England

Long a beautiful feature of the English landscape, William Seymour explains how forests have played an important part in the economic history of Great Britain.

David Lunn explains how, on his death-bed, King Charles II received the sacraments from a priest he had first met some thirty-four years earlier, and at length made his submission to the Roman Catholic Church.

Pamela Vandyke Price offers us a draught of the ‘aromatised wine’ now familiar under the name of Vermouth.

R.T. Godfrey reflects on the nuances of Faithorne’s large range of prints, which were based both on his own drawings as well as the work of other artists.

Avril Lansdell takes the reader on a visit to Oatlands, founded by Henry VIII and a royal residence until Cromwell’s time.

John Villiers describes the rich exchange of artistic ideas between Europe and the Far East during the seventeenth, eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. 

The gifted third son of the last Victorian Prime Minister was described as having ‘one foot in the Middle Ages and the other in the League of Nations’, as his descendant, Hugh Cecil, finds out.

The English aversion to eating horse flesh, recently highlighted in a number of food scandals, dates back to the coming of Christianity, as Jordan Claridge explains.

F.E. Halliday finds that every age, from the first Elizabethan to the present one, has evolved its own methods of producing Shakespeare; sometimes with results that might have surprised the dramatist.

Shakespeare was born into an England rejoicing in the peace and prospects of a new reign, but anxious about the future, writes Joel Hurstfield.

A solid middle-class clan who exported English wool to foreign markets, the Celys have left behind them a graphic record of their private affairs and shrewd commercial dealings, as Alison Hanham here finds.

John Carswell introduces George Bubb Dodington; a man of pleasure; an indefatigable careerist; and an industrious and successful politician.

Alastair Buchan writes that banker, economist, editor and critic, Bagehot “was the antithesis of the grand Victorian man of letters.”