One of Charles II’s earliest great passions, Lucy Walter, sometimes Lucy Barlow, a Royalist exile of Welsh ancestry who became his bedfellow (possibly his wife) and then the mother of his son, James, the future doomed Duke of Monmouth. Lucy, born around 1630, was considered to be a stunningly beautiful, but quite vapid, woman. The image that has comes… Read on
The Duchess of Bolton looks vaguely familiar, does she not? If she does, it’s because she has a look of her father, the handsome Duke of Monmouth. This beautiful young lady married the 2nd Duke of Bolton in 1697. In the course of researching the lives of those connected to the doomed Duke, I found this charming image… Read on
Antonio Vivaldi is one of the main composers one automatically thinks of when the word “Baroque” is used. He was extremely talented and prolific, yet most people only know of his Four Seasons, and I would like to take the time to correct this. For whilst The Four Seasons concertos have memorable melodies full of the extravagant beauty of… Read on
When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go, even if you’re a Stuart king in the late 17th Century… Lovely, isn’t it? Red velvet, brass fittings, this loo is certainly nicer than some I’ve seen in my day. No flush, granted, but still pretty. Now, William had a hard time with his bottom, as he suffered from hemorrhoids. Poor chap.… Read on
Ok, ok, so this is not really 17th century, but this dish is a traditional English food. And it is so yummy and fattening and horribly perfect for winter. These photos are from 2008, but it’s the only time I’ve photographed the process (well, bits of it). I don’t make it anymore as I have stopped eating pork,… Read on
John Evelyn is my favourite diarist of the 17th century. Why? He calmly noted things that happened, what he observed, with none of the high marital drama that Samuel Pepys recounted in his diary. Also, he was far more prolific in his writing than the far more popular Pepys – he travelled extensively for a man of his… Read on
I’ve been researching Henrietta Wentworth in more depth since beginning my novella about her relationship with the Duke of Monmouth. I find her fascinating, though some of my peers seem quite happy to brush her off as “dull.” I don’t see that, I see a woman who did what other women could not do – have a truly… Read on
Continuing on from our last post on the history of Hever Castle, we come now to its gardens. Hever Castle is lovely, but it’s gardens are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in the world. There are dozens of different varieties of flowers and plants along the sprawling landscape. It was here that I saw a garden of… Read on