152-512: Alfred Thompson Denning, Baron Denning , OM , PC , DL (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999), was an English barrister and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 when he was appointed to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice , and transferred to
304-502: A Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) but instead attempted to gain a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford ; he failed to be accepted, something he put down to his poor pronunciation of Latin. Denning was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 4 November 1921, choosing it because the Under Treasurer was a graduate of Magdalen College. On the advice of his brother's friend Frank Merriman he applied to 4 Brick Court, Middle Temple ,
456-532: A scrivener . He lived in and worked from a house in Cheapside at Bread Street, where the Mermaid Tavern was located. The elder Milton was noted for his skill as a composer of music, and this talent left his son with a lifelong appreciation for music and friendships with musicians such as Henry Lawes . The prosperity of Milton's father allowed his eldest son to obtain a private tutor, Thomas Young ,
608-519: A warrant was issued for his arrest and his writings were burnt. He re-emerged after a general pardon was issued, but was nevertheless arrested and briefly imprisoned before influential friends intervened, such as Marvell, now an MP. Milton married for a third and final time on 24 February 1663, marrying Elizabeth (Betty) Minshull, aged 24, a native of Wistaston , Cheshire. He spent the remaining decade of his life living quietly in London, only retiring to
760-598: A "shield" not a "sword"; it could be used to defend a claim, but not to create a cause of action where none existed. In 1954, his decision in Roe v Minister of Health [1954] 2 AER 131 altered the grounds on which hospital staff could be found negligent, a legal precedent he himself had set in Gold v Essex County Council in 1942. In 1955, his leading judgment in Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corporation [1955] 2 QB 327 implemented
912-415: A 'dwindling right'. the legal right of a parent to the custody of a child… is a dwindling right which the courts will hesitate to enforce against the wishes of the child, and the more so the older he is. It starts with a right of control and ends with little more than advice This judgment was subsequently cited in the landmark case of Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority which remains
1064-531: A Dutch law philosopher, playwright, and poet. Milton left France soon after this meeting. He travelled south from Nice to Genoa , and then to Livorno and Pisa . He reached Florence in July 1638. While there, Milton enjoyed many of the sites and structures of the city. His candour of manner and erudite neo-Latin poetry earned him friends in Florentine intellectual circles, and he met the astronomer Galileo who
1216-428: A High Court judge Denning sentenced people to death, which he said at the time "didn't worry [him] in the least". Denning maintained that for murder, death was the most appropriate penalty, and that in cases where mistakes had been made there was always an appeals system. In the 1950s there was growing opposition to the use of the death penalty, and a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate abolishing it. Denning told
1368-454: A Reformed faith and a Humanist spirit, led to enigmatic outcomes. Milton's apparently contradictory stance on the vital problems of his age, arose from religious contestations, to the questions of the divine rights of kings. In both the cases, he seems in control, taking stock of the situation arising from the polarization of the English society on religious and political lines. He fought with
1520-617: A Scottish Presbyterian with an MA from the University of St Andrews . Young's influence also served as the poet's introduction to religious radicalism. After Young's tutorship, Milton attended St Paul's School in London, where he began the study of Latin and Greek; the classical languages left an imprint on both his poetry and prose in English (he also wrote in Latin and Italian). Milton's first datable compositions are two psalms written at age 15 at Long Bennington . One contemporary source
1672-534: A career as pamphleteer and publicist under Charles I 's increasingly autocratic rule and Britain's breakdown into constitutional confusion and ultimately civil war. While once considered dangerously radical and heretical, Milton contributed to a seismic shift in accepted public opinions during his life that ultimately elevated him to public office in England. The Restoration of 1660 and his loss of vision later deprived Milton much of his public platform, but he used
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#17327662280381824-611: A case in the House of Lords, Denning was taken aside by the Lord Chancellor and told that he wanted Denning to become a judge at the High Court of Justice in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division. Denning accepted, and the announcement was made before the conclusion of the appeal. Denning was officially appointed on 7 March 1944 with a salary of £5,000, and received the customary knighthood on 15 March 1944. After becoming
1976-409: A collection of his letters and the Latin prolusions from his Cambridge days. An unfinished religious manifesto, De doctrina christiana , probably written by Milton, lays out many of his heterodox theological views, and was not discovered and published until 1823. Milton's key beliefs were idiosyncratic, not those of an identifiable group or faction, and often they go well beyond the orthodoxy of
2128-594: A cottage during the Great Plague of London — Milton's Cottage in Chalfont St. Giles , his only extant home. During this period, Milton published several minor prose works, such as the grammar textbook Art of Logic and a History of Britain . His only explicitly political tracts were the 1672 Of True Religion , arguing for toleration (except for Catholics), and a translation of a Polish tract advocating an elective monarchy. Both these works were referred to in
2280-424: A deserted wife occupying the marital home had a personal licence to stay there. The decision provoked disapproval among the judiciary and from the public; a correspondent wrote: Dear Sir: You are a disgrace to all mankind to let these women break up homes and expect us chaps to keep them while they rob us of what we have worked for and put us out on the street. I only hope you have the same trouble as us. So do us all
2432-588: A dinner given by the English College, Rome , despite his dislike for the Society of Jesus , meeting English Catholics who were also guests—theologian Henry Holden and the poet Patrick Cary . He also attended musical events, including oratorios, operas, and melodramas. Milton left for Naples toward the end of November, where he stayed only for a month because of the Spanish control. During that time, he
2584-544: A divorce judge was relatively sound; his decisions were overturned only once, in Churchman v Churchman [1945] 2 All ER 190. With the appointment of Lord Jowitt as Lord Chancellor in 1945, Denning was transferred to the King's Bench Division, where Jowitt thought his talents would be better put to use (with Hildreth Glyn-Jones QC, later a High Court judge, greeting him with the words "welcome home"). In 1946, he travelled
2736-497: A favour and take a Rolls and run off Beachy Head and don't come back. This was effectively nullified with the case National Provincial Bank Ltd v Ainsworth [1965] AC 1175 in 1965, which ruled that the deserted wife had no licence to stay. The decision was very unpopular and led to the passing of the Matrimonial Homes Act 1967 . Much of his work in favour of the deserted wife was based around his interpretation of
2888-529: A few years. He sat the Oxbridge examination when he was sixteen and was awarded a £30 a year exhibition to study mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford ; the money was not enough to live on, but he accepted nevertheless. Although he had been accepted by a college he still needed to gain entry to the university as a whole, which meant passing exams including Greek – which had not been taught at Andover Grammar School. Denning managed to teach himself enough of
3040-431: A judge Denning was also elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and became its treasurer in 1964. Denning had little experience with divorce law and disliked it; it was seen as an inferior type of law. There were few good barristers specialising in divorce law; two other barristers were sworn into the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division along with Denning, and of the three only one had ever practiced divorce law. His work as
