Sir Thomas Brassey (1836 1918), later Earl Brassey, was a politician with a particular interest in maritime affairs. He was a keen sailor, and his wife's accounts of their many voyages (also reissued in this series) were bestsellers. He subsequently became a Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Brassey's Naval Annual was for many years the authoritative survey of worldwide navies. This five-volume survey of the state of the British Navy was published between 1882 and 1883. Brassey was much involved with questions of the modernisation and reform of the Navy, at a time...

Sir Thomas Brassey (1836 1918), later Earl Brassey, was a politician with a particular interest in maritime affairs. He was a keen sailor, and his wife's accounts of their many voyages (also reissued in this series) were bestsellers. He subsequently became a Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Brassey's Naval Annual was for many years the authoritative survey of worldwide navies. This five-volume survey of the state of the British Navy was published between 1882 and 1883. Brassey was much involved with questions of the modernisation and reform of the Navy, at a time...

Sir Thomas Brassey (1836 1918), later Earl Brassey, was a politician with a particular interest in maritime affairs. He was a keen sailor, and his wife's accounts of their many voyages (also reissued in this series) were bestsellers. He subsequently became a Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Brassey's Naval Annual was for many years the authoritative survey of worldwide navies. This five-volume survey of the state of the British Navy was published between 1882 and 1883. Brassey was much involved with questions of the modernisation and reform of the Navy, at a time...

Sir Thomas Brassey (1836 1918), later Earl Brassey, was a politician with a particular interest in maritime affairs. He was a keen sailor, and his wife's accounts of their many voyages (also reissued in this series) were bestsellers. He subsequently became a Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Brassey's Naval Annual was for many years the authoritative survey of worldwide navies. This five-volume survey of the state of the British Navy was published between 1882 and 1883. Brassey was much involved with questions of the modernisation and reform of the Navy, at a time...

Octavia Hill (1838 1912) is today best remembered as one of the founders of the National Trust. However, her involvement in education and social reform, and particularly housing, was a large part of her work. Shocked at the poverty and overcrowding she found in London slums, she began to acquire and improve properties which would restore the tenants' dignity and self-respect. She organized a team of volunteer 'district visitors' to help the residents, and especially children, to achieve a better quality of life, including the provision of open spaces, training and recreational amenities. She...

Edward Jerningham Wakefield (1820 1876) was the son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796 1862), who was the driving force behind the early colonization of New Zealand and South Australia, founding the New Zealand Association in 1837 with the aim of creating a colony in that country. His son was appointed secretary of the first settler expedition to New Zealand in 1839, and remained in the colony until 1844. This volume, edited by Sir Robert Stout and first published in 1908, contains Wakefield's account of his stay in New Zealand. He describes in detail the social conditions during the founding...

Hugh Bourne (1772 1852) was a Methodist preacher who is best known as the co-founder of the Primitive Methodist movement. After converting to Methodism in 1799, Bourne became influenced by the evangelical American Lorenzo Dow (1777 1834) and together with William Clowes held an open-air evangelical meeting in 1807. Such gatherings were prohibited by the Methodist Conference, and the two were expelled by the Methodist Society in 1808. They formed the Primitive Methodist Connexion in 1810, with Bourne assuming a leading role in the movement. This volume, first published in 1854 and written by...

John Lauder, 2nd Lord Fountainhall (1646 1722) was a Scottish judge who opposed the Union of England and Scotland, and a perceptive observer of political affairs. His large collection of legal opinions and papers, particularly relating to the Privy Council of Scotland, is still consulted today. Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs, from 1680 till 1701 was edited in 1822 by Sir Walter Scott, and deals with the short reign of James II and accession of William and Mary. Insertions by an earlier owner of the manuscript give the text a more aggressively Jacobite flavour than Lauder in fact...

Appointed Major General by the Continental Congress in 1775, George Washington, the future President of the United States of America, was one of the most significant and influential witnesses to the American Revolutionary War (1775 1783). Published in England in 1795, twelve years after the end of the conflict, this two-volume collection of the letters he wrote to Congress during the war provides unique insights into both the military strategies employed and the evolving values that underpinned them. Taking up the narrative in January 1777, Volume 2 demonstrates a gradual shift in emphasis...

Appointed Major General by the Continental Congress in 1775, George Washington, the future President of the United States of America, was one of the most significant and influential witnesses to the American Revolutionary War (1775 1783). Published in England in 1795, twelve years after the end of the conflict, this two-volume collection of the letters he wrote to Congress during the war provides unique insights into both the military strategies employed and the evolving values that underpinned them. Opening in June 1775, Volume 1 leads readers through the first eighteen months of the...