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Old England: A Pictorial Museum (page 45/52)

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[picture: Old England: Photograph of the book]

Old England: A Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal and Popular Antiquities, Charles Knight (1791 – 1873) London, Charles Knight and Co., Ludgate Street, First Edition, 1845, two volumes, folio, pp. viii, 392; vi, 386, 24 chromoxylographs (incl. frontis.). Many wood-engraved text illustrations.

My copy has contemporary (worn) half-calf with gilt backs; there is some light foxing and dampstaining to the plates and margins of some leaves. Ref. Abbey, Life, 43; purchased D. & E Lake Toronto, 1992.

This book has been reprinted, but the reprint is out of print; you can search for a used copy on Amazon.

I have typed in the index to the book so that you can ask me for other scans if you like.

I have the first few sections online as Old England: A Pictorial Museum if you want to read the actual book!

The book starts with Druidical and Prehistoric remains and continues on to have Castles, Manors and stately homes, Churches, Abbeys and Cathedrals and much more.

Charles Knight also produced an illustrated edition of the Works of Shakspere, as he spelt it.

There is an entry in the Nuttall Encyclopædia for Charles Knight.

Some of the engravings were done by the Dalziel brothers; I have some images from their autobiography, A Record of Work.

Contents

Volume I

Book I. Before the Conquest.

Chapter I. The British Period. [Fig. 1]

Chapter II. The Roman Period. [Fig. 80]

Chapter III. The Anglo-Saxon Period. [Fig. 189]

Book II. The Period From the Norman Conquest to the Death of King John. A.D. 1066—1216.

Chapter I. Regal and Baronial Antiquities. [Fig. 334]

Chapter II. Ecclesiastical Antiquities. [Fig. 491]

Chapter III. Popular Antiquities. [Fig. 795]

Book III. The Period From the Accession of Henry III. to the End of the Reign of Richard II. A.D. 1216—1399.

Chapter I. Regal and Baronial Antiquities. Fig. 814]

Chapter II. Ecclesiastical Antiquities. [Fig. 929]

Chapter III. Popular Antiquities.

Book IV. The Period From the Accession of Henry IV. to the End of the Reign of Richard III. A.D. 1399—1485.

Chapter I. Regal and Baronial Antiquities. [Fig. 1150]

Chapter II. Ecclesiastical Antiquities. [Fig. 1279]

Chapter III. Popular Antiquities. [Fig. 1335]

Although some of the images here are from Volume II, I plan to move them into their own darling little folder, and will make a second table of contents.

This book is online at archive.org (Vol I and Vol II), although the OCR has done a really bad job, and the scans are lower resolution and not cleaned up. But you could use it to request a specific image, and I will scan it for you if it’s not here yet.

Title: Old England: A Pictorial Museum

Author: Knight, Charles

City: London

Date: 1845

Total items: 407

Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.

[picture: Wolsey's Hall at Hampton Court]

Wolsey’s Hall at Hampton Court

In 1514, in the parish of Hampton, Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York began building a magnificent palace on the north bank of the River Thames... Tudor Histor Web page. [more...] [$]

[picture: 1532.---Interior of the Beauchamp Tower]

1532.—Interior of the Beauchamp Tower

The Beauchamp Tower in the Tower of London; the tower was built in the thirteenth century during the reign of King Edward I. It’s named after Thomas [...] [more...] [$]

[picture: 1534.---Hayes Farm, Devonshire]

1534.—Hayes Farm, Devonshire

Birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh [more...] [$]

[picture: 1672.---Hulme Hall, Lancashire.---Front View.]

1672.—Hulme Hall, Lancashire.—Front View.

Hulme Hall, Lancashire (Fig. 1672), may be looked on as a fair specimen of the very numerous timber-houses that form so conspicuous a class in the domestic architecture of Elizabeth’s time. And most [...] roofs, and numerous projections, their carvings and their pinnacles. Hulme Hall no longer exists. It was pulled clown a short time since. Our engraving was taken just before its demolition. The place belonged to the family of Prestwick from the middle of the fifteenth to about the middle of the seventeenth century. A curious mystery may be said still to attach to the spot. The dowager Lady Prestwick, during the Civil War, encouraged her son, who belonged to the Royal party—but apparently had been wavering in his allegiance on account of pecuniary difficulties— to remain firm to the Royalist cause, saying she had treasure to supply him with. It was supposed she referred to some hidden stores about Hulme. But when she was dying she was speechless, and so, if she had a secret of the nature supposed, it was buried with her. Nothing remarkable has since been discovered at Hulme. [more...] [$]

[picture: 1674.---Plan of Buckhurst House, Sussex.]

1674.—Plan of Buckhurst House, Sussex.

A plan of a sixteenth-century mansion, demolished it seems in the eighteenth century. The text does not seem to explain the numbers on the plan; presumably the woodcut was made for some [...] [more...] [$]

[picture: 1675.---North side of the Priory Cloisters, Christ's Hospital.]

1675.—North side of the Priory Cloisters, Christ’s Hospital.

Christ’s Hospital is a charity-funded boarding school founded in the sixteenth century and still open today. It’s also known as the bluecoat school because of the school uniform [more...] [$]

[picture: Staircase at Claverton, Somersetshire]

Staircase at Claverton, Somersetshire

(From Richardson’s ‘Elizabethan Architecture.’) [more...] [$]

[picture: Hall at Ockwells Manor]

Hall at Ockwell’s, Berkshire.

Coloured in the original book.

“The old manor-house of Ockwells is situated about one mile westward from bray, in Berkshire. It is one of those mansions built chiefly of timber framework, of which many yet remain in England, some of them almost as large as palaces and little less magnificent, picturesque without, with their bay windows and ornamented gables, and righ in timber-roofs, oak panneling, and carved furniture, within. Sixty or seventy years ago [as of 1845] a large part of Ockwells manor-house was burnt down. Of the part which remains, now converted into a farm-house, the gables are striking and richly carved. The panneling of the hall and the fine oriel window divided by mullions into six lights yet remain, but the timber roof has been covered up and formed into a flat ceiling. The upper windows are still filled with the original painted glass. The mansion was built by John Norreys, lord of the manor of Ockholt in the parish of Bray, who in 1465 left a considerable sum by will for the completion of the building. The paintings in the windows consist of coats of arms of the Norreys family, and those of Henry VI., Margaret [more...] [$]


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