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Bacon's 'Essay on Gardens' # 56

Francis Bacon was born in 1561 and was 1st Viscount St Alban. He wrote his Essay on Gardens in 1625, a year before his death of pneumonia. He was also Lord Chancellor of England under King James I and led the advancement of both natural philosophy and scientific method and his works remained influential even in the late stages of the Scientific Revolution.  The essays he wrote between, mainly, 1612 and 1625 were about anything from love and marriage to superstitions to gardens and any subject in between! Bacon's genius as a phrase-maker appears to great advantage in the later essays and the 'Oxford Dictionary of Quotations' includes no fewer than 91 quotations...

The Graveyard Shift! #25

...in rural England!   Don’t miss next week’s exciting instalment:  Whodunit in the Library?   A sordid tale of attempted murder gone wrong! If you would like to follow my story from the beginning, click here and please feel free to share with your friends.  ...

Behind the green baize door #47

...l came to England in just one year.”   It became popular in the mid 18th century and was used mainly for cabinet and closet linings in Europe – also games tables. I'm sure you are all familiar with pool and snooker tables showing off their red and green baize cloth. Baize was also used as clothing for monks, nuns and soldiers as it was very warm and hard wearing. Is there no end to the talents of this serviceable cloth? The green baize door was usually at the end of a long corridor leading from the kitchens, which were strategically placed at one end of the house for deliveries from the kitchen garden and home farm. Long before labour-saving devices, se...

Rags to Riches #16

...rrived in England from Jamaica.  He was a weight lifter and turned the works into a gym and weight training centre.  He went on to win medals in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and also won four world titles, four European titles and broke four world records!  In 2018 he was added to the Derby Walk of Fame and has a star on the pavement there which was unveiled by his son last year. After the First World War the market places were full of tea chests with swords and guns from the Boer War and the First World War.  My dad found all this stuff fascinating and started collecting it when he about 12 years old.  It started a life-long interest in antiques, culminatin...

The War Years and Beyond #38

...Church of England in the early 1990s, the first and only twins to have done so at that time. Ironically the house became a Hotel and Spa in 1990 with a swimming pool in exactly the same location as where the monks were going to put theirs! And so onto 1970 when my family bought the Hall.  Apparently my dad had seen a notice about the contents sale of Dr Gillies in 1963, and had shown an interest in the Hall back then.  I imagine my mother said ‘No’ as she had two very small children at that time!  Mrs Meynell had kept his phone number and rang him up in 1969 to see if he was still interested in buying the Hall after the monks had left.  This time he sa...

Rags to Riches #12

...rrived in England from Jamaica.  He was a weight lifter and turned the works into a gym and weight training centre.  He went on to win medals in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and also won four world titles, four European titles and broke four world records!  In 2018 he was added to the Derby Walk of Fame and has a star on the pavement there which was unveiled by his son last year.  After the First World War the market places were full of tea chests with swords and guns from the Boer War and the First World War.  My dad found all this stuff fascinating and started collecting it when he about 12 years old.  It started a life-long interest in antiques, culminat...