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William Drummond Of Hawthornden
William Drummond (13 December 15854 December 1649), called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet. Life Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian, to John Drummond, the first laird of Hawthornden, and Susannah Fowler, sister of the poet and courtier William Fowler and daughter of Janet Fockart. Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock, one-time Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland, was his grandfather. Drummond received his early education at the Royal High School of Edinburgh, and graduated in July 1605 as M.A. of the recently founded University of Edinburgh. His father was a gentleman usher at the English court (as he had been at the Scottish court from 1590) and William, in a visit to London in 1606, describes the festivities in connection with the visit of King Christian IV of Denmark. Drummond spent two years at Bourges and Paris in the study of law; and, in 1609, he was again in Scotland, where, by the death of his father in the following year, he became laird of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawthornden Castle
Hawthornden Castle is located on the River North Esk in Midlothian, Scotland. The castle lies a mile to the east of Roslin at grid reference , and is just downstream from Roslin Castle. Hawthornden comprises a 15th-century ruin, with a 17th-century L-plan house attached. The house has been restored and now serves as a writer's retreat. Man-made caves in the rock beneath the castle have been in use for much longer than the castle itself. History Hawthornden was a property of the Abernethy family from the 13th century, and passed to the Douglases in the 14th century. The earliest parts of the castle date from the 15th century, and include a large three-storey tower, and the south curtain wall of a triangular courtyard. The castle was sacked twice by the Earl of Hertford in 1544 and 1547 during The Rough Wooing. In 1540 John Douglas sold trees from Hawthornden wood to James V as timber for his ships. The castle was later sold to Sir John Drummond, one of King James VI's ushe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menstrie
Menstrie (Scottish Gaelic: ) is a village in the county of Clackmannanshire in Scotland. It is about east-northeast of Stirling and is one of a string of towns that, because of their location at the foothill base of the Ochil Hills, are collectively referred to as the Hillfoots Villages or simply ''The Hillfoots''. Etymology The name ''Menstrie'', recorded as ''Mestreth'' and ''Mestryn'' in the 1260s, is of Pictish origin. The name is composed of elements cognate to Welsh , meaning 'field, plain', and , 'town, village, farm'. Physical geography Menstrie stands on the carse or flood plain of the River Devon, between 10 and 20 metres altitude above sea level. It is roughly astride the Ochil Fault whose movement gave rise to the dramatic southern scarp of the Ochils but which is now almost quiescent. Two of the most westerly summits of the Ochil Hills, Dumyat and Myreton Hill, rise steeply to the north of the village to reach about 400m altitude. These two hills are divided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machine Gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) are typically designed more for firing short bursts rather than continuous firepower, and are not considered true machine guns. As a class of military kinetic projectile weapon, machine guns are designed to be mainly used as infantry support weapons and generally used when attached to a bipod or tripod, a fixed mount or a heavy weapons platform for stability against recoils. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, features not normally found on other infantry firearms. Machine guns can be further categorized as light machine guns, medium machine guns, heavy machine guns, general purpose machine guns and squad automatic weapons. Similar automatic firearms of caliber or more are classified as autocannons, rathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Laing (Scottish Antiquary)
David Laing LLD (20 April 1793 – 18 October 1878) was a Scottish antiquary. Life Laing was born on 20 April 1793, the son of William Laing (1761–1831), a bookseller in Edinburgh, and his wife Helen Kirk. They lived and worked from the head of Chessels Court on the Canongate. He was educated at Canongate Grammar School and then attended the University of Edinburgh. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to his father. They formed W & D Laing Booksellers at 49 South Bridge, living at Ramsay Lodge at 66 Lauriston in 1830. Shortly after the death of his father in 1837, Laing was elected to be Librarian of the Signet Library replacing Macvey Napier, a post he retained until his death. Apart from general bibliographical knowledge, Laing was best known as a student of the literary and artistic history of Scotland. In 1864 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) by the University of Edinburgh.Cassells Old and New Edinburgh, vol II p.376 Laing was struck with paralysi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advocates' Library
