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The falcon returned to the perch after a hunting foray clutching two Emperor dragonflies, presumably a mating pair as dragonflies mate in flight. In this sequence of 5 shots the male detached itself from the female and made a bid for freedom. The final fate of the male is not known, the last shot showing it tumbling from the perch, legs upwards. Females are known to feign death to avoid the attentions of males. The conjecture is was the male feigning death to avoid the attentions of the falcon?
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The Colosseum is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world today, despite its age. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79 AD) in 72 and was completed in 80 AD under his successor and heir, Titus (r. 79–81). Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian (r. 81–96). The three emperors that were patrons of the work are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium; Italian: Anfiteatro Flavio [aɱfiteˈaːtro ˈflaːvjo]) by later classicists and archaeologists for its association with their family name (Flavius).[citation needed]
The Colosseum is built of travertine limestone, tuff (volcanic rock), and brick-faced concrete. The Colosseum could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators at various points in its history having an average audience of some 65,000; it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles including animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Roman mythology, and briefly mock sea battles. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.
Although substantially ruined because of earthquakes and stone-robbers (for spolia), the Colosseum is still an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome and was listed as one of the New7Wonders of the World. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions and also has links to the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession that starts in the area around the Colosseum.
The Colosseum is also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin.The site chosen was a flat area on the floor of a low valley between the Caelian, Esquiline and Palatine Hills, through which a canalised stream ran as well as an artificial lake/marsh. By the 2nd century BC the area was densely inhabited. It was devastated by the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, following which Nero seized much of the area to add to his personal domain. He built the grandiose Domus Aurea on the site, in front of which he created an artificial lake surrounded by pavilions, gardens and porticoes. The existing Aqua Claudia aqueduct was extended to supply water to the area and the gigantic bronze Colossus of Nero was set up nearby at the entrance to the Domus Aurea.
Cross-section from the Lexikon der gesamten Technik (1904)
Although the Colossus was preserved, much of the Domus Aurea was torn down. The lake was filled in and the land reused as the location for the new Flavian Amphitheatre. Gladiatorial schools and other support buildings were constructed nearby within the former grounds of the Domus Aurea. Vespasian's decision to build the Colosseum on the site of Nero's lake can be seen as a populist gesture of returning to the people an area of the city which Nero had appropriated for his own use. In contrast to many other amphitheatres, which were on the outskirts of a city, the Colosseum was constructed in the city centre, in effect, placing it both symbolically and precisely at the heart of Rome.
Construction was funded by the opulent spoils taken from the Jewish Temple after the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 CE led to the Siege of Jerusalem. According to a reconstructed inscription found on the site, "the emperor Vespasian ordered this new amphitheatre to be erected from his general's share of the booty." It is often assumed that Jewish prisoners of war were brought back to Rome and contributed to the massive workforce needed for the construction of the amphitheatre, but there is no ancient evidence for that; it would, nonetheless, be commensurate with Roman practice to add humiliation to the defeated population. Along with this free source of unskilled labor, teams of professional Roman builders, engineers, artists, painters and decorators undertook the more specialized tasks necessary for building the Colosseum. The Colosseum was constructed with several different materials: wood, limestone, tuff, tiles, cement, and mortar.
Construction of the Colosseum began under the rule of Vespasian in around 70–72 AD (73–75 AD according to some sources). The Colosseum had been completed up to the third story by the time of Vespasian's death in 79. The top level was finished by his son, Titus, in 80, and the inaugural games were held in 80 or 81 AD. Dio Cassius recounts that over 9,000 wild animals were killed during the inaugural games of the amphitheatre. Commemorative coinage was issued celebrating the inauguration. The building was remodelled further under Vespasian's younger son, the newly designated Emperor Domitian, who constructed the hypogeum, a series of tunnels used to house animals and slaves. He also added a gallery to the top of the Colosseum to increase its seating capacity.
In 217, the Colosseum was badly damaged by a major fire (caused by lightning, according to Dio Cassius) which destroyed the wooden upper levels of the amphitheatre's interior. It was not fully repaired until about 240 and underwent further repairs in 250 or 252 and again in 320. Honorius banned the practice of gladiator fights in 399 and again in 404. Gladiatorial fights are last mentioned around 435.[citation needed] An inscription records the restoration of various parts of the Colosseum under Theodosius II and Valentinian III (reigned 425–455), possibly to repair damage caused by a major earthquake in 443; more work followed in 484 and 508. The arena continued to be used for contests well into the 6th century. Animal hunts continued until at least 523, when Anicius Maximus celebrated his consulship with some venationes, criticised by King Theodoric the Great for their high cost.
The Colosseum underwent several radical changes of use. By the late 6th century a small chapel had been built into the structure of the amphitheater, though this apparently did not confer any particular religious significance on the building as a whole. The arena was converted into a cemetery. The numerous vaulted spaces in the arcades under the seating were converted into housing and workshops, and are recorded as still being rented out as late as the 12th century. Around 1200 the Frangipani family took over the Colosseum and fortified it, apparently using it as a castle.
Severe damage was inflicted on the Colosseum by the great earthquake in 1349, causing the outer south side, lying on a less stable alluvial terrain, to collapse. Much of the tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches, hospitals and other buildings elsewhere in Rome. A religious order moved into the northern third of the Colosseum in the mid-14th century and continued to inhabit it until as late as the early 19th century. The interior of the amphitheater was extensively stripped of stone, which was reused elsewhere, or (in the case of the marble façade) was burned to make quicklime. The iron clamps which held the stonework together were pried or hacked out of the walls, leaving numerous pockmarks which still scar the building today.
During the 16th and 17th century, Church officials sought a productive role for the Colosseum. Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590) planned to turn the building into a wool factory to provide employment for Rome's prostitutes, though this proposal fell through with his premature death. In 1671 Cardinal Altieri authorized its use for bullfights; a public outcry caused the idea to be hastily abandoned.
Allied troops consult a guidebook outside the Colosseum after liberation in 1944
In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV endorsed the view that the Colosseum was a sacred site where early Christians had been martyred. He forbade the use of the Colosseum as a quarry and consecrated the building to the Passion of Christ and installed Stations of the Cross, declaring it sanctified by the blood of the Christian martyrs who perished there (see Significance in Christianity). However, there is no historical evidence to support Benedict's claim, nor is there even any evidence that anyone before the 16th century suggested this might be the case; the Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that there are no historical grounds for the supposition, other than the reasonably plausible conjecture that some of the many martyrs may well have been.
Later popes initiated various stabilization and restoration projects, removing the extensive vegetation which had overgrown the structure and threatened to damage it further. The façade was reinforced with triangular brick wedges in 1807 and 1827, and the interior was repaired in 1831, 1846 and in the 1930s. The arena substructure was partly excavated in 1810–1814 and 1874 and was fully exposed under Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.
The Colosseum is today one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, receiving millions of visitors annually. The effects of pollution and general deterioration over time prompted a major restoration programme carried out between 1993 and 2000, at a cost of 40 billion Italian lire.
In recent years, the Colosseum has become a symbol of the international campaign against capital punishment, which was abolished in Italy in 1948. Several anti–death penalty demonstrations took place in front of the Colosseum in 2000. Since that time, as a gesture against the death penalty, the local authorities of Rome change the color of the Colosseum's night time illumination from white to gold whenever a person condemned to the death penalty anywhere in the world gets their sentence commuted or is released, or if a jurisdiction abolishes the death penalty. Most recently, the Colosseum was illuminated in gold in November 2012 following the abolishment of capital punishment in the American state of Connecticut in April 2012.
Because of the ruined state of the interior, it is impractical to use the Colosseum to host large events; only a few hundred spectators can be accommodated in temporary seating. However, much larger concerts have been held just outside, using the Colosseum as a backdrop. Performers who have played at the Colosseum in recent years have included Ray Charles (May 2002), Paul McCartney (May 2003), Elton John (September 2005), and Billy Joel (July 2006).
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today we are in the very modern and up-to-date 1920s kitchen of Lettice’s flat: Edith her maid’s preserve, where she is taking possession of her latest order from Willison’s Grocers, delivered by Mr. Willison’s boy, Frank Leadbeater.
“Tinned apricots, tinned pears,” Edith marks off the items written on her list that she telephoned through to Mr. Willison’s on Thursday morning. “Plum jam, Bovril.” She places a tick next to each with a crisp mark from her pencil, the sound of it scratching across the page’s surface. “Tinned cherries. Where are the tinned cherries, Frank?” Edith asks anxiously.
“They’re right here, Miss Edith,” he remarks, delving noisly into the box of groceries between the flour and Lyon’s tea, withdrawing a small tin of My Lady tinned cherries. “Just as you ordered.”
“Oh thank goodness!” Edith sighs, placing a hand on her chest, from which she releases the breath she has been holding.
“Everything is just as you ordered and selected and packed with extra care by yours truly!” Frank pats himself with his cycling cap on the chest as he puffs it out proudly through his rust coloured knitted vest.
“Oh, get on with you, Frank!” Edith scoffs with a mild chuckle, glancing up at his charming, if slightly gormless grin before continuing her inventory of items.
“It’s true Miss Edith!” he replies, holding his cap against his heart rather melodramatically. “I swear. I packed them up myself. As his most trusted member of staff, Mr. Willison lets me do things like that as well as the deliveries.”
“I thought you were the only person he employed, Frank.” Edith remarks without looking up from her list ticking.
“Yes,” the delivery boy coughs and blusters, colouring a little at the remark. “Yes well, it is true that I am his only employee, but Mrs. Willison does do the books and his daughter helps out on Saturdays. But I am his most trusted employee, and I’m working my way up the rungs.”
“What rungs, Frank? You’re the delivery boy. What is there beyond that? Mr. Willison isn’t going to hand his family business to his delivery boy to run.”
“Well no, not yet he isn’t, but I’m doing more and more around the shop when I’m not out on my delivery round, so I’m learning about things over time.”
“Things! What things?”
“Well, Mr, Willison let me help display goods in his front window the other day. Soon I will be able to add visual merchandiser to my list of skills.”
“You’ll add what?” Edith laughs, her hand flying to her mouth as she does to try and muffle it.
“Hey, it’s not funny Miss Edith!” Frank looks forlorn and crestfallen across at the chuckling maid. “Visual merchandising. It’s just a fancy term we use for window dressing.”
“Oh, do we now?” Edith cocks an eyebrow at him. “Very fancy indeed.”
“You may laugh now, my girl,” Frank wags a finger in a playful way at Edith. “But one day you’ll say that you knew me when.”
“When you have your own grocers?” Edith sounds doubtful as she speaks.
“Well, I could do. Others have. Why shouldn’t I?”
“Oh I don’t mind you having dreams, Frank.” she assures him. “Miss Lettice tells me the same.”
The delivery boy’s ears pick up and leaning a little bit closer to Edith he asks, “So what’s your dream then, Miss Edith, since mine is so laughable?”
“My dream?” she put her hand to her chest, taken aback that anyone should be so forward, least of all the man who delivers groceries from the local up-market grocers. “My dream is to…” Then she glances up at the kitchen clock ticking solemnly away on the eau-de-nil painted wall. “Shouldn’t you be out delivering groceries to your next customer, Frank?”
“Old Lady Basting’s cook can wait for her delivery a little while longer,” Frank asserts. “She never has a kind word for me anyway. It’s always ‘stop cluttering up the area with your bike, Frank’. Anyway, she’s terrible at paying her bills. I don’t know why Mr. Willison keeps her as a customer when she always waits for reminders before paying.”
“Well, a customer is a customer, Frank, even a late paying one. Quite a lot of cooks of titled families around here do the same. It’s almost like it’s expected that they don’t have to pay on time.”
“Expected?”
“You know: their right. Their right not to pay on time because that would be acknowledging that money makes business revolve.”
“Well it does, Miss Edith.”
“I know that Frank, and you know that, but families like Miss Lettice’s, they never like talking about money. It’s almost as if it’s dirty.”
“I imagine when you have so much money you never have to worry about it, why would you talk about it?”
“I suppose so Frank. Well, that’s it.” She smiles and puts down her notepad with a satisfied sigh. “That’s everything.”
“Course it is, Miss Edith. I told you I packed it myself, and Frank Leadbetter won’t ever let you down.”
“Well, since you’re whiling away some time, Frank, do you fancy a cup of tea then?” Edith asks with a shy smile.
“Oh, thank you!” Replies the young man. “Only if it isn’t too much trouble, mind you.”
“Oh it’s no trouble. I’m going to have one myself before I pack all this away,” she waves her hand expansively at the piles of groceries. “I can fetch two cups as easily as I can one.”
“I shan’t say no then, Miss Edith.” Frank agrees readily. “Cycling groceries around Mayfair, Belgravia and Pimlico is thirsty work.”
Edith goes to the dresser and fetches out two Delftware cups and saucers, the sugar bowl and milk jug which she arranges on the end of the table not covered in grocery items. She places the kettle on the stovetop and lights it with one of the matches from the red and white Webb Matches box that Frank has just brought. Then she scuttles across the black and white linoleum floor with the jug to the food safe where she fills it with a splash of milk, before bringing it back to the table.
“One of those Huntly and Palmers* chocolate dessert biscuits wouldn’t go astray with it.” Frank says reaching down to the elegantly decorated buttercup yellow and bluish grey tin.
“Ah-ah!” Edith slaps Frank’s hand away before he can remove the lid. “Those aren’t for you Frank, any more than they are me! I’ve got some leftover Family Assorted in the biscuit barrel. You can settle for one of them, if you deign, Mr. Leadbetter, Greengrocer to the best families in Mayfair.” She giggles girlishly and her smile towards him is returned with a beaming smile of his own.
“So, Miss Edith,” Frank asks with a cheeky smile as he leans over the box. “What is it you’re making me for my tea?”
“You, Frank Leadbetter?” she laughs in amazement. “You have quite some cheek today, don’t you?”
“Alright then, if it isn’t for me, what and who are these groceries for?”
“What and for whom, Frank.” Edith corrects him kindly.
“Is that what your dream is? To teach people how to speak properly, like that chap in Pygmalion** then? What’s his name?”
“Higgins, Henry Higgins.” Edith replies. “And no, I don’t. And stop fishing for information not freely given.” She gives his nose a playful squeeze as she crosses her arms akimbo and waits for the kettle to boil. “No, most of this is for a special dinner party Miss Lettice is throwing for friends from Buenos Aires who have come to see the wedding of Princess Mary to Viscount Lascelles***. They want summer pudding,” She tuts scornfully. “In the middle of winter!”
“Thus, all the tinned fruits.”
“Since I cannot move the seasons to those of the southern hemisphere, yes.”
Edith hears the kettle on the stove boiling and pours hot water into the white teapot sitting on the server shelf attached to the right of the stove. Placing the knitted cosy over its top, she moves it to the table. She looks Frank Leadbetter up and down as she does. He stands there, leaning against the deal kitchen table, dressed in dark trousers, a white shirt that could do with a decent pressing, his rust coloured knitted vest and a Brunswick green tie****. She looks at his face. He’s quite handsome really, now she looks at him, with fresh rosy cheeks, wind tousled sandy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes.
“You know what Mrs. Boothby said to me, Frank?” Edith chuckles, picking up the pot and swirling the tea in it before pouring some into both cups.
“No!” Frank replies, accepting one cup. “What?”
“She thought that I was sweet on you, and that we might be stepping out together.”
“Really?”
“Yes really! That’s what she thought. She let it slip a month or so ago.”
Frank adds a heaped teaspoon full of sugar to his tea and stirs it thoughtfully. “Is that such a terrible idea?”
“What?” Edith asks.
“Us,” He indicates with a wagging finger between Edith and himself. “You and me, I mean, stepping out.”
“Well,” Edith feels a blush rising up her throat and flooding her cheeks. “No. Not at all, Frank. I was just saying that Mrs. Boothby thought we were, when we aren’t.” She looks away from Frank’s expectant face and spoons sugar into her own tea. “I hadn’t really given it much thought.”
“Ahh, but you have given it some consideration, then?”
Edith keeps quiet a moment and thinks with eyes downcast. “A little bit, in passing I suppose.”
“And what if we were, Edith?” Surprised by the sudden dropping of her title in a very familiar address, Edith glances back at Frank who looks at her in earnest. “Walking out together, I mean. Would that be agreeable to you?”
“Are you asking me to walk out with you, Frank Leadbetter?” Edith gasps.
“Well, yes, I suppose I am.” Frank chuckles awkwardly, his face colouring with his own blush of embarrassment. “Only if you’re agreeable to it of course.”
“Yes,” Edith smiles. “Yes, I’m agreeable to that, Frank.”
“You are?” Frank’s eyes widen in disbelief as his mouth slackens slightly.
“For a man so sure of his prospects, you seem surprised, Frank.”
“Oh well,” he stumbles. “Its not… I mean… I mean I am. I… I just didn’t think you… well… you know being here and all…”
“It’s aright Frank. I was only teasing.” replies Edith kindly. “You don’t need to explain.”
“And Miss Chetwynd doesn’t…”
“Oh no, Frank! As long as my work isn’t interfered with, Miss Lettice won’t mind. She’s a very kind and modern thinking mistress, Unlike Mrs. Plaistow.”
