On a recent visit to Rome, I found myself wondering what it must have been like for the young patrician of the 18th C Grand Tour. Travelling would not have been comfortable and may well have been dangerous at times. But the arrival in Rome would have fortified the...
England still retains a number of lock-ups, clinks or ‘blind houses’. They were used as staging posts to hold an offender on their route to a magistrate’s court. They were also used to incarcerate those disturbing the peace, vagrants, and drunks. The parish was...
I am presently recording the diaries of Edward Phelips V (1725-1797) of Montacute House. They are in different places and have started my project at Montacute House itself, which has kept 4 of them. These are for the years 1759-1774 (one diary – with some...
‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.’ Aristotle (384-322 BC) Anyone with an interest in architectural history cannot get away from the importance of classical temples, classical architecture and...
The changing architecture of the English country house demonstrates the evolution of arrangement in how people used and circulated within them. Fashion and educated taste combined with developments in technology provides a fascinating history of country house design....
I recently visited the Holy Ghost Parish Church at Crowcombe in The Quantock Hills, Somerset. The Carew Chapel contains some fine hatchments. Besides church architecture the fixtures and fixings provide us with clues to social history. Human social history evolves and...
