Ravenscourt Park the 13th century the manor house was a mansion surrounded by a moat fed by the Stamford Brook, and the lake in the centre of the park today is a remnant of the original moat. King Edward III’s mistress Alice Perrers lived in the manor during the 14th century. The manor house was rebuilt in 1650 and in 1747 it was sold to Thomas Corbett who named it Ravenscourt, probably derived from the raven in his coat of arms, which was itself a pun on his name as "corbeau" is French for "raven". In 1812 the Ravenscourt House and estate
A Protégée of the Mistress A Protégée of the Mistress A Protégée of the Mistress ("Vospitannitsa", Воспитанница; also, "The Ward Girl") is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, first published in the No.1, January 1859 issue of "Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya". Refused the permission to be produced at the Imperial Theatres in October 1859, it premiered in Maly Theatre, Moscow, only on October 21, 1863. Ostrovsky conceived "A Protégée of the Mistress" in 1855 as a two-act play. On July 12 of that year he prepared a rough draft of the Act 1 and compiled a list of characters, some of which (retired official Zakhar Zveroboyev, merchant