“I remember that was where I first set eyes on you, Edith, at her terrace in Pimlico.”
“Do you Frank?”
“I do.” Frank smiles proudly.
The two chuckle and shyly keep glancing at one another before looking away and burying themselves in their cups of tea awkwardly.
“Your day off is Wednesday, isn’t it?” Frank asks eventually.
“It is, Frank, how observant of you to notice,”
“Well, it pays to take note of things in my profession. You just never know when it might come in handy.” He taps the side of his nose knowingly.
“Only, I go and help my Mum on my day off.” Edith explains.
“Oh,” Frank says defeatedly, then thinks for a moment and adds. “Well, I work Wednesday anyway.”
“What days don’t you work, Frank?”
“Well, I don’t work Sundays. So, I’m free after church services are over.”
Edith laughs, “Well that works rather well then, as I have Sundays free until four.”
Frank joins Edith’s laughter. “Sunday it is then!”
The pair fall into an awkward silence again.
“So, where would you like to go, Edith?” asks Frank eventually, shattering the quiet punctuated only by the swinging pendulum of the wall clock.
“Well,” Edith replies after a few moments. “Miss Lettice’s client, Wanetta Ward is starring in a new moving picture called ‘After the Ball is Over’ at the Premier in East Ham*****. We could go and see that.”
“Sounds brilliant, Edith!”
Edith smiles shyly and blushes again, a sparkle shining in her eyes. “Yes, it does rather.”
* Huntley and Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world’s first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley and Son and Huntley and Palmer. Huntley and Palmer were renown for their ‘superior reading biscuits’ which they promoted in different varieties for different occasions, including at breakfast time, and as a dessert biscuit.
**Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological figure. Written in 1912, it premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on the 16th of October 1913 and was first presented in English on stage to the public in 1913. Its English-language premiere took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. Shaw's play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the 1938 film Pygmalion starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, the 1956 musical My Fair Lady and its 1964 film version starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn.
***Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (1897 – 1965), was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sister of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Queen Elizabeth II. She married Viscount Lascelles on the 28th of February 1922 in a ceremony held at Westminster Abbey. The bride was only 24 years old, whilst the groom was 39. There is much conjecture that the marriage was an unhappy one, but their children dispute this and say it was a very happy marriage based upon mutual respect. The wedding was filmed by Pathé News and was the first royal wedding to be featured in fashion magazines, including Vogue.
****In pre World War II times, it was unusual for even the most low paid male workers like delivery men to dress in a shirt, jacket, vest and tie. It represented respectability and the drive for upward mobility in a class conscious society. It is where the term “white collar job” comes from.
*****The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
This domestic scene may not be all that it appears, for it is made up completely of items from my 1:12 miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
All of Edith’s groceries are 1:12 artisan miniatures with amazing attention to detail as regards the labels of different foods. Some are still household names today. So many of these tins of various foods would have been household staples in the 1920s when canning and preservation revolutinised domestic cookery. They come from various different suppliers including Shepherds Miniatures in the United Kingdom, Kathleen Knight’s Doll House in the United Kingdom, Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering and Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The cardboard box branded with the name Sunlight Soap and the paper shopping bag also come from Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.
Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick and salty meat extract paste similar to a yeast extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston. It is sold in a distinctive bulbous jar, and as cubes and granules. Bovril is owned and distributed by Unilever UK. Its appearance is similar to Marmite and Vegemite. Bovril can be made into a drink ("beef tea") by diluting with hot water or, less commonly, with milk. It can be used as a flavouring for soups, broth, stews or porridge, or as a spread, especially on toast in a similar fashion to Marmite and Vegemite.
Bird’s were best known for making custard and Bird’s Custard is still a common household name, although they produced other desserts beyond custard, including the blancmange. They also made Bird’s Golden Raising Powder – their brand of baking powder. Bird’s Custard was first formulated and first cooked by Alfred Bird in 1837 at his chemist shop in Birmingham. He developed the recipe because his wife was allergic to eggs, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. The Birds continued to serve real custard to dinner guests, until one evening when the egg-free custard was served instead, either by accident or design. The dessert was so well received by the other diners that Alfred Bird put the recipe into wider production. John Monkhouse (1862–1938) was a prosperous Methodist businessman who co-founded Monk and Glass, which made custard powder and jelly. Monk and Glass custard was made in Clerkenwell and sold in the home market, and exported to the Empire and to America. They acquired by its rival Bird’s Custard in the early Twentieth Century.
P.C. Flett and Company was established in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands by Peter Copeland Flett. He had inherited a small family owned ironmongers in Albert Street Kirkwall, which he inherited from his maternal family. He had a shed in the back of the shop where he made ginger ale, lemonade, jams and preserves from local produce. By the 1920s they had an office in Liverpool, and travelling representatives selling jams and preserves around Great Britain. I am not sure when the business ceased trading.
S.P.C. is an Australian brand that still exists to this day. In 1917 a group of fruit growers in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley decided to form a cooperative which they named the Shepperton Fruit Preserving Company. The company began operations in February 1918, canning pears, peaches and nectarines under the brand name of S.P.C. On the 31st of January 1918 the manager of the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company announced that canning would begin on the following Tuesday and that the operation would require one hundred and fifty girls or women and thirty men. In the wake of the Great War, it was hoped that “the launch of this new industry must revive drooping energies” and improve the economic circumstances of the region. The company began to pay annual bonuses to grower-shareholders by 1929, and the plant was updated and expanded. The success of S.P.C. was inextricably linked with the progress of the town and the wider Goulburn Valley region. In 1936 the company packed twelve million cans and was the largest fruit cannery in the British empire. Through the Second World War the company boomed. The product range was expanded to include additional fruits, jam, baked beans and tinned spaghetti and production reached more than forty-three million cans a year in the 1970s. From financial difficulties caused by the 1980s recession, SPC returned once more to profitability, merging with Ardmona and buying rival company Henry Jones IXL. S.P.C. was acquired by Coca Cola Amatil in 2005 and in 2019 sold to a private equity group known as Shepparton Partners Collective.
Peter Leech and Sons was a grocers that operated out of Lowther Street in Whitehaven from the 1880s. They had a large range of tinned goods that they sold including coffee, tea, tinned salmon and golden syrup. They were admired for their particularly attractive labelling. I do not know exactly when they ceased production, but I believe it may have happened just before the Second World War.
Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884. It was created by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme). It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight.
Webb matches were manufactured by the match firm Bryant and May. Bryant and May was a British company created in the mid Nineteenth Century specifically to make matches. Their original Bryant and May Factory was located in Bow, London. They later opened other match factories in the United Kingdom and Australia, such as the Bryant and May Factory in Melbourne, and owned match factories in other parts of the world. Formed in 1843 by two Quakers, William Bryant and Francis May, Bryant and May survived as an independent company for over seventy years, but went through a series of mergers with other match companies and later with consumer products companies. The registered trade name Bryant amd May still exists and it is owned by the Swedish Match Company, as are many of the other registered trade names of the other, formerly independent, companies within the Bryant and May group.
Lyons Tea was first produced by J. Lyons and Co., a catering empire created and built by the Salmons and Glucksteins, a German-Jewish immigrant family based in London. Starting in 1904, J Lyons began selling packaged tea through its network of teashops. Soon after, they began selling their own brand Lyons Tea through retailers in the UK, Ireland and around the world. In 1918, Lyons purchased Hornimans and in 1921 they moved their tea factory to J. Lyons and Co., Greenford at that time, the largest tea factory in Europe. In 1962, J Lyons and Company (Ireland) became Lyons Irish Holdings. After a merger with Allied Breweries in 1978, Lyons Irish Holdings became part of Allied Lyons (later Allied Domecq) who then sold the company to Unilever in 1996. Today, Lyons Tea is produced in England. Lyons Tea was a major advertiser in the early decades of RTÉ Television, featuring the "Lyons minstrels" and coupon-based prize competitions.
The Dry Fork Milling Company, which produced Dry Fork Flour was based in Dry Fork Virginia. They were well known for producing cornmeal. They were still producing cornmeal and flour into the 1950s. Today, part of the old mill buildings are used as a reception centre.
Edith’s Windsor chair is a hand-turned 1:12 artisan miniature which came from America. Unfortunately, the artist did not carve their name under the seat, but it is definitely an unmarked artisan piece.
To the left of the sink is the food safe with a mop leaning against it. In the days before refrigeration, or when refrigeration was expensive, perishable foods such as meat, butter, milk and eggs were kept in a food safe. Winter was easier than summer to keep food fresh and butter coolers and shallow bowls of cold water were early ways to keep things like milk and butter cool. A food safe was a wooden cupboard with doors and sides open to the air apart from a covering of fine galvinised wire mesh. This allowed the air to circulate while keeping insects out. There was usually an upper and a lower compartment, normally lined with what was known as American cloth, a fabric with a glazed or varnished wipe-clean surface. Refrigerators, like washing machines were American inventions and were not commonplace in even wealthy upper-class households until well after the Second World War.
And welcome to our annual trip round the churches of Kent during the Heritage Open Weekend as organised by English Heritage.
On a wet and cool morning, our first stop was just outside Dartford at Sutton-at-Hone, where we hoped it would be open. As it was, the door was unlocked and two volunteers met us and offered us tea and biscuits as well as our own tour round the church. A fine welcome.
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A fascinating church showing good quality medieval work and contrasting nineteenth-century rebuilding. The main chancel and nave date from the fourteenth century - a period of much rebuilding in this part of Kent - while the south aisle is separated from the nave by an unequivocally Victorian arcade. In April 1615 the church was accidentally burnt down by a man shooting pigeons (see also Charing) and all the furnishings date from after this period. Especially fine is the early seventeenth-century pulpit. The monument in the south aisle to Sir Thomas Smythe (d. 1625), an early official of the East India Company, is a good example of alabaster craftsmanship.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sutton+at+Hone
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SUTTON-AT-HONE
LIES the next parish south-eastward from Wilmington, and was once so considerable, as to give name to the whole lath. It was called in Latin, Suthtuna, from its situation south of the town of Dartford, and had the addition of At-Hone, from its lying low in the valley.
THIS PARISH contains about 3100 acres of land, of which 250 are wood. It is pleasantly situated as to the eastern part of it in the vale, through which a branch of the river Darent runs at the eastern boundary of it, near which the turnpike road from Dartford to Farningham, and so on to Sevenoke, leads through it, passing through Hawley and the village of Sutton; near it are most of the gentlemen's seats in it mentioned below, the parsonage, and vicarage. Hence the ground rises westward to the hill, having the church standing at one field's distance from the above road, still higher to Gilton-hill and Swanley, at the western boundary as the parish, at Birchwood corner, adjoining to the high road from Foot's Cray to Farningham. The soil of this parish is in general light, stony, and much inclined to gravel, though there is a good deal of chalk in several different parts of it; and there is some fertile lands in the southern part, adjoining to Horton; the western part, adjoining to the Farningham road, is very poor indeed, and such of it as is not coppice wood is mostly covered with heath and furze, especially about that part called the Warren.
Our HERBALISTS have taken notice of the following SCARCE HERBS and PLANTS in this parish, viz.
Ocymum sylvestre, or wild basil, found in plenty near St. John's. (fn. 1)
Millesolium flare rubro, red flowered yarrow, in the Hollydeans.
Ebulus, five sambucus humilis, dane wort, or dwarf elder, in the grounds near St. John's, and in the Netherway there.
Tapsus barbatus, mullein, or bigtaper, grows likewise iu plenty uear St. John's.
That curious naturalist, Abraham Hill, esq. lord of the manor of St. John's, about the year 1670, planted in an orchard, adjoining to his mansion here, the most curious fruits from Devonshire and Herefordshire, both apples and pears, used in those counties for making cyder and perry, with the intent of introducing them among the orchards of this county, many of which are still remaining here; among which are many trees of that scarce fruit, called the Kentish pippin.
In the book of Domesday, Levenot de Sudtone is said to have had the privileges of sac and soc within the lath of Sutton.
Robert Basing, in the reign of king John, gave to the Knights Hospitallers the MANORS of SUTTON-AT-HONE and of HALGELL, now HAWLEY, in this parish.
Elen de Saukevile, daughter of Ralph de Dene, gave all her land of Lageham, in Penshurst, to the manor of Sutton. Ralph de Penshurst gave more lands and rents there to this manor. Nicholas, son of Nicholas de Twytham, gave rents, with their appurtenances, in the parish of Sutton; and Gilbert, son of William Helles, gave more lands and rents to it. In the first year of king Edward, the prior of St. John had a confirmation of his liberties for his lands in Sutton-at-Hone, (fn. 2) &c. This manor seems, by the antient rentals of it, to have been formerly accounted but as an appendage to that possessed by the knights in Dartford, which was constantly stiled, Manerium de Derteford cum Sutton-at-Hone; which, besides the parishes of Dartford and Sutton, extended into those of Ash, Penshurst, Edenbridge, Chelsfield, and Nockholt, and into Limpsfield, in Surry.
The manor of Sutton continued part of the possessions of the Knights Hospitallers, who had a commandery established here. This was a convenient mansion, of which they had several on their different estates, in which there was a society of these knights placed, who were to take care of their rents and lands in the neighbourhood of it. They were allowed proper maintenance out of the revenues under their care, and the remainder was accounted for to the grand prior at London; (fn. 3) in which state it remained till their dissolution, in the 32d year of king Henry VIII. when by an act, passed specially for that purpose, all their lands and possessions were given to the king; who, that year, granted the office of receiver-general of the revenues of the late dissolved hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, in England, to Sir Maurice Denys, descended of a good family in Gloucestershire, who bore for his arms, Gules, three leopards heads, or, jessant fleurs de lis azure, over all a bend engrailed of the third; and he, from this grant, and having the grant of several of these possessions afterwards, acquired the addition of St. John's to his name. In like manner all other great estates and possessions, as well of the late monasteries as of attainted persons, were sought after by the courtiers and great men, who first begged the offices of bailiffs and receivers of them, to be more certainly acquainted with their value, and then got the grants of them in fee; after which, in his 35th year, he granted to Sir Maurice Denys St. John's, among other premises, this manor of Sutton-at-Hone, alias St. John's, the chapel of Sutton, and other lands and premises belonging to it, to hold in capite, by knights service.
Anno 4 queen Elizabeth, Sir Maurice Denys levied a fine of this manor, and two years after died possessed of it, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death. Lady Elizabeth Denys, his widow, who had been first the wife of Nicholas Stathan, mercer, of London, by whom she had no issue, then became possessed of it, and died in the 19th year of it; and by her will gave this manor to her only daughter, Elizabeth, the widow of Vincent Randyll, esq. and their two daughters, Catherine and Martha, who, on their mother's death, became possessed of it in undivided moieties. Martha Randyll carried her moiety in marriage to Thomas Cranfield, esq. of London, who bore for his arms, Or, on a pale azure, three fleurs de lis of the first; on whose death it came to their son, Sir Randyll Cranfield, who, in the 7th year of king Charles I. executed a writ of partition of this manor with Sarah countess of Leicester, and her son Sir John Smith, owners of the other moiety of it; and each of them possessing part of the demesnes, as well as part of the services, each moiety became a separate manor.
That which was allotted to Cranfield retained the name of St. John's, alias SUTTON MANOR, and included the antient mansion and chapel of the knightshere; and to this manor was allotted the court leet, usually held for it. Sir Randyll Cranfield, by his will, in 1635, gave this manor of St. John's, alias Sutton, to his son, Vincent Cranfield. esq. who, by deed and fine, laid in 1649, conveyed it to Mr. Thomas Hollis, merchant, of London; and he, with Elizabeth his wife, in 1660, passed it away, by deed and fine levied, to Abraham Hill, esq. merchant of London, who did not get possession of it till the year 1667. He afterwards resided at St. John's, where he died in 1721, and was buried in Sutton church. He was descended of a good family, who had been for some generations seated at Shilston, in Devonshire; one of whom, Robert Hill, esq. was sheriff of that county in the 7th year of king Henry VI. and representative in parliament for it in the 26th of that reign, and bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron between three water bougets, sable. One of his descendants, and fifth son of Robert Hill, esq. of Shilston, seated himself at Truro, in Cornwall, whose son Richard was an alderman of the city of London. He died in 1659, and was bu ried with much pomp in the church of St. Dionis Backchurch, London, leaving by Agnes his wife, a son, Abraham Hill, esq. before mentioned, who was a most ingenious and learned man, one of the first encouragers, and a fellow of the Royal Society, at the first institution of it. By his first wife Anne, daughter of Sir Bulstrode Whitlock, he left a son, Richard, and a daughter, Frances.
