The Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Quite a bit to research this week, near as I can figure it through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers seem to me to be:

Q1. John Zoffany  (aka Johann Zoffany)

Q2. Syon House

(N.B. for question one, this artist is known variously as John Zoffany, Johann Zoffany, Zoffani, Zauphaly and Zauffelij but as he was German born but lived in England, it is probably the English version of the name they are looking for as the answer)

The initial clues place us at St Anne's church in the marvellous Kew Gardens, in the borough of Richmond, in London. I found several references which claim that the church was built c 1714 and that it was named after queen Anne. There are several artists buried in the grounds but the ones which most fit with the clues are Johann Zoffany (born c 1773 - died c 1810) and known to have painted a work called 'Venice Preserv'd' and Thomas Gainsborough (born c 1727 - died c 1788), known to have painted a work called 'The Mall in St James's Park'. 'Venice Preserv'd' seems to be the name of a play by Thomas Otway and Zoffany's painting, shows an actor called David Garrick, starring in it.

The world heritage site which the church overlooks, is the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which was awarded this status c 2003. The extraordinarily creative and productive architect who designed the Pagoda and some of the temples in Kew gardens, was most likely Sir William Chambers, born c 1722 - 1723, depending on which source you want to believe. He is said to have designed the temples of Bellona and Aeolus. The 52,500 square foot building which is undergoing restoration, is most likely 'The Temperate House', which was designed by the second architect, Decimus Burton (born c 1800).

A riverside palace located in Kew Gardens, is 'The Dutch House' or as it is also known 'Kew Palace'. Several sources claim that this was constructed c 1631 by a merchant called Samuel Fortry. The upstart Hanoverians laid claim to it and it became for many years a royal residence . Queen Charlotte, who's mother was Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hilburghausen and father Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, is said in some references to have died there c 1818. 

The only bridge in close vicinity to Kew Gardens, is Kew bridge and the author most likely crossed the Thames here, before walking south west into Brentford, where on the 12th of November 1642, the battle of Brentford was fought between the Parliamentarian forces and the Royalists. Some accounts claim it was more of a skirmish, with the Roundheads being caught unawares, after becoming a bit too chilled out while camping there and having a few beers and a barbecue.

The skirmish was fought in the ground of what is now Syon house, this is indeed built in the Italian renaissance style and is now home to the Duke of Northumberland. There was once an abbey there but it was destroyed by 'enry the eighth, who was said to be so fond of the pies, that he needed a mobility scooter to get around. A queen (for nine days allegedly) who was offered the crown at Syon house, is most likely lady Jane Grey (mother Lady Frances Brandon). I have not yet ascertained who the fourth queen who stayed in Syon was but it is said that Henry the Eighth's corpse fell out of the coffin while resting at Syon house on the way to Windsor castle and was licked by dogs, an event attributed to divine retribution by many ex Monastery inhabitants.

Lotto machines generate words as a co product of their normal operations, the Eastender's data mining exploits have found that there can be as many as twenty two possible letters which could form words, if they appeared in the next game and combine with the existing data and it is no good betting when this is the case, however, charting the number of possible letters vs number of letters which actually appear, shows that there are instances, where the number of possible letters, comes close to converging with the number which actually appear and it is here that a low cost bet can sometimes produce positive results. Here is a very nice example of such a convergence, which occurred this week, in the UK Thunderball results data:

ZEUS - Father of the gods

If you saw the sequence [Z][E][U] appearing in your carefully kept and monitored data files, which letter would you take a punt on to appear in the next game and complete the word? S perhaps? where S = 19.............

Wed 31 Jul 13 N P [S] U 31 C

Sat 27 Jul 13 P R [U] X 34 F

Fri 26 Jul 13  [E] P M 30 39 G

Wed 24 Jul 13 H K Y [Z] 29 D

The original UK Thunderball data below, was substituted as follows:

A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5, F=6, G=7, H=8, I=9, J=10, K=11, L=12, M=13, N=14, O=15,P=16

Q=17, R=18, S=19, T=20, U=21, V=22, W=23, X=24, Y=25, Z=26

Wed 31 Jul 13     14 16 19 21 31        03

Sat 27 Jul 13       16 18 21 24 34         06

Fri 26 Jul 13 05 16 19 30 39 07

Wed 24 Jul 13      08 11 25 26 29 04

Read more about this here:

Lotto Codewords In the Thunderball Game

Link to the competition

Where Was I?