3192-488: A judge you don't care who wins exactly. All you are concerned about is justice'. From 1937 until 1944, he was Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwark , and from 1942 to 1944 was Chancellor of the Diocese of London . He applied to become a King's Counsel on 15 January 1938. The appointments were announced on 7 April; he "took silk" on 9 April and received letters of congratulation from, among others, Rayner Goddard . After
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#17327662280383344-475: A leading judgment on the subject of the recovery of pure economic loss in negligence . Spartan Steel were a company that manufactured stainless steel in Birmingham, and their factory was powered by electricity. Less than a mile away from the factory, Martin & Co were doing maintenance work on a road when they accidentally unearthed and damaged the power cable providing the factory with electricity. Due to
3496-650: A manservant, Milton embarked upon a tour of France and Italy for 15 months that lasted until July or August 1639. His travels supplemented his study with new and direct experience of artistic and religious traditions, especially Roman Catholicism. He met famous theorists and intellectuals of the time and was able to display his poetic skills. For specific details of what happened within Milton's " grand tour ", there appears to be just one primary source : Milton's own Defensio Secunda . There are other records, including some letters and some references in his other prose tracts, but
3648-819: A manual for the railway police giving guidance on incidents such as taxi drivers who refused to take a customer to a destination within the area specified by the Public Carriage Office (which they were legally obliged to do). He wrote his first article in 1924 titled " Quantum meruit and the Statute of Frauds" on the decision in Scott v Pattison [1923] 2 KB 723; it was accepted by the Law Quarterly Review and published in January 1925. His work steadily increased in amount and quality throughout
3800-543: A marked man. Perhaps you will be a Lord of Appeal some day". Denning took his final examinations in June 1922 and impressed the examiner, Geoffrey Cheshire , by correctly answering questions on the Law of Property Act which had been given Royal Assent only a few days before. Denning gained a high grade in all his subjects except jurisprudence, which he described as "too abstract a subject for my liking". He did not return to read for
3952-740: A neck ribbon (as a necklet ), while women wear theirs on a ribbon bow pinned to the left shoulder, and aides-de-camp may wear the insignia on their aiguillettes . Since 1991, the insignia must be returned upon the recipient's death. number appointment There have been no honorary members of the Order of Merit since the death of the last such member, Nelson Mandela , in December 2013. Secretary and Registrar : Robin Janvrin, Baron Janvrin GCB , GCVO , QSO , PC As
4104-766: A scrapbook), now in the British Library . As a result of such intensive study, Milton is considered to be among the most learned of all English poets. In addition to his years of private study, Milton had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also added Old English to his linguistic repertoire in the 1650s while researching his History of Britain , and probably acquired proficiency in Dutch soon after. Milton continued to write poetry during this period of study; his Arcades and Comus were both commissioned for masques composed for noble patrons, connections of
4256-540: A secretary, and Edward was Milton's first biographer. Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was "On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio edition of William Shakespeare 's plays in 1632. An annotated copy of the First Folio has been suggested to contain marginal notes by Milton. Milton collected his work in 1645 Poems in
4408-764: A small set of chambers run by Henry O'Hagan. He was accepted and began work there in September 1922, before he had taken his final bar exam . He finished his final exam in May 1923 and came top in the bar examination, with the Inn awarding him a 100 guineas a year studentship of three years. He was called to the Bar on 13 June 1923, and was offered a tenancy by O'Hagan. His first few years were spent receiving small briefs from clients, including work prosecuting those who failed to pay rail tickets and fines. During this time, he also wrote
4560-584: A staff officer with the British Army , and his younger brother Norman Denning became Director of Naval Intelligence and Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Intelligence) . Denning was born two months earlier than expected and almost died at birth; he was so small and weak that he was nicknamed ' Tom Thumb ' and could fit in a pint pot. He was named after Alfred the Great by his sister Marjorie, and
4712-540: A strained relationship with them. On 12 November 1656, Milton was married to Katherine Woodcock at St Margaret's, Westminster . She died on 3 February 1658, less than four months after giving birth to her daughter Katherine, who also died. Milton married for a third time on 24 February 1663 to Elizabeth Mynshull or Minshull (1638–1728), the niece of Thomas Mynshull, a wealthy apothecary and philanthropist in Manchester . The marriage took place at St Mary Aldermary in
Tom Denning, Baron Denning - Misplaced Pages Continue
4864-523: A way to judge the moment of acceptance in an instantaneous or near-instantaneous method of communication; like the High Trees case it is still valid. After the resignation of Lord Oaksey in 1956, Denning was offered a job as a Law Lord . After a period of contemplation (he worried that such an appointment would reduce his chances of becoming Master of the Rolls or Lord Chief Justice) he accepted, and
5016-604: A £30 a year scholarship. Despite military training in the early morning and evening, Denning worked hard at his studies, and obtained a First in Mathematical Moderations , the first half of his mathematics degree, in June 1917. Denning was told he would be ineligible to serve in the Armed Forces because of a systolic heart murmur , which he believed the doctor diagnosed because he was tired of sending young men off to die. He successfully appealed against
5168-485: Is Brief Lives of John Aubrey , an uneven compilation including first-hand reports. In the work, Aubrey quotes Christopher, Milton's younger brother: "When he was young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock at night". Aubrey adds, "His complexion exceeding faire—he was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's College." In 1625, Milton gained entry to Christ's College at
5320-416: Is 'no, not in a civilised society'". After less than five years as a judge, Denning was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal on 14 October 1948. He was sworn in as a Privy Counsellor on 25 October 1948. As a Lord Justice of Appeal, he continued to make reforming judgments in a variety of areas, particularly in family law and the rights of deserted wives. In Bendall v McWhirter [1952] 2 QB 466 he ruled that
5472-528: Is Spent ," titled by a later editor, John Newton , "On His Blindness," is presumed to date from this period. Cromwell's death in 1658 caused the English Republic to collapse into feuding military and political factions. Milton, however, stubbornly clung to the beliefs that had originally inspired him to write for the Commonwealth. In 1659, he published A Treatise of Civil Power , attacking
5624-511: Is a conflict here between the interests of national security on the one hand and the freedom of the individual on the other. The balance between these two is not for a court of law. It is for the Home Secretary. He is the person entrusted by Parliament with the task. In some parts of the world national security has on occasions been used as an excuse for all sorts of infringements of individual liberty. But not in England." Member of
5776-693: Is also possible that, like Isaac Newton four decades later, Milton was sent home from Cambridge because of the plague , which afflicted Cambridge in 1625. At Cambridge, Milton was on good terms with Edward King ; he later dedicated " Lycidas " to him. Milton also befriended theologian Roger Williams , tutoring Williams in Hebrew in exchange for lessons in Dutch . Despite developing a reputation for poetic skill and general erudition, Milton suffered from alienation among his peers during his time at Cambridge. Having once watched his fellow students attempting comedy upon