Richard Hill, esq. survived his father but a few weeks, and dying without issue, this manor devolved to his sister, Mrs. Frances Hill, who resided here, and died possessed of it, in 1736, unmarried, and lies buried in the south isle of Sutton church, with the rest of her family, having a most remarkable and singular epitaph on her monument and grave stone; she by her will gave it, as well as her other Kentish estates, near Tunbridge, to her kinsman, William Hill, esq. of Carwythinick, in Cornwall, who in the latter end of 1780, sold it to Mr. John Mumford, of Sutton place, who died in 1787, and by his will devised this manor to his eldest son, William Mumford, esq. of this parish, the present owner of it; and the mansion of it to his youngest son John Mumford, esq. who was sheriff in 1796, and now resides in it. Of the mansion the north side only remains, which was formerly the chapel belonging to it: this has long since been converted into the dwelling-house, and was almost rebuilt in the year 1755.
The OTHER MOIETY of the manor of St. John's, alias Sutton-at-Hone, since known by the name of SUTTON MANOR, was carried in marriage, by Catherine, the other daughter of Vincent Randyll, to Robert Wrote, esq. whose son, Francis Wrote, esq. of Gunton, in Suffolk, in the 10th year of king James, conveyed it to Sir William Swan, of Southfleet; and he, in the 14th year of the same reign, passed it away to George Cole, esq. of the Inner Temple, London, who, two years after, sold this moiety, together with the moiety of the chapel of the late priory of St. John's, with all tithes, oblations, &c. belonging to it, and other lands in Sutton and Wilmington, to Sir Thomas Smith, second son of Customer Smith, of Westenhanger, who was a great navigator, and entrusted in many weighty matters relating to the trade of this kingdom. He had been ambassador to the emperor of Russia, and afterwards resided at Brookeplace in this parish, where he died in 1625, as is conjectured, of the plague, which raged greatly here at that time. He bore for his arms, Azure, a chevron engrailed, or, between three lions passant guardant of the second; which he quartered with those of Judde, Chiche, Criol, Creveceur, Averenches, Chichele, and Stafford; having by will left many charitable benefactions to several parishes in this county, and entrusted them to the care of the Skinner's company, who pay them yearly. He lies buried in this church, under a most costly monument, having his effigies at full length recumbent on it. He left by his third wife, Sarah, daughter and heir of William Blount, esq. who was the next year married to Robert Sidney earl of Leicester; a son, John, afterwards knighted, who, together with his mother, Sarah, countess of Leicester, owners of one moiety of the manor of St. John's, executed their writ of partition of it with Sir Randyll Cranfield, owner of the other moiety, in the 7th year of Charles I. as has been already mentioned.
THAT PART, allotted to the countess of Leicester and her son, thus becoming a separate manor, with a court baron appendant to it, acquired the name of the manor of Sutton, and after the countess of Leicester's death, came, with Brook-place, into Sir John Smith's possession. He died possessed of Sutton manor and Brook-place, with much other land in this county, leaving by the lady Isabella, daughter of the earl of Warwick, one son, Robert, and a daughter, Isabella, married to John lord Robartes, of Truro.
¶Robert Smythe, esq. was of Bounds, in Bidborough, and of Sutton, and married the lady Dorothy Sidney, relict of Henry earl of Sunderland, by whom he had one son, Robert Smythe, esq. of Sutton-atHone, who was governor of Dover castle, and died in 1695, possessed of this manor and Brook-place, leaving Catherine his wife, daughter of William Stafford, of Blatherwick, in Northamptonshire, surviving, and two sons, Henry and William, (fn. 4) to whom this manor and seat descended, as heirs in gavelkind.
In the 10th year of king William, she, as guardian to her two insant sons, obtained an act of parliament for vesting this manor and seat, among others, in this county, in trustees to sell the same, who accordingly, in 1699, conveyed them to Sir John Le Thieullier, of London.
Charities.
FOUR ACRES of land were given for the repair of the church.
THOMAS TERREY, yeoman, of Shoreham, in 1628 gave by will, a house and land at Dean in Horton, to the poor, now of the annual produce of 3l. 5s.
Mrs. KATHERINE WROTE built, and gave to the use of this parish, an alms-house, containing 4 rooms on a floor, with separate gardens. On the front of these houses is this inscription: These alms houses were erected by Kath. Wrote, widow, late wife of Robt. Wrote, esq. A. D. 1597. And these two coats of arms: Three piles azure, on a chief of the 2d, a griffin passant; and, on a saltier azure, 5 swans impaling on a bend 3 birds. And she left by will a house, barn and garden, adjoining the north end of the above houses, for the repair of them, now of the annual produce of 3l. 10s.
SIR THOMAS SMITH gave by will in 1625, the yearly sum of 5l. 10s. for six loaves of good bread, of 4d. each, to be given every Sunday to fix of the poorest and most honest inhabiting householders of this parish, to be paid by the Skinners Company.
Mrs. CATHERINE BAMME, of Gillingham, gave by her deed in 1572, 20s. per annum for the use of the poor, to be paid out of a farm, called Darlands, in Gillingham, vested in lord Vere.
The tenant of the parsonage is bound, by his lease from the dean and chapter, to give 20 bushels of peas, and two bushels of wheat yearly to the poor.
ABRAHAM HILL, esq. and his heirs, as lords of the manor of St. John's, on the ground of which the alms-houses before-mentioned were built, have the right of nominating a poor person to the southernmost of them; he having, in 1720, built two more houses on the garden-ground of that house. His daughter, Mrs. Frances Hill, allotted a small field adjoining, for gardens and other uses of those houses.
THOMAS HARRIS, esq. in 1769, by will gave 5l. per annum to the poor, to buy linen cloth for the term of 50 years, vested in the heirs of John Mumford, esq. and now of that annual produce.
SUTTON-AT-HONE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the deanry of Dartford, and diocese of Rochester. The church is a handsome building, consisting of two isles and a chancel, with a towersteeple at the west end, containing three bells. It is dedicated to St. John Baptist.
It was, on April 27, 1615, burnt down, by a person's firing off a gun in the church at a bird, that had taken shelter in it. From which time till April 21, 1617, all baptisms were solemnized at Darent.
Among other monuments and memorials in this church are the following:—In the chancel, a memorial for Thomas Gifford, M. D. obt. 1669, arms, a lion passant guardant on a chief, three stirrups; under the raised part of it, on which the altar stands, is a vault, in which several of the vicars and their families are buried. At the west end of the south isle, near the door, are memorials for the Staceys of Deptford, buried in a vault underneath, arms, on a fess 3 fleurs de lis between 3 birds. Against the south wall, a monument, with the figure of a woman in white marble, half length, in alto relievo, for Mrs. Frances Hill, daughter of Abraham Hill, esq. great grand daughter of William, lord Willoughby, of Parham, obt. unmarried 1736, æt. 78; arms, Hill. In the small south chancel, at the east end, a mural monument for Abraham Hill, esq. of St. John's, in this parish, the son of Richard Hill, esq. descended out of Devonshire; he was twice married, 1st, to Anne, daughter of Sir Bulstrode Whitlock, by Frances, daughter of William, lord Willoughby, of Parham; 2dly, to Elizabeth, daughter of Michael Pratt, esq. by the former he left Frances and Richard. He died 1721, æt. 88; arms, Hill, impaling azure a chevron ingrailed, between 3 falcons, or, and again impaling Pratt. Another monument for Richard Hill, esq. be fore-mentioned. He married Frances Eyres, and died in 1722, s. p. and she re-married in 1723, Francis Bathurst, esq. of Franks, in Horton. On the south side is a most stately monument, on which, under an arch richly ornamented, lies the figure of a man at full length in his robes, his head resting on a cushion, the whole finely executed, and over him an inscription for Sir Thomas Smith, of Sutton-place, in this parish, governor of the EastIndia and other trading companies, treasurer of the Virginian plantation, prime undertaker in 1612, of the discovery of the north-west passage, and some time ambassador to the emperor and great duke of Russia and Muscovy, &c. &c. obt. 1625; at the top, on each side, a celestial and terrestrial globe, and between them a large shield of arms, being Smith, azure a chevron ingrailed between 3 lions passant, guardant, or, quartering 8 other coats. A memorial for Henry Smith, esq. son and heir of Robert Smith, esq. great grandson of Sir Thomas Smith beforementioned. The said Henry left by Elizabeth, only daughter of Dr. John Lloyd, prebendary of Windsor, an only child, Sydney Stafford Smith. He died in 1706, æt. 29, leaving his widow surviving. Above, the arms of Smith impaling Lloyd, at the entrance to this chancel are 2 small antient folding doors of oak carved with gothic work, on the upper part of which are scrolls, and on each door a full face, carved with a tongue, through a buckle hanging out of the mouth, being an allusion to an antient family in this parish of the name of Puckletongue; under the pew in the north isle, belonging to Hawley-house, is a vault, in which lie several of the owners of that seat, especially of the family of Leigh, to the present time. In the church yard is a vault and monument for John Lethieullier, esq. of Sutton-place, and his two wives; he died s. p. in 1760; and on the north side a tomb, and under it a vault for the Percivals, of Hawley, in this parish; and on the south side are vaults for the Saundersons, of Gillingham, and the Searles, of Hackstable. (fn. 20)
King Henry I. granted the church of Sutton, with the chapels of Kingsdown and Wilmington, with the tythes of them in corn, cattle, pannage, mills, and all other things, to the priory of St. Andrew, in Rochester. (fn. 21)
Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, who was elected to this see in the time of the Conqueror, having divided the revenues of his church between himself and his convent, allotted this church, with the chapels belonging to it, to the share of the monks, which was confirmed by king Henry II. and afterwards by Henry, bishop of Rochester. (fn. 22)
Bishop Gilbert de Glanvill, in the reign of king Richard I. on the compromise of the great dispute, which he had with the priory, concerning the gifts which bishop Gundulph, his predecessor, had made to it, granted this church, with the chapel of Wilmington, to the priory, towards the support of their almonry; and ordained, that Gilbert, then rector, should be perpetual vicar of it, paying to the monks, as for the tithes of corn, four marcs yearly; and that, after his decease, or resignation, the perpetual vicar of Sutton should have cure of souls, and in the name of his vicarage, take for his maintenance, all the altarage, as well in small tythes as in oblations, and all obventions belonging to it, except the tythe of corn; and further, that he should possess the alms-land then belonging to it, or which any one might in future give to it, excepting the court-lodge, with the buildings and the meadow belonging to the monks there. And he further ordained, that the cellarer of the priory should sustain all the burthens of it, as well in respect to the bishop as the archdeacon, except synodals, which the vicar himself should pay. It appears by the decrees of archbishop Hubert and Richard, that this appropriation was merely conditional; and it seems never to have taken place; (fn. 23) for in the year 1253, Laurence, bishop of Rochester, appropriated and confirmed to the priory this church, with the chapels of Kingsdown and Wilmington, towards the support of the almonry, in recompence for their giving up their right in the churches of Frindsbury and Dartford, which he got appropriated to his own fee, (fn. 24) provided that the cure of souls in the said church and chapel should be served, and in no wife neglected, by a proper vicar, who should be from time to time provided by the bishop, and his successors, in the church of Sutton; and to proper vicars in the said chapels, to be presented to him and his successors, by the prior and convent. This appropriation was confirmed by John, bishop of Rochester, in 1478. (fn. 25)
In consequence of the above appropriation, the paparishes of Sutton and Wilmington continued one parsonage, with two distinct vicarages; which were, at the general dissolution, surrendered, together with the other possessions of the priory of Rochester, into the hands of the crown, and were two years afterwards, anno 33 king Henry VIII. settled, by that king on the new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, part of whose possessions they still remain.
In the 15th year of king Edward I. the church of Sutton was valued at thirty-five marcs, and the vicarage at one hundred shillings. (fn. 26)
Walter, prior, and the convent of Rochester, in the 29th year of king Henry VIII. demised for the term of eighty-five years, to Nicholas Statham, gent. this parsonage, with the presentation to the vicarage, at the yearly rent of 13l. 6s. 8d. and three bushels of wheat, at Ladytide, to the poor of Sutton and Wilmington; the said Nicholas to repair the premises, and to find straw for thatching the churches of Sutton and Wilmington.
¶By the survey taken by order of the state in December 1649, of the manor and rectory of Sutton, parcel of the then late dean and chapter of Rochester, it appears, that it then consisted of the scite, containing two large barns, a small granary, and barn-yard of two roods of land; all which were estimated at two pounds per annum, and the tythes belonging to it at seventyeight pounds per annum. All which were let, by the dean and chapter, anno 14 king Charles I. to the trustees of Ambrose Beale, for twenty-one years, at 13l. 11s. 8d. The lessee was bound to repair the chancel, and to make the usual payment to the vicar of Sutton, of twenty bushels of peas annually, and two bushels of wheat; to the vicar of Wilmington, of wheat, rye, barley, peas, one quarter each, and twenty shillings and eight-pence in money; the vicarages of the churches being excepted out of the lease.
By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of church livings, in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned, that Sutton at-Hone was a vicarage, worth sixty pounds per annum; master Robert Hazelwood then enjoying it. (fn. 27)
This vicarage was augmented by the dean and chapter, soon after the restoration, with the annual sum of ten pounds, besides which the vicar receives an old pension of four nobles, and four quarters of grain, viz. of wheat, rye, barley, and peas, one quarter of each, out of the parsonage; and two shillings annually from Sir Thomas Smith's charity.
The demesne lands belonging to the manor of St. John's, claim an exemption from tythes when in the owner's occupation, as having part of the revenues of the knights hospitallers, concerning which exemption a decree was made confirming it, anno 10 Elizabeth. (fn. 28)
There are twenty-four acres and a half of glebe land, widely dispersed in small pieces, belonging to this vicarage. It is valued in the king's books at ten pounds, and the yearly tenths at one pound. (fn. 29) The present value of the parsonage is near four hundred pounds per annum, and the yearly out goings about fifty pounds. Thomas Harris, lessee of this parsonage, who died in 1769, built near the yard, on part of the glebe, a small but neat parsonage house, in which Mr. William Mumford, the present lessee of it, till lately resided.
The court antiently held for the manor of this rectory, has been disused for a number of years.
There was an agreement concerning tythes entered into between the monks of Rochester, and the brotherhood of the knights of St. John's, in 1217; after much altercation, and an appeal to the pope, by which it was settled, that the monks should take the tythes of sheaves in the demesne lands, which the brotherhood possessed in Sutton, who were allowed a right to take all other tythes whatsoever arising therefrom. (fn. 30)
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
It is a few days before the wedding of Her Royal Highness, Princess Mary* to Viscount Lascelles at Westminster Abbey, to which both Lettice and her childhood friend Gerald Bruton, have been invited, amongst other friends from their Embassy Club coterie. Gerald, also a member of the aristocracy, has tried to gain some financial independence from his impecunious family by designing gowns from a shop in Grosvenor Street. With some recent good press in Vogue after a wedding gown he designed for his and Lettice’s friend Margot de Virre featured, he has attained some modest success, and a few of his creations will grace female guests at the wedding. This hasn’t stopped him from making a frock of oyster satin with pearl buttons and a guipure lace** Peter Pan collar*** for Lettice to wear to the ceremony and he has just arrived at her Cavendish Mews flat with it in hand to deliver to her in person, only to discover that she is out on an errand.
“Oh Edith, is he still here?” Lettice gasps breathlessly as the front door to her flat is opened by her maid. “It took such an effort to get back here.” She places a slightly clammy glove clad hand on Edith’s shoulder as she tries to catch her breath.
“Mr. Bruton Miss?” Edith asks in surprise at her mistress’ flustered and panting state. When her question is responded to with an affirmative nod, she continues. “He’s only just arrived with your frock for the wedding, Miss. He’s in the drawing room.”
“Oh good!” Lettice sighs, quickly hurrying through the door into the drawing room without even taking off her coat or hat or depositing her parasol into the umbrella stand. “I’ll see him now.”
Edith shakes her head in puzzlement at her mistress as she watches her go, a large pink and white candy striped hat box with a green ribbon trim clutched in her arms along with her snakeskin handbag.
“Thank god you’re still here, Gerald darling!” cries Lettice, bursting into the room and charging across its length. Depositing the large round box on the black japanned coffee table along with her handbag, she drops her stub handled parasol next to her chair. Suitably freed of impediments, she embraces her friend in an enveloping hug of velvet, fur and Habanita****. “Sorry, the traffic getting back was so appalling that I gave up at Bourdon Street and ran the rest of the way!”
“You ran?” Gerald looks surprised at his dear friend. “I thought the daughter of a viscount never ran.”
“Well, they don’t,” she elucidates, shrugging off her velvet and fur coat, casting it across the room where it lands with a crumpled sigh onto a black japanned Chippendale chair. “Unless they are desperate to catch their friend before he leaves.”
“Well, I’m here, aren’t I Lettuce Leaf?”
Lettice slaps him with the velvet toque she has just removed from her head. “You’re a beast, Gerald Bruton!”
“What?” Gerald laughs as he dodges the flapping hat.
“You know perfectly well, what!” Lettuce scolds. “Will you never tire of calling me by my loathed childhood nickname?”
“Not as long as it peeves you, Lettuce Leaf!”
She slaps him kittenishly again. “And if it isn’t a pet peeve any longer?”
“Then you won’t care if I call you Lettuce Leaf or not.”
His response is rewarded with another few wallops from her hat until he finally begs for mercy, as both of them bust into fits of childish giggles.
