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Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second-highest point of the Cotswolds (after Cleeve Hill). Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 65 feet (20 metres) high.
The "Saxon" tower was the brainchild of Capability Brown and designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1798–99. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester — about 22 miles (35 km) away — and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. Indeed, the beacon could be seen clearly.
Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s. William Morris was so inspired by Broadway Tower and other ancient buildings that he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.
Today, the tower is a tourist attraction and the centre of a country park with various exhibitions open to the public at a fee, as well as a gift shop and restaurant. The place is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following the Cotswold Way from the A44 road at Fish Hill, or by a steep climb out of Broadway village.
Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.
The Nikon F90X (N90s in the U.S. market) was the second and final version of what I call the third generation of semi-pro 35mm autofocus SLRs from Nikon. The second generation, the F801/F801s (N8008/N8008s), introduced reliable autofocus, together with built-in autowind and rewind, spot metering, a new single control wheel interface, and other features, to the semi-pro line. (Note: an even earlier Nikon autofocus design, the F501 (N2020), had early first generation autofocus capability and a completely different interface and viewfinder display.) The F90/F90x continued virtually the same interface and body design as the F801/F801s but upgraded the level of technology, especially in its final incarnation, the F90X. The F90X is the epitome of Nikon's single focus point autofocus film SLRs. The F90X's interface was changed and enhanced with the subsequent F100, which introduced dual control wheels. The F100 also adds multiple focus and spot metering points, together with support for modern vibration reduction/image stabilization (VR) lenses and slightly more flexible custom settings. While the F100 is in some ways a better film camera to use today than the F90X, the F90X already included 3D Matrix Metering, which is the biggest exposure metering advance in the industry until the later color matrix metering of the F5 and F6 (and subsequent digital SLRs). The F90X also supports the built-in Silent Wave motors of modern Nikon lenses. In spite of its technical advances over the F90X, the F100 has an even more severe problem than the F90X with decomposition of the rubbery surface of its camera backs. If you don't need support for VR and are looking for a low-cost high-tech AF body in the used market, the F90X could be just what you want.
With the big picture out of the way, let's look at the features and functions of the F90X in more detail. The original F90 appears to have been rushed out in 1992 to quickly upgrade the F801s as a way to compete with Canon in a rapidly developing market. However, the F90X was released less than two years later with a long list of major and minor refinements. Today, you would definitely want the F90X over the original F90. The biggest improvements in the F90X over the F90 were improved autofocus, and the ability to adjust P, S, and M modes in 1/3 stop increments rather than one stop increments. According to Nikon, both the F90 and F90X used the CAM246 AF detection system, so AF improvement from the F90 to F90X was presumably due to better software.
The F90X is an amazing camera. The F800 already felt very advanced, moving from an F3HP, when the F801 was released in 1988. But after upgrading from the F801 to the F90X, one really appreciated the more responsive autofocus, the addition of spot metering (I never moved to an F801s), and most of all 3D Matrix (multi-pattern) metering. The 3D matrix metering of the F90X enabled more accurate exposure metering, especially for flash photography with dedicated Nikon electronic flashes, by incorporating subject focus distance information from AF-D lenses into the exposure calculation. The F90X is optimized for use with AF-D lenses, either Nikkor lenses or from third-party manufacturers such as Sigma and Tamron. The F90X works with non-autofocus Ai lenses, but with such lenses, you can only use center-weighted and spot metering (no matrix metering) and you can only use the Aperture Priority and Manual exposure modes (no Program or Shutter Speed Priority modes). Also, the set aperture of non-AF lenses does not appear in the viewfinder since there is no optical ADR like on most earlier Nikon bodies. The F90X (unlike the previous F801/F801s) auto-focuses with later G-type lenses (with no aperture ring and Silent Wave focusing motor). While you cannot adjust the aperture of G-type lenses directly on the F90X, a very simple solution is to shoot in Program mode, but use Flexible Program by turning the control wheel to step through equivalent aperture/shutter speed combinations while keeping the EV fixed. (This works a bit like exposure lock on electronic Contax bodies.)
The size and weight of the F90X is a very reasonable 755g, especially by the standard of the F4 or F5. It is an incremental increase in size and weight over the F801/s. In addition, although the user manual only indicates four AA-type alkaline, manganese or NiCd batteries, both Nikon and my personal experience confirms that the F90X also works fine with relatively lightweight AA lithium batteries. Overall, the camera/battery combination, even with alkaline batteries, is perfect both for stability and also portability. I have personally only used alkaline and lithium batteries and both types last for a very long time, although of course not as long as the button batteries in older manual focus cameras, such as the F3 or FM2N. The F90X owner manual indicates a battery capacity of 50 rolls of 36-exposure film at 20 degrees Celsius. This is much more than the battery capacity of my F6, especially with a power-hungry VR lens attached to the F6. The F90X has a very solid and comfortable feel, with a metal interior, matte-type rubberized grip surfaces, and heavy-duty matte composite plastic exterior plates. The F90/X body design includes a molded hand grip that is very stable and comfortable, but does not excessively add to the dimensions of the body. The covering material on the F90/X is not as rubbery or tactile as newer Nikon bodies, but still offers a fine grip.
There was a well-known problem with the rubberized material on the exterior of the camera back. A few years ago, the rubberized material on on at least some samples of the F90/X started to decompose and become a sticky goo. The same problem happened to the back of my own F90X, which became extremely sticky and completely unusable. Fortunately, my camera tech was able to procure a new replacement back and make the camera like new. The new back, like the old, is indeed plastic except for the pressure plate and other hardware. Still, the construction of the new back is very solid and it fits snugly onto the camera body when closed, without any irritating play. I am not sure about the composition of the exterior surface of the new back. It is a very attractive matte black finish, that must either be some type of composite material, or a very fine sprayed on layer. In any event, it appears to be very durable and hopefully long-lasting.
With the F90X generation of Nikon bodies, if you want to adjust certain functions, such as auto exposure bracketing, multiple exposure operation, interval timer, film imprinting, etc., you will need to add a MF-26 Multi-Control back. You can also use the optional Data Link System and AC-2E card to adjust more settings, download stored data, etc.
The viewfinder of the F90X has a relatively low 92% image coverage. Such coverage is more appropriate for the era when people used mounted slides, which cut off the edges of the frame, but is more limiting in today's age when film is scanned directly after processing at the lab. On the other hand, you can crop the scanned images in Photoshop if necessary. You just need to keep in mind at the time of shooting that your image will include a bit more than you can see. The viewfinder display is well-organized, and the brightness of the soft green horizontal LCD display is just right for both bright and dim environments. The viewfinder eyepiece does not include an adjustable diopter. However, Nikon still makes a full range of single diopter lenses in current production. The F90X takes the same diopter lens as the F3HP, F801/S, F90 and F100.
Dual film advance modes of single frame and continuous High ( 4.3 fps) and Low (2.0) speed, offer more than enough speed for casual shooting.
As mentioned above, the exposure metering system of the F90X is extremely advanced. It has second generation software and three additional central segments in addition to the five metering segments of the FA and F801/s (plus spot), for a total of 8 segments. In addition, the new "3D" technology of the F90x increases the accuracy of the multi-segment metering system even further, especially for flash photography, with concurrent and later AF-D compatible lenses. Center-weighted metering is of course included, and is designed with a 75% weighting, which had become the new Nikon standard for center-weight, more like the 80% center-weight of the F3 than the 60% weight of classic Nikon camera meters. The 3mm spot meter had become standard since the earlier F801s. One of my few complaints about the design of the F90X is that the selected exposure metering system is not displayed in the viewfinder, unlike on many later models. Glasses wearers will prefer the selected exposure metering system to be indicated in the viewfinder so they can switch among the metering systems without putting your glasses on, especially since the control wheel interface makes it difficult to confirm the selected system by feel alone. The LCD display on the top of the camera duplicates much of the same information as the viewfinder display, plus additional information such as metering system and ISO. The exposure meter is very sensitive, covering EV -1 through EV 21 in matrix and center-weighted, and EV 3 to EV 21 for spot metering.
Although the F90X only has a single focus area, autofocusing is quite responsive. Of course, the focusing technique in the day of the single autofocus point was to focus on the appropriate object, lock the focus with the shutter release button or AF lock, recompose, and shoot. The focus indicator also works very well with most manual focus lenses (with greater than f/5.6 aperture). Just focus manually until the round digital in-focus indicator is displayed in the viewfinder; there is no need for a central focusing aid on the focusing screen, although you can also manually focus with the matte screen itself. The central focus area can be easily switched between Spot and Wide by pushing a button on the top right of the camera and turning the control wheel; which area you have selected shows up in the viewfinder display so you can switch back and forth with your eye to the viewfinder. The Wide autofocus area is actually quite large, covering more than half of the outer central circle of the viewfinder image. The autofocus system appears quite adept at following moving subjects that stay within this expanded focusing area.
The F90X has all of the required PASM exposure modes and then some. The camera adds Ps "Vari-Program" modes that automatically set the recommended shutter speed and aperture combinations for seven separate photographic situations, such as Portraits, Portraits with Red Eye Reduction, Landscape, Sports, Close Up, etc. However, anyone who properly knows their way around a camera, or wants to learn, has no need for these Vari-Program settings. Unlike exposure metering systems, it is extremely easy to adjust your exposure modes with your eye to the viewfinder; just push the Mode button on the top left of the camera and turn the control wheel to select the correct mode. The selected mode is always clearly indicated at the bottom of the viewfinder. Program mode is extremely useful, even for photographers who are expert at manual camera setting. In a pinch, the camera's Program mode can adjust exposure fully automatically. More commonly, however, it is convenient to let the camera select the correct EV and the approximate shutter speed/aperture combination in Program mode. You then simply turn the control wheel in Program Mode after you have metered the scene to select the exact shutter speed/aperture combination that you want in 1/3 stop increments. This technique becomes even more useful when using newer G-type lenses, which have no aperture ring, since you have no secondary control dial to change the aperture directly. Manual mode works very well with AF lenses that have aperture rings; the digital analog readout in the viewfinder indicates exposure deviation in 1/3 stop increments, although, unlike some later designs, it only displays the range of +-1 EV to save display real estate. Although you can't see exactly how far you you are when greater than +- 1 EV, I never found this to be a practical limitation.