5928-470: Is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of freedom of speech and freedom of the press . His desire for freedom extended beyond his philosophy and was reflected in his style, which included his introduction of new words (coined from Latin and Ancient Greek ) to the English language . He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations. Milton
6080-501: Is because such a belief would destroy the trust and confidence within the relationship. This brought criticism from several government ministers including Sir John Hobson , the Attorney-General for England and Wales , saying that it would mean condemning a man on the basis of suspicion rather than evidence. Denning's final report was 70,000 words long and was completed in the summer of 1963. He signed it on 16 September and it
6232-445: Is described as the "greatest English author" by his biographer William Hayley , and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language ", though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death, often on account of his republicanism . Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as "a poem which ... with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance,
Tom Denning, Baron Denning - Misplaced Pages Continue
6384-515: Is restricted to a maximum of 24 living recipients from the Commonwealth realms, plus honorary members. While all members are awarded the right to use the post-nominal letters OM and wear the badge of the order, the Order of Merit's precedence among other honours differs between countries. In around 1773, George III considered establishing an order of knighthood to be called the "Order of Minerva " with membership restricted to 24 distinguished artists and authors. Knights would be entitled to
6536-428: Is that of negligence , which has a three-year statute of limitations , and Letang instead claimed damages under the tort of trespass to the person . In his judgment, Denning stated that the tort of trespass could only be used if the injury was inflicted intentionally; if it was unintentionally, only negligence could be used. In Spartan Steel and Alloys Ltd v. Martin & Co. Ltd [1973] 1 QB 27 in 1973 he delivered
6688-403: Is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in English literature, though his oeuvre has drawn criticism from notable figures, including T. S. Eliot and Joseph Addison . According to some scholars, Milton was second in influence to none but William Shakespeare . In one of his books, Samuel Johnson praised him for having the power of "displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing
6840-514: The Bishops' Wars presaged further armed conflict, Milton began to write prose tracts against episcopacy , in the service of the Puritan and Parliamentary cause. Milton's first foray into polemics was Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England (1641), followed by Of Prelatical Episcopacy , the two defences of Smectymnuus (a group of Presbyterian divines named from their initials;
6992-523: The De Doctrina , where he denies the dual natures of man and argues for a theory of Creation ex Deo . Milton was a "passionately individual Christian Humanist poet." He appears on the pages of seventeenth century English Puritanism, an age characterized as "the world turned upside down." He was a Puritan and yet was unwilling to surrender conscience to party positions on public policy. Thus, Milton's political thought, driven by competing convictions,
7144-631: The Dominions of the British Empire became independent countries within the empire, equal in status to the UK, the Order of Merit continued as an honour open to all these realms and, in many, became a part of their newly developing national honours systems. The order's statutes were amended in 1935 to include members of the Royal Air Force and, in 1969, the definition of honorary recipients
7296-659: The Exclusion debate, the attempt to exclude the heir presumptive from the throne of England— James, Duke of York —because he was Roman Catholic. That debate preoccupied politics in the 1670s and 1680s and precipitated the formation of the Whig party and the Glorious Revolution . Milton died on 8 November 1674, just a month before his 66th birthday. He was buried in the church of St Giles-without-Cripplegate , Fore Street , London. However, sources differ as to whether
7448-524: The First World War saw most of the schoolmasters leave to join the British armed forces, being replaced by female teachers. At the time Denning wanted to become a mathematician, but none of the new teachers knew enough mathematics to teach him; instead, he taught himself. He qualified to study at University College, Southampton , but was advised to stay at school and apply to Oxford or Cambridge in
7600-667: The King's Bench Division in 1945. He was made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1948 after less than five years in the High Court. He became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1957 and after five years in the House of Lords returned to the Court of Appeal as Master of the Rolls in 1962, a position he held for twenty years. In retirement he wrote several books and continued to offer opinions on
7752-498: The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia , stated that the Order of Merit was the highest civilian award for merit a Canadian could receive. Some orders of precedence are as follows: Order of wear John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant . His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost , written in blank verse and including twelve books,
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#17327662280387904-528: The Married Women's Property Act 1882 , which the House of Lords unanimously overruled in Pettitt v Pettitt [1970] AC 777 in 1970. Further notable decisions by Denning in this area were Heseltine v Heseltine [1971] 1 WLR 342 in 1971 and Wachtel v Wachtel [1973] Fam 72 in 1973, which created basic rules for dividing family assets in a divorce case, something which had not previously been established in
8056-579: The Public Record Office ; by that point the files for civil cases of the High Court alone occupied four miles of shelving. The final report was presented to the Lord Chancellor on 16 May 1966, with the conclusion being that "if our proposals are implemented the Public Record Office alone will be relieved of two hundred tons of records (occupying 15,000 feet of shelving)". The Lord Chancellor took Denning's report to heart, and had
8208-539: The Royal Academy of Arts , advised against the new order, primarily because of its selection process. It was Victoria's son Edward VII who eventually founded the Order of Merit on 26 June 1902 (the date for which his coronation had been originally scheduled ) as a means to acknowledge "exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army, or who may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service towards
8360-479: The University of Cambridge , where he graduated with a BA in 1629, ranking fourth of 24 honours graduates that year in the University of Cambridge. Preparing, at that time, to become an Anglican priest, he stayed on at Cambridge where he received his MA on 3 July 1632. Milton may have been rusticated (suspended) in his first year at Cambridge for quarrelling with his tutor, Bishop William Chappell . He
8512-464: The parliamentary cause , and he also begins to synthesize the ideal of neo-Roman liberty with that of Christian liberty. Milton also courted another woman during this time; we know nothing of her except that her name was Davis and she turned him down. However, it was enough to induce Mary Powell into returning to him which she did unexpectedly by begging him to take her back. They had two daughters in quick succession following their reconciliation. With
8664-560: The " Good Old Cause ". On 27 April 1667, Milton sold the publication rights for Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons for £5 (equivalent to approximately £770 in 2015 purchasing power), with a further £5 to be paid if and when each print run sold out of between 1,300 and 1,500 copies. The first run was a quarto edition priced at three shillings per copy (about £23 in 2015 purchasing power equivalent), published in August 1667, and it sold out in eighteen months. Milton followed up
8816-514: The "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young), and The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty . He vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England and their leader William Laud , Archbishop of Canterbury , with frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and deploying a wide knowledge of church history. He