“So, what is it that you so desperately needed to see me for, darling?” Gerald finally manages to ask.
Tossing the hat on top of her discarded coat, she turns back to Gerald. “This, darling.” she says with a conspiratorial smile as she pats the top of the round cardboard box which is decorated prettily with pink and green ribbons, a scrunch of frothy white lace and an artificial flower.
Gerald looks down at the box, but is singularly unimpressed by it. “A box? What do I care for a box, and more importantly, why do you, darling?”
“Oh it isn’t the box, Gerald. Don’t be dim!” Lettice laughs. “It’s what’s inside.”
“Well show me then!” He uncrosses his arms for a moment to flip his left hand at it dismissively before returning to his bemused stance with arms akimbo. “You have my attention.”
Lettice tears the lid from the box excitedly and delves into a froth of noisy, snowy white tissue paper before withdrawing a beautiful hat of straw – not quite a cloche and not quite a picture hat but something in between – decorated with a lustrous oyster coloured satin ribbon, three white feathers and a rather fetching peach coloured ornamental flower. As she lifts it out, a receipt flutters face down onto the tabletop. Gerald goes to pick it up. “No! No! No!” Lettice says, brushing his hand away before placing the hat neatly over her coiffed blonde Marcelle***** waves. Positioning herself in a rather dramatic, yet elegant pose, she asks, “What do you think, Gerald?”
“I say darling!” Gerald gasps, his hands rising to his mouth where a broad smile appears. “That’s a rather natty looking chapeau!”
“Good enough to go with your frock to Princess Mary’s wedding?”
“I should say so!” Then he pauses for a moment and ponders the cardboard packaging again. “But that isn’t a Madame Gwendolyn hatbox.”
“No, it isn’t,” Lettice replies with a smirk, but says no more as she places the hat on the tabletop next to the hatbox and the receipt, which still lies face down. Gerald quickly reaches again for the latter, but Lettice snatches it up in her own hands before he can reach it. “No! No! No!” she repeats, wagging a finger warningly at her friend.
Gerald looks at the hat again, and then at the mischievous look on Lettice’s pretty face. “Well then? Who made it? You have me intrigued.”
“Well, I’m going to create a fashion first at the royal wedding.” Lettice announces mysteriously.
“It’s a beautiful chapeau darling, but I’d hardly say that it’s a fashion first.”
Lettice holds up a finger to silence him, before then revealing the printed side of the receipt. Gerald’s eyes grow wide as he takes in the typed letters and logo at the top.
“Selfridges? You bought this hat at Selfridges?” he splutters unbelievably. “But it’s so…”
“Stylish?”
“Very à la mode! I can scarcely believe it!”
“Well, not everything Mr. Selfridge has is fit only for shop girls and typists, Gerald, contrary to what you and others may believe. He has some Parisian models exclusively for his department store. And it only cost me nine pounds, nine and sixpence! Can you believe that rogue Madame Gwendolyn was going to charge me nine pounds alone just to refurbish an existing hat of hers that she hasn’t been able to sell with some new ribbons and frou-frou?”
“Well, this is far better value for money, I must say.” Gerald picks up the hat and takes a closer look at the fine stitching around the hatband and how seamlessly the ornamental flower appears to be affixed.
“And that’s how I’m going to create a fashion first at Princess Mary’s wedding!” Lettice claps her hands in delight.
Gerald looks at her perplexed for a moment, then glances at the hat and them back into Lettice’s mirth filled face. His eyes widen again. “Surely… surely not, Lettice! You can’t!” he splutters.
“Why not Gerald?”
“It’s a royal wedding for heaven’s sake! You can’t seriously expect to wear a hat from Selfridges to a royal wedding? You’re the youngest daughter of the Viscount Wrexham!”
“No-one would actually know it was a Selfridges hat, Gerald, except you and me, oh and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon****** because I alluded to my potential plan when I saw her a few days ago.”
“Oh wonderful!” Gerald throws his hands in the air in despair. “You told one of Her Royal Highness’ bridesmaids!”
“Elizabeth won’t say anything, Gerald.” Lettice assures her friend. “Anyway, she’ll be far too busy on the day with bridesmaids duties to even see my hat, never mind pass remarks on it.”
“And what will Sadie say, when she finds out?”
“She doesn’t need to know any more than anyone else, Gerald. I’m surprised you’d even countenance the idea.” Lettice casts an astonished look at her friend. “I think I’d rather tell Her Royal Highness that it’s a Selfridges hat than tell Mater!”
“Well, she’ going to know it isn’t from Madame Gwendolyn, because it isn’t, and that’s where she gets her hats from, including the one she will be wearing to Westminster Abbey, I’m sure.”
“Oh, I’ll just tell her that I’ve found a fabulous new designer who is more representative of the modern woman.” Lettice remarks offhandedly. “Those last two words will be enough to stop her making further enquiries.”
“Imagine a Selfridges hat at a royal wedding,” chuckles Gerald. “You’ll bring the establishment down yet, Lettice darling, piece by piece, with your modern woman thoughts.”
Contrary to popular belief, fashion at the beginning of the Roaring 20s did not feature the iconic cloche hat as a commonly worn head covering. Although invented by French milliner Caroline Reboux in 1908, the cloche hat did not start to gain popularity until 1922, so in early 1922 when this story is set, picture hats, a hangover from the pre-war years, were still de rigueur in fashionable society. Although nowhere near as wide, heavy, voluminous or as ornate as the hats worn by women between the turn of the Twentieth Century and the Great War, the picture hats of the 1920s were still wide brimmed, although they were generally made of straw or some lightweight fabric and were decorated with a more restrained touch. For somewhere as socially important as Princess Mary’s 1922 wedding, a matching hat, parasol, handbag or reticule and gloves to go with a lady’s chosen frock were essential.
*Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (1897 – 1965), was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sister of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Queen Elizabeth II. She married Viscount Lascelles on the 28th of February 1922 in a ceremony held at Westminster Abbey. The bride was only 24 years old, whilst the groom was 39. There is much conjecture that the marriage was an unhappy one, but their children dispute this and say it was a very happy marriage based upon mutual respect. The wedding was filmed by Pathé News and was the first royal wedding to be featured in fashion magazines, including Vogue.
**Guipure lace is a delicate fabric made by twisting and braiding the threads to craft incredible designs that wows the eye. Guipure lace fabrics distinguish themselves from other types of lace by connecting the designs using bars or subtle plaits instead of setting them on a net.
***A Peter Pan collar is a style of clothing collar, flat in design with rounded corners. It is named after the collar of Maude Adams's costume in her 1905 role as Peter Pan, although similar styles had been worn before this date. Peter Pan collars were particularly fashionable during the 1920s and 1930s.
****Molinard Habanita was launched in 1921. Molinard say that Habanita was the first women’s fragrance to strongly feature vetiver as an ingredient – something hitherto reserved for men, commenting that ‘Habanita’s innovative style was eagerly embraced by the garçonnes – France’s flappers – and soon became Molinard’s runaway success and an icon in the history of French perfume.’ Originally conceived as a scent for cigarettes – inserted via glass rods or to sprinkle from a sachet – women had begun sprinkling themselves with it instead, and Molinard eventually released it as a personal fragrance.
*****Marcelling is a hair styling technique in which hot curling tongs are used to induce a curl into the hair. Its appearance was similar to that of a finger wave but it is created using a different method. Marcelled hair was a popular style for women's hair in the 1920s, often in conjunction with a bob cut. For those women who had longer hair, it was common to tie the hair at the nape of the neck and pin it above the ear with a stylish hair pin or flower. One famous wearer was American entertainer, Josephine Baker.
******Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as she was known in 1922 went on to become Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions from 1936 to 1952 as the wife of King George VI. Whilst still Duke of York, Prince Albert initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to" She was one of Princess Mary’s eight bridesmaids at her 1922 wedding.
This 1920s upper-class drawing room is different to what you may think at first glance, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures including items from my own childhood.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Lettice’s elegant Selfridges straw hat sitting on the black japanned coffee table is decorated with an oyster satin ribbon, three feathers and an ornamental flower. The maker for this hat is unknown, but I acquitted it through Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniatures in the United Kingdom. 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism as this one is are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable.
The beautiful coloured card hatbox came from an online stockist of miniatures on E-Bay, whilst the receipt is a 1:12 miniature receipt, produced to exacting standards by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. Lettice’s snakeskin handbag with its golden clasp and chain also comes from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
The black Bakelite and silver telephone is a 1:12 miniature of a model introduced around 1919. It is two centimetres wide and two centimetres high. The receiver can be removed from the cradle, and the curling chord does stretch out.
Next to the telephone stands a glass vase containing blue dried flowers (although you can’t see the flowers in the photo). The vase is made of hand spun glass. These items I have had since I was a teenager when I acquired them from a high street doll and miniatures stockist.
The red elephant to the upper right-hand corner of the photo is actually a glass bead and used to be part of a necklace which fell apart long before I bought it. It and many other elephants from the necklace in red and white glass came in a box of bits I thought would make good miniature editions that I bought at a flea market some fifteen years ago.
Lettice’s drawing room is furnished with beautiful J.B.M. miniatures. The black japanned wooden chair is a Chippendale design and has been upholstered with modern and stylish Art Deco fabric. The mirror backed back japanned china cabinet is Chippendale too. On its glass shelves sit pieces of miniature Limoges porcelain including jugs, teacups and saucers, many of which I have had since I was a child.
To the left of the Chippendale chair stands a blanc de chine Chinese porcelain vase, and next to it, a Chinese screen. The Chinese folding screen I bought at an antiques and junk market when I was about ten. I was with my grandparents and a friend of the family and their three children, who were around my age. They all bought toys to bring home and play with, and I bought a Chinese folding screen to add to my miniatures collection in my curio cabinet at home! It shows you what a unique child I was.
The carpet beneath the furniture is a copy of a popular 1920s style Chinese silk rug. The geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.
Please press L (or simply click the image) to view on black.
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I found it so intriguing to watch and interpret the actions of this young family reflected in the wet pavement in front of a box store.
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The Dutch Photomagazine Focus. www.focusmedia.nl has a new app for the iPad called "foto-van-de-dag" ("Photo of the day” ). Today, July 20-2011, they are featuring this photo.
focusmedia.nl/foto-van-de-dag/2011/07/20/171-water-art-ne...
After much negotiation, the mother and two kids headed through the sprinklers being used to keep all the plants and flowers fresh in the outdoor garden area while the father went into the store, most likely, to check out tools, electronics, automotive and sports & recreation items etc. Of course, this is all conjecture on my part :-)
While naturally distorted reflections provide anonymity for the family, flipping the reflection achieves a rather pleasing painterly quality and texture, in my opinion, to the series.
Hope your Tuesday is going well. Thanks for the visit.
Photos from our road trip down the South Island of New Zealand in January. This shot was taken in Oamaru our stop of for lunch on the first day of our trip, January 20, 2015 New Zealand.
The Steampunk Cafe on the waterfront has just opened we didn't go inside .. wish we had of!
The whitestone townscape of Oamaru contains some of the best-preserved heritage buildings in New Zealand. In the late 19th century, the town prospered through gold-mining, quarrying and timber milling. Some of the wealth was spent on elegant stone buildings made from local limestone.
This Harbour-Tyne Street area in the Victorian precinct is particularly special and great for shopping is great too.
The name Oamaru derives from Māori words meaning the place of Maru.The identity of Maru remains open to conjecture.
For more Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oamaru
The people
The Hohokam began to be identifiable as a distinct culture around the dawn of the Christian era.
It is thought that by the middle of the 12th century, through the process of assimilation & acculturation, these peripheral Hohokam people had evolved a cultural pattern distinct in many ways from that of the heartland.
By the beginning of the 14th century, the Salado lifestyle was firmly established in the Globe-Maimi/Tonto Basin area.
The period from A>D. 1300 to A.D. 1400 was an unstable time for both the Salado & the Hohokam. It was characterized by increased internal strife & the systematic abandonment of towns, villages & hamlets. By A.D. 1450, nearly all traces of both cultures had vanished from the areas they had formerly occupied. What became of these once advanced & prosperous peoples is open to conjecture. Although it is suggested by some archaeologists that historic times, while the Salado may have migrated into the Zuni region, others feel that both people migrated into Mexico.
Salado Culture & Lifestyles at Besh-Ba-Gowah
The ruins which are visible at Besh-Ba-Gowah today represent the culmination of the Salado occupation which extended from A>D> 1225 to A.D. 1400. Thanks to the literally thousands of artifacts that have been unearthed, we are now able to form a reasonably accurate picture of what life in the pueblo must have been like.
And so to the weekend.
And after four days at home working, a chance to get out and do some snapping.
Though looking a the list of churches in East Kent, most have been visited or revisited in the last four years, but when I posted my list of top 50 churches in the county, I saw that Postling needed to be revisited.
So the plan was set.
And nearby Lyminge might have snowdrops or other spring flowers blooming in the churchyard.
And with no shopping to do, we laid in bed to half seven, before getting up, having coffee and breakfast. I charged the camera battery, formatted the card, grabbed the big bag with the big lens, and we were away.
I dropped Jools off in town,before heading to Folkestone, turning off just to head up the Elham Valley, and off that road at Etchinghill to Postling.
Postling was the very first church in the project, and I have been back at least once, but that was 6 years ago now. So I parked near the fingerpost and walked to the churchyard, sadly finding the porch door locked.
I turned round and was studying the row of timberframed houses beside the churchyard, when I saw a figure coming up the path.
Morning, do you want to get inside the church?
I replied I did.
I'll get the key, she said.
Which she did.
There is no stained glass inside St Mary & St Radegund, but there seems to be the three ends to rood beams, carved and painted, but only about 12 inches of each. The big lens let me see them close.
I retake shots, and am happy with the results I got. So, pack up and walk to the car, and drive the three miles up the road to Lyminge.
Lyminge is a church and village I love, thanks to St Ethelburga's shrine and well we know the history of the village goes back to the 7th century, and from the well the winterbourne stream, the Nailbourne emerges, bubbling with cold clear water. It flows across a meadow, then up te valley to Elham, Bridge, Patrixbourne, Bekesbourne where at Littlebourne it becomes the Little Stour.
It doesn't run all the way over ground, except when it has been very wet, like now, in which case the bourne can be three feet deep and swift flowing.
I walk to the well and photograph the meadow with the stream running through it, before walking back up the kill to the church, under the single flying buttress, over the now marked remains of St Ethelburga's chapel, now covered again by the path, into the extensive churchyard where i hunt for snowdrops, before eventually finding a small clump with a single flower open.
I walk back down to the church, but I have photographed it so much there was really no need, but the saint's shrine I rephotograph before walking back to the car to drive home.
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In the churchyard, west of the present building, are the foundations of the seventh-century church founded by St Ethelburga, daughter of King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha (see Canterbury). The present church is also Saxon and stands north of the original building so that the old north wall is now the south wall of today's church. When the church was founded there was no village, which explains why the present village stands a little removed from this restricted plateau site. The first thing the visitor sees is an enormous flying buttress holding up the south-east corner of the church - the pathway actually runs beneath it! The north aisle was added in the fifteenth century and is separated from the nave by a three-bay arcade with most unusual piers. The chancel arch is also out of the ordinary and is probably the result of fifteenth-century rebuilding of the Saxon original. A great deal of nineteenth-century work survives, including a good east window and reredos, but none of this detracts from the antiquity and atmosphere of this interesting building.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Lyminge
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LIMINGE
IS the next parish eastward, both to Stowting and Elmsted. It is written in the book of Domesday, Leminges, and in other records, Lymege. There are three boroughs in it, those of Liminge, Siberton, and Eatchend.
THE PARISH lies on the northern or opposite side of the down hills from Stanford, at no great distance from the summit of them. It is a large parish, being about six miles in length, and about three in breadth, from east to west, and the rents of it about 2000l. per annum. It lies the greatest part of it on high ground, on the east side of the Stone-street way, where it is a dreary and barren country of rough grounds, covered with woods, scrubby coppice, broom, and the like, the soil being and unfertile red earth, with quantities of hard and sharp stint stones among it. In that part adjoining to the Stone-street way, is Westwood, near two miles in length; and not far from it, two long commons or heaths, the one called Rhode, the other Stelling Minnis; of the latter, a small part only being within this parish, there are numbers of houses and cottages built promiscuously on and about them, the inhabitants of which are as wild, and in as rough a state as the country they dwell in. Near the southern boundary of the parish is the estate and manor of Liminge park, which, as well as Westwood, belongs to Mr. Sawbridge, of Ollantigh, who has near 700 acres of woodland in this parish, the whole of his estate here having been formerly appurtenant to the manor of Liminge, and together with it, exchanged by archbishop Cranmer as before-mentioned, with king Henry VIII. in his 31st year. On the east part of these hills, towards the declivity of them, the soil changes to chalk, and not far from the foot of them are the houses of Longage and Siberton, the former of which belonged to the Sawkins's, and then to the Scotts, a younger branch of those of Scotts-hall; afterwards by marriage to William Turner, of the White Friars, in Canterbury, and then again in like manner to David Papillon, esq. whose grandson Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise, now owns it. Below these hills is the great Nailbourn valley, which is very spacious and wide here, on each side of which the hills are high and very frequent, and the lands poor, but in the vale near the stream there is a tract of fertilelands and meadows, and the country becoming far from unpleasant, is as well as the rest of the parish exceedingly healthy. The valley extends quite through the parish from north to south; just above it, on the side of the hill, is the village of Liminge, in which is the parsonage-house, a handsome modern dwelling, and above it, still higher, the church. More southward in the valley is a house, called Broadstreet, the property and residence of the Sloddens for many generations; still further in the valley, near the boundary of the parish, and adjoining to the Hangres, being a part of the down or chalk hills, which continue on to Caldham, near Folkestone, a space of near six miles, is the hamlet of Echinghill, or Eachand, corruptly so called for Ikenild, close under the hill of which name it lies, the principal house in which formerly belonged to the Spicers, of Stanford; hence the road leads to Beechborough, and so on to Hythe.
