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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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Syon House
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(18km/11m W of central London) House on the north bank of the Thames, built from 1547 by the 1st duke of *Somerset. His square brick building was later castellated, faced in stone and given sash windows, which explains its present unprepossessing exterior. But the interiors are a marvel of *neoclassicism, with rooms of breath-taking self-confidence by the young Robert *Adam; he was 34 when he started remodelling the house in 1762. The name, deriving from Mount Zion outside Jerusalem, is that of a convent of *Bridgettine nuns established here in 1415 by *Henry V; their buildings were given to the duke of *Somerset after the *dissolution of the monasteries. In 1594 Syon came into the hands of the Percy family, whose main seat is *Alnwick Castle.
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