Leonardslee Gardens
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Leonardslee Gardens
Leonardslee is an English country house and English landscape garden and woodland garden in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Sussex, England. The Grade I listed garden is particularly significant for its spring displays of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, magnolias and bluebells, with the flowering season reaching its peak in May. The estate includes a 19th-century Italianate style house and lodge as well as an intact Pulhamite rockery. History The name Leonardslee derives from the ''lea'' or valley of St Leonard's Forest, one of the ancient forests of the High Weald. In the Middle Ages the soil was too acidic for agriculture and so it remained as a natural woodland with wild animals and deer for the chase. There was extensive felling of the forest trees in the 16th and 17th centuries when the Weald became the centre of England's iron industry, producing cannon and cannonballs, firebacks, hinges, horseshoes and nails. The local sandstone was rich in iron and the ore was dug f ...
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Country House
image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhouse (Great Britain), town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, the full-time residence for the landed gentry who dominated rural Britain until the Reform Act 1832. Frequently, the formal business of the Historic counties of England, counties was transacted in these country houses, having functional antecedents in manor houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for many rural communities. In turn, until the Great Depression of British Agriculture, agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the est ...
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Charles II Of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Charles I's execution at Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. However, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth with a republican government eventually led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles Escape of Charles II, fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. ...
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Sir Edmund Giles Loder, 2nd Baronet
Sir Edmund Giles Loder, 2nd Baronet (7 August 1849 – 14 April 1920) was an English aristocrat, landowner and plantsman. Biography Early life Edmund Giles Loder was born on 7 August 1849 in London, England. His father was Sir Robert Loder, 1st Baronet, a landowner and Conservative politician, and his mother, Maria Georgiana Busk. His maternal grandfather was Hans Busk, a Welsh poet. He was educated at Eton College, a private boarding school in Eton, Berkshire, and graduated from Trinity College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. When at Eton he competed in the 100 yards event at the AAC Championships, winning the silver medal at the 1869 AAC Championships. Career He served as a Justice of the Peace for Sussex and Northampshire. Loder was active as a plant collector, breeder and grower. He developed hybrid rhododendrons from crosses between '' R. fortunei'' and ''R. griffithianum''. The plants were named the Loderi hybrids and group in his honour. ...
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Victorian Era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the Georgian era and preceded the Edwardian era, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the ''Belle Époque'' era of continental Europe. Various liberalising political reforms took place in the UK, including expanding the electoral franchise. The Great Famine (Ireland), Great Famine caused mass death in Ireland early in the period. The British Empire had relatively peaceful relations with the other great powers. It participated in various military conflicts mainly against minor powers. The British Empire expanded during this period and was the predominant power in the world. Victorian society valued a high standard of personal conduct across all sections of society. The Victorian morality, emphasis on morality gave impetus to soc ...
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University College London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal University of London, and is the second-largest list of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and the largest by postgraduate enrolment. Established in 1826 as London University (though without university degree-awarding powers) by founders who were inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution to be established in London, and the first in England to be entirely secular and to admit students regardless of their religion. It was also, in 1878, among the first university colleges to admit women alongside men, two years after University College, Bristol, had done so. Intended by its founders to be Third-oldest university in England debate ...
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Thomas Leverton Donaldson
Thomas Leverton Donaldson (19 October 1795 – 1 August 1885) was a British architect, notable as a pioneer in architectural education, as a co-founder and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a winner of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal. Life Donaldson was born in Bloomsbury Square, London, the eldest son of architect, James Donaldson. His maternal uncle was Thomas Leverton (1743–1824), a distinguished architect sometimes credited with the south range of Bedford Square in London. Donaldson travelled overseas after leaving school, obtaining a clerical job with a merchant on the Cape of Good Hope before volunteering for an expedition to attack the French-controlled island of Mauritius. Once back in London, he was employed in his father's office, before visiting Italy and Greece to broaden his experience, travelling with John Lewis Wolfe and W. W. Jenkins.Blissett, David G. (2004), ''Wolfe, John Lewis (1798–1881)'', Oxford National Dictionary of Biography, ...
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Sequoiadendron Giganteum
''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the largest trees on Earth. They are native to the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California but have been introduced, planted, and grown around the world. The giant sequoia is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN with fewer than 80,000 remaining in its native California. The tree was introduced to the U.K. in 1853, and by now might have 500,000 trees growing there where it is more commonly known as Wellingtonia after the Duke of Wellington. The giant sequoia grow to an average height of 50–85 m (164–279 ft) with trunk diameters ranging from 6–8 m (20–26 ft). Record trees have been measured at 94.8 m (311&nbs ...
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Sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar, because they are the most resistant minerals to the weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be imparted any color by impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Because sandstone beds can form highly visible cliffs and other topography, topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have become strongly identified with certain regions, such as the red rock deserts of Arches National Park and other areas of the Southwestern United States, American Southwest. Rock formations composed of sandstone usually allow the p ...
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Wealden Iron Industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the wrought iron, bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay beds, and was fuelled by charcoal made from trees in the heavily wooded landscape. The industry in the Weald declined when ironmaking began to be fuelled by Coke (fuel), coke made from coal, which does not occur accessibly in the area. Resources Iron ore in the form of siderite, commonly known as iron stone or historically as mine, occurs in patches or bands in the Cretaceous clays of the Weald. Differing qualities of ore were extracted and mixed by experienced smelters to give the best results. Sites of opencast quarries survive from the pre-Roman and Roman eras, but medieval ore extraction was mainly done by digging a series of minepits about five metres in diameter and ...
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Charles George Beauclerk
Charles George Beauclerk (20 January 1774 – 25 December 1845) was an English politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Richmond from 1796 to 1798. Background and education He was the only son of Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana Spencer, Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. He had two half-brothers by his mother's first marriage to Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, namely George St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke, and General Frederick St John. He had twin elder sisters: Elisabeth Beauclerk, who married their cousin George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke, and (Anne) Mary Day Beauclerk, who famously had a long-term relationship with their half-brother Bolingbroke, resulting in several children. After being educated at Eton (1782) and Christ Church, Oxford (1790), Charles Beauclerk went on a Grand Tour in 1794. He was a member of Brooks's and the Whig Club. Career On his return from the Continent, Beauclerk paid £5000 for the consti ...
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