8968-404: The "circumstances leading to the resignation of the former Secretary of State for War, Mr J. D. Profumo". He started work on 24 June and began speaking to witnesses a day later. This period of the inquiry took 49 days and involved his speaking to 160 people. He concluded that the primary responsibility for the scandal was with Profumo, for associating with Keeler and for lying to his colleagues, with
9120-419: The 17-year-old Mary Powell. The marriage got off to a poor start as Mary did not adapt to Milton's austere lifestyle or get along with his nephews. Milton found her intellectually unsatisfying and disliked the royalist views she had absorbed from her family. It is also speculated that she refused to consummate the marriage. Mary soon returned home to her parents and did not come back until 1645, partly because of
9272-419: The 1920s and 1930s. By the 1930s, he was making most of his court appearances in the senior courts such as the High Court of Justice ; in 1932 he was advised by his clerk that he should not be seen in the county courts , and that he should leave this work for lesser members of the chambers. In 1929, he helped edit several chapters of Smith's Leading Cases (13th ed.) and in 1932 acted as a supervising editor for
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#17327662280389424-545: The 9th edition of Bullen & Leake's Precedents for Pleadings in the King's Bench Division . In 1932, he moved to his own set of chambers in Brick Court, and by 1936 he was earning over £3,000 a year (roughly £200,000 a year in 2020). A significant case was L'Estrange v F Graucob Ltd [1934] 2 KB 394, where he successfully argued an exemption clause was incorporated because a contract was signed. He said that 'If you are an advocate you want your client to win. If you are
9576-726: The Admiralty Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham and William Pitt exchanged correspondence concerning the possible creation of an order of merit, though nothing came of the idea. Later, Queen Victoria , her courtiers , and politicians alike, thought that a new order, based on the Prussian order Pour le Mérite , would make up for the insufficient recognition offered by the established honours system to achievement outside public service, in fields such as art, music, literature, industry and science. Victoria's husband, Albert, Prince Consort , took an interest in
9728-547: The British government. At a party in 1961, Profumo was introduced to Christine Keeler , a showgirl, and began having an affair with her. At the same time, she was in a relationship with Yevgeni Ivanov , a naval attaché at the embassy of the Soviet Union . On 26 January 1963, Keeler was contacted by police on an unrelated matter and voluntarily gave them information about her relationship with Profumo. The police did not initially investigate; no crime had been committed, and
9880-661: The Cardinal. Around March, Milton travelled once again to Florence, staying there for two months, attending further meetings of the academies, and spending time with friends. After leaving Florence, he travelled through Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara before coming to Venice . In Venice, Milton was exposed to a model of Republicanism, later important in his political writings, but he soon found another model when he travelled to Geneva. From Switzerland, Milton travelled to Paris and then to Calais before finally arriving back in England in either July or August 1639. On returning to England where
10032-739: The City of London. Despite a 31-year age gap, the marriage seemed happy, according to John Aubrey , and lasted more than 12 years until Milton's death. (A plaque on the wall of Mynshull's House in Manchester describes Elizabeth as Milton's "3rd and Best wife".) Samuel Johnson, however, claims that Mynshull was "a domestic companion and attendant" and Milton's nephew Edward Phillips relates that Mynshull "oppressed his children in his lifetime, and cheated them at his death". His nephews, Edward and John Phillips (sons of Milton's sister Anne), were educated by Milton and became writers themselves. John acted as
10184-405: The Commission in 1953 that "the punishment inflicted for grave crimes should adequately reflect the revulsion felt by the great majority of citizens for them". He later changed his mind about capital punishment, regarding it as unethical. In 1984, he wrote "Is it right for us, as a society, to do a thing – hang a man – which none of us individually would be prepared to do or even witness? The answer
10336-409: The Egerton family, and performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively. Comus argues for the virtuousness of temperance and chastity . He contributed his pastoral elegy Lycidas to a memorial collection for one of his fellow-students at Cambridge. Drafts of these poems are preserved in Milton's poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript, because it is now kept at Trinity College , Cambridge. It
10488-443: The German Army advanced closer to Amiens and Paris and Denning's unit was sent to France to help stop the advance. Under continuous shell fire for three months, the company and the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division held their section of the line , with a unit under Denning's command building a bridge to allow infantry to advance over the River Ancre . Denning went two days without sleep while building these bridges; shortly after one
10640-427: The House of Lords and clashed frequently with Gavin, Viscount Simonds , who was known as a conservative and orthodox judge. Despite his reputation as a fiercely individual judge, Denning dissented in only 16% of cases he heard in the House of Lords; fewer than Lord Keith , who dissented 22% of the time. On 9 May 1960, Denning was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex. In 1962, Lord Evershed resigned as Master of
10792-400: The House of Lords it was at least two. The other "benefit" of the Court of Appeal is that it hears more cases than the House of Lords, and so has a greater effect on the law. During his twenty years as Master of the Rolls, Denning could choose both which cases he heard, and the judges with whom he sat. Therefore, on most issues, he effectively had the last word; comparatively few cases went on to
10944-430: The House of Lords, which was at that time Britain's highest court of law. As Master of the Rolls he selected cases he felt to be particularly important to hear and, rather than having an American system (where judges had a rota for taking cases), assigned cases to those judges who had expertise in that particular area of law. In 1963, he chaired a committee investigating ways to reduce the archive of legal documents kept by
11096-687: The Legion present them while the courts were not sitting; Denning heard all 73 cases on 11 July 1946. In 1947, he decided in Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd [1947] KB 130 (known as the High Trees case), which was a milestone in English contract law . It resurrected the principle of promissory estoppel established in Hughes v Metropolitan Railway Co (1876–77) LR 2 App Cas 439 and has been both praised and criticised by lawyers and legal theorists. As
11248-474: The Morning of Christ's Nativity", "Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare" (his first poem to appear in print), L'Allegro , and Il Penseroso . It appears in all his writings that he had the usual concomitant of great abilities, a lofty and steady confidence in himself, perhaps not without some contempt of others; for scarcely any man ever wrote so much, and praised so few. Of his praise he
11400-463: The Order of Merit The Order of Merit (French: Ordre du Mérite ) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms , recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII , admission into the order remains the personal gift of its Sovereign—currently Edward VII's great-great-grandson Charles III —and
11552-592: The Order of Merit is open to the citizens of 15 countries, each with their own system of orders, decorations, and medals, the order's place of precedence varies from country to country. While, in the United Kingdom, the order's postnominal letters follow those of Knights and Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath , membership in the Order of Merit itself gives members no place in any of the orders of precedence in
