This colourful and thoroughly researched history of the Lord Delamere branch of the British aristocracy focuses on the famous Vale Royal Abbey in Cheshire, England. The Cholmondeley family, who owned the Abbey throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, are described in lavish and intimate detail as they maneuvered to maintain, through three generations, their status as a leading family in the United Kingdom. Beginning in the late 17th century, we follow Charles Cholmondeley as he served as a member of the King’s army in Canada in the war against the French. Part I witnesses the ubiquitous Thomas Cholmondeley who purchased the title ‘Lord (Baron) Delamere’ for £5000 from the British crown in 1821. Part II covers the 2nd Lord Delamere, Hugh Cholmondeley, who led a very sad and difficult life, and experienced the deterioration of Vale Royal. Part III reviews the life of Hugh Cholmondeley, Jnr., 3rd Lord Delamere, his abandonment of Vale Royal Abbey and his relocation to East Africa. Narcissistic Hugh was part of the notorious “happy valley crowd” of Kenya and their lives of debauchery, sex and drugs. The Vale Royal Abbey lives on today, a national treasure and testament to the intriguing lives of those who occupied it over the centuries.

The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are among the most astonishing achievements of Western culture. Evoking feelings of awe and humility, they make us want to understand what inspired the people who had the audacity to build them. This engrossing book surveys an era that has fired the historical imagination for centuries. In it Robert A. Scott explores why medieval people built Gothic cathedrals, how they built them, what conception of the divine lay behind their creation, and how religious and secular leaders used cathedrals for social and political purposes. As a traveler’s companion or a rich source of knowledge for the armchair enthusiast, The Gothic Enterprise helps us understand how ordinary people managed such tremendous feats of physical and creative energy at a time when technology was rudimentary, famine and disease were rampant, the climate was often harsh, and communal life was unstable and incessantly violent. While most books about Gothic cathedrals focus on a particular building or on the cathedrals of a specific region, The Gothic Enterprise considers the idea of the cathedral as a humanly created space. Scott discusses why an impoverished people would commit so many social and personal resources to building something so physically stupendous and what this says about their ideas of the sacred, especially the vital role they ascribed to the divine as a protector against the dangers of everyday life. Scott’s narrative offers a wealth of fascinating details concerning daily life during medieval times. The author describes the difficulties master-builders faced in scheduling construction that wouldn’t be completed during their own lifetimes, how they managed without adequate numeric systems or paper on which to make detailed drawings, and how climate, natural disasters, wars, variations in the hours of daylight throughout the year, and the celebration of holy days affected the pace and timing of work. Scott also explains such things as the role of relics, the quarrying and transporting of stone, and the incessant conflict cathedral-building projects caused within their communities. Finally, by drawing comparisons between Gothic cathedrals and other monumental building projects, such as Stonehenge, Scott expands our understanding of the human impulses that shape our landscape.