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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Architecture is in General Things.
Culture, General Things, Architecture, Prodigy House
Prodigy House. A large house built in the Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean periods defined by their use of glass. Prodigy houses include: Longford Castle, Wiltshire [Map], Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, Longleat House, Burghley House, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire and Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire [Map].
In 1573 Thomas Gorges of Longford Castle (age 37) acquired the manor of Longford, Wiltshire [Map] which had been owned by the Servington aka Cervington family. In 1576 after his marriage to Helena Snakenbourg Marchioness Northampton (age 24) they commissioned the building of a house on the triangular Swedish style on the banks of the Wiltshire River Avon with money from a shipwreck of the Spanish Armada.
Around 1585 William Brereton 1st Baron Brereton (age 34) and his wife Margaret Savage (age 36) commissioned the building of Brereton Hall, Cheshire [Map]; a Prodigy House.
Margaret Savage: In 1549 she was born to John Savage and Elizabeth Manners. Before 25th February 1591 William Brereton 1st Baron Brereton and she were married. They were third cousins. On 7th April 1597 Margaret Savage died.
Between 1593 and 1600 Doddington Hall [Map] was built as a Prodigy House for the lawyer Thomas Tailor. The architect was Robert Smythson. The facade is wide, but the house is only a single room deep at the centre.