11704-425: The Order of Merit, members are entitled to use the post-nominal letters OM and are entrusted with the badge of the order. The insignia consists of a badge, which consists of a golden crown from which is suspended a red enamelled cross pattée , itself centred by a disk of blue enamel, surrounded by a laurel wreath . The obverse of the badge's central disk bears the words FOR MERIT in gold lettering, while
11856-514: The Order, having been admitted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968, when he was 47 years old. Robin Eames , Baron Eames represented the order at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla on 6 May 2023. All citizens of the Commonwealth realms are eligible for appointment to the Order of Merit. There may be, however, only 24 living individuals in the order at any given time, not including honorary appointees, and new members are personally selected by
12008-661: The Parliamentary victory in the Civil War, Milton used his pen in defence of the republican principles represented by the Commonwealth. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) defended the right of the people to hold their rulers to account, and implicitly sanctioned the regicide ; Milton's political reputation got him appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues by the Council of State in March 1649. His main job description
12160-497: The Pensions Tribunals. In Starr v Ministry of Pensions [1946] 1 KB 345 he ruled that it was up to the tribunals to prove that an injury was not due to war service, reversing the previous state of affairs where a claimant would have to prove their injuries were due to war service before they would be granted a pension. In James v Minister of Pensions [1947] KB 867 he also allowed for judges to approve time extensions for
12312-565: The Rolls , and Denning was appointed to replace him on 19 April 1962 with a salary of £9,000. Although Denning himself described it as "a step down" he was pleased with his appointment, as he had much preferred his time with the Court of Appeal than the House of Lords. Court of Appeal judges sit in threes, and the Lords in fives (or more), so it was suggested that to get his way in the Court of Appeal Denning only had to persuade one other judge whereas in
12464-461: The United Kingdom . However, Stanley Martin says in his book The Order of Merit 1902–2002: One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour , that the Order of Merit is the pinnacle of the British honours system. Similarly, though it was not listed in the Canadian order of precedence for honours, decorations, and medals until December 2010, Christopher McCreery, an expert on Canadian honours and secretary to
12616-622: The Western Circuit but was recalled by the Lord Chancellor to chair a committee looking at the reform of procedure in divorce cases. He continued working as a judge while chairing the daily committee. The committee was appointed on 26 June 1946 and published its first report in July, which reduced the time between decree nisi and decree absolute from 6 months to 6 weeks. The second report was published in November, recommending that County Court judges should be appointed to try cases, and
12768-564: The advancement of Art, Literature and Science". All modern aspects of the order were established under his direction, including the division for military figures. From the outset, prime ministers attempted to propose candidates or lobbied to influence the monarch's decision on appointments. But, the Royal Household adamantly guarded information about potential names. After 1931, when the Statute of Westminster came into effect and
12920-519: The appellant's wife spoke to the respondents; she said there were several problems with the work that they had done, and she would only pay £300 of the £482 owed. The respondents replied that £300 would barely cover the costs of the materials, but that they would accept it anyway. If the respondents had not received the money they would have gone bankrupt, something the appellant's wife was well aware of. In his judgment, Denning modified English case law on part payment and accord and satisfaction , saying that
13072-594: The awful, darkening the gloomy and aggravating the dreadful." John Milton was born in Bread Street , London, on 9 December 1608, the son of composer John Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey. The senior John Milton (1562–1647) moved to London around 1583 after being disinherited by his devout Catholic father Richard "the Ranger" Milton for embracing Protestantism . In London, the senior John Milton married Sarah Jeffrey (1572–1637) and found lasting financial success as
13224-416: The bulk of the information about the tour comes from a work that, according to Barbara Lewalski , "was not intended as autobiography but as rhetoric, designed to emphasise his sterling reputation with the learned of Europe." He first went to Calais and then on to Paris, riding horseback, with a letter from diplomat Henry Wotton to ambassador John Scudamore . Through Scudamore, Milton met Hugo Grotius ,
13376-503: The by then long-widowed Queen a draft constitution for an Order of Merit in Science and Art, consisting of one grade split into two branches of knighthood: the Order of Scientific Merit, for Knights of Merit in Science, with the post-nominal letters KMS , and the Order of Artistic Merit, for Knights of Merit in Art, with the post-nominal letters KMA . However, Frederic Leighton , President of
13528-432: The case of Gold v Essex County Council [1942] 2 KB 293, which changed the law to make hospitals liable for the professional negligence of their staff. In December 1943, a judge was taken ill, and Denning was asked to take his place as a Commissioner of Assize . This was regarded as a 'trial' for membership of the judiciary, and Denning was appointed Recorder of Plymouth on 17 February 1944. On 6 March 1944, while arguing
13680-585: The cause of death was consumption or gout . According to an early biographer, his funeral was attended by "his learned and great Friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the Vulgar." A monument was added in 1793, sculpted by John Bacon the Elder . Milton and his first wife Mary Powell (1625–1652) had four children: Mary Powell died on 5 May 1652 from complications following Deborah's birth. Milton's daughters survived to adulthood, but he always had
13832-465: The changes he recommended implemented immediately. Denning gave the leading judgment in D & C Builders Ltd v Rees [1965] 2 QB 617 in 1965. D & C Builders Ltd (the respondent) had been hired by Rees (the appellant) to do some construction work at his shop, where he sold building materials. The respondent finished the work and repeatedly phoned the appellant to request the money they were owed. After three phone calls spread out over several months
13984-605: The claimant to gather more evidence when such extensions had been rejected by the Tribunal. These two cases made a large difference to applicants, and he received praise from both the British Legion and the public. The government refused to do anything about those servicemen who had been rejected by the courts prior to Denning's judgment, which provoked public outcry under the slogan "Fit for Service, Fit for Pension". The British Legion chose 73 cases and asked Denning to let
14136-453: The college stage, he later observed, "they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools". Milton also was disdainful of the university curriculum, which consisted of stilted formal debates conducted in Latin on abstruse topics. His own corpus is not devoid of humour, notably his sixth prolusion and his epitaphs on the death of Thomas Hobson . While at Cambridge, he wrote some of his well-known shorter English poems, including "On
14288-577: The concept of a state-dominated church (the position known as Erastianism ), as well as Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings , denouncing corrupt practises in church governance. As the Republic disintegrated, Milton wrote several proposals to retain a non-monarchical government against the wishes of parliament, soldiers, and the people. Upon the Restoration in May 1660, Milton, fearing for his life, went into hiding, while
14440-473: The continent and spent time at Geneva with Diodati's uncle after he returned to Rome. In Defensio Secunda , Milton proclaimed that he was warned against a return to Rome because of his frankness about religion, but he stayed in the city for two months and was able to experience Carnival and meet Lukas Holste , a Vatican librarian who guided Milton through its collection. He was introduced to Cardinal Francesco Barberini who invited Milton to an opera hosted by
