Category: History

Eight Wells

Llanover House in Monmouthshire lies about 150 miles west of London, at least it did until it was demolished in 1936.

Take Nine Spies

Why wouldn’t China try to infiltrate the British security services – and those of other countries? I expect China has to a greater or lesser extent been successful in these enterprises. It’s nothing new.

You Know Who

As a child I don’t think I counted my blessings; I did curse curse my afflictions, like wet Sunday afternoons at prep school.

The Flight of Ikaros

“There is a surplus of books about modern Greece, but this one is the best for many years”, writes a reviewer in the New Statesman in the latter half of the last century.

Around the Houses

George II gave 10 Downing Street to the government to provide a home in perpetuity for Prime Ministers and First Lords of the Treasury in 1735. At the time Robert Walpole was PM.

The Aynscombes of Mortlake

“From 1689 to 1721 Cromwell House was the residence of Edward Colston (1636-1721) of the London Mercers’ Company, a major philanthropic benefactor in Bristol, his home town. In 1792 Lysons described it as an “Ancient house” and it was then associated with the Aynscombe family: Cromwell Lane was renamed Aynscombe Lane.” (London Gardens Trust)