£20 for Major Smith

Note: article updated 24.05.16 to include missing words/corrections to misreadings - thanks to Simon Marsh and Ivor Carr.

I recently came into the possession of a document written in the 1660s. It appears to be a letter awarding a pension to a solider who had served in the English Civil War.

But how can we be so sure?  ...

Half-way house: the Stuarts at Titchfield

The ruins of Place House/Titchfield Abbey. The mansion would have evoked difficult memories for both Charles I and his eldest two sons.

Titchfield Abbey (or Place House) in Hampshire is perhaps best known for its Shakespeare associations: its owner, the Third Earl of Southampton, was the playwright's patron (and, many assume, the 'Fair Youth' to whom the majority of his sonnets are addressed), and some of the bard's plays are believed to have been performed there for the first time.

Less well-known, but no less dramatic, however, is Titchfield's association with the Stuarts ...