14592-668: The decision, and enlisted on 14 August 1917 as a cadet in the Hampshire Regiment before being sent to the Royal Engineers Oxford University Officer Training Corps . He trained at Newark and was temporarily commissioned as a second lieutenant on 17 November 1917. Although he was old enough to serve in the armed forces, regulations meant that he was not allowed to serve in France until he was nineteen. In March 1918,
14744-454: The definitive case on children's rights, with leading judge for that case, Lord Fraser saying that he agreed "with every word" of Denning's ruling. In 1977, Denning upheld the deportation of Mark Hosenball , a journalist who had worked on a story which referred to the existence of GCHQ , which was considered to be a state secret. In the ruling, he argued that the government's decisions in these cases were beyond legal review, writing: "There
14896-550: The exiled Charles II and his party published the defence of monarchy Defensio Regia pro Carolo Primo , written by leading humanist Claudius Salmasius . By January of the following year, Milton was ordered to write a defence of the English people by the Council of State . Milton worked more slowly than usual, given the European audience and the English Republic's desire to establish diplomatic and cultural legitimacy, as he drew on
15048-571: The final report was published in February 1947 recommending the establishment of a Marriage Welfare Service. The reports were well received by the public and led to Denning being invited in 1949 to become President of the National Marriage Guidance Council . His appointment to the King's Bench Division allowed him to hear pension appeals, and he attempted to reform the principles applied by the government minister and
15200-652: The friend of many gentlemen eminent in rank and learning, whose private academies I frequented—a Florentine institution which deserves great praise not only for promoting humane studies but also for encouraging friendly intercourse. — Milton's account of Florence in Defensio Secunda He left Florence in September to continue to Rome. With the connections from Florence, Milton was able to have easy access to Rome's intellectual society. His poetic abilities impressed those like Giovanni Salzilli, who praised Milton within an epigram. In late October, Milton attended
15352-548: The greatest error being his false statement in the House of Commons. He also said that the situation had been looked at in the wrong way by police, members of parliament and the security services; rather than asking if Profumo had committed adultery they should have asked if his conduct had led ordinary people to believe he committed adultery. His analogy was with divorce law; a man does not need to have committed adultery for his wife to have grounds to divorce him, but rather she simply has to believe that he has committed adultery. This
15504-582: The highest profile judges in England in part because of his report on the Profumo affair . He was known for his bold judgments running counter to the law at the time. During his 38-year career as a judge, he made large changes to the common law, particularly while in the Court of Appeal, and although some of his decisions were overturned by the House of Lords several of them were confirmed by Parliament, which passed statutes in line with his judgments. Appreciated for his role as "the people's judge" and his support for
15656-542: The individual, Denning attracted attention for his occasionally flexible attitude to the common law principle of precedent . He commented controversially about the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four . Denning was born on 23 January 1899 in Whitchurch, Hampshire , to Charles Denning, a draper, and his wife Clara Denning (née Thompson). He was one of six children; his older brother Reginald Denning later became
15808-414: The last person so honoured. Honorary members form another group, to which there is no numerical limit, though such appointments are rare; individuals from countries in the Commonwealth of Nations that are not headed by King Charles are therefore considered foreigners, and thus are granted only honorary admissions, such as Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and Mother Teresa (India). Upon admission into
15960-504: The law. In 1951, he gave a significant dissenting judgment in the case Candler v Crane, Christmas & Co , regarded as a "brilliant advancement to the law of negligent misstatements" and which was later approved of by the House of Lords in Hedley Byrne & Co Ltd v Heller & Partners Ltd [1963] 2 All ER 575. In Combe v Combe in 1952 he elaborated on his resurrected doctrine of promissory estoppel, saying that it could be
16112-575: The learning marshalled by his years of study to compose a riposte. On 24 February 1652, Milton published his Latin defence of the English people Defensio pro Populo Anglicano , also known as the First Defence . Milton's pure Latin prose and evident learning exemplified in the First Defence quickly made him a European reputation, and the work ran to numerous editions. He addressed his Sonnet 16 to 'The Lord Generall Cromwell in May 1652' beginning "Cromwell, our chief of men ...", although it
16264-516: The main public policy ground for their decision (that allowing claims of pure economic loss would lead to countless claims) has never been backed up by evidence. The House of Lords eventually ruled in Junior Books v Veitchi [1982] 3 All ER 201 that pure economic loss was recoverable. Denning delivered a report into the Profumo affair . John Profumo was the Secretary of State for War with
16416-475: The matter; it was recorded in his diary that he met Sir Robert Peel on 16 January 1844 to discuss the "idea of institution of a civil Order of Merit" and, three days later, he conferred with the Queen on the subject. Though nothing came of the idea at the time, the concept did not wither and, more than 40 years later, on 5 January 1888, Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury submitted to
16568-515: The midst of the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government. The anonymous edition of Comus was published in 1637, and the publication of Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print until Paradise Lost appeared in 1667. Milton's magnum opus , the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost ,
16720-513: The morals of ministers were not their concern. Although the relationship lasted only a few weeks it became public knowledge in 1962. Keeler attempted to publish her memoirs in the Sunday Pictorial in January 1963 but Profumo, still insisting that he had done nothing wrong, forced them to back down with threats of legal action should the story be published. Profumo made a statement in the House of Commons on 22 March, saying that "there
16872-452: The new order grew so heated that George ultimately dropped the idea, though he briefly reconsidered it in 1789; on 6 February of that year, he revised the design of the order, with the breast star to have sixteen points, the motto to be the Latin for "Learning improves character" and with membership to include distinguished scientists. Following the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, First Lord of
17024-616: The night before". He found the job boring, and after viewing the Assize Court at Winchester Castle decided he would like to be a barrister. On the advice of Herbert Warren, he returned to Magdalen to study Jurisprudence in October 1921. Thanks to Warren, Denning was elected to the Eldon Law Scholarship , worth £100 a year, to finance his studies; when the news of Denning's election was brought, Warren wrote "you are
17176-595: The notion that a single material substance which is "animate, self-active, and free" composes everything in the universe: from stones and trees and bodies to minds, souls, angels, and God. Fallon claims that Milton devised this position to avoid the mind-body dualism of Plato and Descartes as well as the mechanistic determinism of Hobbes . According to Fallon, Milton's monism is most notably reflected in Paradise Lost when he has angels eat (5.433–439) and apparently engage in sexual intercourse (8.622–629) and
17328-560: The offer was made by the machine. Denning gave the leading judgment in Letang v Cooper [1964] 2 All ER 929 in 1964. Mrs Letang, on holiday in Cornwall, decided to lie down and rest in grass outside a hotel. Cooper drove into the hotel car park and, not seeing Letang, ran over her legs. More than three years after the events, Letang brought a tort case against Cooper, claiming damages for her injuries. The standard tort for personal injuries
