Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
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On 24th September 1826 George Price Boyce was born to [his father] George Boyce.
1853. George Price Boyce [aged 26]. "St Brelade's Bay, Jersey".
On 20th September 1853 [his father] George Boyce died.
1854. George Price Boyce [aged 27]. "Anstey's Cove [Map]".
1857. George Price Boyce [aged 30]. "Edward the Confessor's Chapel, Westminster Abbey [Map], with Tombs of Henry V. and Edward I".
1857. George Price Boyce [aged 30]. "A Girl by a Beech Tree in a Landscape".
On 9th December 1857 [his brother-in-law] Henry Tanworth Wells [aged 28] and [his sister] Joanna Mary Boyce [aged 26] were married.
On 15th July 1861 [his sister] Joanna Mary Boyce [aged 29] died from childbirth shortly after the birth of her third child.
1862. George Price Boyce [aged 35]. "At Binsey, near Oxford".
Anne Boleyn. Her Life as told by Lancelot de Carle's 1536 Letter.
In 1536, two weeks after the execution of Anne Boleyn, her brother George and four others, Lancelot du Carle, wrote an extraordinary letter that described Anne's life, and her trial and execution, to which he was a witness. This book presents a new translation of that letter, with additional material from other contemporary sources such as Letters, Hall's and Wriothesley's Chronicles, the pamphlets of Wynkyn the Worde, the Memorial of George Constantyne, the Portuguese Letter and the Baga de Secrets, all of which are provided in Appendices.
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1864-5. George Price Boyce [aged 37]. "Landscape at Wotton, Surrey: Autumn". The house in the painting is Wotton House, Surrey, the seat of the Evelyn family. The seventeenth-century diarist, John Evelyn, was born there, so it has a special literary interest. It was given a more imposing appearance later, but the situation remains the same.
1866-7. George Price Boyce [aged 39]. "A Surrey Common In November".
1868. George Price Boyce [aged 41]. "The Oxford Arms [Map], Warwick Lane, City of London".
1868. George Price Boyce [aged 41]. "Pensosa d'altrui". Model Mary Leslie. Inscribed on the verso on a label 'no 6', the title and 'George P. Boyce 10 Upper Cheyne Row Chelsea' and on another label in the same hand 'Light from the left hand!'. See The Athenaeum 8th May 1869.
Mary Leslie: The Diary of George Price Boyce 1869. 9th January 1869. Mary Leslie came to sit to me. Before 6th March 1871 Mary Leslie died of consumption.
The Athenaeum 1869 May 08. [8th May 1869] We may next turn to the works of Mr. Boyce [aged 42]. First of these is, On the Skirts of Smithfield, looking West, Midsummer, 1867 (117), a strange, but very original subject, being a picture of the rubbishheaps of the place while under transformation, and the backs of miserable houses of red brick of the deepest hues, and shabby, tumble-down hoardings of wood blanched in the sun; a temporary wreck of the old in course of changing for the new. Huge lying posters in red, green, white and yellow, each coarser and falser than its neighbour, overlook the dust-heaps of two centuries. Calmly in the glare of smoky summer sunlight rises the dingy stone church tower of Wren's building, — a pathetic picture for those who can read, and for artists who can enjoy, its exquisite tones and admirable atmospheric grading; a puzzle for those who judge by the common tests of opinion. For the comfort of several of the latter who strongly resented the introduction of two gambolling cats in a similar picture by this painter — as if London cats were not frequent in the wastes of the City — we add, that there are no cats to puzzle them here.
1871. George Price Boyce [aged 44]. "The Teme from Ludlow".The view is taken from Ludlow Bridge looking up the river. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society's exhibition, 1872-73, No. 386
1873-4. George Price Boyce [aged 46]. "A Wooded Valley in Surrey".
1874. George Price Boyce [aged 47]. "The fortified manor house at Stokesay, Shropshire [Map]".
On 9th February 1897 George Price Boyce [aged 70] died.
The Diary of George Price Boyce. 1941. The Diary of George Price Boyce was lost in the Second World War. Fortunately a year before its destruction by bombing in Bath the diary were consigned to Randall Davies to print in the Old Water-Colour Society's Club Nineteenth Annual Volume, 1941. Although the original is lost, some content survives. The Diary was reprinted Old Water-Colour Society's Club Nineteenth Annual Volume, 1941. Copyright of Introduction and Notes Virginia Surtess, 1980.