Manor House Hotel Manor House Hotel The Manor House is a 14th-century country house hotel in Castle Combe, Wiltshire in the south of England. The Manor House is noteworthy for several reasons throughout history. First of all, its land is the site of an old Norman castle settlement which has hosted a number of Lords throughout its history, the most famous of which was Sir John Oldcastle, the figure Shakespeare based his character of Sir John Falstaff upon in his play Henry IV in the late 16th century. It was also the home of English geologist and political economist George Poulett Scrope throughout
Sir John Oldcastle The later scenes are devoted to Rochester's pursuit of Oldcastle and his wife, and their escapes; the play ends on a temporary positive note, with the Oldcastles evading imprisonment. (Presumably, the lost second half of the play would have had the inevitable grimmer ending of Oldcastle's grisly death.) Sir John Oldcastle Sir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-15th century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr. The play was originally published anonymously in 1600 (Q1), printed by Valentine Simmes for the bookseller Thomas Pavier. In 1619,