The F90X has a highly advanced shutter. Using the control wheel, you can directly set the shutter speed in 1/3 stop increments all the way from 1/8000 sec. to 30 seconds. Standard electronic flash maximum synch speed is a modern 1/250 sec.
Exposure compensation of +- 5 EV is easy to set by pushing a button on top of the camera and turning the control wheel, with the amount of compensation visible in the viewfinder display in 1/3 stop increments. The camera also has an AE-Lock lever on the back for your right thumb. I find that I usually prefer to use Manual Mode rather than the AE-Lock lever.
One small advantage of the F90X as a fully electronic camera is its ability to easily set the self-timer delay between 2 to 30 seconds. Just push the appropriate button on the top left of the camera and turn the control wheel to set. It can be used as an alternative to a remove control cable. On the other hand, one disadvantage of fully electronic cameras, such as the F90X, is that you need to use a special electronic remote cord (MC-20) (rather than a standard mechanical cable) when taking Bulb exposures. Also, Bulb exposures can wear down the battery. Better to use a fully mechanical body if you plan to take lots of long Bulb exposures. (On the other hand, the MC-20 can automatically close the shutter after up to 99 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds! The MF-20 back, and apparently the AC-2E card, also provides this function.)
The F90X has easily interchangeable focusing screens. The single available optional screen adds a grid.
The MB-10 Multi-Power Vertical Grip is available if you need more battery longevity and bigger camera grip with vertical shutter release.
As already mentioned, with its 3D technology, the F90X is amazing for flash photography. If you know what you are doing, you can get great flash photographs even with non-TTL mechanical bodies. But TTL flash control is much more convenient, and the F90/x enhances the level of TTL matrix flash metering by, for the first time, incorporating focus distance from the lens into the exposure calculation. Just make sure to use AF-D type lenses or better, and one of the compatible Nikon electronic flash units. The most advanced concurrent flash with the F90X was the SB-28, which allows full use of the F90X's flash exposure features. The F90X also supports monitor pre-flash with the SB-25/26/28. (Later flashes, such as current production modern Nikon flashes, also work fully with the F90X. I usually use a current production SB-800 flash, even on the F90X.) Another nice feature of the F90X's flash technology is 3D Multi-Sensor Balanced Fill Flash. This function automatically reduces the output of the flash to supplement ambient light. Of course, is you want more precise control, fill-flash can also be set with appropriate manual flash negative compensation directly on the flash unit. Other flash features available with the F90X/SB-28 combination is Rear-Curtain Synch for motion photography and red eye reduction.
One generally unnecessary feature that has been omitted from the F90X is mirror lock-up (MLU).
To conclude, the F90X was and continues to be an amazing camera. The F90/X were the first semi-pro Nikon to incorporate 3D metering technology. It felt fun and was effective to use the camera with AF-D or newer lenses. The F90X offered virtually every function that you could think of, at least with its various accessories. The camera feels great in your hands and has a good form factor and weight for both travel and large lenses. Really the only limitation that irritates me about the F90X is that I can not use Matrix Metering, and there is no viewfinder display of the selected aperture, with manual focus lenses. In practice, this should not impact the quality of your images, but it is certainly less convenient. (Thankfully, this limitation was finally fixed in the F6 and some high-end Nikon DSLRs). The real limitations of the F90X today are its single focus point, its lack of support for VR lenses, and its lack of a second control wheel for G-type lenses. Thus, in the film world, you would need an F100 or F6 (and the consumer grade F75/F80) to get maximum benefit out of the newest generation of lenses. The control wheels and rubbery grip are more ergonomic on the F100 and F6, compared with the F90X.
Copyright © 2016 Timothy A. Rogers. All rights reserved.
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Claremont, also known historically as 'Clermont', is an 18th-century Palladian mansion less than a mile south of the centre of Esher in Surrey, England. The buildings are now occupied by Claremont Fan Court School, and its landscaped gardens are owned and managed by the National Trust. Claremont House is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Claremont estate
The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir John Vanbrugh, the Restoration playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, for his own use. This "very small box", as he described it, stood on the level ground in front of the present mansion. At the same time, he built the stables and the walled gardens, also probably White Cottage, which is now the Sixth Form Centre of Claremont Fan Court School.
In 1714, he sold the house to the wealthy Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, Earl of Clare, who later became Duke of Newcastle and served twice as Prime Minister. The earl commissioned Vanbrugh to add two great wings to the house and to build a fortress-like turret on an adjoining knoll. From this so-called "prospect-house", or belvedere, he and his guests could admire the views of the Surrey countryside as they took refreshments and played hazard, a popular dice game.
In the clear eighteenth-century air it was apparently possible to see Windsor Castle and St Paul's Cathedral. The Earl of Clare named his country seat Clare-mount, later contracted to Claremont. The two lodges at the Copsem Lane entrance were added at this time.
Landscape garden
Main article: Claremont Landscape Garden
Claremont landscape garden is one of the earliest surviving gardens of its kind of landscape design, the English Landscape Garden — still featuring its original 18th century layout. The extensive landscaped grounds of Claremont represents the work of some of the best known landscape gardeners, Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent (with Thomas Greening) and Sir John Vanbrugh.[2]
Work on the gardens began around 1715 and, by 1727, they were described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds, overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre.
A feature in the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Vanbrugh for the Duke of Newcastle. The tower is unusual in that, what appear to be windows, are actually bricks painted black and white. It is now owned by Claremont Fan Court School, which is situated alongside the gardens.
In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation. The garden is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[3]
Capability Brown's mansion, built for Lord Clive of India
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768 and, in 1769, his widow sold the estate to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, founder of Britain's Indian Empire. Although the great house was then little more than fifty years old, it was aesthetically and politically out of fashion. Lord Clive decided to demolish the house and commissioned Capability Brown to build the present Palladian mansion on higher and dryer ground. Brown, more accomplished as a landscape designer than an architect, took on his future son-in-law Henry Holland as a junior partner owing to the scale of the project. John Soane (later Sir John Soane) was employed in Holland's office at this time and worked on the project as a draftsman and junior designer.[4] Holland's interiors for Claremont owe much to the contemporary work of Robert Adam.
Lord Clive, by now fabulously rich Nabob, is reputed to have spent over £100,000 on rebuilding the house and the complete remodelling of the celebrated pleasure ground. However, Lord Clive ended up never living at the property, as he died in 1774—the year that the house was completed. The estate then passed through a rapid succession of owners; first being sold "for not more than one third of what the house and alterations had cost"[5] to Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, and then to George Carpenter, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, and finally to Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford.[citation needed]
A large map entitled "Claremont Palace", situated in what is called "Clive's room" inside the mansion, shows the mansion and its surrounding grounds; giving a detailed overview of the campus. The map likely dates back to the 1860s, when the mansion was frequently occupied by Queen Victoria (thus it having been christened "palace"). However, the exact date is still unknown. The relief in Claremont's front pediment is of Clive's coat of arms impaled with that of Maskelyne, his wife's family.
Royal residence
In 1816, Claremont was bought by the British Nation through an Act of Parliament as a wedding present for George IV's daughter Princess Charlotte and her husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. At that time, the estate was valued to Parliament at £60,000: "Mr Huskisson stated that it had been agreed to purchase the house and demesnes of Clermont... The valuation of the farms, farm-houses, and park, including 350 acres of land, was 36,000/; the mansion, 19,000/; and the furniture, 6,000/; making together 60,000/. The mansion, which is in good repair, could not be built now for less than 91,000/."[6] To the nation's great sorrow, however, Princess Charlotte, who was second in line to the throne, was, after two miscarriages, to die there after giving birth to a stillborn son in November the following year. This sorrow is expressed in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Wikisource-logo.svg Lines on the Mausoleum of the Princess Charlotte, at Claremont., published in Forget Me Not, 1824. Although Leopold retained ownership of Claremont until his death in 1865, he left the house in 1831 when he became the first King of the Belgians.
Mausoleum of Princess Charlotte
Claremont House, ca. 1860
Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Claremont—both as a child and later as an adult—when Leopold, her doting uncle, lent her the house. She, in turn, lent the house to the exiled French King and Queen, Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amelie (the parents-in-law of Leopold I of Belgium), after the Revolutions of 1848. The exiled King died at Claremont in 1850.
In 1857, Offenbach and his Bouffes company performed three of his opéras bouffes there for Marie Amelie and her sons during an eight-week tour of England.[7]
In 1870, Queen Victoria commissioned Francis John Williamson to sculpt a marble memorial to Charlotte and Leopold which was erected inside the house.[8][9] (The memorial was subsequently moved to St George's Church, Esher.)[9]
Victoria bought Claremont for her fourth, and youngest, son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, when he married Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1882. The Duke and Duchess of Albany had two children—Alice and Charles. Charles, who had been born at Claremont in 1884, inherited the title and position of Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha upon the death of his uncle, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1900. He moved to the duchy in Germany to fulfill the position, becoming a German citizen, and renouncing his claim in the British succession.
Claremont should have passed to Charles upon his mother's death in 1922, but because he served as a German general in the First World War, the British government disallowed the inheritance. Claremont was accordingly confiscated and sold by the Public Trustee to shipping magnate Sir William Corry, director of the Cunard Line. Two years after Sir William's death, in 1926, it was bought by Eugen Spier, a wealthy German financier.
In 1930, Claremont stood empty and was marked for demolition when it was bought, together with the Belvedere, the stables, and 30 acres (120,000 m2) of parkland, by the Governors of a south London school, later renamed Claremont School and, since 1978, has been known as Claremont Fan Court School.
The National Trust
The National Trust acquired 50 acres (0.20 km2) of the Claremont estate in 1949. In 1975, with a grant from the Slater Foundation, it set about restoring the eighteenth-century landscape garden. Now, the Claremont Landscape Garden displays the successive contributions of the great landscape gardeners who worked on it: Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Capability Brown.
In 1996, the school celebrated the National Trust's centenary by opening a feature of the grounds which had not previously been accessible to the garden's visitors: the 281-year-old Belvedere Tower. Wikipedia
Visit White Horse Hollow in the Shangrilah region for free rides on our lovely romantic ramblers. Each horse and cart carries at least two people with built in single and cuddle capability - perfect for that special date with your special someone.
