Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... quarried out of solid limestone, stood on a rock elevated nearly thirty feet above the level of the river Ray, and looked upon the bridge on which Cromwell defeated the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Wilmot, and Colonel Palmer. The garden to the south was laid out in terraces, and was surrounded on all sides by walls. In this sheltered, sunny spot the Dean and Mrs. Buckland were able to cultivate a great variety of plants: stonecrop and rock cistus throve amazingly; vines and peaches flourished; the strawberry beds, which can be seen in the foreground, were famed far and wide; and from some Alpine plants, brought from Switzerland, would be often picked a dish of fruit quite late in the autumn. "The roses," writes Mrs. Buckland to Faraday, in July 1849, "are now blooming, and the strawberries ripening. Our small garden is exquisitely rich in perfume." Fruit and flowers were not often to be seen in such profusion, growing side by side, as in that old seventeenth-century garden. In 1807 the garden had much good fruit planted in it by a tailor who rented the house from Sir R. Cope. Dean Vincent added a great deal more. "The best of all sorts, there is no finer fruit anywhere, and the soil is favourable," writes old Dean Vincent in a manuscript book of notes about Islip which was kept in the Parish chest, and which the present Rector, the Rev. T. Fowle, kindly lent the biographer. The village school is of Dr. South's foundation; he managed it himself while living, and the first annual account bears date 1717, the year after his death. Twenty-one boys, chosen from Islip in preference, then from the nearest parishes, are always to be in the school, nominated, admitted, dismissed, or chosen apprentices by the Rector or curate. Like the Rectory, ...
