Founded in 1196, Torre Abbey began as a monastery. It was later adapted as a private house – home to the secretive Roman Catholic Cary family, who lived there for nearly 300 years. The local council acquired Torre Abbey in 1930, and adapted it for use as an art gallery and Mayor’s Parlour, and it has recently been renovated.The important but little-known story of Catholicism in England provides a sub-plot of the book. From the end of the Third Crusade in 1192 to the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England in 1850, every significant event that affected English Catholics was illuminated or reflected by events at Torre Abbey. Probably, no other house in the country could be used to tell the story of English Catholics so well.

The Garden History of Devon is a reference guide to historical sources for over 200 Devon gardens. It also provides an introduction for would-be garden historians on how to conduct garden research. The book is the result of an exploration of the archival resources of Devon's garden history; the objective being to provide signposts to research material for those interested in the development of Devon's gardens. The entries, arranged alphabetically, begin with a brief section describing each garden's history, amplified by quotations from contemporary travellers and diarists; following the descriptive sections are listings of documents, printed sources and illustrations relating to each garden. The greater part of this material is unknown to garden historians.

Vol 1 905p Vol 2 961p.

Family immigrated to America from England.

The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) is the first original play by a woman to be published in England, and its author is the first English woman writer to be memorialized in a biography, which is included with this edition of the play. Mariam is a distinctive example of Renaissance drama that serves the desire of today's readers and scholars to know not merely how women were represented in the early modern period but also how they themselves perceived their own condition. With this textually emended and fully annotated edition, the play will now be accessible to all readers. The accompanying biography of Cary further enriches our knowledge of both domestic and religious conflicts in the seventeenth century.

Elizabethan society is arguably the most successful in English history. The adventurers and merchants (as well as the poets and playwrights) of that age are legendary. The subject of this classic study by A.L. Rowse is that society's 'expansion'. Elizabethan society expanded both physically (first into Cornwall, then Ireland, then across the oceans to first contact with Russian, the Canadian North and then the opening up of trade with India and the Far East) and in terms of ideas and influence on international affairs. Rowse argues that in the Elizabethan age we see the beginning of England's huge impact upon the world.

This is a study of land grants from 1624 to the American Revolution to see if an economic explanation could be found for local resistance to and later acceptance of the proprietors of the Northern Neck.