"been home to several writers including Jane Austen who lived at Chawton on the edge of the Downs in Hampshire. The Bloomsbury Group often visited Monk's House in Rodmell, the home of Virginia Woolf in the Ouse valley. Alfred, Lord Tennyson had a second home at Aldworth, on Blackdown; geologically part of the Weald, Blackdown lies north of the South Downs but is included in the South Downs National Park. In the introduction to Arthur Conan Doyle's short story collection ""His Last Bow"", Dr. Watson states that Sherlock Holmes has retired to a small farm upon the Downs near Eastbourne."
"the attraction of everybody, for the collection of rare plants and beautiful walks, fine orchards, and the different kinds of clover and grass. His success in the culture of various plants, stimulated him to buy a more extensive tract of land. About that time, just when he was at the point of giving up his profession and devoting his time to agriculture alone, he received from London his patent, as physician to his majesty George the Third. This honor came unexpectedly, and he could not withdraw himself at once from his profession, but began by degrees to resign his practice,"
"road formed the distinct Bow Road we see today. Between 1806 and 1827 the clown Joseph Grimaldi lived here. It was whilst “ghost writing” Grimaldi’s memoirs that Charles Dickens probably first stayed at the farm during 1836 and 1837. Later, in 1843, he returned and wrote portions of Martin Chuzzlewit, conceiving the character of 'Sairey' Gamp whilst out walking in Finchley. The Farm’s fields were realised for building, as the Etchingham Park Estate, between 1878 and 1920, the farm itself disappearing in 1905. Two institutions occupied the fields within the bow of Bow Lane. Finchley Cottage Hospital opened with 18"
"BBC did not like Peter's first character, a man in top hat made from black Irish bog oak called ""Professor Bogwood"". They thought it was too frightening and asked for a non-human instead. Bagpuss is now retired. First he lived with Rupert Bear in the Rupert Bear Museum in Canterbury, part of the Canterbury Heritage Museum. After its closure at the end of 2017, he and Rupert Bear moved to the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury. Most of the stories and songs used in the series are based on folk songs and fairy tales from around the"
"fictional sleuths. In 1929, he abandoned his railway engineering career and became a full-time writer. He settled in the village of Blackheath, near Guildford, in Surrey, and a number of his books are set in the Guildford area, including ""The Hog's Back Mystery"" (1933) and ""Crime at Guildford"" (1935). Many of his stories have a railway theme, and his particular interest in the apparently unbreakable alibi often focused on the intricacies of railway timetables. At the end of his life, he and his wife moved to Worthing, Sussex in 1953, where they lived until his death in 1957, the year"
"and delivering the decisive move. The money he earned from his wrestling appearances was not great, and he continued to supplement his earnings by working a small holding and café called ""The Terminus"" in Thornton (close to the terminus of Bradford Trolleybus route 7), with his wife Margaret. On two acres behind the house Kellett sometimes bred pigs and once said he kept fifty head of cattle. Although not seen in televised action after the 1970s, he is still fondly remembered as one of its most endearing characters. Kellett died peacefully in his sleep, in Ilkley, two years after he"
"being more interested in ornithology which in those days consisted of collecting specimens and eggs. He resigned his commission in 1869 and thenceforth lived the life of a travelling naturalist and country gentleman. He visited various parts of the world studying aspects of natural history including ornithology, botany, entomology and big game. He combined horticulture with entomology and big game hunting with estate management and raising prize-winning show livestock, and sitting on the district council. He would later ascribe his interest in plants to his wife, Margaret Lowndes, whom he married in 1871. His first garden was at Miserden, near"
"in Lower Basildon. It was also the birthplace (1674) and last resting place in 1741 of Jethro Tull, the agriculturist. In 1770 Francis Sykes, who had made his fortune in India, acquired the Basildon Estate and built the House, which stands today. His grandson dissipated his fortune and so mistreated his wife that he ended up caricatured as Bill Sikes in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. In 1838 Sykes sold the Estate to businessman, James Morrison, and the Morrison family held the Estate until 1929. The Morrison family had many interests including an art collection which included works by Constable, Da"