A fair is held in the village of Liminge yearly, on July 5, for toys, pedlary, &c.
Near Eching street, a little to the southward of it, is a spring or well, called Lint-well, which runs from thence southward below Newington towards the sea; and on the opposite or north side of that street rises another spring, which takes a direct contrary course from the former, one running through the valley northward towards North Liminge, where it is joined by two springs, which rise in Liminge village, at a small distance north-east from the church, gushing out of the rock at a very small space from each other, the lowermost of which called St. Eadburg's well, never fails in its water. These united springs, in summer time in general, flow no further than Ottinge, about one mile from their rise, at which time the space from thence to Barham is dry there; but whenever their waters burst forth and form the stream usually called the Nailbourn, which the country people call the Nailbourne's coming down, then, though in the midst of summer, they become a considerable stream, and with a great gush and rapidity of waters, flow on to a place called Brompton's Pot, which is a large deep pond, a little above Wigmore, having a spring likewise of its own, which hardly ever overflows its bounds, excepting at these times, when, congenial with the others, it bursts forth with a rapidity of water, about three miles and an half northward from Liminge, and having jointly with those springs overfilled its bounds, takes its course on by Barham into the head of the Little Stour, at Bishopsborne, making a little river of its own size. These Nailbourns, or temporary land springs, are not unusaual in the parts of this country eastward of Sittingborne, for I know of but one, at Addington near Maidstone, which is on the other side of it. (fn. 1) Their time of breaking forth or continuance of running, is very uncertain; but whenever they do break forth, it is held by the common people as the forerunner of scarcity and dearness of corn and victuals. Sometimes they break out for one or perhaps two successive years, and at others with two, three, or more years intervention, and their running continues sometimes only for a few months, and at others for three or four years, as their springs afford a supply. (fn. 2)
Dr. Gale, in his Comment on Antorinus's Itinerary, conjectures that at this village of Leming two Roman ways, one from Lenham to Saltwood castle, and the other from Canterbury to Stutfal castle, intersected each other; as indeed they do at no great distance from it, nearer to Limne; and that the word Lemen, now by modern use written Leming, was by our early ancestors used to denote a public way. Hence that military way leading from Isurium to Cataractouium, is called Leming-lane, and the town near it Le- ming. So in the county of Gloucester, on the sosseway, there is a town called Lemington. Hence, he adds, that Durolevum, in this county, changed its name into Lenham, to signify its being situated on the public way or road; and perhaps the name of Ikenhill, very probably so called corruptly for Ickneld, in this parish before-mentioned, has still further strengthened this conjecture; there being said to have been two Roman ways of the name of Icknild-street, in this kingdom, though no one yet has determined precisely where they were.
¶The Manor of Liminge was part of the antient possessions of the monastery of Christ-church, in Canterbury, to which it had been given in the year 964, on the supperssion of the monastery founded in this parish by Ethelburga, called by some Eadburga, daughter of king Ethelbert, who by the favour of her brother king Eadbald, built this monastery to the honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of her own niece St. Mildred. Ethelburga, the founder, was buried in it, as was St. Mildred, whose bodies were afterwards removed by archbishop Lanfrance to St. Gregories church, in Canterbury. This monastery was at first said to consist of nuns, but afterwards came under the government of an abbot, and continued so, till suffering much by the continual ravages of the Danes, it was suppressed and granted to the monastery of Christ-church as before-mentioned. (fn. 3) The possessions of it here were given at different times during the Saxon heptarchy; some of them were given to this church of Liminge, in the time of archbishop Cuthbert, who had been abbot of it. After which this manor remained part of the possessions of the monastery of Christ-church, till archbishop Lanfranc dividing the revenues of his church between himself and his monks, this manor was allotted to the archbishop; in which state it continued at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which it is thus entered:
In Moniberge hundred, the archbishop himself holds Leminges, in demesne. It was taxed at seven sulings. The arable land is sixty carucates. In demesne there are four, and one hundred and one villeins, with sixteen borderers having fifty-five carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and one mill of thirty pence, and one fishery of forty eels, and thirty acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of one hundred hogs.
There belong to it six burgesses in Hede. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth twenty four pounds, and afterwards forty pounds, and now the like, and yet it yields sixty pounds.
Of this manor three tenants of the archbishop hold two sulings and an half, and half a yoke, and they have there five carucates in demesne, and twenty villeins, with sixteen borderers having five carucates and an half, and one servant, and two mills of seven shillings and six-pence, and forty acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of eleven hogs. There are two churches. In the whole it was worth eleven pounds.
Thomas Bedingfield gave by will in 1691, a house and lands in the parish of St. Mary, Romney Marsh, this parish, and Woodchurch, towards the education and maintenance of poor children of the parishes of Smeeth, Liminge, and Dimchurch; and 10s. unto two poor women of each of the said parishes yearly. They are of the annual value of 54l. 10s. and are vested in trustees.
David Spycer, of this parish, by will in 1558, devised to the poor of it 20l. to be paid them yearly at 20s. a year.
There is an unendowed school here, for the teaching of boys and girls reading, writing, and accounts; and an alms-house, consisting of two dwellings, the donor of it to the parish unknown.
The poor constantly maintained are about fifty, casually 30.
Liminge is within the Eccelstical Jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Elham.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Eadburgh, consists of two isles and a chancel, having a square tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, at the west end, in which are five bells. This church is handsome, being built of quarry stone. The arches and pillars on the north side of the south isle are elegant. In the chancel is a monument for William Hollway, esq. chief justice of Gibraltar, obt. 1767, who with his mother and wife, lie buried in a vault underneath, arms, Sable, two swords in saltier, argent. and memorials in it, as well as in the south isle, for the family of Sawkins. In the north isle a memorial for John Lyndon, A. M. vicar, obt. 1756. In the east window are the arms of the see of Canterbury impaling Bourchier; and in one of the south windows a bishop's head and mitre. On the outside of the steeple, are the arms of the see of Canterbury impaling Warham, that on the south side having a cardinal's hat over it. At the south-east corner of the chancel is a very remarkable buttress to it, the abutment being at some feet distance from the chancel, and joined to it by the half of a circular arch, seemingly very antient. In the church-yard are two tombs for the Scotts, of Longage. Henry Brockman, of Liminge, appears by his will in 1527, to have been buried in this church, and devised to the making of the steeple five pounds, as the work went forward; and David Spycer, of this parish, by will in 1558, devised to this church a chalice, of the price of five pounds. (fn. 10) This church, with the chapels of Stanford and Padlesworth annexed, was always accounted an appendage to the manor, and continued so till the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when the archbishop conveyed the manor to the king, but reserved the patronage and advowson of this church out of the grant to himself, by which means it became separated from the manor, and became an advowson in gross; and though the archbishop afterwards, by his deed anno 38 Henry VIII. conveyed it to the king and his heirs, and the king that same year granted it, with the manor and its appurtenances in fee, to Sir Anthony Aucher as before-mentioned, and it was possessed by the same owners as the manor from time to time, yet having been once separated, it could never be appendant to it again. Through which chain of ownership it afterwards came at length to lord Loughborough, and from him again to the Rev. Mr. Ralph Price, the present proprietor and patron of it.
The church of Liminge is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. There is both a rectory and vicarage endorsed belonging to this church, which appears to have been before the 8th of king Richard II.
The rectory is a sinecure, and the vicar performs the whole service of the cure, but they both receive institution and induction, and although some years ago this establishment of it was attempted by the ordinary to be set aside as separate benefices, it was without effect, and the Rev. Mr. Ralph Price, the patron, continues to present to both rectory and vicarage.
The rectory, with the two chapels above-mentioned, is valued in the king's books at 21l. 10s. and the yearly tenths at 2l. 3s. Procurations 1l. 10s. The vicarage at 10l. 18s. 9d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 1s. 10½d.
In 1588 here were communicants two hundred and eighty-three. In 1640 there were two hundred and fifty-five, and the vicarage was valued at eighty pounds.
The tithes and profits of this parish, and the glebeland, about forty acres, are now worth upwards of four hundred pounds per annum, exclusive of the chapels annexed to it. Mr. Sawbridge's estates in this parish, formerly park land, pay by custom only half a crown composition yearly, in lieu of tithes, but Westwood pays full tithes.
It appears by the register of Horton priory, that Liminge was once the head of a rural deanry, Sir Hugh, dean of Liminge, being mentioned as a witness to a dateless deed of Stephen de Heringod, of a gift of land to that priory, of about the reign of king Henry III. (fn. 11)
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we have headed slightly north of Cavendish Mews to London’s busy shopping precinct along Oxford Street, where ladies flock to window shop, browse department stores and shops and to take tea with their friends. With the Christmas rush of 1921 behind them, the large plate glass windows have been stripped of their tinsel garlands and metallic cardboard stars, and displays are turning to the new fashions and must have possessions of 1922. Oxford Street is still busy with shoppers as Lettice walks up it dressed in a smart navy blue coat of velvet with a lustrous mink fur trim and matching hat, and the road congested with London’s signature red buses, taxis and private traffic. Yet neither the road nor the footpath are as crowded as they were when she found Edith, her maid’s, Christmas gift in Boots the Chemist, and for that she is grateful. Her louis heels click along the concrete footpath as she takes purposeful and measured footsteps towards her destination, the salon of her milliner Madame Gwendolyn which is situated above all the hubbub of shoppers and London office workers on the first floor of a tall and ornate Victorian building.
Lettice breathes a sigh of relief as she walks through the wood and plate glass door of the salon, simply marked with the name Gwendolyn in elegant gilt copperplate lettering, leaving behind the chug of belching double deckers, the toot of horns, the rumble of motorcar engines and the droning buzz of female chatter. The faint fragrance of a mixture of expensive scents from Madame Gewndolyn’s other clientele envelops her, dismissing the soot and fumes of the world outside as the quiet sinks in. Lettice always feels calmer in Madame’s salon, tastefully decked out in an Edwardian version of Regency with finely striped papers and upholstery.
“Good afternoon Miss Chetwynd,” the female receptionist greets Lettice politely in well enunciated tones, rising from her desk, showing off her smart outfit of a crisp white shirtwaister* with goffered lace detailing and a navy skirt. “Your timing, as ever, is perfect.” She smiles as she walks over and without asking, takes the coat from Lettice’s shirking shoulders.
“Thank you Roslyn,” Lettice acknowledges her assistance. As she goes to take Lettice’s white lace parasol, Lettice stops the young receptionist. “No thank you. I need this for my consultation.”
If taken aback by Lettice’s unusual refusal to relinquish her parasol, Roslyn doesn’t show it as she simply smiles politely and says, “Madame is expecting you. Please do come through.”
The two women walk across the polished floor of the foyer covered in expensive rugs that their feet sink into, until they stop before an inner set of double doors. Roslyn’s polite rap is greeted by a commanding “come” from the other side.
“Miss Chetwynd, Madame,” Roslyn announces as she opens the door inwards, leading Lettice into a salon, similarly furbished as the foyer which is filled with an array of beautiful hats elegantly on display.
“Ah, Miss Chetwynd,” Madame Gwendolyn says in the same clearly enunciated syllables as her receptionist, with a broad smile on her lips. “How do you do.”
“How do you do, Madame.” she replies as Roslyn retreats the way she came, closing the doors silently behind her.
Madame Gwendolyn smile broadens as she notices Lettice’s blue velvet toque with the mink trim which she made to match the coat now hanging in the wardrobe behind Roslyn’s desk in the foyer. Then it fades as her eye falls upon Lettice’s parasol in her client’s left hand. “Oh Miss Chetwynd, I’m so sorry Roslyn didn’t,” and she reaches out to take it from her hand.
“Oh no! No Madame,” Lettice assures the middle-aged milliner. “Roslyn went to take it from me, but I said no. We will need it for our appointment you see.”
“Oh,” Madame Gwendolyn’s expertly plucked and shaped brow arches ever so slightly. “Very well. Won’t you please take a seat, Miss Chetwynd.” She indicates to two Edwardian Arts and Crafts chairs carefully reupholstered in cream Regency stripe fabric to match the wallpaper hanging in the salon.
Lettice selects the one to her right and hangs the parasol over its arm before gracefully lowering herself into the seat and placing her snakeskin handbag at her side. As she does so, Roslyn slips back into the room bearing a tray on which sits tea making implements for one, which she carefully places on the small table next to a few recent fashion magazines, easily in Lettice’s range.
Once Roslyn obsequiously retreats again, Madame Gwendolyn says, “Now, I believe you may have come about a new hat for The Princess Royal’s wedding*. Is that so, Miss Chetwynd?”
“You are well informed, Madame.” Lettice replies, glancing down at her knee as she speaks.
Madame Gwendolyn smiles again, taking up a leatherbound notebook. “How delightful for you to be in attendance.”
“Well, we are well acquainted, Madame,” Lettice answers dismissively.
“Of course! Of course.” the older woman replies, her back stiffening as she raises her pale and elegant hands in defence. “Now, might I enquire as to who will be making your frock for the occasion?”
“Yes. Mr. Gerald Bruton of Grosvenor Street.”
“Ah. Excellent! Excellent.” Madame replies like a toady as she jots Gerald’s name in her book. “And the fabrics, Miss Chetwynd?”
“Oyster satin with pearl buttons and a guipure lace** Peter Pan collar***.”
“Excellent! Excellent!” Madame Gwendolyn repeats again, noting the details down. “White gloves, or grey?”
“Grey.”
The woman closes her notebook firmly, leaving it in her lap. “Well, I’m quite sure we can make something most suitable for the royal occasion to match your ensemble.”
The milliner rises and puts her notebook aside. Whilst she looks about her salon for possibilities, Lettice pours herself tea from the delicate hydrangea patterned pot on the table.
“Now, I could easily create something similar to this, in a soft grey, Miss Chetwynd.” Madame Gwendolyn returns with a beautiful picture hat of pale pink covered in a carefully crafted whorl of ostrich feathers.
“Hhhmmm…” Lettice considers.
“Or, this could easily be adapted to match your outfit, Miss Chetwynd,” she indicates to a more cloche shaped hat of white and black dyed straw with black ribboning. “By replacing the ribbon with a grey one. I also have some delightful pearl appliques that would add a beautiful touch of royal elegance to it.”
“Perhaps,” Lettice replies noncommittally with her head slightly cocked.
As she watches Madame Gwendolyn scurry across the salon and fetch a peach coloured wide brimmed hat with a band of silk flowers about the brim with an aigrette of cream lace, her thoughts drift back to the day the previous June when she and her dear Embassy Club coterie friend Margot were walking down Oxford Street, not too far from where she sits now. They had been discussing the Islington Studios**** moving picture starlet Wanetta Ward, whom Lettice had agreed to take on as a new customer, as well as Margot’s wedding plans. Ascot Week***** was fast approaching and Selfridges had a window display featuring four rather stylish hats, every bit as comparable in quality to those being shown to her by the toadying milliner before her at a fraction of the cost. Margot had laughed at Lettice when she had suggested that perhaps she should have worn a Selfridges hat to Royal Ascot, rather than the creation Madame Gwendolyn made her. Yet her hat from Madame Gwendolyn at twelve guineas was far from a roaring success in the fashion stakes. In fact, she had heard a fashion correspondent from the Tattler whispering a little too loudly that it might even have been a little old fashioned: a touch pre-war.
“Miss Chetwynd? Miss Chetwynd?” Madame Gwendolyn’s somewhat urgent calls press into her consciousness, breaking Lettice’s train of thought.
Lettice looks up into the face of the milliner with her upswept hairdo a mixture of pre-war Edwardian style mixed with modern Marcelling******. The woman is holding up a cream straw cloche decorated with pink silk flowers and an aigrette of ostrich plumes curled in on themselves.
“I think this one is most becoming. Don’t you think so, Miss Chetwynd? It would frame your face and hair so well. And, for you, because it is only the reworking of the decoration,” the older woman adds with a sly smile. “A bargain if I may say so, at only nine guineas.” She smiles in an oily way as she presses the hat closer to Lettice. “What do you think, Miss Chetwynd?”
Lettice looks blankly at Madame Gwendolyn for a moment before replying. “What I think, Madame, is I should like to give your suggestions some consideration.”