17480-466: The outbreak of the Civil War . In the meantime, her desertion prompted Milton to publish a series of pamphlets over the next three years arguing for the legality and morality of divorce beyond grounds of adultery. ( Anna Beer , author of a 2008 biography of Milton, points to a lack of evidence and the dangers of cynicism in urging that it was not necessarily the case that the private life so animated
17632-586: The period to develop many of his major works. Milton's views developed from extensive reading, travel, and experience that began with his days as a student at Cambridge in the 1620s and continued through the English Civil War , which started in 1642 and continued until 1651. By the time of his death in 1674, Milton was impoverished and on the margins of English intellectual life but famous throughout Europe and unrepentant for political choices that placed him at odds with governing authorities. John Milton
17784-494: The post-nominal letters KM , and would wear a silver nine-pointed breast star with the image of Minerva at its centre, along with a "straw-coloured" sash worn across the chest from the right shoulder. The motto of the Order would be "Omnia posthabita scientiae" (in Latin , 'Everything comes after science'). Once the King's proposal was made public, however, arguments within intellectual circles over who would be most deserving of
17936-454: The power being off, the factory lost a large amount of money; £368 on damaged goods, £400 on the profits they would have made from those goods and £1,767 for the steel they could not make due to the power outage. The question was what Spartan Steel could claim money for. Martin & Co agreed they were negligent, and offered to pay for the damaged goods and the profit that Spartan Steel would have made on those goods, but refused to pay damages for
18088-593: The principles of the Revolution. Alexander Morus , to whom Milton wrongly attributed the Clamor (in fact by Peter du Moulin ), published an attack on Milton, in response to which Milton published the autobiographical Defensio pro se in 1655. Milton held the appointment of Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Commonwealth Council of State until 1660, although after he had become totally blind, most of
18240-458: The public interest demands that the facts should be ascertained as completely as possible there is a higher interest to be considered, namely the interest of justice to the individual which overrides all others". In 1969, Denning heard the case of Hewer v Bryant which related to the rights of those under 18 to act on their own behalf. In this case, Denning rejected the concept of absolute parental control over someone under 18, and established it as
18392-564: The public polemicising.) In 1643, Milton had a brush with the authorities over these writings, in parallel with Hezekiah Woodward , who had more trouble. It was the hostile response accorded the divorce tracts that spurred Milton to write Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England , his celebrated attack on pre-printing censorship. In Areopagitica , Milton aligns himself with
18544-467: The publication Paradise Lost with its sequel Paradise Regained , which was published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes in 1671. Both of these works also reflect Milton's post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition of Paradise Lost , accompanied by an explanation of "why the poem rhymes not", and prefatory verses by Andrew Marvell . In 1673, Milton republished his 1645 Poems , as well as
18696-447: The reigning monarch of the realms, currently Charles III , with the assistance of his private secretaries; the order has thus been described as "quite possibly, the most prestigious honour one can receive on planet Earth." Within the limited membership is a designated military division, with its own unique insignia; though it has not been abolished, it is currently unpopulated, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma having been
18848-414: The reverse bears the royal cypher of the reigning monarch in gold. The insignia for the military grouping is distinguished by a pair of crossed swords behind the central disk. The ribbon of the Order of Merit is divided into two stripes of red and blue. The neck ribbon is 50mm in width, while the ribbon bar width is the standard British 32mm size for military or civilian wear. Men wear their badges on
19000-420: The rules on part payment can be set aside in situations where one of the parties is under duress. The fact that D & C Builders were effectively forced into accepting the lesser amount meant that the payment was not valid. In Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking Ltd [1971] 2 QB 163 in 1971 the Court of Appeal under Denning ruled that when dealing with offer and acceptance between a person and an automated machine
19152-572: The second, among the productions of the human mind", though he (a Tory ) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican". Milton was revered by poets such as William Blake , William Wordsworth , and Thomas Hardy . Phases of Milton's life parallel the major historical and political divisions in Stuart England at the time. In his early years, Milton studied at Christ's College, Cambridge , and then travelled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched
19304-774: The start of the Second World War , Denning volunteered; he was too old for active service, and was instead appointed legal advisor to the North East Region. In 1941, he acted for the respondent in the case of Hoani te Heuheu vs Aotea District Maori Land Board [1941] AC 308, an important New Zealand constitutional case before the Privy Council, which held that treaty duties (specifically, the Treaty of Waitangi ) could be legally enforced only when they are incorporated into Acts of Parliament. In 1942, Denning took
19456-457: The state of the common law through his writing and his position in the House of Lords . Margaret Thatcher said that Denning was "probably the greatest English judge of modern times". One of Lord Denning's successors as Master of the Rolls, Lord Bingham , called him "the best known and best loved judge in our history". Denning's appellate work in the Court of Appeal did not concern criminal law. Mark Garnett and Richard Weight argue that Denning
19608-646: The steel Spartan Steel could not make due to the power outage. In his judgment, Denning agreed that they would only have to pay for losses associated with the damaged goods, not the money lost on the steel that could not be made due to the power outage because it counted as pure economic loss . For public policy reasons, Denning would not allow the recovery of pure economic loss, stating in his judgment that: The Court of Appeal's decision in Spartan Steel has been criticised, firstly for being based on public policy rather than any legal principle, and secondly because
19760-479: The subject to pass, and matriculated to Oxford in 1916. In addition to his Magdalen Scholarship he gained a scholarship from Hampshire County Council worth £50 a year. After arriving he made a favourable impression on Sir Herbert Warren , the president of Magdalen College, who upgraded the exhibition to a Demyship of £80 a year and arranged for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths to give Denning
19912-538: The time. Their tone, however, stemmed from the Puritan emphasis on the centrality and inviolability of conscience. He was his own man, but he was anticipated by Henry Robinson in Areopagitica . While Milton's beliefs are generally considered to be consistent with Protestant Christianity, Stephen Fallon argues that by the late 1650s, Milton may have at least toyed with the idea of monism or animist materialism,
20064-496: The university's numerous societies or clubs so that he could better focus on his work, and graduated in 1920, placing in the first class of the Mathematical Greats (the final undergraduate examinations for the subject). He was offered a job teaching mathematics at Winchester College for £350 a year, which he accepted. As well as mathematics, he taught geology, despite not having studied it; instead, he "read up on [it]
20216-476: The work was done by his deputies, Georg Rudolph Wecklein , then Philip Meadows , and from 1657 by the poet Andrew Marvell . By 1652, Milton had become totally blind; the cause of his blindness is debated but bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma are most likely. His blindness forced him to dictate his verse and prose to amanuenses who copied them out for him; one of these was Andrew Marvell. One of his best-known sonnets, " When I Consider How My Light