Ride through a Capability Brown-inspired landscape full of flowers, butterflies and of course, horses.
First morning out with Lee's new Little Stopper filter. The Big Stopper has been incredible success and essential item for many landscape photographers. At 10 stops it can be a little restrictive, and so Lee has come to the party and released the Little Stopper which provides 6 stops of light stopping capability. I really enjoyed using the LIttle Stopper just after sunrise in this spot of Putty Beach in Killcare on NSW's Central Coast. The colour cast issues with the Big Stopper are still present with the Little Stopper, with a noticeable blue cast, but can be quickly addressed if you shoot in RAW.
Bulk carrier Stornes has the capability to unload herself. She is also used for installing subsea rock to cover and protect pipelines from offshore oil and gas fields and cables from offshore wind farms. This work is necessary to provide protection from fishing gear and anchors.
Stornes is off Gt. Yarmouth after a voyage of 2 days, 3 hours from Jelsa, Norway.
Name: Stornes
Vessel type: Bulk carrier
Home port: Rotterdam
Flag: Netherlands
IMO: 9549035
MMSI: 246695000
Call sign: PCKX
Length overall: 175 m
Beam: 26.24 m
Draught: 10.57 m
Gross tonnage: 19,950
Deadweight: 26,648 tons
Net weight: 8,209 tons
Engines: 2 x B 32:40 L8P, 8 cylinder
Engine output: 2 x 5,435 hp ( 2 x 4,000 kW) at 750 rpm
Speed loaded: 14.7 knots
Crew: 24
Total accommodation: 51 persons
Builder: Cimc Raffles Shipyard Ltd, Yantai, China
Keel laid: 18/11/2008
Launch date: 20/08/2010
Date of completion:18/06/2011
Yard number: YRO2007-215
Manger: CSL Norway AS, Bergen, Norway
Owner: Van Oord Marine Services BV, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Increased payload capability may not have had much effect for the Bell 412's role as transport helicopter, but it was now also capable of mounting heavier weapons systems, which played a big part of it becoming what it is today. With new EH-191s commencing deliveries shortly after the Bell 412's upgrade program was completed, a handful of Arapahos were converted to gunships on a trial base. The most common gunship configuration was, and still is, side mounted weapon stations similar to that on the UH-1Y, with two 70mm rocket pods and two M134 7.62mm Gatling guns.
Claremont estate
The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir John Vanbrugh, the Restoration playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, for his own use. This "very small box", as he described it, stood on the level ground in front of the present mansion. At the same time, he built the stables and the walled gardens, also probably White Cottage, which is now the Sixth Form Centre of Claremont Fan Court School.
In 1714, he sold the house to the wealthy Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, Earl of Clare, who later became Duke of Newcastle and served twice as Prime Minister. The earl commissioned Vanbrugh to add two great wings to the house and to build a fortress-like turret on an adjoining knoll. From this so-called "prospect-house", or belvedere, he and his guests could admire the views of the Surrey countryside as they took refreshments and played hazard, a popular dice game.
In the clear eighteenth-century air it was apparently possible to see Windsor Castle and St Paul's Cathedral. The Earl of Clare named his country seat Clare-mount, later contracted to Claremont. The two lodges at the Copsem Lane entrance were added at this time.
Landscape garden
Main article: Claremont Landscape Garden
Claremont landscape garden is one of the earliest surviving gardens of its kind of landscape design, the English Landscape Garden — still featuring its original 18th century layout. The extensive landscaped grounds of Claremont represents the work of some of the best known landscape gardeners, Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent (with Thomas Greening) and Sir John Vanbrugh.[2]
Work on the gardens began around 1715 and, by 1727, they were described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds, overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre.
A feature in the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Vanbrugh for the Duke of Newcastle. The tower is unusual in that, what appear to be windows, are actually bricks painted black and white. It is now owned by Claremont Fan Court School, which is situated alongside the gardens.
In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation. The garden is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[3]
Capability Brown's mansion, built for Lord Clive of India
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768 and, in 1769, his widow sold the estate to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, founder of Britain's Indian Empire. Although the great house was then little more than fifty years old, it was aesthetically and politically out of fashion. Lord Clive decided to demolish the house and commissioned Capability Brown to build the present Palladian mansion on higher and dryer ground. Brown, more accomplished as a landscape designer than an architect, took on his future son-in-law Henry Holland as a junior partner owing to the scale of the project. John Soane (later Sir John Soane) was employed in Holland's office at this time and worked on the project as a draftsman and junior designer.[4] Holland's interiors for Claremont owe much to the contemporary work of Robert Adam.
Lord Clive, by now a rich Nabob, is reputed to have spent over £100,000 on rebuilding the house and the complete remodelling of the celebrated pleasure ground. However, Lord Clive ended up never living at the property, as he died in 1774—the year that the house was completed. The estate then passed through a rapid succession of owners; first being sold "for not more than one third of what the house and alterations had cost"[5] to Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, and then to George Carpenter, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, and finally to Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford.[6]
A large map entitled "Claremont Palace", situated in what is called "Clive's room" inside the mansion, shows the mansion and its surrounding grounds; giving a detailed overview of the campus. The map likely dates back to the 1860s, when the mansion was frequently occupied by Queen Victoria (thus it having been christened "palace"). However, the exact date is still unknown. The relief in Claremont's front pediment is of Clive's coat of arms impaled with that of Maskelyne, his wife's family.
SAN DIEGO (July 12, 2020) An MH-60S Sea Hawk attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21, sits loaded with an Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) AN/ASQ-235 for use during a mine countermeasure exercise led by the Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC) as part of U.S. 3rd Fleet’s Trident Warrior exercise. Trident Warrior, in its 18th year of execution, is an annual U.S. 3rd Fleet at-sea field experiment that helps the Navy identify warfighting capability gaps and provides inventive solutions in an operational environment. (U.S. Navy photo)
Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second-highest point of the Cotswolds (after Cleeve Hill). Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 65 feet (20 metres) high.
The "Saxon" tower was the brainchild of Capability Brown and designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1798–99. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester — about 22 miles (35 km) away — and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. Indeed, the beacon could be seen clearly.
Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s. William Morris was so inspired by Broadway Tower and other ancient buildings that he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.
Today, the tower is a tourist attraction and the centre of a country park with various exhibitions open to the public at a fee, as well as a gift shop and restaurant. The place is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following the Cotswold Way from the A44 road at Fish Hill, or by a steep climb out of Broadway village.
Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.
The horrible livery aside, I was pleased with this, especially as I was not going out of my way, as I had a call in the village later in the day. The former 'Capability Brown' passes Bromham with 6E38 Colnbrook-Lindsey on the 18th of May 2015.
***EXPLORE 250 Dec 30th 2008***
***2000 Views 14th Sept 2012***
Probably my personal favourite view, this is the 'Queen Elizabeth Island' in the Lake created by Capability Brown at Blenheim, birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.
One of the features of Capability Brown's landscape is the way that certain areas serve as focal points, the island is viewed from many different locations throughout the park, and the views of it depend greatly on the viewpoint and the light at the time.
Here the island is seen towards midday on a December day that started with a frost that has now burnt off, however, it's very still as can be seen by the reflection of the island in the lake. Behind the island can be seen the tower of Woodstock Church.
Single Stroke Leica M3 (10150)
Leitz Summicron-M 50 mm DR dual range lens (11318)
The M3's rangefinder is not designed to function at ranges below 1 metre. To achieve some semblance of close-up capability, the dual range Summicron could be used. At one metre range, the focusing barrel hits a notch. This notch, which is easily visible in the above picture, can be passed by pulling out the barrel a few millimetres and revolving it past 1 metre.
Then the goggle that comes with the DR lens has to be snapped on. Only after that can the barrel be rotated further, down to a range of 50 cm.
This is not really what I'd call "macro range" yet. A 1964 Summicron I for the Leicaflex SLR can also focus down to 50 cm, without all that rigmarole. Also, I have used the DR lens with goggle for "close-up" photography quite a lot and can confirm that when approaching 50 cm, the rangefinder is anything but accurate and easy to use.
For real macro work with an M3, you'd need a Visoflex or even bellows. But then, the setup gets so bulky that it no longer is useful for outdoors work.
I might get a Visoflex anyway some day, just to satisfy my curiosity. It sounds like fun. Not because it is easy. But because it is hard.
Just for the record, lest you get the wrong impression: I am a great fan of the M3. I think it is a magnificent piece of engineering. Its very quirks make it all the more worthy of respect. While I certainly own cameras that are easier to use, I know none that is as good as the Leica M3.
Shot with a Canon EOS600D DSLR and a Leitz Macro-Elmarit-R 60
Comox Air Force Museum
In Service: 1951 to 1984 (Retired from flying 27 October 1983)
The development, production, and operation of the CF-100 represent one of Canadian aviation’s outstanding achievements. It remains the only Canadian designed and built combat aircraft to reach operational status and the Canuck played a critical role in this country's participation in the defence of North America and Europe during the first two decades of the Cold War.
The Canuck became operational in 1953 and continued flying with the RCAF until 1981. Both its role and weaponry changed through the years as some squadrons of CF-100's were based in Europe as part of NATO and the aircraft's armament evolved from machine guns to rockets and guided missiles. In its prime, the Canuck was known as a rugged, dependable aircraft. It was the first and one of the best long-range, all-weather fighters available, it served
Canada, NORAD, and NATO well.
The RCAF named the CF-100, “Canuck”, after the much earlier Curtiss JN-4 Canuck trainer of the First World War. However, the name Canuck was never really accepted for the jet aircraft and the crews more often referred to the type as the “Clunk”; for the noise the landing gear made as it retracted into its well after takeoff.
The CF-100’s good climb, excellent fire control and radar systems, twin-engine reliability and all-weather capability made the aircraft highly suitable for Canadian, NATO and NORAD air defence roles of the Korean and Cold War
eras until it was replaced by the McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo in the air defence role in 1961. It was then modified to become an electronic warfare (EW) and electronic countermeasures (ECM) trainer. The two main versions of the
CF-100 were the gun and rocket armed Mark 4s and the rocket only armed Mark 5s.
Reference: comoxairforcemuseum.ca
Image best viewed in large screen.