The milliner’s face drops, as do her arms as she lowers the hat until it hangs loosely in front of her knees in her defeated hands. “I… I don’t understand, Miss Chetwynd.” she manages to say in startled disbelief.
“Oh,” Lettice replies. “Haven’t I made myself clear, Madame? I’m not entirely convinced about any of the hats you have shown me. I don’t know if any of them will match my costume and parasol. I think they all look a little…”
“A little?” the older woman prompts.
“A little old fashioned. A little pre-war was how your hat for me for Royal Ascot last year was described. I want to look my very best. After all, this is a royal wedding.” She takes a final sip of her tea and then stands, picking up her purse and parasol. “So, I should like to consider my choices before deciding whether to accept one or not.”
As Lettice starts to walk across the salon floor, Madame Gwendolyn stutters, “Per… perhaps Miss Chetwynd… Perhaps you’d care to suggest your own ideas. I’m very open to a client’s ide…”
Lettice stops and turns abruptly to the milliner, cutting her sentence off. “Madame,” she says, a definite haughtiness growing in her gait, causing her shoulders to edge back almost imperceptibly and for her neck to arch. “If I had wanted to design my own hat, I would have made it myself, rather than come to you and pay you handsomely for it.”
“Oh, of course not Miss Chetwynd. How very careless of me to even suggest…. Such… such a gaffe! Please forgive me.”
“Really Madame, there is no need to apologise like some spineless, obsequious servant. I’d simply like time to consider what you’ve shown me, versus say, what Harry Selfridge has to offer.”
“Mr. Selfridge?” Madame Gwendolyn ponders, her eyes widening in surprise.
“Yes. He has a wonderful array of hats, many Paris models in the latest styles, in his millinery department, perhaps more suited to the more modern woman of today than the,” Lettice glances back at the hats on display in the salon. “The society matron. You really should take a look, Madame. You might see where the future of hats sits.”
Lettice pulls open the doors of the salon and walks purposefully out into the foyer, where Roslyn is busily scanning a copy of Elite Styles, cutting out images of hats with a pair of scissors behind her desk. She quickly gets up when she sees Lettice and her employer come out.
“Leaving so soon, Miss Chetwynd?” she asks, and without having to wait for an answer, turns to the white painted built in wardrobe behind her, opens it and withdraws Lettice’s coat.
As Lettice steps back into Oxford Street and is enveloped by its discordant cacophony of noise and potpourri of smells, she sighs and walks back the way she came with the measured steps of a viscount’s daughter. As she reaches the full length plate glass windows of Selfridge’s department store, she pauses when she sees two young women around her age, both obviously typists, secretaries or some other kind of office workers, scuttle up to the windows. Dressed in smart black coats and matching small brimmed straw hats with Marcelled hair in fashionable bobs, they look the epitome of the new and independent woman. They laugh lightly and point excitedly at things they see displayed in the department store window. Then, they agree and both scurry away and through the revolving doors of Selfridges.
“Why should I have my hats made at Madame Gwendolyn’s, just because Mamma does?” she asks no-one in particular, her quiet utterance smothered and swept away into the noisy hubbub around her.
She walks to the window, only to discover that it is full of hats, advertised as newly in from Paris.
“Oh, why not, then?” Lettice says, straightening her shoulders with conviction.
She follows the two office girls and steps through the revolving doors of Selfridges department store.
Contrary to popular belief, fashion at the beginning of the Roaring 20s did not feature the iconic cloche hat as a commonly worn head covering. Although invented by French milliner Caroline Reboux in 1908, the cloche hat did not start to gain popularity until 1922, so in early 1922 when this story is set, picture hats, a hangover from the pre-war years, were still de rigueur in fashionable society. Although nowhere near as wide, heavy, voluminous or as ornate as the hats worn by women between the turn of the Twentieth Century and the Great War, the picture hats of the 1920s were still wide brimmed, although they were generally made of straw or some lightweight fabric and were decorated with a more restrained touch. For somewhere as socially important as Princess Mary’s 1922 wedding, a matching hat, parasol, handbag or reticule and gloves to go with a lady’s chosen frock were essential.
*Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (1897 – 1965), was the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sister of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and aunt of Queen Elizabeth II. She married Viscount Lascelles on the 28th of February 1922 in a ceremony held at Westminster Abbey. The bride was only 24 years old, whilst the groom was 39. There is much conjecture that the marriage was an unhappy one, but their children dispute this and say it was a very happy marriage based upon mutual respect. The wedding was filmed by Pathé News and was the first royal wedding to be featured in fashion magazines, including Vogue.
**Guipure lace is a delicate fabric made by twisting and braiding the threads to craft incredible designs that wows the eye. Guipure lace fabrics distinguish themselves from other types of lace by connecting the designs using bars or subtle plaits instead of setting them on a net.
***A Peter Pan collar is a style of clothing collar, flat in design with rounded corners. It is named after the collar of Maude Adams's costume in her 1905 role as Peter Pan, although similar styles had been worn before this date. Peter Pan collars were particularly fashionable during the 1920s and 1930s.
****Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.
*****Royal Ascot Week is the major social calendar event held in June every year at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire. It was founded in 1711 by Queen Anne and is attended every year by the reigning British monarch and members of the Royal Family. The event is grand and showy, with men in grey morning dress and silk toppers and ladies in their best summer frocks and most elaborate hats.
******Marcelling is a hair styling technique in which hot curling tongs are used to induce a curl into the hair. Its appearance was similar to that of a finger wave but it is created using a different method. Marcelled hair was a popular style for women's hair in the 1920s, often in conjunction with a bob cut. For those women who had longer hair, it was common to tie the hair at the nape of the neck and pin it above the ear with a stylish hair pin or flower. One famous wearer was American entertainer, Josephine Baker.
This enclave of luxurious millinary may appear real to you, however it is fashioned entirely of 1:12 miniatures from my collection. Some of the items in this tableau are amongst the very first pieces I ever received as a young child.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The cream straw hat second from the left with pink roses has single stands of ostrich feathers adorning it that have been hand curled. The yellow straw hat on the far right of the photo is decorated with ornamental flowers and organza. The maker for these is unknown, but they are part of a larger collection I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel. The peach coloured hat with the flowers around the brim and the net aigrette second from the right, and the pink feather covered hat on the far left of the picture came from a seller on E-Bay. The black straw hat with the yellow trim and rose reflected in the mirror and the white straw hait with the black trim in the foreground were made by Mrs. Denton of Muffin Lodge in the United Kingdom. 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable.
The wooden hat blocks on which the hats are displayed also came from American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
The dressing table set, consisting of tray, mirror and two brushes were made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, but were hand painted with wonderful detail by British miniature artisan Victoria Fasken, sold through Kathleen Knight’s Dollhouse Shop in England.
Lettice’s snakeskin handbag with its gold clasp and chain comes from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniature Shop in the United Kingdom. Lettice’s umbrella is a 1:12 artisan piece made of white satin and lace with a tiny cream bow. It has a hooked metal handle.
The Elite Styles magazine from 1922 sitting on the table was made by hand by Petite Gite Miniatures in the United States.
The blue hydrangea tea set came from a miniatures stockist on E-Bay.
The two Edwardian fashion plates hanging on the wall come from Melody Jane’s Doll House Suppliers in England.
The vintage mirror with its hand carved wooden frame was acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dollhouse Shop in England.
The two chairs, the tea table and the stands upon which two of the hats are displayed are all made by the high-end miniature furniture manufacturer, Bespaq.
The Regency sideboard I have had since I was around six or seven, having been given it as either a birthday or Christmas gift.
The cream Georgian pattern carpet on the floor comes from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop in England. The Regency stripe wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, with the purpose that it be used in the “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.
A new flow of spoil traffic has started to run from Westbury to Southampton Up Yard. How long these workings will last is open to much conjecture and it might be a very short lived flow. Here 56103 & 56091 are seen approaching Redbridge with 6Z91 1524 Westbury to Southampton Up Yard on a quite hot late June afternoon.
Description: Planetary Nebulae represent the late evolutionary stage of low to intermediate mass stars. As these stars reach the final stage of their existence they enter the AGB (asymptotic giant branch) phase. As early AGB stars they begin to lose mass through dense but slow winds. This phase is followed by more profound mass lose through tenuous fast winds or superwind phase. The dynamic interaction between fast and slow winds ultimately forms the complex shell structure of Planetary Nebulae.
M97, more popularly known as the "Owl Nebula" is an older planetary nebula (PN) with a circular morphology and a bland inner structure. It is one of about 1600 planetary nebulae discovered in the Milky Way. The Milky Way has an estimated population of about 10,000 planetary nebulae. The low number is due to the brief time they exist, less than 50,000 years. M97 is at a fairly advanced stage as the superwind from the central star has long since ceased. M97 has a triple shell structure consisting of a round double shell comprising the main optical nebula and a faint bow-shaped outer shell which is very faint. The outer halo formed from material ejected thousands of years ago during the dying stars red giant phase. It continues to interact with the surrounding interstellar medium as the PN moves through space. The central star is a hot dead cinder of about 0.6 solar masses which produces abundant radiation from its 110,000 degree surface temperature.
Astronomers have had increasing success at building three dimensional models of planetary nebulae from two dimensional data. The models are based however on three assumptions: 1) material in the nebula moves exclusively in radial directions 2) each shell is ejected at different time epochs 3) each shell is composed of sub-shells that expand with velocities proportional to their distance from the center. The double shell of the main nebula is about 1.3 light years in diameter and has an expansion velocity of 40 kilometers/second. The inner shell is slightly elongated and the outer shell is round. The outer halo is bow shaped and has no measurable expansion velocity.
There are two distinguishing features of the Owl Nebula. The first is the presence of a central bipolar cavity excavated by the superwind of the central star. The second peculiar feature is the lack of a bright rim. The superwind that carved out the central cavity has since ceased allowing nebula material to backfill the cavity and smear out any bright rim that previously existed. The higher density of the material along the rim of the cavity is responsible for producing the forehead and beak of the owl. The bipolar cavity forms the characteristic eyes of the owl.
A reasonable conjecture regarding the evolutionary history of M97 begins in the early ABG phase of the dying star. The first event was the early slow wind which plowed into the interstellar medium forming the outer halo. During later stages of the ABG phase high mass loss occurred in the superwind phase which formed the main body of the planetary nebula. (Text: www.robgendlerastropics.com/M97text.html)
This picture was photographed March 17-18 2013 in Khlepcha observatory, Ukraine.
Equipment: reflector S&D 254 mm. f/4.7
Mount WhiteSwan-180, camera QSI-583wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera Orion SSAG.
LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.
L=20*600 sec., bin.1 RGB: 10*450-600 sec. each channel, bin.2 Total 7.5 hours.
Processed Pixinsight 1.7 and Photoshop CS5.
Welcome to World Philosophy Day (20 November, 2025).
Consider this….
What’s the difference between these two photographs I’ve posted today? One shows a mother holding the body of her dead son, the other a son holding the body of his elderly dead father. Both are sculptures. One is perhaps the most famous sculpture ever made by a 23 year old genius we came to know as Michelangelo. The other is a hyper-real sculpture based on real life experience by Australian sculptor, Sam Jinks. One is overtly religious, the other is asking questions about life and death itself. One is generally accepted as a beautiful depiction of motherly love, the other was virtually banned from Flickr. Now comes the philosophical question: WHY?
Before I provide some clues to an answer, here’s what happened. I posted a series of sculptures by Sam Jinks presented at the QVMAG in Launceston. www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/Whats-on/Art-Gallery-at-Royal-Park/S...
I only posted them in groups that did not directly exclude adult themes of nudity and death. A few days later I received an email from Flickr saying that I had been reported and that some of these photographs had been restricted and removed from groups. The beautiful photographs of The Messenger, showing a topless angel, were removed from all but 15 groups. You see more provocative photos in many people’s list of favourites. But the one that shocked me most was Still Life (Seated Pieta), 2007. This remained in only two groups, and what’s worse I can’t even post a link to it here because Flickr has blocked any chance of linking or embedding of that photograph. You can still see it in my photostream if you do not have a safe setting on your Flickr account. But for most people it is now invisible on Flickr. One of the greatest contemporary sculptures in Australia, dealing with a theme that was covered by Michelangelo in his Pietà, has effectively been banned by Flickr.
One is based on religious conjecture, the other on the actual reality of a son holding his dead father. As I wrote on that photograph most are not allowed to see:
“This has a very personal application in my case (and clearly informed my photograph in subconscious ways). When my father died (nearly three years ago now), I assisted the nurse in washing his body as we waited for the morticians to arrive. I held his body as the nurse so gently sponged it. I looked down at this body so old and broken by the cancer that destroyed it, and reflected on how it was once in full-bloom, so strong and commanding, as I remembered my father to be.”
But let’s get to the nub of the philosophical argument here (since it is World Philosophy Day after all).
Does a religious outlook inoculate a work of art from critical scrutiny? Death can be shown overtly in Mary holding the body of her son Jesus, whilst a contemporary example cannot? For instance, death and violence is quite common in religious art down through the centuries, but people get offended when they see modern works that treat these issues honestly. Why? That is the question.
Death may be the great unknown. For all the videos you’ll see online about Near Death Experiences (NDEs) this much is clear: None of these people actually died. They were resuscitated (not resurrected) and brought back into the land of the living. One more thing, all the characteristic similarities of these experiences (tunnels, white light, meeting a spiritual figure) point to a common origin, most likely the dissolution of the brain cells that are being starved of oxygen. In other words, this is purely a physical reaction and tells us nothing about the afterlife. We mustn’t confuse psychological experiences with reality. And that’s not to say anything about the online grifters who do it for the money. But I digress.
Freud made it very clear that death is not something that most people are comfortable with. So we use whatever mental strategies possible to deny our own mortality. We can’t deny that people die, but we don’t actually believe we will. Or we devise all kinds of theories about the afterlife, that usually presuppose the survival of the ego, when in fact we don’t really know.
It has been said (and I believe it), that death is the great teacher of life. I should also add that death is the true friend of the desperately frail and sick and mortally wounded. This is certainly the argument for Voluntary Assisted Dying. But don’t take my word for it, listen to what Jeff Foster has to say in this profoundly honest poem:
“Death
is the greatest teacher of all.
Greater than all human philosophies.
Truer than any religion.
Death
strips away the lies, the pretence.
Death makes a mockery of our resentment.
It burns our greed, grudges and grievances.
Death
invites us to be utterly present.
To let go.
To forgive.
To meet, without history.
Death
makes it plain that only love matters.
That only love makes life worth living.
And all else is dust.
Death
is a ruthless portal.
Worldly riches are powerless against it.
Hatred cannot survive it.
Only love can pass through.
We return
to our True Nature.
The cycle
is complete.”
So I support Sam Jinks' right to create his own Pietà, based on real-life experience. It is not religious in the sense that it provides answers to the question about death, but it sure asks the right questions. And people should be allowed to see that!
I welcome your reflections...
The Church is dedicated to St. Peter and consists of a tower of four stages, surmounted by a peculiar little spire, a Nave with North and South Aisles and a South Porch; and a Chancel with a North Aisle or Chapel.
From a close examination of the fabric it would appear that the Church passed through the following main changes.
The first Norman Church was built about 1150 and would have a tower of three stages (lower than the existing tower) an aisleless nave and a small Chancel, probably apsidal (i.e. semi-circular at the East end).
Barnburgh would be one of very few places in this district where the original church had a tower, the usual Norman construction was without a tower.
The first enlargement was some fifty years later in the Transitional Norman period, when a North Aisle was added to the Nave. It is invariably found that the first enlargements to our churches were made on the North side. This was done because there would be fewer graves to disturb, it being remembered that the people of those days, steeped as they were in superstition, avoided being buried on the North side where the shadow of the church would fall upon them.
The Chancel built by the Normans would, no doubt, as I have said, be small and as the ritual of the church became more elaborate the need for extension would arise. Furthermore there were two great families in the district at that time (the Cresacres and the Bella Aqua's or Bellews) and instead of founding monasteries as in earlier times, the idea had sprung up among many of these great families to institute Chantries. These usually took the form of little chapels inside the church but screened off, where a priest was maintained to pray for the soul of the founder and his family. Chantry certificates show that two chantries were founded in Barnburgh Church, of which more later.
All appearances therefore suggest that about 1330 the church underwent what was almost a rebuilding, and practically only the bottom two stages of the tower remained of the original church. These alterations would include the addition of the South Aisle and Porch, enlargement of the North Aisle, and the rebuilding of the Chancel with the addition of the North Chapel, and also the top two stages of the tower with the little spire. With the raising of the tower the corner buttresses would be built.
At this period there was a famous church architect, Henry de Eynsham, living at Bolton-upon-Dearne and it is probably he who planned the rebuilding. The greater part of the cost would no doubt be borne by the two ruling families of the neighbourhood, and the arms of the Cresacres were placed on the South side and those of the Bella Aqua's on the East side of the tower at the rebuilding.
As the church was then, it would be rather dark in the Nave somewhat similar to what Hickleton is to this day and so it was that about 1410 the earlier 'Decorated' style windows of the Aisles, with one exception, were replaced by the larger ones of the "perpendicular" style, the roof and walls of the Nave were made higher, and the clerestory windows inserted to give extra light. The original pitch of the roof can still be seen low down in the East wall of the tower.