The Advocates Library, founded in 1682, is the law library of the Faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh. It served as the national deposit library of Scotland until 1925, at which time through an Act of Parliament the National Library of Scotland was created. All the non-legal collections were transferred to the National Library. Today, it alone of the Scottish libraries still holds the privilege of receiving a copy of every law book entered at Stationers' Hall. The library forms part of the complex that includes Parliament House, located on the Royal Mile. History The Library was formally opened in 1689. It was an initiative of George Mackenzie. The present library building was designed by William Henry Playfair in 1830, and is a category A listed building. Librarian Samuel Halkett began an ambitious catalogue, based on the rules of John Winter Jones for the British Museum catalogue of 1839, but with extensive biographical information on authors. It was published in six vo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satirical plays ''Every Man in His Humour'' (1598), '' Volpone, or The Fox'' (c. 1606), '' The Alchemist'' (1610) and '' Bartholomew Fair'' (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. "He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I." Jonson was a classically educated, well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642)."Ben Jonson", ''Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge'', volume 10, p. 388. His ancestor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poly-Olbion
The ''Poly-Olbion'' is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton (1563–1631) and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598. Content The ''Poly-Olbion'' is divided into thirty songs, written in alexandrine couplets, consisting in total of almost 15,000 lines of verse. Drayton intended to compose a further part to cover Scotland, but no part of this work is known to have survived. Each song describes between one and three counties, describing their topography, traditions and histories. Copies were illustrated with maps of each county, drawn by William Hole, whereon places were depicted anthropomorphically. The first book was accompanied by historical and philological summaries written by John Selden. Because of its length and its author's conflicting goals the ''Poly-Olbion'' was almost never read as a whole, but is an important source for the period neve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London. Early life Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham, Nottinghamshire. 19th- and 20th-century scholars, on the basis of scattered allusions in his poems and dedications, suggested that Drayton might have studied at the University of Oxford, and been intimate with the Polesworth branch of the Goodere family. More recent work has cast doubt on those speculations. Literary career 1590–1602 In 1590, he produced his first book, ''The Harmony of the Church'', a volume of spiritual poems, dedicated to Lady Devereux. It is notable for a version of the '' Song of Solomon'', executed with considerable richness of expression. However, with the exception of forty copies, seized by the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giambattista Marino
Giovanni Battista was a common Italian given name (see Battista for those with the surname) in the 16th-18th centuries. It refers to "John the Baptist" in English, the French equivalent is "Jean-Baptiste". Common nicknames include Giambattista, Gianbattista, Giovambattista, or Giambo. In Genoese the nickname was Baciccio, and a common shortening was Giovan Battista, Giobatta or simply G.B.. The people listed below are Italian unless noted otherwise. * Giovanni Battista Adriani (c.1511–1579), historian. * Giovanni Battista Agnello (fl. 1560–1577), author and alchemist. * Giovanni Battista Aleotti (1546–1636), architect. * Giovanni Battista Amendola (1848–1887), sculptor. * Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1863), astronomer and microscopist. * Giovanni Battista Angioletti (1896-1961), writer and journalist. * Giovanni Battista Ballanti (1762–1835), sculptor. * Giovanni Battista Barbiani (1593–1650), painter. * Giovanni Battista Beccaria (1716–1781), physicist. * Gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Wither
George Wither (11 June 1588 O.S. (21 June 1588 NS) – 2 May 1667 O.S. (12 May 1667 NS)) was a prolific English poet, pamphleteer, satirist and writer of hymns. Wither's long life spanned one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of England, during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, the Civil War, the Parliamentary period and the Restoration period. Biography Early life Wither was born in Bentworth, near Alton, in the heart of Hampshire, the son of George Wither Senior of that place and his wife, Mary, who was possibly from the family of Hunt. His grandfather, Richard Wither, lived at Manydown in Wootton St Lawrence, where the family had resided since at least 1344. His early schooling took place under Rev. John Greaves, the father of John, Sir Edward and Thomas Greaves. Between the ages of fifteen and seventeen he studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. Despite his neighbors' advice that his father put him to some mechanic trade, he was sent to one o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Chapman
George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', and the Homeric ''Batrachomyomachia''. Life and work Chapman was born at Hitchin in Hertfordshire. There is conjecture that he studied at Oxford but did not take a degree, though no reliable evidence affirms this. Very little is known about Chapman's early life, but Mark Eccles uncovered records that reveal much about Chapman's difficulties and expectations. In 1585 Chapman was approached in a friendly fashion by John Wolfall Sr., who offered to supply a bond of surety for a loan to furnish Chapman money "for his proper use in Attendance upon the then Ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
