By A. W. Clapham, f.s.a., and W. H. Godfrey.
Buildings that have been the scene of historical events, or have played a distinctive part in the development of national life, are commonly dealt with either at length in a most unattractive style, or dismissed in a few sentences embodying dates and particulars which are frequently inaccurate. Thus, the general reader finds himself confronted with two extremes, alike unsatisfactory. It was with the express object of correcting these deficiencies in respect of certain famous buildings that the authors compiled the series of short papers which constitute the volume under notice. They have been at great pains in their task, and, as the result of much original research, a flood of fresh light is thrown upon the subjects dealt with, every chapter adding some new fact to previous knowledge, or reproducing some hitherto unknown or neglected plan. In this way we have set before us, by means of description and illustration, the most remarkable of all Henry VIII.’s palaces—Nonsuch, in Surrey, whose wanton destruction was probably the heaviest loss which English architecture has suffered since the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The Tower of London, dealt with in another chapter, offers a wealth of interest when critical research and architectural acumen are brought into play, and in the same way the Royal Palace of Eltham, Northumberland House, Sir Thomas More’s House at Chelsea, the Fortune Theatre, Barking Abbey, and other famous buildings are dealt with.
One Volume. 5s. NETT. 275 pages.
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