From that date there has been little alteration to the appearance of the church. There have, of course, been restorations, for instance in 1859 part of the top storey of the tower was taken down and rebuilt, and it will also be noted that the windows of the Chancel, including the great East window, are modern, but are no doubt careful reproductions of the originals. This work would probably be done during the restoration of 1869, the cost of which was borne by John Hartop.
Whilst looking round the exterior of the church you will notice other features; the Priest's Door in the South of the Chancel, which is of the 'Decorated period', and on the North side, two blocked up doorways. The one which gave entrance to the North Chapel is of the Perpendicular period and no doubt, was constructed during the last alterations to the Church. This entrance would be used solely by the Cresacre family and their Chantry Priest. The other built-up door near the tower was the "Devil's Door" and would be disused after the Reformation. When in existence it would be opened during baptisms and similar ceremonies, to let the Devil out.
And so we come back to the Porch, which is of 'Decorated' style, with a ribbed and slabbed room. Notice on the spring of the innermost arch on the right hand side, the Mason's mark chiselled in stone : This was his signature to his work.
Notice also the stone benches on either side which remind us of the days when the Church Porch was a very important place, used for many purposes. Here it was that official notices were published (and indeed still are), here that the Coroner held his court, and here that people found guilty of breaking the religious laws had to do penance. Porches were used for many other purposes such as the sale of merchandise, the arranging of fairs, the ratifying of bargains and deals, and sometimes a plough was kept there for Plough Monday which was the Monday after Epiphany when ploughing and rustic toil was restarted.
On entering the church we first notice the font which appears to be of the Transitional Norman period, dating to the latter half of the twelfth century, and as such is most probably the original font.
At the other side of the main entrance is the South Chapel, which, at the Reformation was bereft of its altar, but the mutilated piscina still remains to remind us of its original use for rinsing the sacred vessels at Mass in the days when this was the private Chantry Chapel of the Bella Aqua family.
Returning to the tower we quickly see the indications of the first church in the lower two storeys of the tower which are of a fine type of masonry of the late Norman era, and there is a good example of a deeply splayed Norman window, now blocked up, probably to give added strength when the tower was raised.
The Tower Arch and Chancel Arch are unmistakably the result of the great rebuilding in about 1330 and are of this period.
Looking down the church from under the tower there are a number of features which catch the eye. The fine roofs of the Nave and of the Chancel should be noticed, and although there do not seem to be any marks which give any guide to dates, I have no doubt that this was the roof installed in the fifteenth century when the walls of the Nave were made higher. The massive tie beams each with a different carved boss show unmistakable signs of great age.
Some years ago it was found that some of the ends were rotting and a kind of wall plate was inserted on the South wall and stone corbels were placed here and there without any attempt at uniformity. A piece of one of the tie beams was taken out and may now be seen in a corner of the Chancel doing duty as a table. An examination of this shows the finely moulded carving of which the earlier woodworkers were capable.
A puzzling feature to be noticed from the tower arch is the clerestory which is of perpendicular style and was made in 1410 (or thereabouts) when the roof was lifted. Although the clerestory windows on both sides were inserted at the same time it will be seen that those on the South are two light windows and those on the North three light.
Why was this unusual procedure adopted? Could it be that the two wealthy families who then owned Barnburgh and who would most likely bear most of the expense of the alterations, differed as to the style and finally decided each to have its own way on its own side. It will also be noticed (but more distinctly from the Chancel) that when the clerestory windows were put in they used as lintels, tomb slabs, probably taken from the church floor. This ruthless despoiling of graves can be seen in a number of churches. It has been suggested that they were brought here from the demolished St. Helen's chapel, but I cannot agree with this as it is more than likely that St. Helen's was still in use when the clerestory of St. Peter's was built.
The next thing which draws our attention from under the Tower Arch is the beautiful screenwork for which Barnburgh church is noted, for though it as been damaged much of it remains as it was in pre-Reformation days. In most churches such woodwork as this was utterly destroyed during the Reformation and we at Barnburgh should feel thankful that we have some that escaped this wanton destruction. The entire screenwork of the South Chapel remains and also that at the North end of the Cresacre Chapel, with its original door still doing service.
The woodwork under the Chancel Arch which now forms a screen about four feet high is all that remains of the rood screen. Try to visualise this screen as it was before it was destroyed about four hundred years ago. It would almost entirely fill the arch and high up in the screen would be the Rood Loft or gallery from which certain parts of the services would be conducted. On this Rood Loft would be the great crucifix and a number of beautifully coloured statues. The rood screen in most churches was a thing of beauty and it is little wonder that special windows were inserted and existing ones enlarged to throw more light on the screen.
Fairly high in the walls on both sides of the Chancel Arch (which, by the way, is much wider than is usual in a church such as Barnburgh) can be traced signs of stones having been cut away in order to provide support for the floor beams of the rood loft. At Barnburgh the ascent to the loft was by wooden ladder, but often a stone stairway was hollowed out in the stone pillar. A close examination of the fragment of the rood screen left to us will give some indication of its antiquity and original beauty.
And now let us commence a tour of the church. In the North Wall of the North Aisle will be found a diamond shaped hole cut out in one of the stones. It is a few inches across and has a recess of about the same depth. Four holes filled with lead show that a small iron or wooden door covered the recess at one time. This hole or recess has been the subject of much conjecture, and popular rumour has it that it is a "Lepers Squint." I do not agree with this, as if it had been intended as such it would have been placed in such a position that the lepers (who were not allowed in church) might see the high altar. I am more inclined to the opinion that it was made as a reliquary (a place for relics).
The family of Cresacres is reputed to have had more than one member taking part in the Crusades and it was a common custom when a knight died in the Holy Land to bring back his heart which was then blessed and placed in a box, or hole similar to that at Barnburgh, to be preserved for all time. Often valuable articles of gold or precious stones were placed with them. At the Reformation, however, these reliquaries were completely destroyed and their contents scattered.
The next item is the shaft of what was a cross near the first pillar of the North Aisle. This would be the original praying or preaching cross around which the people of Barnburgh would gather before they had a church. It is of Saxon origin and is older than anything else about the church in which it now stands. It was found last century, buried in the churchyard, in two pieces, one piece it is said was actually under the foundations of the church. Fortunately it was brought and re-erected in its present position some years ago by the Rev. W. R. Hartley. It lacks arms and is much decayed but it can be seen that it must have been a piece of fine workmanship for its day. The carvings show the figure of a priest with a kind of interlacing work acting as a support for the body. A very careful examination will also show pilasters with voluted capitals, and it is this that helps us to arrive at the period of its construction, which would be about a 1,000 years ago. This cross is one of few of its kind remaining in the country and is mentioned in every book I have seen on such subjects.
The bases of the pillars of the North Aisle should next be noticed. They are of late (or Transitional) Norman style and are remnants of the first enlargement which took place to the original church, about 1200. The Transitional Norman arches would be taken down and replaced, and the bases of the pillars lifted when the clerestory was built.
And now we come to the Cresacre Chapel which is of course the great attraction to many visitors to Barnburgh church. There is enough here to interest us for half a day if we examine carefully all it contains. The first thing to attract us is the Cresacre Tomb with the "Cat and Man" effigy which is the centre of one of the most remarkable legends in the land. The tomb and the legend I have dealt with fully earlier in this volume, but there is one thing to which I would draw attention. It will be noted that the two arches between the Chapel and the Chancel are modern (though to be sure they do blend well with the remainder of the church), and these replaced a single arch under which the Cresacre tomb originally stood. These alterations were probably carried out early last century, for the organ, which stands almost under one of the arches was put there in 1829, the gift of Henrietta Griffith of Barnburgh. It may be that these arches were inserted at the same time.
Of the other items of interest in the chapel I have already mentioned elsewhere the two mural tombstones to the Vincents of Barnburgh Grange, the slab tombstone of Alice Cresacre, wife of Sir Percival, and the brass to the memory of Anna Cresacre, the last of that name.
On the wall of the chapel there are three boards which record the charities of the Parish and as they are almost unreadable. Behind one of the boards, the oaken door by which the Cresacres made their entrance can be seen, still hung, the walling up of the doorway having been done on the outside only.
The screen which now encloses the East end of the chapel to form a vestry for the clergy, is part of a much older one than the rest of the screen work in the church and may have been part of the screen which stood in the original arch dividing the chapel and the chancel. It is of excellent though rather crude workmanship and of a design peculiar to South Yorkshire.
This North Chapel is now almost filled by the Organ, the Cresacre Tomb and the Choir and Priest's Vestries so that it is not easy to try to see it as it was when it functioned as the Cresacre Chapel with its own altar under the East window. However, the piscina remains, although its front edge has been shorn off. It is probable that this Chapel continued as a private place of worship to a much later date than the South Chapel.
It is a surprising thing that the North Chapel, which was undoubtedly in the possession of the Cresacre family for several centuries before, was, apparently, not founded as a Chantry Chapel until 1507.
In the Chancel there is a seat for about three persons which, though restored, is extremely old and is of the same workmanship as the small screen at the East End of the North Chapel. Indeed the Rev. E. P. Cook suggests it is part of that screen reconstructed to form a seat.
In the Chancel also may be noted the piece of a roof beam end (now serving as a small table) which I have mentioned earlier, and a number of brasses and tombstones of interest, all of which I also covered in parts of this little book.
Before the Reformation many of the windows of the church would be filled with beautiful stained glass, but unfortunately all was destroyed, with the exception of a few fragments which still remain in the small upper lights of the East window of the South Chapel, during Oliver Cromwell's time when his soldiers even used the churches as stables for their horses.
For two or three centuries after that the windows were filled with plain glass, but to-day there are several windows which once again fill the church with many colours. These are :
Part of the Great East window, given in memory of the Rector who built the present Rectory and gave us our greens the Rev. T, C. Percival and his wife.
In the South wall of the Chancel there is a window given in 1904 to the memory of John Hartop of Barnburgh Hall by his nephews and nieces. He was a great lover and benefactor of Barnburgh Church.
The window behind the font was given in the year 1906 to the memory of her sister by Mrs. Mary Hartop, and the window on the other side of the Tower Arch, in the North Aisle, was given in 1914 to the memory of this same Mary Hartop.
The latest coloured window to be inserted was that in the East end of the South Chapel which was given in 1946 by Archdeacon Clarke in memory of his wife, nee Christabel Marie Lockwood, formerly headmistress of Becket Road Infant School at Doncaster.
Barnburgh Church has a peal of three very fine bells, and although they are of no outstanding historical interest (none of them are pre-Reformation and none have inscriptions apart from being dated) they are of excellent workmanship and have a fine mellow tone. They were cast in the early part of the seventeenth century.
Aurora Project
Aurora was a rumored mid-1980s American reconnaissance aircraft. There is no substantial evidence that it was ever built or flown and it has been termed a myth.[1][2]
The U.S. government has consistently denied such an aircraft was ever built. Aviation and space reference site Aerospaceweb.org concluded, "The evidence supporting the Aurora is circumstantial or pure conjecture, there is little reason to contradict the government's position."[1]
Former Skunk Works director Ben Rich confirmed that "Aurora" was simply a myth in Skunk Works, a book detailing his days as the director. Mr. Rich wrote that a young colonel working in the Pentagon arbitrarily assigned the name "Aurora" to the funding for the B-2 bomber design competition and somehow the name was leaked to the media.[3]
Others come to different conclusions.[4] In 2006, veteran black project watcher and aviation writer Bill Sweetman said, "Does Aurora exist? Years of pursuit have led me to believe that, yes, Aurora is most likely in active development, spurred on by recent advances that have allowed technology to catch up with the ambition that launched the program a generation ago."[5]
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(aircraft)
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: This picture released by the British Museum 07 January, 2005 in London shows a crystal skull which is displayed in the museum's Wellcome Trust Gallery. The skull, which was alledged to be from the ancient Aztec civilisation of Mexico, has been determined to be a fake after marks made by a rotating wheel were found on the work. Investigators conjecture that he crystal was cut in the 19th century with suspicion falling to Frenchman Eugene Boban, who originally acquired the skull. AFP PHOTO/BRITISH MUSEUM (Photo credit should read /AFP/Getty Images)
Bajang Ratu gate or also known as the Candi Bajang Ratu is a gate / relic temple in the village of Majapahit Temon, District Trowulan, Mojokerto, East Java.
The building was probably built in the 14th century and is one of the big gate in the heyday of Majapahit. According to the Heritage Preservation Board Mojokerto, temple / gate serves as the entrance to the shrine to commemorate the death of King Jayanegara in Negarakertagama called "back to the world of Vishnu" in 1250 Saka (circa 1328 AD). But actually before his death Jayanegara this temple used as a back door of the kingdom. This conjecture is supported by the relief "Sri Tanjung" and release symbolizes the wings of the gate and up to now in the region has become a cultural Trowulan if required mourn the dead through the back door.
Villeurbanne, 2012
Cocktail Designers & Wallpapers by Artists – Conjectures & Fantômes 2
mediatheques.villeurbanne.fr/2012/02/cocktail-designers-w...
Provoking Field.
Cochion yn teimlo eu bwyta oren cyflyrau seiciatrig newidiol,
destructieve kleuren produceren agressieve activiteit van desoriëntatie's lijden tinten,
violent rejet de toile d'exécution punitions pénalités paradoxales vengeance chauffée,
εξωτερικές εξηγήσεις αναχρονιστική απορρίψεις καλλιτέχνη Σύνταγμα συνώνυμο υπερκινητική μάτια,
klare solfylte lyse glitrende trær tause conjectures rolige feil melankolsk temperament høytidelig furu,
anstarren grasartigen Formen Helligkeit splendorous liebst süße Wüste Wickel verzaubern Winde,
улыбается красивые сады распространяющиеся мелодии крылатых изображения радуясь губы мигающие сезона летать,
roses uplifting nymphs láidre ag gáire brainsí pléisiúrtha paisin amorous íon drúcht só,
なだめるような致命夢ボーッエッセンスバブリング詩入札の朝の愛.
Steve.D.Hammond.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Foreland_Lighthouse
South Foreland Lighthouse is a Victorian lighthouse on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. It went out of service in 1988 and is currently owned by the National Trust. Another lighthouse had previously stood on the site since at least 1730 and during most of this time it was manned by the Knott family of lighthouse keepers.
Firsts
South Foreland was the first lighthouse to use an electric light. This was in 1859. By 1875 the lighthouse was using carbon arc lamps powered by a steam-driven magneto.[1]
It was used by Guglielmo Marconi during his work on radio waves, receiving the first ship-to-shore message from the East Goodwin lightship. The system was used over the following winter to avert several shipwrecks. In 1899, the first international transmission was made between the lighthouse and Wimereux in France.[
Two lighthouses
Originally, there was another lighthouse further down towards the cliff edge to give a bearing on the leading lights principle when a ship was at the point where it could safely turn left into the Downs behind the sands or right to go safely around the Sands. They were both built in the 1840s. However, the Sands shifted over the following years until this bearing became dangerously inaccurate and so the lower light was taken out of service in 1910. It still survives as part of a private garden but is under threat from cliff erosion.
The destruction of Trinity House records during the last war has prompted considerable conjecture about this lighthouse's history because other source material is hard to find. Whilst beacons or votive lights may have existed from early times one of the first reliable references is found the Penny Magazine 19th Sept. 1835, pp365, and states that Charles I granted letters-patent to 'continue and renew' the lighthouses at the North and South Forelands to Sir John Meldrum. Presumably, a record exists, somewhere of an earlier bequest.
It is a fact that two lighthouses still stand here, but it is by no means certain why they were built. The popular leading lights theory lacks conviction, since turning to port or starboard upon lining up the two lights would not automatically lead to safe passage unless the navigator knew precisely how far the ship was from land. A stronger argument seems to be that ships coming from the north might line up the lights in order to determine when it was safe to turn in for Dover Harbour. Seamen sailing up the channel might use these lights, not as leading lights (as popular opinion has it), but simply as lights in transit when another bearing is needed to confirm position. It is also uncertain why two lights were built in 1840 to give a lead when a Trinity House lightship had been stationed at the South Sands Head since 1832 precisely for that purpose. Lieutenant John Hay (British Channel Piloting, 1850) lists many bearings in the Downs using churches, buildings, mills, castles, and the upper South Foreland lighthouse, but makes no mention of one using both South Foreland lighthouses. Greg Holyoake, in his book Deal:All in the Downs, in a seemingly well-researched chapter on lighthouses and lightships (p. 100) says two lighthouses were first built at the South Foreland to distinguish it from the North Foreland. He also suggests the two lights served as a transit. Elsewhere,(vide) the authoritative and comprehensive website: www.pharology.eu says;"...since one light could be confused with another just along the coast it became necessary to make one light distinguishable from another. This was achieved by having two lights at the South Foreland whilst only one was shown at the North Foreland."
