Pigs

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Habsburg Spain, Early Modern Romania, Early Modern Britain, Tsardom of Russia, Early Modern Switzerland, House of Braganza, History of Italy, Early Modern History of Germany, Royal Hungary, the Graces, Chesterton Hall. Excerpt: Chesterton Hall is a house in Chesterton, Cambridge . It lies in the city of Cambridge in the county of Cambridgeshire approximately 50 miles (80 km) north-northeast of London . Most of the grounds have long since been sold off and the house is now located on one of the major roundabouts of the city. The house dates from the early 17th centuryP.R.O., PROB 11/152, f. 63v. The house was built by the Hobsons: the younger, Thomas Hobson lived at Chesterton Hall in 1627, four years prior to his death in 1631 . Build of red brick, the original main south front has two storeys and three bays, with mullioned and transomed windows, including a central oriel, all their stone dressings being renewed, and above them round-gabled dormers. A north wing behind has an octagonal north-west stair tower. The house was considerably remodelled in the mid 19th century, probably by T.H. Naylor, to provide a more ornate front to the west, including a new porch and another rectangular stair tower north of the back wing. It was further enlarged after 1900. In 1945 it was acquired from St. John's College, Cambridge by the city council , which converted it into flats.Chesterton Hall was sold in 1799 to William Wragg, long its tenant and already a landowner at Chesterton. At his death in 1804 Wragg left the former Chettoe lands to his eldest son William (d. 1829), who devised them to his widow Mary for her life. She survived their only child, a daughter (d. 1834), and at inclosure in 1838 was allotted 328 a. for the 287 a. that she claimed. Other land had passed after 1804 to Willia...