engineering

Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument

Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument is a monument erected in 1720 on Lansdown Hill, then called Lansdowne Hill, in Charlcombe parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of the city of Bath, in Somerset, England. It was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1956, and a scheduled monument in 1950.

Key takeaways

Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument is a monument erected in 1720 on Lansdown Hill, then called Lansdowne Hill, in Charlcombe parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of the city of Bath, in Somerset, England. It was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1956, and a scheduled monument in 1950. The monument commemorates the heroism of the Civil War Royalist commander Sir Bevil Grenville (1596–1643) of Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall and Bideford in Devon, who on 5 July 1643 fell mortally wounded at the Battle of Lansdowne, leading his regiment of Cornish pikemen. It was erected by Grenville's grandson and has been maintained by his descendants. This has included the repair of inscriptions carved on the base of the monument, eulogising Grenville and his forces.

Background

The Battle of Lansdowne took place on 5 July 1643 during the Civil War. The Royalists under Lord Hopton attacked the Parliamentarians led by Sir William Waller who occupied a commanding position on Lansdowne Hill. Under the leadership of Sir Bevil Grenville, Hopton's Cornish pikemen stormed Waller's breastworks, while Royalist musketeers outflanked Waller by passing through the woods on each side of his position. Grenville was mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat as Parliamentarian horse counter-attacked and were driven off. He received a mortal blow to the head with a pollaxe and was taken to the rectory at nearby Cold Ashton where he died.

History The monument was erected in 1720 by George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne (1666–1735), grandson of Sir Bevil and heir male to William Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath (d.1711), great-grandson of Sir Bevil and the last male in the senior line of the family. In 1714 Baron Lansdowne had erected a mural monument to Sir Bevil in the Grenville Chapel in the Church of St James the Great, Kilkhampton, Cornwall, in which parish was situated the Grenville seat of Stowe. The monument has been repaired several times, in 1777, 1828 and 1879, each time funded by Granville's descendants. Note that the original spelling was Bevil Granville but today Grenville or Greville are commonly used.

Description

The monument is of ashlar stone masonry, 25 feet (7.6 m) high, in the English Baroque style. On the south side is a slate tablet inscribed with a quotation from the account by Lord Clarendon (1609–1674) in his History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England of the Battle of Lansdowne (1643). On the north side are two poems. On top is a griffin (the crest and supporters of the Grenvilles) holding an escutcheon displaying the Grenville coat of arms: Gules, three clarions or. On another side are shown the Royal Arms of King Charles II (1660–1685) supported by the arms of Sir Bevil's eldest son and heir John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701) and by the arms of the latter's half first cousin General George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG (1608–1670). Monck was the principal figure behind the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660, in effecting which he was much assisted by Sir John Grenville, for which services both were elevated to the peerage.

Inscription The Elegy on Sir Bevil Grenville by William Cartwright, a fellow Royalist, who died shortly after Sir Bevil on 29 November 1643, is inscribed on the monument:

This was not Nature’s courage nor that thing, We valour call which Time and Reason bring, But a diviner fury fierce and high, Valour transported into Ecstasy.

References

Bibliography Barratt, John (2005). The civil war in the south west. Bernsley: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 1-84415-146-8. Chisholm, Hugh (1911). "Grenville, Sir Bevil" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 580; last sentence. A monument to him has been erected on the field of Lansdown Round, J. Horace (1930). "The Granvilles and the Monks". In Page, William (ed.). Family Origins And Other Studies. Constable & Co.

External links Media related to Sir Bevil Grenville's monument at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument

In research: Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1720 establishments in England, 18th-century inscriptions, Buildings and structures completed in 1720, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument in simple terms?

Why does Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument.