line-drawings of old leather-bound books, closed

Plate 260 - Bourchier's Gate-house.

The home of the Sackvilles since 1603; it was first built in and around 1457 by Archbishop Bourchier.

Originally early 12th Century, or perhaps older, but greatly renovated in the 16th and 17th centuries. Plate 410 - Doorway in the ruins of the Duke's Building

A Corner of the North Elevation showing the position of the lead heads.
A Royal manor in Saxon times Condover, throughout the sixteenth century, was in and out of the hands of the Crown until, in 1586, Elizabeth made a grant to Thomas Owen [p. 161].
Condover Hall is now a School for blind children and conference centre. off-site link fora short history of the area.

These houses were built some time after 1620, so they are after the Tudor period.

The porch and oriel projections are small, and gable-ended wings stretch forth. [p. xvi]. Nowadays you can stay at Stanton Court Cottages (I think this is the same place; it's near Broadway, Worcestershire, if so).

Plate 261 - The West Side of the Green Court.

Located in Wimborne, Dorset, and now known for its gardens. It was originally built at the start of the 13th Century, but the entrance shown here is much later, postdating the English Civil War.

This is a version that I coloured slightly. The photographs in the book are monochrome, so this is just a guess on my part.

probably early 15th century in origin. Plate 150 - The Entry

A bloudy villain murders 3 children, and, A Virgin destroyed by venemous Serpants.

The hall and adjoining rooms are to the right; the south tower is in the centre; the Elizabethan gatehouse to the left. There are also pictures in Grose's Antiquities and in Oman's Castles. For some excellent colour pictures of Stokesay Castle, see the page on it at the Castles of Wales web site. And no, Shropshire is not in Wales, but it's on the border. Today the castle (really a fortified manor house from the 13th Century) is owned by English Heritage and is open to the public durng the day. There's another picture and a map of how to get there on the CastleUK.net page.

A corner of the Courtyard (1575)

Besides the simple and dignified forms which were chiefly used, there were a few cases in which the plan was more complicated, and in which it took one shape on the ground floor and another on the floor above. Thorpe has several instances of this quaint treatment; an actual example exists at Thornbury Castle (Fig. 108) where the result is not very happy. [p. 157]

The two-storey screen between the wings is of earlier date (circa 1520) and was brought from Clifton Maybank.

Bay Window of the Hall (late 15th century) (in the Perpendicular style. There is an official web site for Fawsley Hall.)

Now in the Victoria and Albert Musem [London]. Bishopsgate Street is in London.

Bay Windows (late 15th century). I couldn't find anything much about the stately home and priest house that I suspect is pictured here. If you want to visit, there is a local place to stay.

Sheldons Manor in Wiltshire is a charming example of alteration. The original house, of which the porch is a part, was built by the Gascelyns in the fourteenth century. The sixteenth-century addition with its rectangular, mullioned windows, was built over earlier walls by the Hungerfords, and to their successors may be attributed the eighteenth-century gate piers.
Like many old manor houses, Sheldons has ceased to be the home of the squire, and has become a farmhouse. In half the villages of England there is either a house of the Elizabethan period or the memory of one. Not only did the landed gentry build, but also rich merchants in London and many of the provincial towns.

Somewhat cleaned up. There are also two large versions (2340x1899) in different JPEG qualities.

Engraving dated 1773. The paper is slightly buckled, sorry.

Published Nov^r. 7, 1783, by S. Hooper. Sparrow sculp.. The battlements were added in the 1640s during the Civil War, when Chester was besieged. There's more about this at bwpics.co.uk.

The caption reads, History Preserving the Monuments of Antiquity. The side view of Lindisfarne, or holy Island Monastery, Northumberland, pub. 25 May 1781 by S. Hooper The image is signed, S. Spurrow sc.

Magdalen Tower, rising 150 feet in exquisite proportion, and standing just where the Cherwell is spanned by the well-known bridge, is in the opinion of many the fairest sight in Oxford. [p. 9]

The Botanical Gardens by Magdalan Bridge. Their situation on the brink of the River Cherwell, and almost under the shadow of Magdalan Tower, is what probably appeals most strongly to the ordinary observer, while those who merely pass the gardens by will delight in the gateway, the work of Inigo Jones, with its statues of Charles I and II. Formal these gardens are of necessity, but there hangs about them a certain feeling of antiquity. They somehow seem to take their place among the old-world surroundings; and fitly so, for they are the oldest gardens of their kind in the country, having been originated by the Earl of Danby as an assistance to the study of medicine, nearly three hundred years ago.

Now let us stroll on -- 'tis but a step -- to Christ Church. Sometimes it seems as though this should take precedence of all other colleges. Its chapel is Oxford's Cathedral, its quadrangles are the finest, its founder was in some ways the most famous; and lastly (and of least account), if one who has tried the task of ``seeing Oxford'' in an afternoon ias asked what he remembers best, it is ten to one that he will say ``the staircase and its ceiling leading up to Christ Church Hall''. [p. 37]

Note: the smaller images have been cropped for use as screen backgrounds.

The River Cherwell; Folly Bridge is in the distance.

Ridley and Latimer were burned to death here in the time of Archbishop Cranmer.

Line illustration from first page of the book.

... the great dome of the Radcliffe Camera rose up in the space between All Souls and brasenose colleges, and was thenceforth the first object to take the eye of one who looks on Oxford lying glorious in her meadows. [p. 10]

Not a little has the modern revival of gardening, which has brought back the old herbaceous border, added to the charm of cottage gardens. [p. 25]

Close by [Christ Church] meadow the college barges line the banks of the Isis, and then come other meadows on either side--meadows nameless and indignified by pageantry, but sacred to Oxford's special flower, the fritillary, and stretching away to where Iffley stands, with its memories of J. H. Newman, and where the old mill, beloved of painters, was burnt down a few years ago. [p. 21]

...the Clarendon Building with its lofty pillared porch, where once the University Press was housed. [p. 30]

Magdalan Tower, rising 150 feet in exquisite proportion, and standing just where the Cherwell is spanned by the well-known bridge, is in the opinion of many the fariest sight in Oxford. [p. 9]

The square tower in the background is part of the remains of Oxford Castle.

The Keep of Ragland Castle, Monmouthshire. Drawn by H. Gastineau. Engraved by H. Aldard.
``The siege and capture of Ragland Castle, by Fairfax, in August, 1646, A. D., when the library, containing a great treasure of MSS., was destroyed, has been the subject of much lamentation; and the opprobrium of the deed has been laid (as is usual) upon Oliver Cromwell, who was not in the least concerned in it.'' [p. 577]

Drawn by H Gastineau, engraved by H. W. Bond. Earl Marshal (Richard or William?) stayed here in 1233. The Castles of Wales site has notes on the history of this period.

The Margam Stones Museum at Port Talbot has some stone monuments and corsses from the 7th to 9th Century, including ones from the Church at Margam.

[unknown artist]

There is an official Caerphilly Castle web site (note modern spelling), complete with an image gallery.

Drawn by H. Gastineau, Engraved by S. Lacey.

Drawn by H. Gastineau. Engraved by J. Hinchiffe.

Haverfordwest (modern spelling) is now in the care of Cadw (Welsh Historic Monuments), according to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.

The BBC television series Reading the Ruins - an archaeological history of Wales said that Haverfordwest Priory is one of the few surviving archetypal Augustinian priories in Wales.

Drawn by H. Gastineau, Engraved by J. C. Varrall. Powis is also spelt Powys in the book.

Drawn by H. Gastineau, Engraved by F. R. Hay.
There's another picture of Beaumaris in Old England.

Drawn by H. Gastineau. Engraved by H. W. Bond. There is another picture of Chepstow Castle in Oman's Castles.

Drawn by H. Gastineau, Engraved by S. Lacey.

(page 817)

(page 35)

(page 2; there is one of these for each month)

(Frontispiece)

The Façade

Originally pre-Norman, the present stately house was started at about 1605, and was designed by John Thorpe.

Originally there was an abbey here, founded in 1232. After the dissolution it went to Thomas Wriothesley, first Earl of Southampton.

There appears to be a tennis court in the middle of this ruined castle!

I have an old book on New Forest Laws if anyone is interested; it has only one or two engravings, and some maps, but a lot of text.

Plan of XIIth Century Castle restored from recent explorations

``It is a perfect Norman church, with only the two east windows and the three western bays added by later hands (thirteenth century). The massive piers of the nave arches remind one of Durham, the lofty triforium rather of Norwich; the perfect Norman clerestory has nothing quite like it in England.'' (pp. 156,7; Rev. Cooke Yarborough) Off-site link to The Choir of Romsey Abbey.

Chamber Court, Winchester College.

``The site of Netley Abbey indeed, like that of all the abbeys of the Cistercian Order, is choice, and was selected by the founders for various reasons. A spot remote from towns, quiet and peaceful, on the banks of a river will supplied with fish, in a valley, and as much a possible surrounded by hills, both for protection and seclusion---these were the conditions. In no instance were they much departed from, and they are well represented in the situation of Netley'' [p. 187]

From a Drawing by A. Brunet-Debaines.

Staircase to the hall at Christchurch College, Oxford
From an Etching by A. Brunet-Dubaines.

From a Drawing by A. Brunet-Debaines.

From an Engraving by A. Brunet-Debaines.

From a Drawing by A. Brunnet-Debaines.

From an Etching by R. Kent Thomas.

From an Etching by R. Kent Thomas. It appears that [Queen's College] was also anxious to pull down the chamber of King Henry V. This is a strange craze for destruction, that some time ago endangered the beautiful library of Merton, a place wheer one can fancy that Chaucer of Wyclif may have studied. Oxford will soon have little left of the beauty and antiquity of Patey's Quad in Merton, as represented in our illustration. What the next generation will think of the multitudinous new buildings, it is not hard to conjectiore. Imitative experiments, without style or fancy in structure or decoration, and often morethan mediævally uncomfortable, they will seem but evidences of Oxford's love of destruction. [p. 184. Oxford is in fact still beautiful, although perhaps there is more awareness of history today amongst town planners]

Lang claims that it predated the University.

A close-up of part of the page.

An overview of a larger part of the same page as the detail.

an older manuscript was reused for the binding.

Cloisters of the Lateran
See the entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia for more information.

Arch of Severus, Column of Phocas and S. Martina

Campanile and Façade of S S. Giovanni e Paulo
[bell-tower of Staint John and Saint Paul, Rome.]

Porta San Paolo
Gate of St. Paul.

There are more pictures of Oxford by Lang and also Haslehust.

Rougemont Castle is on a natural volcanic hill in Exeter. Off-site link to Northernhay Gardens, Exeter

I'm not sure if this is the same place. let me know!

The church became a cathedral in 1882. The tower is said to be 200 feet high. Here are some modern pictures of St. Nicholas' Cathedral.

Stone is a town in Cheshire.

An impressive castle built by Edward I in the 13th Century. There are more pictures of Harlech in Oman.

Arc-Druid in his full Judicial Costume.

An American visited and took some pictures of this clearly very photogenic village. The church itself was extensively renovated starting in 1847, and looks very different in the photographs!

Dates from the 12th Century but extensvely modified in the 14th and 15th Centuries. Ruined.

The ruins date from the 12th Century; modern photographs indicate that it's in slightly better shape than this picture suggests. Prudhoe is about 10 miles West of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Stratford Church looking in through the door. The plate is coloured in the original book.

Oxford Castle, as it appeared in the Fifteenth Century.

Coloured in the original book.

This is Guy of Warwick. Guy's Cliff is pretty ruined now. It's between Warwick and Coventry. off-site link

Vol I, p.398, figs 308 and 309: Norwich Castle

Stone is a town in Cheshire.

Ludlow was the capital of Wales in the 16th Century, and this 12th Century (or earlier) castle was the centre for administration. Today it is in ruins, having declined since the engraving was made, but it is a very popular centre for tourists.

There's a modern photograph and also a Medieval Festival held each year. The castle is of brick and dates from 1415. The modern spelling is Herstmonceux, near Hailsham, East Sussex.

Coloured in the original book, probably by hand.

On top of a turret at the South West angle of the tower is an iron cresset, fire pan or pitch-pot, an almost unique survivor of other days. It was erected by the monks to guide wayfarers crossing Enfield Chase by night, and travellers to or from St Albans, or the north. The beacon may have been used as late as 1745 to provide an alarm to warn of the Stuart rising in the North. It was used for a more pleasant occasion to mark the marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1863, when the future Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
Sources: Village London, Part 2, North and East by Edward Walford 1883 and Handbook to Environs of London by James Thorne 1876. See also Hadley Church Appeal.

These days it's open to the public from March to October.

Near Walsingham. It is a curious and instructvie contrast to compare with Herstmonceaux--a true Castle, but in which the domestic mansion was beginning to show itself--with East Basham Hall in Norfolk (Fig. 2105), which forms a true and most beautiful mansion, but in which the traces of old castellated architecture are everywhere conspicuous. It appears from the dates of the erection of the two piles, that it took nearly a century to complete the transformation. And truly significant, in its stately elegance, is Basham Hall, of the more peacable days that must have dawned for England before any one would have erected a pile so utterly defenceless against warlike attacks. It is supposed to have been completed in 1540. This is also a ruin. [p. 231]

Warwick is in fact a much better preserved castle than you might think from this engraving.

Built in the late 13th Century. It still has a road running through the arch today.

Interior of a Room in Warkworth Castle.

In the neighbourhood of Lambourn, in Berkshire, are many barrows, and amongst them is found the cromlech called Wayland Smith. The tradition which Scott has so admirably used in his `Kenilworth' that a supernatural smith here dwelt, who would shoe a traveller's horse for a ``consideration,'' is one of the many superstitions that belong to these places of doubtful origin and use, a ermnant of the solemn feelings with which they were once regarded. [p. 18]

John Wycliffe (John Wyclif, 1324-1384, bible translator)is buried here. The church clock was installed in 1862 and is therefore not shown in this engraving, which is was made later than 1845. There is an online Church Guide.

The village of Walsingham is alive and well; the Abbey itself was destroyed in 1538 during the English Reformation.

Compare with the engraving in Woodward's History of Wales/

The South Door of an English Church generally has the font inside, and leads through the South Aisle into the West End of the Nave.

Exterior of the Northern Tower.

Sir John Perrot's Building.

The Main Gate.

See also Grose's Antiquities for another picture of Restormal Castle.

The Courtyard.

See also Gotch, Growth of the English House.

Ground Plan

The Main-Gate House

A 13th Century castle built by Edward I. See also Old England for another picture.

Martin's Tower.

There is another picture of Chepstow Castle in Woodward's History of Wales book, and I have typed in Oman's short account of the history of Chepstow Castle. I don't know how accurate it is!

Gate-way of chapel [p.136].

The zig-zag arch is characteristic of late Norman architecture

The Courtyard.

The View from the South West

Solar Room

View from the pool.

Typographia stands with her robe and chain(??), holding a book out to a cherub with a press; another cherub sets type.

Two tiny cherubs on the spine of an a book. They face away from us.

Anatomically correct cherubs carrying books through the undergrowth.

Scriptorium Monk at Work (from Lacroix.) A monk copies a text from a large book on his writing-table.

Two learned robed, bearded and barefoot gentlemen converse, books in their lap. The smoke-filled scene is lit by a single flame.

A naughty cherub makes handprints on everything, including his naked companion

A bespectacled gentleman sits reading a large book in front of the end of a tall bookcase. This was originally used as an initial I in `IN'.

Edward Kelly [sic for Kelley] in the Act of invoking the Spirit of a Deceased Person. Marked, Sibly Del, Ames Sculp, Dr. Dee's Works.

Part of the text is available as the second entry under necromancy here.

Part of the Edward Kelley engraving showing the magical circle in more detail.

A TABLE exhibiting at one View the Natures Dignities, Triplicities & Affections of the Signs and Planets.

On the left are the buttery and the kitchens and, separated from the stone passage by a screen of carved oak panels, is the Great Hall, the glory and wonder of the castle, with its open timber roof, its minstrels' gallery, its ``dais'' reaching across the end of the hall, on which was placed the table for the Lord of the Manor and his guests. The tables and benches for the retainers stand along the sides under the windows. [p. 150]

In this fourteenth-century castle lived the great English liberal, Algernon Sidney, the friend and counsellor of William Penn, who had a hand in drawing up the famous ``Frame of Government'' for the Province of Pennsylvania. [p. 143]

Perhaps Tudor or older?