Thank-you for your visit, and any comments or faves are always very much appreciated! ~Sonja
Ickworth House, Horringer, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
The House was built between the years of 1795 and 1829 to the designs of the Italian Architect Mario Asprucci, his most noted work being the Villa Borghese. It was this work that Frederick Hervey, the then 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry had seen.
Asprucci’s plans were then taken up by the brothers Francis & Joseph Sandys, English architects.
The Parkland, of which there is 1,800 acres in total, was designed by Capability Brown and was Italianate in style. This style much loved by the 4th Earl.
Most of the friezes running around the rotunda were based upon John Flaxman’s illustrations of The Iliad and The Odyssey although, within the entrance portico there are some panels designed by Lady Caroline, the Earl’s Granddaughter and are based upon the Roman Olympic Games.
There are many works of art inside the house and very much well worth the visit.
One of NATO's Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) C-17 Globemasters making a rare visit to Glasgow for a fuel stop. It arrived from Pápa Air Base, Hungary, and departed to Charleston (CHS), SC.
I went for a walk around Petworth Park to see the deer during the rutting season, strange groaning and belching sounds echoed around the park. The clash of antlers could be heard for miles as the males showed off their virility to potential mates.
The fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian fallow deer as a subspecies (D. d. mesopotamica), while others treat it as an entirely different species (D. mesopotamica).
Petworth House and Park in Petworth, West Sussex, England, has been a family home for over 800 years. The estate was a royal gift from the widow of Henry I to her brother Jocelin de Louvain, who soon after married into the renowned Percy family. As the Percy stronghold was in the north, Petworth was originally only intended for occasional use.
Petworth, formerly known as Leconfield, is a major country estate on the outskirts of Petworth, itself a town created to serve the house. Described by English Heritage as "the most important residence in the County of Sussex", there was a manorial house here from 1309, but the present buildings were built for the Dukes of Somerset from the late 17th century, the park being landscaped by "Capability" Brown. The house contains a fine collection of paintings and sculptures.
The house itself is grade I listed (List Entry Number 1225989) and the park as a historic park (1000162). Several individual features in the park are also listed.
It was in the late 1500s that Petworth became a permanent home to the Percys after Elizabeth I grew suspicious of their allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots and confined the family to the south.
The 2nd Earl of Egremont commissioned Capability Brown to design and landscape the deer park. The park, one of Brownâs first commissions as an independent designer, consists of 700 acres of grassland and trees. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer in England. There is also a 12-hectare (30-acre) woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.
Brown removed the formal garden and fishponds of the 1690s and relocated 64,000 tons of soil, creating a serpentine lake. He bordered the lake with poplars, birches and willows to make the ânaturalâ view pleasing. A 1987 hurricane devastated the park, and 35,000 trees were planted to replace the losses. Gracing the 30 acres of gardens and pleasure grounds around the home are seasonal shrubs and bulbs that include lilies, primroses, and azaleas. A Doric temple and Ionic rotunda add interest in the grounds.
Petworth House is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft of which still survive.
Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Ben Harms, classical and neoclassical sculptures (including ones by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre. There is also a terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux, believed to be the only one in the world in its original 1592 state.
For the past 250 years the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family â currently Lord Egremont. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.
The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the National Trust under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum has been established in High Street, Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.
Cedrus libani, the cedar of Lebanon or Lebanese cedar (Arabic: أرز لبناني, romanized: ʾarz Lubnāniyy), is a species of tree in the genus Cedrus, a part of the pine family, native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is a large evergreen conifer that has great religious and historical significance in the cultures of the Middle East, and is referenced many times in the literature of ancient civilisations. It is the national emblem of Lebanon and is widely used as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens.
Description
Foliage
Cedrus libani can reach 40 m (130 ft) in height, with a massive monopodial columnar trunk up to 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) in diameter.[3] The trunks of old trees ordinarily fork into several large, erect branches.[4] The rough and scaly bark is dark grey to blackish brown, and is run through by deep, horizontal fissures that peel in small chips. The first-order branches are ascending in young trees; they grow to a massive size and take on a horizontal, wide-spreading disposition. Second-order branches are dense and grow in a horizontal plane. The crown is conical when young, becoming broadly tabular with age with fairly level branches; trees growing in dense forests maintain more pyramidal shapes.[citation needed]
Shoots and leaves
The shoots are dimorphic, with both long and short shoots. New shoots are pale brown, older shoots turn grey, grooved and scaly. C. libani has slightly resinous ovoid vegetative buds measuring 2 to 3 mm (0.079 to 0.118 in) long and 1.5 to 2 mm (0.059 to 0.079 in) wide enclosed by pale brown deciduous scales. The leaves are needle-like, arranged in spirals and concentrated at the proximal end of the long shoots, and in clusters of 15–35 on the short shoots; they are 5 to 35 mm (0.20 to 1.38 in) long and 1 to 1.5 mm (0.039 to 0.059 in) wide, rhombic in cross-section, and vary from light green to glaucous green with stomatal bands on all four sides.[3][5]
Cones
Cedrus libani produces cones beginning at around the age of 40. Its cones are borne in autumn, the male cones appear in early September and the female ones in late September.[6][5] Male cones occur at the ends of the short shoots; they are solitary and erect about 4 to 5 cm (1.6 to 2.0 in) long and mature from a pale green to a pale brown color. The female seed cones also grow at the terminal ends of short shoots. The young seed cones are resinous, sessile, and pale green; they require 17 to 18 months after pollination to mature. The mature, woody cones are 8 to 12 cm (3.1 to 4.7 in) long and 3 to 6 cm (1.2 to 2.4 in) wide; they are scaly, resinous, ovoid or barrel-shaped, and gray-brown in color. Mature cones open from top to bottom, they disintegrate and lose their seed scales, releasing the seeds until only the cone rachis remains attached to the branches.[4][5][6][7]
The seed scales are thin, broad, and coriaceous, measuring 3.5 to 4 cm (1.4 to 1.6 in) long and 3 to 3.5 cm (1.2 to 1.4 in) wide. The seeds are ovoid, 10 to 14 mm (0.39 to 0.55 in) long and 4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in) wide, attached to a light brown wedge-shaped wing that is 20 to 30 mm (0.79 to 1.18 in) long and 15 to 18 mm (0.59 to 0.71 in) wide.[7] C. libani grows rapidly until the age of 45 to 50 years; growth becomes extremely slow after the age of 70. Wikipedia
Claremont, also known historically as 'Clermont', is an 18th-century Palladian mansion less than a mile south of the centre of Esher in Surrey, England. The buildings are now occupied by Claremont Fan Court School, and its landscaped gardens are owned and managed by the National Trust. Claremont House is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Claremont estate
The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir John Vanbrugh, the Restoration playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, for his own use. This "very small box", as he described it, stood on the level ground in front of the present mansion. At the same time, he built the stables and the walled gardens, also probably White Cottage, which is now the Sixth Form Centre of Claremont Fan Court School.
In 1714, he sold the house to the wealthy Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, Earl of Clare, who later became Duke of Newcastle and served twice as Prime Minister. The earl commissioned Vanbrugh to add two great wings to the house and to build a fortress-like turret on an adjoining knoll. From this so-called "prospect-house", or belvedere, he and his guests could admire the views of the Surrey countryside as they took refreshments and played hazard, a popular dice game.
In the clear eighteenth-century air it was apparently possible to see Windsor Castle and St Paul's Cathedral. The Earl of Clare named his country seat Clare-mount, later contracted to Claremont. The two lodges at the Copsem Lane entrance were added at this time.
Landscape garden
Main article: Claremont Landscape Garden
Claremont landscape garden is one of the earliest surviving gardens of its kind of landscape design, the English Landscape Garden — still featuring its original 18th century layout. The extensive landscaped grounds of Claremont represents the work of some of the best known landscape gardeners, Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent (with Thomas Greening) and Sir John Vanbrugh.[2]
Work on the gardens began around 1715 and, by 1727, they were described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds, overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre.
A feature in the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Vanbrugh for the Duke of Newcastle. The tower is unusual in that, what appear to be windows, are actually bricks painted black and white. It is now owned by Claremont Fan Court School, which is situated alongside the gardens.
In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation. The garden is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[3]
Capability Brown's mansion, built for Lord Clive of India
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768 and, in 1769, his widow sold the estate to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, founder of Britain's Indian Empire. Although the great house was then little more than fifty years old, it was aesthetically and politically out of fashion. Lord Clive decided to demolish the house and commissioned Capability Brown to build the present Palladian mansion on higher and dryer ground. Brown, more accomplished as a landscape designer than an architect, took on his future son-in-law Henry Holland as a junior partner owing to the scale of the project. John Soane (later Sir John Soane) was employed in Holland's office at this time and worked on the project as a draftsman and junior designer.[4] Holland's interiors for Claremont owe much to the contemporary work of Robert Adam.
Lord Clive, by now fabulously rich Nabob, is reputed to have spent over £100,000 on rebuilding the house and the complete remodelling of the celebrated pleasure ground. However, Lord Clive ended up never living at the property, as he died in 1774—the year that the house was completed. The estate then passed through a rapid succession of owners; first being sold "for not more than one third of what the house and alterations had cost"[5] to Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, and then to George Carpenter, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, and finally to Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford.[citation needed]
A large map entitled "Claremont Palace", situated in what is called "Clive's room" inside the mansion, shows the mansion and its surrounding grounds; giving a detailed overview of the campus. The map likely dates back to the 1860s, when the mansion was frequently occupied by Queen Victoria (thus it having been christened "palace"). However, the exact date is still unknown. The relief in Claremont's front pediment is of Clive's coat of arms impaled with that of Maskelyne, his wife's family.
Royal residence
In 1816, Claremont was bought by the British Nation through an Act of Parliament as a wedding present for George IV's daughter Princess Charlotte and her husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. At that time, the estate was valued to Parliament at £60,000: "Mr Huskisson stated that it had been agreed to purchase the house and demesnes of Clermont... The valuation of the farms, farm-houses, and park, including 350 acres of land, was 36,000/; the mansion, 19,000/; and the furniture, 6,000/; making together 60,000/. The mansion, which is in good repair, could not be built now for less than 91,000/."[6] To the nation's great sorrow, however, Princess Charlotte, who was second in line to the throne, was, after two miscarriages, to die there after giving birth to a stillborn son in November the following year. This sorrow is expressed in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Wikisource-logo.svg Lines on the Mausoleum of the Princess Charlotte, at Claremont., published in Forget Me Not, 1824. Although Leopold retained ownership of Claremont until his death in 1865, he left the house in 1831 when he became the first King of the Belgians.
