Foundation
The first stone of Syon Monastery was laid by King Henry V himself on 22 February 1415, in the presence of Richard Clifford, Bishop of London. It was not until 9 days later on 3 March 1415 that the King's founding charter was signed at Westminster. The exact location of this original plot is unknown, but it was certainly in the parish of Twickenham, the most northerly river frontage of which lies directly west across the Thames from Sheen Palace. Aungier states it is said to have been in the meadows which at the time of his publication in 1840 were the property of the Marquis of Ailsa, “formerly called Isleworth Park or Twickenham Park”. The dimensions however of the plot were specified in the charter, and seem to comprise a trapezoid the longest side of which fronted the river:
“..in a certain parcel of land of our demesne of our manor of Isleworth within the parish of Twickenham in the county of Middlesex, containing namely in length near the field towards Twickenham from a stone placed on the north side unto another stone placed on the south side 1938 ft. and in breadth towards the south from that stone placed on the south side unto the water of Thames, 960 ft. And in length by the bank of the Thames, from a stone likewise placed by the aforesaid bank at the north side to another like stone placed on the south side by the bank aforesaid, 2820 ft. And in breadth from the north side from the aforesaid stone placed on the north side from the aforesaid stone placed on the north side unto the water of the Thames, 980 ft.”
Read more about this topic: Syon Monastery
Famous quotes containing the word foundation:
“What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art and poetry, in all its periods from the Heroic and Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation.... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“[The Settlement House] must be grounded in a philosophy whose foundation is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy which will not waver when the race happens to be represented by a drunken woman or an idiot boy.”
—Jane Addams (18601935)