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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Charlecote Park
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(8km/5m E of Stratford-on-Avon) Only the gatehouse remains unaltered of the mansion built in the 1550s by Thomas Lucy; the rest was reconstructed during the 19C in the Victorian idea of an Elizabethan style. Much of the furniture was brought from *Beckford's Fonthill, itself an even more ambitious exercise in historical fantasy.
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Glamour has long been added to Charlecote by the tradition (early in origin though unsupported by hard evidence) that the young *Shakespeare was caught poaching deer in the park, that he was brought before Sir Thomas Lucy as the local magistrate, and that the shameful incident caused the lad to remove to London, where he found fame and fortune. He is also believed to have satirized Sir Thomas in the character of Justice Shallow, who in The *Merry Wives of Windsor accuses Falstaff of having killed his deer.
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