Mausoleum of Princess Charlotte
Claremont House, ca. 1860
Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Claremont—both as a child and later as an adult—when Leopold, her doting uncle, lent her the house. She, in turn, lent the house to the exiled French King and Queen, Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amelie (the parents-in-law of Leopold I of Belgium), after the Revolutions of 1848. The exiled King died at Claremont in 1850.
In 1857, Offenbach and his Bouffes company performed three of his opéras bouffes there for Marie Amelie and her sons during an eight-week tour of England.[7]
In 1870, Queen Victoria commissioned Francis John Williamson to sculpt a marble memorial to Charlotte and Leopold which was erected inside the house.[8][9] (The memorial was subsequently moved to St George's Church, Esher.)[9]
Victoria bought Claremont for her fourth, and youngest, son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, when he married Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1882. The Duke and Duchess of Albany had two children—Alice and Charles. Charles, who had been born at Claremont in 1884, inherited the title and position of Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha upon the death of his uncle, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1900. He moved to the duchy in Germany to fulfill the position, becoming a German citizen, and renouncing his claim in the British succession.
Claremont should have passed to Charles upon his mother's death in 1922, but because he served as a German general in the First World War, the British government disallowed the inheritance. Claremont was accordingly confiscated and sold by the Public Trustee to shipping magnate Sir William Corry, director of the Cunard Line. Two years after Sir William's death, in 1926, it was bought by Eugen Spier, a wealthy German financier.
In 1930, Claremont stood empty and was marked for demolition when it was bought, together with the Belvedere, the stables, and 30 acres (120,000 m2) of parkland, by the Governors of a south London school, later renamed Claremont School and, since 1978, has been known as Claremont Fan Court School.
The National Trust
The National Trust acquired 50 acres (0.20 km2) of the Claremont estate in 1949. In 1975, with a grant from the Slater Foundation, it set about restoring the eighteenth-century landscape garden. Now, the Claremont Landscape Garden displays the successive contributions of the great landscape gardeners who worked on it: Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Capability Brown.
In 1996, the school celebrated the National Trust's centenary by opening a feature of the grounds which had not previously been accessible to the garden's visitors: the 281-year-old Belvedere Tower. Wikipedia
Stowe House, Buckingham. A grade I listed country house, owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust and leased to a school. The house was designed originally by William Cleare, with later works by Vanburgh, William Kent, Robert Adam, and Thomas Pitt, starting in 1677 and completed by 1779.
The Gardens were designed by Charles Bridgeman, William Kent and Capability Brown over a period from 1711 to 1751. They are now in the care of the National Trust.
Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England - Stowe House and Landscape Gardens
September 2021
You can tell that this is an adult Sharpie by looking at the red color of its eyes.
According to "informed sources" on the internet, during its first year, a Sharpie will have yellow eyes. During its second year, a Sharpie will likely have orange eyes. During its third and following years, a Sharpie will have red eyes.
Different sources on the internet say that 80% of fledgling Sharpies will not live till the end of their first year. However, once they have lived to their second year, estimates are that the average lifetimes of the remaining 20% will either be till they are three years old or till they are eleven years old. Quite a large variation in the estimated lifespans, no?
Just goes to show you that the internet has a lot of conflicting information. However, I'm voting for the eleven year average lifespan, since I really enjoy watching Sharpies hunting and I also enjoy their mating rituals (which I've only seen once before).
Oh, and a couple of other internet sources state that the color of their eyes helps prospective mates to judge the capability of a Sharpie to reproduce, as they apparently become capable of reproducing during their second year and thereafter, but apparently not during their first year (during which time their eyes are still yellow - of course).
Long Live the Sharpies!!!
SAC 01, a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III operated by NATO's Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) Heavy Airlift Wing, arriving at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, to participate in the Royal International Air Tattoo 2022 (RIAT 2022). Although operated by NATO, the aircraft is based at Pápa Air Base in Hungary, and wears Hungarian Air Force insignia.
This, and other images, available for sale by clicking the link
Stock photography by Marco McGinty at Alamy
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This photograph and all those within my photostream are protected by copyright. They may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written permission.
Claremont, also known historically as 'Clermont', is an 18th-century Palladian mansion less than a mile south of the centre of Esher in Surrey, England. The buildings are now occupied by Claremont Fan Court School, and its landscaped gardens are owned and managed by the National Trust. Claremont House is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Claremont estate
The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir John Vanbrugh, the Restoration playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, for his own use. This "very small box", as he described it, stood on the level ground in front of the present mansion. At the same time, he built the stables and the walled gardens, also probably White Cottage, which is now the Sixth Form Centre of Claremont Fan Court School.
In 1714, he sold the house to the wealthy Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, Earl of Clare, who later became Duke of Newcastle and served twice as Prime Minister. The earl commissioned Vanbrugh to add two great wings to the house and to build a fortress-like turret on an adjoining knoll. From this so-called "prospect-house", or belvedere, he and his guests could admire the views of the Surrey countryside as they took refreshments and played hazard, a popular dice game.
In the clear eighteenth-century air it was apparently possible to see Windsor Castle and St Paul's Cathedral. The Earl of Clare named his country seat Clare-mount, later contracted to Claremont. The two lodges at the Copsem Lane entrance were added at this time.
Landscape garden
Main article: Claremont Landscape Garden
Claremont landscape garden is one of the earliest surviving gardens of its kind of landscape design, the English Landscape Garden — still featuring its original 18th century layout. The extensive landscaped grounds of Claremont represents the work of some of the best known landscape gardeners, Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent (with Thomas Greening) and Sir John Vanbrugh.[2]
Work on the gardens began around 1715 and, by 1727, they were described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds, overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre.
A feature in the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Vanbrugh for the Duke of Newcastle. The tower is unusual in that, what appear to be windows, are actually bricks painted black and white. It is now owned by Claremont Fan Court School, which is situated alongside the gardens.
In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation. The garden is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[3]
Capability Brown's mansion, built for Lord Clive of India
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768 and, in 1769, his widow sold the estate to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, founder of Britain's Indian Empire. Although the great house was then little more than fifty years old, it was aesthetically and politically out of fashion. Lord Clive decided to demolish the house and commissioned Capability Brown to build the present Palladian mansion on higher and dryer ground. Brown, more accomplished as a landscape designer than an architect, took on his future son-in-law Henry Holland as a junior partner owing to the scale of the project. John Soane (later Sir John Soane) was employed in Holland's office at this time and worked on the project as a draftsman and junior designer.[4] Holland's interiors for Claremont owe much to the contemporary work of Robert Adam.
Lord Clive, by now fabulously rich Nabob, is reputed to have spent over £100,000 on rebuilding the house and the complete remodelling of the celebrated pleasure ground. However, Lord Clive ended up never living at the property, as he died in 1774—the year that the house was completed. The estate then passed through a rapid succession of owners; first being sold "for not more than one third of what the house and alterations had cost"[5] to Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, and then to George Carpenter, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, and finally to Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford.[citation needed]
A large map entitled "Claremont Palace", situated in what is called "Clive's room" inside the mansion, shows the mansion and its surrounding grounds; giving a detailed overview of the campus. The map likely dates back to the 1860s, when the mansion was frequently occupied by Queen Victoria (thus it having been christened "palace"). However, the exact date is still unknown. The relief in Claremont's front pediment is of Clive's coat of arms impaled with that of Maskelyne, his wife's family.
Royal residence
In 1816, Claremont was bought by the British Nation through an Act of Parliament as a wedding present for George IV's daughter Princess Charlotte and her husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. At that time, the estate was valued to Parliament at £60,000: "Mr Huskisson stated that it had been agreed to purchase the house and demesnes of Clermont... The valuation of the farms, farm-houses, and park, including 350 acres of land, was 36,000/; the mansion, 19,000/; and the furniture, 6,000/; making together 60,000/. The mansion, which is in good repair, could not be built now for less than 91,000/."[6] To the nation's great sorrow, however, Princess Charlotte, who was second in line to the throne, was, after two miscarriages, to die there after giving birth to a stillborn son in November the following year. This sorrow is expressed in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Wikisource-logo.svg Lines on the Mausoleum of the Princess Charlotte, at Claremont., published in Forget Me Not, 1824. Although Leopold retained ownership of Claremont until his death in 1865, he left the house in 1831 when he became the first King of the Belgians.
Mausoleum of Princess Charlotte
Claremont House, ca. 1860
Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Claremont—both as a child and later as an adult—when Leopold, her doting uncle, lent her the house. She, in turn, lent the house to the exiled French King and Queen, Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amelie (the parents-in-law of Leopold I of Belgium), after the Revolutions of 1848. The exiled King died at Claremont in 1850.
In 1857, Offenbach and his Bouffes company performed three of his opéras bouffes there for Marie Amelie and her sons during an eight-week tour of England.[7]
In 1870, Queen Victoria commissioned Francis John Williamson to sculpt a marble memorial to Charlotte and Leopold which was erected inside the house.[8][9] (The memorial was subsequently moved to St George's Church, Esher.)[9]
Victoria bought Claremont for her fourth, and youngest, son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, when he married Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1882. The Duke and Duchess of Albany had two children—Alice and Charles. Charles, who had been born at Claremont in 1884, inherited the title and position of Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha upon the death of his uncle, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1900. He moved to the duchy in Germany to fulfill the position, becoming a German citizen, and renouncing his claim in the British succession.
Claremont should have passed to Charles upon his mother's death in 1922, but because he served as a German general in the First World War, the British government disallowed the inheritance. Claremont was accordingly confiscated and sold by the Public Trustee to shipping magnate Sir William Corry, director of the Cunard Line. Two years after Sir William's death, in 1926, it was bought by Eugen Spier, a wealthy German financier.
