards, Research Medal for Research Work of Benefit to Agriculture Introduced in 1954, the medal recognises research work of outstanding merit, carried out in the United Kingdom of benefit to agriculture. The award is offered annually to people engaged in research and is accompanied by a prize of 300 guineas. The medal is accompanied by a prize of 300 guineas, harvests of Change, The Royal Agricultural Society of England, 1838-1988
15.
Ring of Silvianus
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The Vyne Ring or the Ring of Silvianus is a gold ring, dating probably from the 4th century, discovered in a ploughed field near Silchester, in Hampshire, England, in 1785. Originally the property of a British Roman called Silvianus, it was stolen by a person named Senicianus. After its discovery in the 18th century, the became the property of the Chute family, whose country house was The Vyne, also in Hampshire. The ring went on there in April 2013. In 1929, during excavations of the site of the Roman temple of Nodens at Lydney Park, the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler discovered details of the curse. As Wheeler consulted with J. R. R. Tolkien on the name of the god invoked in the curse, the ring and curse may have inspired the One Ring in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Ring of Silvianus is larger than most rings, being 25 mm in diameter and weighing 12 g, the band of the ring has ten facets. It is set with a square bezel engraved with an image of the goddess Venus, to one side are the letters VE and to the other side NVS, in mirror writing. When used as a ring to make a seal, the head and script would be raised. The band is inscribed with the words SENICIANE VIVAS IIN DE and this contains two errors as the I has been doubled, leaving no room for the last letter O. The inscription should have finished VIVAS IN DEO — a common inscription for Roman Christians, the Ring of Silvianus was discovered in 1785 in the field of a farm near Silchester, a town of Roman origins, and the site of many archaeological discoveries. It is unknown how the ring came to be located at The Vyne, but it is presumed that the farmer who found the ring sold it to the family, who were known to have an interest in history and antiquities. In 1888, the owner of the property, Chaloner Chute, wrote about the ring in a history of the house, Silvianus has lost a ring and has donated one half to Nodens. Among those named Senicianus permit no good health until it is returned to the temple of Nodens. In 1929, the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler was excavating at the Lydney site, Wheeler called upon Tolkien, as Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, to investigate the etymology of the name Nodens referred to in the curse. It is hypothesised that Wheeler, in his discussion with Tolkien on the name Nodens on the tablet, would also have discussed the ring at The Vyne. It is thought that aspects of the archaeology of the Lydney area, including an Iron Age fort known as Dwarfs Hill. The One Ring plays a part in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
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Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
17.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972, after Tolkiens death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his fathers extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien and this has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the father of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945, forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009. Tolkiens paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks, watches and pianos in London, the Tolkien family had emigrated from Germany in the 18th century but had become quickly intensely English. According to the tradition, the Tolkiens had arrived in England in 1756. Several families with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling live in northwestern Germany, mainly in Lower Saxony, however, this origin of the name has not been proven. A German writer has suggested that the name is likely to derive from the village of Tolkynen near Rastenburg. Although that village is far from Lower Saxony, its name is derived from the now-extinct Old Prussian language. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State to Arthur Reuel Tolkien, an English bank manager, the couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel. In another incident, a family servant, who thought Tolkien a beautiful child, took the baby to his kraal to show him off. When he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of rheumatic fever before he could join them and this left the family without an income, so Tolkiens mother took him to live with her parents in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to Sarehole, then a Worcestershire village, Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil and she taught him a great deal of botany and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his lessons were those concerning languages
18.
The Lord of the Rings
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The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkiens 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold. The work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion. For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955, the three volumes were titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Structurally, the novel is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with appendices of background material included at the end of the third volume. Some editions combine the work into a single volume. The Lord of the Rings has since been reprinted numerous times, Tolkiens work has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger epic Tolkien had worked on since 1917 and these inspirations and themes have often been denied by Tolkien himself. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. In 2003, it was named Britains best-loved novel of all time in the BBCs The Big Read, Sauron was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men led by Gil-galad and Elendil, respectively. Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Saurons finger, Isildur claimed the Ring as an heirloom for his line, but when he was later ambushed and killed by the Orcs, the Ring was lost in the River Anduin at Gladden Fields. Over two thousand years later, the Ring was found by one of the river-folk called Déagol and his friend Sméagol fell under the Rings influence and strangled Déagol to acquire it. Sméagol was banished and hid under the Misty Mountains, the Ring gave him long life and changed him over hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum. Gollum lost the Ring, his precious, and as told in The Hobbit, meanwhile, Sauron assumed a new form and took back his old realm of Mordor. When Gollum set out in search of the Ring, he was captured and tortured by Sauron, Sauron learned from Gollum that Baggins of the Shire had taken the Ring. Sauron, who needed the Ring to regain his power, sent forth his powerful servants. The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin, neither hobbit is aware of the Rings nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Saurons Ring. After Gandalf confirms his suspicions, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring, Frodo leaves the Shire, in the company of his gardener and friend, Samwise Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, called Merry, and Peregrin Took, called Pippin
19.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
20.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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