20368-526: Was Charles Mason who made the extraordinary discovery, in the library of Trinity College, of a packet of thirty loose and tattered folio leaves, almost covered with the handwriting of Milton . It is thought that Mason recognised the nature of this material around 1735 and the loose-leaf sheets were bound for the first time in 1736; the Trinity Manuscript has been described as “the chief treasure of Trinity Library” . In May 1638, accompanied by
20520-481: Was a conservative Christian who "remained popular with morally conservative Britons who were dismayed at the postwar rise in crime and who, like him, believed that the duties of the individual were being forgotten in the clamour for rights. He had a more punitive than redemptive view of criminal justice, as a result of which he was a vocal supporter of corporal and capital punishment." However, he changed his stance on capital punishment in later life. Denning became one of
20672-715: Was baptised on 23 April 1899 at All Hallows Church, Whitchurch. Denning, along with his older brother Gordon, began his schooling at the National School of Whitchurch, one of many set up by the National Society for the Education of the Poor . Both boys won scholarships to Andover Grammar School , where Denning excelled academically, winning four prizes for English essays on the subjects of "The Great Authors", " Macaulay ", " Carlyle " and " Milton ". The outbreak of
20824-520: Was certainly at home in London in the Lent Term 1626; there he wrote Elegia Prima , his first Latin elegy , to Charles Diodati, a friend from St Paul's. Based on remarks of John Aubrey , Chappell "whipt" Milton. This story is now disputed, though certainly Milton disliked Chappell. Historian Christopher Hill notes that Milton was apparently rusticated, and that the differences between Chappell and Milton may have been either religious or personal. It
20976-795: Was completed, a German aeroplane dropped a bomb on it, forcing them to start again. The unit advanced over the River Ancre and the Canal du Nord , but Denning fell ill with influenza and was in hospital for the last few days of the war. When writing of his experiences in World War I in The Family Story , Denning summed up his war service with characteristic pithiness in just four words: "I did my bit". Denning's oldest brother, Captain John Edward Newdigate Denning,
21128-545: Was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition), with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It has been argued that the poem reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Some literary critics have argued that Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for
21280-429: Was expanded to include members of the Commonwealth of Nations that are not realms. The order has always been open to women, Florence Nightingale being the first woman to receive the honour, in 1907. Several individuals have refused admission into the Order of Merit, including Rudyard Kipling , A. E. Housman , and George Bernard Shaw . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , remains the youngest person ever inducted into
21432-462: Was formally offered the job on 5 April 1957. He was appointed on 24 April 1957, as Baron Denning , of Whitchurch in the County of Southampton; for the supporters of his coat of arms he chose Lord Mansfield and Sir Edward Coke . Many members of the judiciary and the Bar approved of his appointment, but he was warned that he should move slowly to reform the court. Denning did not enjoy his time in
21584-567: Was introduced to Giovanni Battista Manso , patron to both Torquato Tasso and to Giambattista Marino . Originally, Milton wanted to leave Naples in order to travel to Sicily and then on to Greece, but he returned to England during the summer of 1639 because of what he claimed in Defensio Secunda were "sad tidings of civil war in England." Matters became more complicated when Milton received word that his childhood friend Diodati had died. Milton in fact stayed another seven months on
21736-724: Was killed near Gueudecourt on 26 September 1916 whilst serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment . His brother, Sub-Lieutenant Charles Gordon Denning, who saw action in the Battle of Jutland , died of tuberculosis on 24 May 1918 after serving with the Royal Navy on HMS Morris . Denning would describe his dead brothers as the best of him and his siblings. Denning was demobilised on 6 February 1919, and returned to Magdalen College four days later. He initially thought about turning to applied mathematics, but decided on pure mathematics. He studied hard, not participating in any of
21888-548: Was no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler". On 4 June 1963, he contacted the Chief Whip and the Prime Minister's private secretary and informed them that he had indeed been having an affair with Keeler; therefore, he sent a letter of resignation to the Prime Minister, which was accepted. On 21 June 1963, Harold Macmillan , the Prime Minister at the time, asked Denning to lead an enquiry into
22040-584: Was not published until 1654. In 1654, Milton completed the second defence of the English nation Defensio secunda in response to an anonymous Royalist tract "Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum Adversus Parricidas Anglicanos" [The Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven Against the English Parricides], a work that made many personal attacks on Milton. The second defence praised Oliver Cromwell , now Lord Protector, while exhorting him to remain true to
22192-431: Was not retreat into a rural idyll; Hammersmith was then a "suburban village" falling into the orbit of London, and even Horton was becoming deforested and suffered from the plague. He read both ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics, literature, and science in preparation for a prospective poetical career. Milton's intellectual development can be charted via entries in his commonplace book (like
22344-494: Was published ten days later. It was a best-seller; 105,000 copies were sold, 4,000 in the first hour, with people queuing outside Her Majesty's Stationery Office to buy copies. The full report was published in The Daily Telegraph as a supplement and was described as "the raciest and most readable Blue Book ever published". The report was criticised as a "whitewash", a claim Denning rejected; he said that "while
22496-445: Was supported by his father's investments, but Milton became a private schoolmaster at this time, educating his nephews and other children of the well-to-do. This experience and discussions with educational reformer Samuel Hartlib led him to write his short tract Of Education in 1644, urging a reform of the national universities. In June 1642, Milton paid a visit to the manor house at Forest Hill, Oxfordshire , and, aged 34, married
22648-505: Was to compose the English Republic's foreign correspondence in Latin and other languages, but he also was called upon to produce propaganda for the regime and to serve as a censor. In October 1649, he published Eikonoklastes , an explicit defence of the regicide, in response to the Eikon Basilike , a phenomenal best-seller popularly attributed to Charles I that portrayed the King as an innocent Christian martyr . A month later
22800-650: Was under house arrest at Arcetri , as well as others. Milton probably visited the Florentine Academy and the Accademia della Crusca along with smaller academies in the area, including the Apatisti and the Svogliati . In [Florence], which I have always admired above all others because of the elegance, not just of its tongue, but also of its wit, I lingered for about two months. There I at once became
22952-463: Was very frugal; as he set its value high, and considered his mention of a name as a security against the waste of time, and a certain preservative from oblivion. — Samuel Johnson , Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets After receiving his MA, Milton moved to Hammersmith , his father's new home since the previous year. He also lived at Horton , Berkshire, from 1635 and undertook six years of self-directed private study. Hill argues that this
23104-605: Was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man , including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God 's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden . Paradise Lost elevated Milton's reputation as one of history's greatest poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell . Milton achieved fame and recognition during his lifetime; his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship ,
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