In 1930, Claremont stood empty and was marked for demolition when it was bought, together with the Belvedere, the stables, and 30 acres (120,000 m2) of parkland, by the Governors of a south London school, later renamed Claremont School and, since 1978, has been known as Claremont Fan Court School.
The National Trust
The National Trust acquired 50 acres (0.20 km2) of the Claremont estate in 1949. In 1975, with a grant from the Slater Foundation, it set about restoring the eighteenth-century landscape garden. Now, the Claremont Landscape Garden displays the successive contributions of the great landscape gardeners who worked on it: Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Capability Brown.
In 1996, the school celebrated the National Trust's centenary by opening a feature of the grounds which had not previously been accessible to the garden's visitors: the 281-year-old Belvedere Tower. Wikipedia
Plymouth 22/4/03
New as D1779 to 41A (TI) 10/64 & renumbered 47184 2/74.
Renumbered 47585 1/81 & 47757 3/94.
Withdrawn 2/04 & cut.
British Railways Class 56 56074 'Kellingley Colliery' with unbranded Loadhaul Livery and Class 60 60002 'Capability Brown' behind at Knottingley Depot on the 29th August 1994.
Whether Abus have the capability of removing the roof or not, the concept of it is still there, and for any future owners it could be a selling point. I feel it fits nicely into their fleet, and it luckily survived the November 5th arson attack.
Abus' SN04 CPE is seen on Keynsham High Street, while operating a 349 from Bristol Bus Station. The 349 is a half hourly service, and is operated Monday to Friday on behalf of First West of England. SN04CPE was new in June 2004 to Lothian (now under the Transport for Edinburgh brand), as their 999 for demonstration purposes. When it left Lothian Buses, it was converted to an open top vehicle, and given horrible plastic seats, for use in London. It was then transferred away from London to Southend. Abus then acquired it, and have kept the roof on it, as it is a convertable open top. They also gave it bench seats with a red moquette. Upstairs it has leather bench seats, meaning that they can remove the roof and use it as an open top without having to change the seats. It is a Scania N94UD/East Lancs OmniDekka.
This tree is one of three trees planted by Capability Brown in the 1770's in the grounds of Howsham Hall.
Beautiful fallow deer, photographed in Petworth Park during the rutting season.
The fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian fallow deer as a subspecies (D. d. mesopotamica), while others treat it as an entirely different species (D. mesopotamica).
Petworth House and Park in Petworth, West Sussex, England, has been a family home for over 800 years. The estate was a royal gift from the widow of Henry I to her brother Jocelin de Louvain, who soon after married into the renowned Percy family. As the Percy stronghold was in the north, Petworth was originally only intended for occasional use.
Petworth, formerly known as Leconfield, is a major country estate on the outskirts of Petworth, itself a town created to serve the house. Described by English Heritage as "the most important residence in the County of Sussex", there was a manorial house here from 1309, but the present buildings were built for the Dukes of Somerset from the late 17th century, the park being landscaped by "Capability" Brown. The house contains a fine collection of paintings and sculptures.
The house itself is grade I listed (List Entry Number 1225989) and the park as a historic park (1000162). Several individual features in the park are also listed.
It was in the late 1500s that Petworth became a permanent home to the Percys after Elizabeth I grew suspicious of their allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots and confined the family to the south.
The 2nd Earl of Egremont commissioned Capability Brown to design and landscape the deer park. The park, one of Brownâs first commissions as an independent designer, consists of 700 acres of grassland and trees. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer in England. There is also a 12-hectare (30-acre) woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.
Brown removed the formal garden and fishponds of the 1690âs and relocated 64,000 tons of soil, creating a serpentine lake. He bordered the lake with poplars, birches and willows to make the ânaturalâ view pleasing. A 1987 hurricane devastated the park, and 35,000 trees were planted to replace the losses. Gracing the 30 acres of gardens and pleasure grounds around the home are seasonal shrubs and bulbs that include lilies, primroses, and azaleas. A Doric temple and Ionic rotunda add interest in the grounds.
Petworth House is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft of which still survive.
Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Ben Harms, classical and neoclassical sculptures (including ones by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre. There is also a terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux, believed to be the only one in the world in its original 1592 state.
For the past 250 years the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family â currently Lord Egremont. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.
The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the National Trust under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum has been established in High Street, Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.
Claremont, also known historically as 'Clermont', is an 18th-century Palladian mansion less than a mile south of the centre of Esher in Surrey, England. The buildings are now occupied by Claremont Fan Court School, and its landscaped gardens are owned and managed by the National Trust. Claremont House is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Claremont estate
The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir John Vanbrugh, the Restoration playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, for his own use. This "very small box", as he described it, stood on the level ground in front of the present mansion. At the same time, he built the stables and the walled gardens, also probably White Cottage, which is now the Sixth Form Centre of Claremont Fan Court School.
In 1714, he sold the house to the wealthy Whig politician Thomas Pelham-Holles, Earl of Clare, who later became Duke of Newcastle and served twice as Prime Minister. The earl commissioned Vanbrugh to add two great wings to the house and to build a fortress-like turret on an adjoining knoll. From this so-called "prospect-house", or belvedere, he and his guests could admire the views of the Surrey countryside as they took refreshments and played hazard, a popular dice game.
In the clear eighteenth-century air it was apparently possible to see Windsor Castle and St Paul's Cathedral. The Earl of Clare named his country seat Clare-mount, later contracted to Claremont. The two lodges at the Copsem Lane entrance were added at this time.
Landscape garden
Main article: Claremont Landscape Garden
Claremont landscape garden is one of the earliest surviving gardens of its kind of landscape design, the English Landscape Garden — still featuring its original 18th century layout. The extensive landscaped grounds of Claremont represents the work of some of the best known landscape gardeners, Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown, William Kent (with Thomas Greening) and Sir John Vanbrugh.[2]
Work on the gardens began around 1715 and, by 1727, they were described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds, overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre.
A feature in the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Vanbrugh for the Duke of Newcastle. The tower is unusual in that, what appear to be windows, are actually bricks painted black and white. It is now owned by Claremont Fan Court School, which is situated alongside the gardens.
In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation. The garden is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[3]
Capability Brown's mansion, built for Lord Clive of India
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768 and, in 1769, his widow sold the estate to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, founder of Britain's Indian Empire. Although the great house was then little more than fifty years old, it was aesthetically and politically out of fashion. Lord Clive decided to demolish the house and commissioned Capability Brown to build the present Palladian mansion on higher and dryer ground. Brown, more accomplished as a landscape designer than an architect, took on his future son-in-law Henry Holland as a junior partner owing to the scale of the project. John Soane (later Sir John Soane) was employed in Holland's office at this time and worked on the project as a draftsman and junior designer.[4] Holland's interiors for Claremont owe much to the contemporary work of Robert Adam.
Lord Clive, by now fabulously rich Nabob, is reputed to have spent over £100,000 on rebuilding the house and the complete remodelling of the celebrated pleasure ground. However, Lord Clive ended up never living at the property, as he died in 1774—the year that the house was completed. The estate then passed through a rapid succession of owners; first being sold "for not more than one third of what the house and alterations had cost"[5] to Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, and then to George Carpenter, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, and finally to Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford.[citation needed]
A large map entitled "Claremont Palace", situated in what is called "Clive's room" inside the mansion, shows the mansion and its surrounding grounds; giving a detailed overview of the campus. The map likely dates back to the 1860s, when the mansion was frequently occupied by Queen Victoria (thus it having been christened "palace"). However, the exact date is still unknown. The relief in Claremont's front pediment is of Clive's coat of arms impaled with that of Maskelyne, his wife's family.
Royal residence
In 1816, Claremont was bought by the British Nation through an Act of Parliament as a wedding present for George IV's daughter Princess Charlotte and her husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. At that time, the estate was valued to Parliament at £60,000: "Mr Huskisson stated that it had been agreed to purchase the house and demesnes of Clermont... The valuation of the farms, farm-houses, and park, including 350 acres of land, was 36,000/; the mansion, 19,000/; and the furniture, 6,000/; making together 60,000/. The mansion, which is in good repair, could not be built now for less than 91,000/."[6] To the nation's great sorrow, however, Princess Charlotte, who was second in line to the throne, was, after two miscarriages, to die there after giving birth to a stillborn son in November the following year. This sorrow is expressed in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem Wikisource-logo.svg Lines on the Mausoleum of the Princess Charlotte, at Claremont., published in Forget Me Not, 1824. Although Leopold retained ownership of Claremont until his death in 1865, he left the house in 1831 when he became the first King of the Belgians.
Mausoleum of Princess Charlotte
Claremont House, ca. 1860
Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Claremont—both as a child and later as an adult—when Leopold, her doting uncle, lent her the house. She, in turn, lent the house to the exiled French King and Queen, Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amelie (the parents-in-law of Leopold I of Belgium), after the Revolutions of 1848. The exiled King died at Claremont in 1850.
In 1857, Offenbach and his Bouffes company performed three of his opéras bouffes there for Marie Amelie and her sons during an eight-week tour of England.[7]
In 1870, Queen Victoria commissioned Francis John Williamson to sculpt a marble memorial to Charlotte and Leopold which was erected inside the house.[8][9] (The memorial was subsequently moved to St George's Church, Esher.)[9]
Victoria bought Claremont for her fourth, and youngest, son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, when he married Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1882. The Duke and Duchess of Albany had two children—Alice and Charles. Charles, who had been born at Claremont in 1884, inherited the title and position of Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha upon the death of his uncle, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1900. He moved to the duchy in Germany to fulfill the position, becoming a German citizen, and renouncing his claim in the British succession.
Claremont should have passed to Charles upon his mother's death in 1922, but because he served as a German general in the First World War, the British government disallowed the inheritance. Claremont was accordingly confiscated and sold by the Public Trustee to shipping magnate Sir William Corry, director of the Cunard Line. Two years after Sir William's death, in 1926, it was bought by Eugen Spier, a wealthy German financier.
In 1930, Claremont stood empty and was marked for demolition when it was bought, together with the Belvedere, the stables, and 30 acres (120,000 m2) of parkland, by the Governors of a south London school, later renamed Claremont School and, since 1978, has been known as Claremont Fan Court School.