"1996). He lives with his family at Knepp Castle, West Sussex, a castellated mansion built for the Burrells around 1808 by John Nash. He has managed the 3,500-acre Knepp estate since he was 21, and is now internationally known for the rewilding project that he has undertaken there. His decision to move into nature conservation was taken in 1999 having for seventeen years attempted to make the Estate's arable and dairy enterprises profitable. On heavy Low Weald clay, with poor drainage and traditional, small, hedged fields, the Estate was ill-suited to compete with modern intensive farming. His Damascene moment came"
"Warren Hastings, Lady Baden-Powell (as a child) and Thomas Hawes (of South Sea Bubble fame) When the Purley Park Mansion was built, the farm was moved further west and was home to the South Berks Hunt for many years. Its Master of fox hounds, Cecil Aldin, ran a Remount Depot there in World War I, employing his friend and fellow artist, Alfred Munnings as a horse doctor. After World War II the property was sold to Messrs G Percy Trentham who used it as the head offices for their civil engineering business. In the 1990s this too was redeveloped and"
"in Scotland and England, including Glamis Castle, St Paul's Walden Bury, and Woolmers Park, near Hertford. He was made Lord Lieutenant of Angus, an office he resigned when his daughter became Queen. He had a keen interest in forestry, and was one of the first to grow larch from seed in Britain. His estates had a large number of smallholders and he had a reputation for being unusually kind to his tenants. His contemporaries described him as an unpretentious man, often seen in ""an old macintosh tied with a piece of twine"". He worked his own land and enjoyed physical"
"four wood nymphs driven away from their woodland abodes by the cutting down of woods to supply the county's iron forges. The Downs, which have already lost much of their foliage, laugh at the grief of the wood nymphs. Sussex's rivers, which spring from the forests are represented as water nymphs, which sympathise with the wood nymphs' plight. Some writers born in Sussex include the Renaissance poet Thomas May (1594/5-1650), born in Mayfield, and playwrights Thomas Otway, born Trotton, near Midhurst, and John Fletcher (1579–1625), who was born in Rye. One of the most prolific playwrights of his day, Fletcher"
"however, its ""dignity and repose"" are disturbed by the kittens romping overhead and leaving a bedroom in disorder. Potter's career as a children's author and illustrator was launched in 1902 with the release of ""The Tale of Peter Rabbit"". She continued to publish, and, in 1905, bought Hill Top, a farm in Cumbria, with the sales profits from her books and a small legacy from an aunt. Her tales then took inspiration from the farm, its woodland surroundings, and nearby villages. Work began on ""Tom Kitten"" in 1906 and its setting became the Hill Top farmhouse. Illustrations depict the interior"
"small town. A version of the tale was composed by Potter in 1903, but set aside to develop other projects. In 1904, she failed to complete a book of nursery rhymes for Warnes, and the 1903 tale was accepted in its stead. Potter elaborated its setting and storyline, and developed the tale more fully before publication. The illustrations depict the cottages and gardens of Sawrey, a village in the Lake District near Potter's Hill Top farm, and have been described as some of the most exquisite Potter ever produced. Ribby was modelled on a cat living in Sawrey, Duchess on"
"his fellow judges. Like most of his brothers, his favorite pastime was gardening. In 1913, ""The Toronto World"" reported, ""Despite his seventy three years, Sir William is still a fine, erect and handsome man. His favorite pastime is gardening and in his beautiful grounds in Rosedale he spends much time. Donning a straw hat and gloves he delights to move about among his plants and bushes, weeding and clipping, or else to dig out dandelion roots from his lawn. Even in this pursuit he shows himself a man of solitary habits."" Following a swim off the coast of Maine, Sir"
"the children's author and illustrator known for the series of small format Peter Rabbit books. Potter bought the house and its working farm in July 1906 as her home away from London and her artistic retreat. She left the house to the National Trust. The house, farm and nearby villages feature in Potter's books, ""The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan"", ""The Tale of Tom Kitten"", ""The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck"" and ""The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding"". The farm was managed by John Cannon. The wing on the left was built by Potter for Cannon"
