Historical England « Country House Essays

The Whiting Society of Ringing

February 22nd, 2026

Inside the belfry of SS Medard and Gildard’s parish church, Little Bytham, Lincolnshire, England

Culture runs deep in England. I am reminded of this when I run across esoteric orgainsations and societies that unless one is well informed the existence of which would remain unknown to the general public.

How does a society […]

Penal Methods of the Middle Ages

November 19th, 2021

CHAPTER I

PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Prisons as places of detention are very ancient institutions. As soon as men had learned the way to build, in stone, as in Egypt, or with bricks, as in Mesopotamia, when kings had many-towered fortresses, and the great barons […]

The Late Rev. H.M. Scarth

May 22nd, 2021

H. M. Scarth, Rector of Wrington

By the death of Mr. Scarth on the 5th of April, at Tangier, where he had gone for his health’s sake, the familiar form of an old and much valued Member of the Institute has passed away. Harry Mengden Scarth was bron at Staindrop in […]

Temples, Walls, And Some of the Roman Antiquities of Bath

May 22nd, 2021

A Lecture Delivered at the Guildhall, March 2, 1853 by Rev. H.M. Scarth, M.A., Rector of Bathwick.

To understand the ancient history of the country in which we live, to know something of the arts and manners of the people who have preceded us, to ascertain what we owe to […]

The English Tradition of Woodworking

May 7th, 2021

Petworth House – Carving by Grinling Gibbons

THE sense of a consecutive tradition has so completely faded out of English art that it has become difficult to realise the meaning of tradition, or the possibility of its ever again reviving; and this state of things is not improved by the fact […]

Stoke Park – Granted by King Charles I

May 8th, 2021

From Wikipedia:

Stoke Park – the original house

Stoke park was the first English country house to display a Palladian plan: a central house with balancing pavilions linked by colonnades or screen walls. Palladio was the 16th-century Italian architect on whose work the design was based. The Paladian style became […]

King George’s Empty Crown

July 4th, 2018

After Rundell Bridge & Rundell The Rich Imperial Crown of Great Britain / which was worn by his most Sacred Majesty / King George IV / in Westminster Abbey, and at the Royal Banquet in Westminster Hall / upon the Day of his Coronation / 19th July 1821 published 19 Jul 1822

[…]

On the Origin of Species – Natural Selection by Charles Darwin

May 4th, 2018

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.

BY CHARLES DARWIN, M.A.,

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL, GEOLOGICAL, LINNÆAN, ETC., SOCIETIES ; AUTHOR OF ‘JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES DURING H.M.S. BEAGLE’S VOYAGE ROUND […]

What’s the Matter?

April 15th, 2018

A rhetorical question? Genuine concern?

In this essay we are examining another form of matter otherwise known as national literary matters, the three most important of which being the Matter of Rome, Matter of France, and the Matter of England.

Our focus shall be on the Matter of England or […]

Matter of Britain

February 24th, 2026

National Literary Matters: Matter of Rome, Matter of France, Matter of England

The three “Matters” were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic La Chanson des Saisnes (“Song of the Saxons”) contains the line:

Ne sont que III matières à nul homme atandant, De […]

Something about Caius College, Cambridge

March 31st, 2018

Gonville & Caius College, known as Caius and pronounced keys was founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, the Rector of Terrington St Clement in Norfolk. The first name was thus Goville Hall and it was dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Caius College, along with Pembroke, Corpus Christi, and […]