The National Trust
The National Trust acquired 50 acres (0.20 km2) of the Claremont estate in 1949. In 1975, with a grant from the Slater Foundation, it set about restoring the eighteenth-century landscape garden. Now, the Claremont Landscape Garden displays the successive contributions of the great landscape gardeners who worked on it: Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Capability Brown.
In 1996, the school celebrated the National Trust's centenary by opening a feature of the grounds which had not previously been accessible to the garden's visitors: the 281-year-old Belvedere Tower. Wikipedia
U.S. soldiers with Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion (General Support), 104th Aviation Brigade respond to a nine-line medevac request during a training exercise at Fort Drum, NY, June 10, 2018. 2-104th GSAB soldiers participated in an Exportable Combat Training Capability rotation in support of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. (U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Matthew Groff) www.dvidshub.net
Day 55 - Underground Corporation - Heavy Hardsuit with Flight Capability - This unit is sent in when other hardsuit units can't get the job done. Armed with a pulse-laser coilgun, an antique sword (which still contains residue from the latest victims), and a shoulder-mounted minigun, this unit is ready for anything thrown at him. Furthermore, he is equipped with a flight system that allows for quicker maneuverability and short bursts of flight (capable of distances up to 2 mile for each burst - recharge takes approximately 15 minutes).
This unit is a continuance of my experimentation with Hardsuit design - I wanted to incorporate minifgure armor onto the figure, and it required some additional tinkering to get it to work. While he's not my favorite unit I have made, I am pleased with how he turned out.
Broadway Tower is a folly on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second-highest point of the Cotswolds (after Cleeve Hill). Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 65 feet (20 metres) high.
The "Saxon" tower was the brainchild of Capability Brown and designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1798–99. The tower was built on a "beacon" hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered whether a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester — about 22 miles (35 km) away — and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. Indeed, the beacon could be seen clearly.
Over the years, the tower was home to the printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps, and served as a country retreat for artists including William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who rented it together in the 1880s. William Morris was so inspired by Broadway Tower and other ancient buildings that he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877.
Today, the tower is a tourist attraction and the centre of a country park with various exhibitions open to the public at a fee, as well as a gift shop and restaurant. The place is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following the Cotswold Way from the A44 road at Fish Hill, or by a steep climb out of Broadway village.
Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of an A.W.38 Whitley bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943.
Don't really know where that came from, it's been more than 20 years since locomotive 60002 carried the name Capability Brown.
Huh, matters not...
Really can't believe my luck here. I'm just hours away from stepping on a plane to far, far away. And the orange team chuck a Tugly down the coast. And, if rights had been rights, I'd have been away for 5 days now. Yep. Lucky.
60002 has now been detached from the New Track Construction Train, which will propel back under power from 56113. Meanwhile, 60002 sits and takes in some very unfamiliar sights.
Mostyn, 21 January 2017.
A 1:350 scale model of the JMSDF (Japanese Navy) ship JDS Asagiri (DD-151), with an embarked SH-60J ASW helicopter. The Asagiri is the lead ship of an 8-ship class that was introduced in 1986. When the JMSDF was first formed, shortly after the conclusion of World War II, it was very heavily focused on anti-submarine warfare. The USN felt that the JMSDF could bolster its presence in the Pacific against the perceived Soviet submarine threat. Since then, however, the JMSDF's ships have evolved in very capable all-purpose platforms. While the Asagiri-class ships retain a significant ASW capability, with an 8-cell ASROC launcher and a pair of triple 324 mm torpedo tubes, it also adds ASuW and AAW capabilities, with 8 Harpoon missiles, a pair of Plalanx CIWSs, and a Sea Sparrow launcher.
This build is my entry into a Shipbuilding Challenge with fellow builder Locutus666. The challenge was to create a digital Lego model of the Asagiri at 1:350 scale, using only parts that are available IRL.
An album of all of the pictures of my model can be found here. Locutus's album can be found here. For the sake of comparison, a website with a good number of pictures of the real ship can be found here.
We would appreciate if visitors would take the time to compare and critique our builds. Based on how this challenge goes, we may be staging more of them in the future.
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought F4U-1D Corsair:
By V-J Day, September 2, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11:1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft. The aircraft's distinctive inverted gull-wing design allowed ground clearance for the huge, three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller, which spanned more than 4 meters (13 feet). The Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine and Hydromatic propeller was the largest and one of the most powerful engine-propeller combinations ever flown on a fighter aircraft.
Charles Lindbergh flew bombing missions in a Corsair with Marine Air Group 31 against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific in 1944. This airplane is painted in the colors and markings of the Corsair Sun Setter, a Marine close-support fighter assigned to the USS Essex in July 1944.
Transferred from the United States Navy.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1940
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 460 x 1020cm, 4037kg, 1250cm (15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 5 9/16in., 8900lb., 41ft 1/8in.)
Materials:
All metal with fabric-covered wings behind the main spar.
Physical Description:
R-2800 radial air-cooled engine with 1,850 horsepower, turned a three-blade Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller with solid aluminum blades spanning 13 feet 1 inch; wing bent gull-shaped on both sides of the fuselage.
Long Description:
On February 1, 1938, the United States Navy Bureau of Aeronautics requested proposals from American aircraft manufacturers for a new carrier-based fighter airplane. During April, the Vought Aircraft Corporation responded with two designs and one of them, powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine, won the competition in June. Less than a year later, Vought test pilot Lyman A. Bullard, Jr., first flew the Vought XF4U-1 prototype on May 29, 1940. At that time, the largest engine driving the biggest propeller ever flown on a fighter aircraft propelled Bullard on this test flight. The R-2800 radial air-cooled engine developed 1,850 horsepower and it turned a three-blade Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller with solid aluminum blades spanning 13 feet 1 inch.
The airplane Bullard flew also had another striking feature, a wing bent gull-shaped on both sides of the fuselage. This arrangement gave additional ground clearance for the propeller and reduced drag at the wing-to-fuselage joint. Ironically for a 644-kph (400 mph) airplane, Vought covered the wing with fabric behind the main spar, a practice the company also followed on the OS2U Kingfisher (see NASM collection).
When naval air strategists had crafted the requirements for the new fighter, the need for speed had overridden all other performance goals. With this in mind, the Bureau of Aeronautics selected the most powerful air-cooled engine available, the R-2800. Vought assembled a team, lead by chief designer Rex Biesel, to design the best airframe around this powerful engine. The group included project engineer Frank Albright, aerodynamics engineer Paul Baker, and propulsion engineer James Shoemaker. Biesel and his team succeeded in building a very fast fighter but when they redesigned the prototype for production, they were forced to make an unfortunate compromise.
The Navy requested heavier armament for production Corsairs and Biesel redesigned each outboard folding wing panel to carry three .50 caliber machine guns. These guns displaced fuel tanks installed in each wing leading edge. To replace this lost capacity, an 897-liter (237 gal) fuselage tank was installed between the cockpit and the engine. To maintain the speedy and narrow fuselage profile, Biesel could not stack the cockpit on top of the tank, so he moved it nearly three feet aft. Now the wing completely blocked the pilot's line of sight during the most critical stages of landing. The early Corsair also had a vicious stall, powerful torque and propeller effects at slow speed, a short tail wheel strut, main gear struts that often bounced the airplane at touchdown, and cowl flap actuators that leaked oil onto the windshield. These difficulties, combined with the lack of cockpit visibility, made the airplane nearly impossible to land on the tiny deck of an aircraft carrier. Navy pilots soon nicknamed the F4U the 'ensign eliminator' for its tendency to kill these inexperienced aviators. The Navy refused to clear the F4U for carrier operations until late in 1944, more than seven years after the project started.
This flaw did not deter the Navy from accepting Corsairs because Navy and Marine pilots sorely needed an improved fighter to replace the Grumman F4F Wildcat (see NASM collection). By New Year's Eve, 1942, the service owned 178 F4U-1 airplanes. Early in 1943, the Navy decided to divert all Corsairs to land-based United States Marine Corps squadrons and fill Navy carrier-based units with the Grumman F6F Hellcat (see NASM collection). At its best speed of 612 kph (380 mph) at 6,992 m (23,000 ft), the Hellcat was about 24 kph (15 mph) slower than the Corsair but it was a joy to fly aboard the carrier. The F6F filled in splendidly until improvements to the F4U qualified it for carrier operations. Meanwhile, the Marines on Guadalcanal took their Corsairs into combat and engaged the enemy for the first time on February 14, 1943, six months before Hellcat pilots on that battle-scared island first encountered enemy aircraft.
The F4U had an immediate impact on the Pacific air war. Pilots could use the Corsair's speed and firepower to engage the more maneuverable Japanese airplanes only when the advantage favored the Americans. Unprotected by armor or self-sealing fuel tanks, no Japanese fighter or bomber could withstand for more than a few seconds the concentrated volley from the six .50 caliber machine guns carried by a Corsair. Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington assumed command of Marine Corsair squadron VMF-214, nicknamed the 'Black Sheep' squadron, on September 7, 1943. During less than 5 months of action, Boyington received credit for downing 28 enemy aircraft. Enemy aircraft shot him down on January 3, 1944, but he survived the war in a Japanese prison camp.
In May and June 1944, Charles A. Lindbergh flew Corsair missions with Marine pilots at Green Island and Emirau. On September 3, 1944, Lindbergh demonstrated the F4U's bomb hauling capacity by flying a Corsair from Marine Air Group 31 carrying three bombs each weighing 450 kg (1,000 lb). He dropped this load on enemy positions at Wotje Atoll. On the September 8, Lindbergh dropped the first 900-kg (2,000 lb) bomb during an attack on the atoll. For the finale five days later, the Atlantic flyer delivered a 900-kg (2,000 lb) bomb and two 450-kg (1,000 lb) bombs. Lindbergh went ahead and flew these missions after the commander of MAG-31 informed him that if he was forced down and captured, the Japanese would almost certainly execute him.
As of V-J Day, September 2, 1945, the Navy credited Corsair pilots with destroying 2,140 enemy aircraft in aerial combat. The Navy and Marines lost 189 F4Us in combat and 1,435 Corsairs in non-combat accidents. Beginning on February 13, 1942, Marine and Navy pilots flew 64,051 operational sorties, 54,470 from runways and 9,581 from carrier decks. During the war, the British Royal Navy accepted 2,012 Corsairs and the Royal New Zealand Air Force accepted 364. The demand was so great that the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation and the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation also produced the F4U.