"as a rural pub, without being 'standardised' by being part of a pub chain. The Wheatsheaf closed in 2006 and is being converted to a private house. In 1802, Dr. George Mitford, the flamboyant father of local author Mary Russell Mitford, moved to Grazeley Court Farm for the purpose of ""being an English country gentleman with an estate and dignities accruing to the position"". His flamboyancy, self-importance and addiction to gambling at cards brought him and his family into debt and unhappiness. Grazeley Court served two purposes for the family – the house was used for the extravagant balls and"
"equally nominally educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge in June 1758. However he neither practised as a lawyer nor took a Cambridge degree, choosing instead to live the life of an English country gentleman. His estate covered 1600 acres of Sussex around Catsfield Place, also called Church House. He ordered short and delicate sheep's fescue grass seed to create an elegant greensward suitable for sheep, so that he could enjoy a view of sheep grazing outside his windows. Unfortunately, the story runs, the seed merchant supplied instead a much coarser grass, possibly giant fescue, which grew so rank and tall that the"
"his strip ""Birdseye Center"", whose setting he described as ""any Canadian village""; its lead characters included bowler-hatted Pigskin Peters, Old Archie and his pet moose Foghorn, and lazy Eli Doolittle and his wife Ruby. The strip grew in popularity and in 1926 was voted favourite comic strip in a readers' poll—as a write-in, since the strip did not appear in the list of options. From about 1920 Frise shared an office with the journalist and Vimy ridge veteran Greg Clark (1892–77). They became friends, and Frise began providing colour illustrations to Clark's tales in the ""Star"" of the pair's misadventures"
"and a girl, born to Herbert Ramsey, a manual labourer who worked a smallholding, kept pigs and drove a horse-drawn dustcart, and his wife Florence (""née"" Bixby). Parrish Cottages lacked hot running water and electricity, and the only toilet was outside. Such conditions were typical of Dagenham during this period, although Ramsey's street gradually became something of an anachronism as he grew up. From 1921, London County Council transformed the area into the Becontree estate, a vast urban community that by 1934 was home to 120,000 people and the Ford Dagenham automobile factory. Parrish Cottages remained largely untouched: electricity was"
"was only ever found in two other places in England (Grantham and Dorrington, both in Lincolnshire - it has vanished at Dorrington). Many homes in the conservation area are converted farm buildings, and the most prominent houses are Ovingdean Grange and Ovingdean Hall. The Grange is the subject of legend. In 1857, the popular novelist W. Harrison Ainsworth wrote ""Ovingdean Grange, A Tale Of The South Downs"", in which he described how the future King Charles II stayed there for less than 24 hours before escaping to France in 1651, fathering a child in the process. In reality, the King"
"a noted authority on bee culture and promoter of diversification in agriculture. At age 70 he planted a peach orchard and lived long enough to replant it twice. He was in the limelight of the fight for prohibition and public education. He believed in good roads, education for all who would take it, and the homely virtues of thrift which the hard days after the Civil War had impressed upon him. He practically abandoned the growing of cotton while cotton was still “King” and became an enthusiastic champion of terracing, heavy fertilizing and grafting fruit trees for which he became"
"gardens, near Chesil Beach in Dorset, in imitation of Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill House; it was called ""Strangways"", later known as ""Abbotsbury Castle"". The house was demolished in 1934, but the gardens, expanded and improved by Elizabeth's son Henry, were restored and opened to the public. From her husband's death in 1772, Elizabeth became Dowager Countess of Ilchester. Elizabeth is supposedly the real person behind the ""first Countess of Wessex"" in Thomas Hardy's short story of that name, published in 1891. Elizabeth Fox, Countess of Ilchester Elizabeth Fox (or Fox-Strangways), Countess of Ilchester (c.1723–1792), formerly Elizabeth Horner, was the wife"
"Crabtree, a colorful woodsman who lives near Pat's childhood home, who doesn't bathe because he believes that soap and water would wash off his 'crust', which would let germs in. Other recurring characters are his childhood best friend, 'Crazy Eddie' Muldoon, his rough-and-tumble mutt appropriately named Strange, and his adulthood friends, the goofy and dim-witted Retch Sweeney, his straitlaced neighbor, Alphonse 'Al' Finley, and his rich friend Fenton Quagmire. Throughout the majority of the stories is a recurring theme of McManus's lifelong love of hunting and fishing—which is mostly an excuse to just enjoy the outdoors, often in good company."
"he collected Hymenoptera specimens as well as meeting friends and colleagues in the field of Aculeate Hymenoptera. During his life he was an enthusiastic collector of Hymenoptera and during his retirement he continued, especially collecting specimens of parasitic Hymenoptera around the village of Putten, where he and Bep had made their home in a bungalow named ""Andrena"" after the bees which he started to study at the beginning of his career, and its surroundings. He was energetic in helping to improve the collection of Hymenoptera in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden as well as continuing to publish papers"
"the memories of those who knew the Jefferies at the time. Betsy, like Iden's wife, seems to have been dissatisfied with life on the farm: ""a town-bred woman with a beautiful face and a pleasure-loving soul, kind and generous to a fault, but unsuited to a country life."" The farm was very small, with of pasture; and a mortgage of £1500 would later begin a slide into debt for James Jefferies, who lost the farm in 1877 and became a jobbing gardener. But these difficulties were less evident in Richard's childhood. The situation was much as in ""After London"" (1885),"
"except for the verandah and stables. As soon as John Le Mesurier arrived he realised it was familiar to him from weekend parties Edward's father had invited him to in the 1930s. So it was that Edward found himself working in a television series that featured part of his old home. The films ""Wings of the Morning"" and ""The Rainbow Jacket"" were set in his beloved racing world, the former being set on Epsom Downs. Finally, after his acting career he worked as a steward at Newbury Racecourse. This was described by Bill Pertwee as ""fitting for a man who"
"for each of which only one or two other copies were known. The above four works found their way into the Britwell Court Library before being sold in February 1922 to A.S.W. Rosenbach for £3,600. Charles Isham Sir Charles Edmund Isham, 10th Baronet (16 December 1819 – 7 April 1903) was an English landowner and gardener based at Lamport Hall, Northampton. He is credited with beginning the tradition of garden gnomes in the United Kingdom when he introduced a number of terracotta figures from Germany in the 1840s. Nicknamed ""Lampy"", the only gnome of the original batch to survive is"
"in the north to the River Kennet in the south. Originally they were entirely in Berkshire, but northern third of the downs were transferred to Oxfordshire when the county border was reorganised in 1974. Due to the poor, chalky soil, the downs could not be used for growing crops until the advent of modern fertilisers. Consequently, the high ground was only used for breeding sheep – hence the name of Lambourn – and horses. The Oxford Don and author J. R. R. Tolkien lived nearby and travelled to the downs with his family and friends. He was impressed by the"
"which was 34 acres large. Hill Top remained a working farm but was now remodelled to allow for the tenant family and Potter's private studio and workshop. At last her own woman, Potter settled into the partnerships that shaped the rest of her life: her country solicitor husband and his large family, her farms, the Sawrey community and the predictable rounds of country life. ""The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck"" and ""The Tale of Tom Kitten"" are representative of Hill Top Farm and of her farming life, and reflect her happiness with her country life. Rupert Potter died in 1914 and,"
"most celebrated novel: “The Kingdom that Was”. Significantly, “Strong Waters” and “The Second Leopard” also appeared in 1932, so obviously his apparently idle time in preceding years actually had been anything but idle. It is worth speculating that his productivity in writing might have encouraged his retirement and “going home”. After settling down he went in for “fairly intensive bee-keeping” as he related in “The Hive”, one World War later. That his absence from the trenches of World War I was not attributable to lack of patriotic feeling is apparent from the fact that in 1940, at the age of"
"character. Lord Emsworth Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, known as Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family. Longing for nothing more than to talk to his prize pig, or potter peacefully in the idyllic gardens of Blandings Castle, he must frequently face the unpleasant reality of his domineering sisters and familial duties. Wodehouse frequently named his characters after places with which he was familiar, and Lord Emsworth takes his name from the Hampshire town of"
"at Wyldes. He stopped writing ""The Pickwick Papers"" and ""Oliver Twist"", and his friends were worried he had given up writing for good. Among those who came to see him at Wyldes were Harrison Ainsworth, Hablot Browne (also known as Phiz), Daniel Maclise, and his future biographer and friend John Forster. But he soon got back to writing and returned to his home in Doughty Street after about five weeks at what was then called Collins Farm. In ""Oliver Twist"", Bill Sikes sleeps in a field near Wyldes while fleeing from London. And in ""The Old Curiosity Shop"", Dick Swiveller"