Corsairs returned to Navy carrier decks and Marine airfields during the Korean War. On September 10, 1952, Captain Jesse Folmar of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-312 destroyed a MiG-15 in aerial combat over the west coast of Korea. However, F4U pilots did not have many air-to-air encounters over Korea. Their primary mission was to support Allied ground units along the battlefront.
After the World War II, civilian pilots adapted the speedy bent-wing bird from Vought to fly in competitive air races. They preferred modified versions of the F2G-1 and -2 originally built by Goodyear. Corsairs won the prestigious Thompson Trophy twice. In 1952, Vought manufactured 94 F4U-7s for the French Navy, and these aircraft saw action over Indochina but this order marked the end of Corsair production. In production longer than any other U.S. fighter to see service in World War II, Vought, Goodyear, and Brewster built a total of 12,582 F4Us.
The United States Navy donated an F4U-1D to the National Air and Space Museum in September 1960. Vought delivered this Corsair, Bureau of Aeronautics serial number 50375, to the Navy on April 26, 1944. By October, pilots of VF-10 were flying it but in November, the airplane was transferred to VF-89 at Naval Air Station Atlantic City. It remained there as the squadron moved to NAS Oceana and NAS Norfolk. During February 1945, the Navy withdrew the airplane from active service and transferred it to a pool of surplus aircraft stored at Quantico, Virginia. In 1980, NASM craftsmen restored the F4U-1D in the colors and markings of a Corsair named "Sun Setter," a fighter assigned to Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-114 when that unit served aboard the "USS Essex" in July 1944.
• • •
Quoting from Wikipedia | Vought F4U Corsair:
The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-built aircraft F3A. From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were manufactured by Vought, in 16 separate models, in the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–1953).
The Corsair served in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, Fleet Air Arm and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, as well as the French Navy Aeronavale and other, smaller, air forces until the 1960s. It quickly became the most capable carrier-based fighter-bomber of World War II. Some Japanese pilots regarded it as the most formidable American fighter of World War II, and the U.S. Navy counted an 11:1 kill ratio with the F4U Corsair.
F4U-1D (Corsair Mk IV): Built in parallel with the F4U-1C, but was introduced in April 1944. It had the new -8W water-injection engine. This change gave the aircraft up to 250 hp (190 kW) more power, which, in turn, increased performance. Speed, for example, was boosted from 417 miles per hour (671 km/h) to 425 miles per hour (684 km/h). Because of the U.S. Navy's need for fighter-bombers, it had a payload of rockets double the -1A's, as well as twin-rack plumbing for an additional belly drop tank. Such modifications necessitated the need for rocket tabs (attached to fully metal-plated underwing surfaces) and bomb pylons to be bolted on the fighter, however, causing extra drag. Additionally, the role of fighter-bombing was a new task for the Corsair and the wing fuel cells proved too vulnerable and were removed.[] The extra fuel carried by the two drop tanks would still allow the aircraft to fly relatively long missions despite the heavy, un-aerodynamic load. The regular armament of six machine guns were implemented as well. The canopies of most -1Ds had their struts removed along with their metal caps, which were used — at one point — as a measure to prevent the canopies' glass from cracking as they moved along the fuselage spines of the fighters.[] Also, the clear-view style "Malcolm Hood" canopy used initially on Supermarine Spitfire and P-51C Mustang aircraft was adopted as standard equipment for the -1D model, and all later F4U production aircraft. Additional production was carried out by Goodyear (FG-1D) and Brewster (F3A-1D). In Fleet Air Arm service, the latter was known as the Corsair III, and both had their wingtips clipped by 8" per wing to allow storage in the lower hangars of British carriers.
SAC02 - Boeing C-17A Globemaster III - NATO Strategic Airlift Capability (in Hungarian Air Force markings)
at Toronto Lester B. Pearson Airport (YYZ)
The Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) is a consortium of 12 nations, 10 of which are member states of NATO and two of which are Partnership for Peace (PfP) members, to pool resources in order to operate 3 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for joint strategic airlift purposes.
The SAC Heavy Airlift Wing is based at Pápa Air Base in Hungary
Member states are NATO members Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the United States of America, and Partnership for Peace countries Finland and Sweden.
Its days of working out of Stratford MPD as 47184 / 47585 "County of Cambridgeshire" are long gone.
.
Now owned by EWS as 47757 "Capability Brown" arrives at Crewe with a First North Western Holyhead - Birmingham service.
A shot taken on the wrong side for the sun unfortunately
SAC 02
Boeing C-17A Globemaster III
NATO Strategic Airlift Capability
08-0002
cn F-210
477FF2
BRK Hungarian Air Force
based LHPA Papa AB for NATO
EYSA 030850Z 31012KT 9999 BKN010 BKN015 OVC019 15/13 Q1008 GRN NOSIG
Beautiful fallow deer photographed in Petworth Park during the rutting season.
The fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian fallow deer as a subspecies (D. d. mesopotamica), while others treat it as an entirely different species (D. mesopotamica).
Petworth House and Park in Petworth, West Sussex, England, has been a family home for over 800 years. The estate was a royal gift from the widow of Henry I to her brother Jocelin de Louvain, who soon after married into the renowned Percy family. As the Percy stronghold was in the north, Petworth was originally only intended for occasional use.
Petworth, formerly known as Leconfield, is a major country estate on the outskirts of Petworth, itself a town created to serve the house. Described by English Heritage as "the most important residence in the County of Sussex", there was a manorial house here from 1309, but the present buildings were built for the Dukes of Somerset from the late 17th century, the park being landscaped by "Capability" Brown. The house contains a fine collection of paintings and sculptures.
The house itself is grade I listed (List Entry Number 1225989) and the park as a historic park (1000162). Several individual features in the park are also listed.
It was in the late 1500s that Petworth became a permanent home to the Percys after Elizabeth I grew suspicious of their allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots and confined the family to the south.
The 2nd Earl of Egremont commissioned Capability Brown to design and landscape the deer park. The park, one of Brownâs first commissions as an independent designer, consists of 700 acres of grassland and trees. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer in England. There is also a 12-hectare (30-acre) woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.
Brown removed the formal garden and fishponds of the 1690âs and relocated 64,000 tons of soil, creating a serpentine lake. He bordered the lake with poplars, birches and willows to make the ânaturalâ view pleasing. A 1987 hurricane devastated the park, and 35,000 trees were planted to replace the losses. Gracing the 30 acres of gardens and pleasure grounds around the home are seasonal shrubs and bulbs that include lilies, primroses, and azaleas. A Doric temple and Ionic rotunda add interest in the grounds.
Petworth House is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft of which still survive.
Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by J. M. W. Turner (some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Ben Harms, classical and neoclassical sculptures (including ones by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre. There is also a terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux, believed to be the only one in the world in its original 1592 state.
For the past 250 years the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family â currently Lord Egremont. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.
The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the National Trust under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum has been established in High Street, Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.
The Gothic Folly at the "secret" pool in Rectory Wood, Church Stretton (by Capability Brown)
Copyright Geoff Dowling; all rights reserved
La capacità di rimuovere brutti ricordi é indice di salute mentale.
(Quote by Gianna Cera - Lettering by White Angel)
Silver paint marker lettering
***Aug 23rd 2010 2,000 views!*** Thanks everyone.
This is the view that greets visitors to Blenheim who enter the Park from Woodstock. Possibly no photo can do it full justice, as you go through a triumphal arch commemorating John Churchill (the first Duke of Marlborough) and this scene is sprung upon you totally unexpectedly.
Woodstock Manor and its park was a former Royal park that was given to John Churchill after his defeat of the armies of Louis XIV at Blindheim (English Blenheim) in 1704 in the war of the Spanish Succession. The defeat ended the ambitions of Louis XIV to extend France and the Bourbon monarchies.
John Churchill was also given the money to build what became Blenheim Palace. Vanbrugh was the architect although there was not a good relationship between him and Sarah, Churchill's wife. As part of his scheme Vanbrugh constructed the Grand Bridge that makes a prominent feature of the picture. However, the grounds were laid out formally in the French Style. The Grounds took the form that we see them today after the 4th Duke of Marlborough called in Capability Brown in 1765. Brown created the lake and planted predominantly Beech trees.
The view of the lake and Grand Bridge has been much praised; when King George III visited in 1789 he is reputed to have said 'We have nothing equal to this'.
Blenheim is also famous as the birthplace of Winston Churchill in 1874 He was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill (the second son of the then Duke of Marlborough) and his American wife Jenny. When Randolph's wife first came to Blenheim Randolph told her 'This is the finest view in England'.
The view shows the 'Queen Pool' of the lake (there is another pool, probably larger, called the King Pool, on the other side of the bridge). The Island is called Queen Elizabeth Island and is reputedly on the route of the causeway that used to cross the valley on the way to Woodstock Manor. The Palace is at the left of the picture. On the hill to the right of the Grand Bridge is the site of Woodstock Manor in which Queen Elizabeth I was confined for a time by her sister Queen Mary.
I was able to take this photograph before the Park became too busy (it does get very busy indeed), and the light held until I arrived just before 11:00 (BST), the cloud increased as the day went on.
If you do visit Blenheim and want this view then it's important to arrive as early as you can. The Park opens at 10:00 AM, and I'd strongly recommend being there when it opens. Later in the day the Sun goes off this side of the Grand Bridge; there are still great views to be had from the other side however, and these improve as the day goes on. The Palace itself faces North West, which makes photographing it rather problematic.
I find that it's difficult to get both Palace and Grand Bridge into the field of view with my normal lens, so I used my wideangle lens; I suggest you take one if you visit.
For a view of the North facade of the Palace see
www.flickr.com/photos/martin-james/2795331423/
For information on visiting Blenheim see
June 28, 2011: Croome Park, Worcestershire, England
Croome is an 18th century landscape park, garden and mansion house in south Worcestershire. Under the guidance of George William, the 6th Earl of Coventry, Croome was designed by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown with some features by Robert Adam. Croome Park has a man made lake and river, statues, temples and other "eye-catcher" buildings and facades with the Court as the central focus.
A two page spread from my travel book FACES & PLACES: England