Movement of the Sands
Charts as far back as the 17th century show that the cyclic movement of the Sands was known. Although the chart of Robert Jager, 1629, (Shipwrecks of the Goodwin Sands, R & B Larne) may leave something to be desired in accuracy of the coastline, it seems to suggest that the South Sand Head was farther south than it was in the next century and that the Head was turning back upon itself in cyclic movement. Early in the eighteenth century the South Sand Head was still so far south that the chart of Charles Labelye,1736,(Public Records Office)shows a number of bearings, one of which runs through the two lighthouses then in existence and unmistakably strikes the Head. Richard Larne (Shipwrecks of the Goodwin Sands) estimates the increase/decrease at 4000 feet a century. It would seem to have been a foolish act to build two lighthouses to cover a bearing that so soon would be useless even if new sites were selected. Less widely known is the fact that a lightship of sorts is said to have been stationed at the South Sands Head since Elizabethan times for the express purpose of guiding the fleet into the anchorage of the Downs, although evidence for this assertion is slim. How effective a primitive light vessel may have been is a matter of speculation.
Multiple lights
We know, also, that multiple lights were a feature of many locations before occulting lights arrived to give a station clear identity at night. The Cornwall Tourist Board website says: "Trinity House built a two coal fired station (at the Lizard)... The signal continued as two fixed lights until 1903... in 1903 the two tower system was stopped and a single flashing light used."
The presence of two lights at the South Foreland distinguished it from its close neighbour at the North Foreland. A rotating mechanism, that presumably allowed the light to occult, was installed in 1904. Shortly afterwards (1910) the second lighthouse was taken out of service.
There is also a twin lighthouse at the North Foreland, on the coast at Broadstairs, and still in operation (though automated).
In popular culture
The South Foreland Lighthouse is one of the landmarks mentioned in the British sea shanty "Spanish Ladies".
The ChuckleVision episode "Finders Keepers" was filmed here.
She had never had interviewed anyone quite like this one, even Angelica!
She was in the twilight of a doctoral thesis that had been in the works for almost three years now. The research she was doing centered on career criminals, trying to pinpoint in her studies of how they operated, trying to establish motives that may have been compelling enough for them to have lived the lives they did. Her conjectures were that by understanding their thought processes, a series of tests could be developed that could be used on younger subjects to determine their rehabilitation attainment perspective.
She had interviewed dozens of career criminals from assorted paths in life. Most of whom had been hardened ,elderly, and had paid their dues, or were in the process of doing so( Prison). It had not been an easy time of it, a rough road of hurt, treachery and deceit, running the gauntlet from muggers, to pickpockets, to burglars, to various other thieves. Gathering information from them, weeding fact from fiction through checking histories, deciding whether or not to use what she had gathered it in her research , testing the results and writing them up! The last 3 years had certainly been a rollercoaster ride, a whirlwind of activity, number crunching, and pages upon pages of notes.
Then, amongst all this controlled chaos of her work He had come into her life.
This One had been different. He had contacted her, never revealing exactly why, or how He had heard of her and her project. She had gone into it blind, not knowing anything about the man, what he did, or really even if it was at all relevant to her research. She had only the subjects assurance, through an intermediary( A Priest), that it would be to her benefit to interview him.
She remembered clearly the evening of their first encounter; it had almost seemed ominous when she and her companion had pulled up to the address given to her. It was an old lime stoned church, with gothic overlays, the stone darkened black with age. All it needed was a group of villagers with torches and pitchforks to make the picture complete, her friend had joked, but she had not found it funny.
She had gone inside with some reservation, it all seemed too much like something out of a film noir bit of theatre. She remembered thinking that thought just before opening one of the old oak doors to the church, one of her earrings had been pulling a wisp of her hair, and she had stopped to fix it. At First they did not see anyone in the candlelit nave of the church. Than from the shadows at the back, a figure detached, approaching them.
Now, since she had already made plans to go out that evening when abruptly informed of the time of meeting she had been trying to coordinate with him, she decided to kill 2 birds with a single stone. She convinced her date to act as chaperone, and then they would leave after the interview for their night out clubbing. She had thought nothing of wearing her favorite party dress to the interview. It was a pretty thing, a russet velvet top and bronze taffeta skirt. She had even worn her good jewelry, gold with inset pearls, wearing her long hair down, but tied back so the long earrings of the set could dangle freely.
Later that evening, as she had gotten ready for bed, she had looked herself over in the long mirror, It was a very pretty dress, she had to admit, and it looked good on her. She started to fix her hair for the night, looking at her naked earlobes, she could still fell her pretty earrings that had been dangling there as she had entered the church. If only she had been more aware of the most peculiar nature of the Man waiting inside the church to be interviewed by her, she thought ruefully , as she had played over in her mind, the events of the evening……!
John Fuller (1757 – 1834), better known as "Mad Jack" Fuller, was Squire of the hamlet of Brightling, in Sussex, and a Member of Parliament between 1780 and 1812. He was a philanthropist, patron of the arts and sciences, andbuilder of follies. He purchased and commissioned many paintings from J.M.W. Turner, and was sponsor and mentor to Michael Faraday.
The tower is approximately 35 feet (10.6 m) high and 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter, and is thought to have been built in the late 1820s. Numerous explanations abound as to the purpose of the tower. One suggestion is that Fuller used to come here to watch from afar the construction of the railway through Robertsbridge, four miles away. Another fable connects the structure with the threatened Napoleonic invasion; the one version seems of too early a date and the other too late. It is also said that Fuller had this tower built so that he could keep an eye on the workmen's progress during the restoration of Bodiam Castle, which he purchased in 1829. There has also been some conjecture that it was used as a signaling tower.
Well I don't think I have ever seen so many Collembola in one place. These were below a window of an old ruined Church near Colwick Hall, I think they might actually have congregated for reproduction purposes, but that is pure conjecture. These were scattered about on every wall of the Church, but they were in these dense gatherings in just two places. These are most likely a Hypogastrura species, I see these on stone walls in many places at this time of year, they like to graze on the algae that grows on the stone. They also proved to be tricky as I struggled with focusing and lining the camera up parallel with the wall, next time I will try a tripod and a macro rail. They were at shoulder height and my hands holding the camera were shaking like crazy LOL
VIEW LARGE
Many Flickrites have been complaining about how difficult it is to get into Explore since Flickr made changes to Explore (and Interestingness) around August 20. Here’s my best guess as to what changed, and what Interestingness depends on.
First, I believe Flickr is updating Explore less frequently during the day. This de facto means less people are getting into Explore. Further, since the ones that do get into Explore stay there longer, they get more visits, comments, and faves, and are able to stay there yet longer. The top 50 photos in Explore have a LOT of views, so I can only presume they're staying there most of the day.
There are other changes I can conjecture:
1. There may have been an “acceleration” factor in Interestingness/Explore that has either been reduced or removed. If you got a lot of views/comments/faves in a short amount of time it would really bolster Interestingness. I am not sure I am seeing this effect any more. Since one of the advantages of the so-called “Explore Groups” was this acceleration, this could be the reason they have lost their dominance in Explore.
2. There must be some other reason why the Explore Groups are no longer represented so largely in Explore. If you look at the data, the Groups represented most in Explore (today it was Black and White and NikonD90) have 10 or less photos in Explore. In the heyday of the Explore Groups, the top groups had 30 or 40 or 50 pictures represented in Explore.
Are these Explore Groups somehow being BANNED?? Or their members??
Really really really doubt it. A more logical explanation is that Interestingness has somehow been modified with respect to the type of Groups you post to. If you look at the top 50 in Explore on any recent day, you’ll find most have either posted to no Group, or posted to a Group that is not a “popularity” contest.
So without being able to pinpoint the exact nature of the change, my advice is this: Post in less popular Groups! (and don't post in too many)
3. Interestingness for any given image probably depends on the image’s relative popularity compared to other images in your stream. Historically this led to some pics with very modest stats (e.g. 30 views, 10 comments, 8 faves) to get into Explore--just because that image was so much more popular than others they had. I am not seeing this anymore, so I think this effect has been reduced—Interestingness is more absolute and less relative to what is in the rest of your stream.
4. I have conjectured before that Explore and Interestingness were related but not one in the same. I am less certain about this now. Maybe I was wrong, or maybe I was right but they’ve become more coupled.
5. Finally, I have no doubt that images that get posted to more Flickr Galleries get a higher Interestingness score. Galleries didn’t exist before these recent changes.
In my own case, there was a time when I got into Explore a lot; and then I didn’t because I wasn’t posting to the Explore Groups; and when I started doing what everyone else was doing I got into Explore again… and then Flickr changed and I didn’t and I didn’t get into Explore… and then I quit worrying about Groups and went back to my old behavior and am getting into Explore all the time again.
So here’s a reminder of the important things to do IF you care about a post’s Interestingness or Explore:
a. Post only Interesting photography.
b. Include camera data and locate on map. For longer term Interestingness, include descriptive title, text, and tags.
c. Maintain a vibrant Flickr network of contacts and friends that will view your posts.
d. Don’t post more than one or two images per day.
e. Post to less than ten Groups, at least initially; posting to less popular Group may increase Interestingness.
f. It’s not only views, comment, and faves that matter; Galleries and notes increase Interestingness also.
(Yes, this got into Explore)
Photos from our road trip down the South Island of New Zealand in January. This shot was taken in Oamaru our stop of for lunch on the first day of our trip, January 20, 2015 New Zealand.
The whitestone townscape of Oamaru contains some of the best-preserved heritage buildings in New Zealand. In the late 19th century, the town prospered through gold-mining, quarrying and timber milling. Some of the wealth was spent on elegant stone buildings made from local limestone.
This Harbour-Tyne Street area in the Victorian precinct is particularly special and great for shopping is great too.
The name Oamaru derives from Māori words meaning the place of Maru.The identity of Maru remains open to conjecture.
For more Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oamaru
Noah is the one in the center, looking to the Heavens. He has a beard, and is looking upward and to his left (the viewers' right). He thinks perhaps God got him mixed up with Joseph. But it is confounding because God doesn't usually get mixed up. He decided he will just wear the coat anyway, until the end of his time on Earth.
Lightlings are fascinating, but they only live on Earth about 30 minutes.
He also doesn't know why he is flanked by a 3-eyed, big mouthed Lightling on his right (viewer's left) and a dinosaur head with ruffles for neck ornamentation on his left (viewer's right)? So much he doesn't know, like does the dinosaur's actual body continue on, and we just can't see it in this particular picture?
Lightlings are for fun, and wonder and conjecture. We don't really know what happens to them after they sort of melt or dissolve here on Earth.
For Dave C, and other Flickr friends, The above tells the *soul of these Lightlings.
ABOUT RAINTINGS
Rainting is a word I coined describing a painterly effect, achieved by photographing the subject through glass that is being rained on, like a windshield or other. It achieves an oftentimes pretty or soft flowing effect, and sometimes other-worldly. It is usually creative, fun, and fluid, seldom harsh in my opinion. I have an album of them on Flickr. Rainting is already in "The Urban Dictionary" but I would like it to also be in a more sophisticated/educational type of dictionary. I started a public Flickr group of Raintings on New Year's Day 2020.
The more collegiate type of dictionaries say that the word has to actually be used by people before they're likely to publish it. So if you like the word and my idea, say it loud and say it clear and take a few Raintings and post them to my new group. Using my word and trying my new group are not inclusive of one another.
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ABOUT LIGHTLINGS
Lightling is an even newer word I coined to name the odd little sort of anthropomorphic characters that sometimes appear in my images when doing a Rainting. They come in many sizes, shapes and colors and often times have what appear to be various facial expressions. In school we may have learned that a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square. Well Raintings can exist without Lightlings in the scene, but Lightlings cannot exist without a Rainting.
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"My thin white border is not so much a frame as a defense against Flickr's all dark background"
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(DSCN1481Joseph&CoatofManyColorsTUabitResamBordInitFlickr112320)
Nightcliff, Darwin Harbour, Northern Territory, Australia
Nightcliff is a northern suburb of the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
Although the origin of the name Nightcliff has always been surrounded by conjecture and controversy, the naming can be tracked back to 8 September 1839. Early that day, the HMS Beagle, which was engaged on an excursion of the Australian coast, sailed into the area and anchored in Shoal Bay near Hope Inlet. John Lort Stokes, William Forsyth and several other crew members left the Beagle on a longboat for an excursion and passed around Lee Point, in the vicinity of which, there appeared to be a major opening.
Stokes was later to record.
"The sea breeze setting in early, we did not reach it till after dark, when we landed for observations at a cliffy projection near the eastern entrance point: this we found to be composed of a kind of clay, mixed with calcareous matter. We had some difficulty in landing, and then in scrambling up the cliffs by the light of a lantern. If any of the watchful natives happened at the time to be on the look out, they must have stood in astonishment at beholding such strange persons, who at such a time of night, with no ostensible object were visiting their shores"
The term 'Night Cliff' was thus applied to the locality, and it subsequently appeared in this form on Surveyor-General George W. Goyder's original plan of 1869. Goyder also mentioned the locality a couple of times in the diary he kept as leader of the Northern Territory Survey Expedition. Despite these well established facts, many people have insisted that the name was derived from a misspelling of the name of John George Knight, one of the best known government officials in Darwin for nearly two decades prior to his death in 1892. It was known that Knight enjoyed visiting the Nightcliff environs and it is believed that he spent long periods of contemplation on the cliff tops. As late as 1952, a former resident who had lived in Darwin between 1876 and 1926 wrote to the Northern Territory News insisting that the area was known during that period as "Knightscliff". It is evident that many Territorians have preferred this variant form of name in deference to one of the most highly distinguished local public figures of the late nineteenth century. However, records show that Knight did not arrive in Darwin until 1873, several years after the publication of Goyder's map.
Red indian.... a member of the race of people living in America when Europeans arrived
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the descendants of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. Pueblos indígenas (indigenous peoples) is a common term in Spanish-speaking countries. Aborigen (aboriginal/native) is used in Argentina, whereas "Amerindian" is used in Quebec, The Guianas, and the English-speaking Caribbean.[21][22][23][24] Indigenous peoples are commonly known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, which include First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.[25] Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives.[26]
According to the prevailing theories of the settlement of the Americas, migrations of humans from Asia (in particular North Asia)[27][28] to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The majority of experts agree that the earliest pre-modern human migration via Beringia took place at least 13,500 years ago.[29] These early Paleo-Indians spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. According to the oral histories of many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living there since their genesis, described by a wide range of creation myths.
Application of the term "Indian" originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, thought that he had arrived in the East Indies.[30][31][32][33][34][35] The Americas came to be known as the "West Indies", a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the names "Indies" and "Indian", which implied some kind of racial or cultural unity among the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. This unifying concept, codified in law, religion, and politics, was not originally accepted by indigenous peoples but has been embraced by many over the last two centuries.[citation needed] Even though the term "Indian" does not include the Aleuts, Inuit, or Yupik peoples, these groups are considered indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in Amazonia, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time and work in reshaping and cultivating the flora indigenous to the Americas.[36] Although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires.
A Navajo man on horseback in Monument valley, Arizona.
Many parts of the Americas are still populated by indigenous peoples; some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. At least a thousand different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, and Nahuatl, count their speakers in millions. Many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, but also cater to modern needs. Some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples.
Migration into the continents[edit]
For more details on theories of the migrations of the Paleo-Indians, see settlement of the Americas.
The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the exact dates and routes traveled, provide the subject of ongoing research and discussion.[37][38] According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation.[37] During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the land bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to north west North America (Alaska).[39][40] Alaska was a glacial refugia because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist. The Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska (East Beringia) for thousands of years.[41][42]
Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single ancestral population, one that developed in isolation, conjectured to be Beringia.[43][44] The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years.[45][46][47] Around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond.[38][48][49] These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets.[50]
Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to South America.[51] Evidence of the latter would have been covered by a sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age.[52]
The time range of 40,000–16,500 years ago is debatable and probably will remain so for years to come.[37][38] The few agreements achieved to date include:[29][53]
the origin from Central Asia
widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the last glacial period, or more specifically what is known as the Late Glacial Maximum, around 16,000–13,000 years before present
Stone tools, particularly projectile points and scrapers, are the primary evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas. Crafted lithic flaked tools are used by archaeologists and anthropologists to classify cultural periods.[54] The Clovis culture, the earliest definitively-dated Paleo-Indians in the Americas, appears around 11,500 RCBP (radiocarbon years Before Present[55]), equivalent to 13,500 to 13,000 calendar years ago.
In 2014, the autosomal DNA of a 12,500+-year-old infant from Montana found in close association with several Clovis artifacts was sequenced.[56] These are the Anzick-1 remains from the Anzick Clovis burial in Montana. The data indicate that the individual was from a population ancestral to present South American and Central American Native American populations, and closely related to present North American Native American populations. The implication is that there was an early divergence between North American and Central American plus South American populations. Hypotheses which posit that invasions subsequent to the Clovis culture overwhelmed or assimilated previous migrants into the Americas were ruled out.[56]
Similarly, the skeleton of a teenage girl (named 'Naia', after a water nymph from Greek mythology) found in the underwater caves called sistema Sac Actun in Mexico's eastern Yucatán Peninsula in 2007 has had DNA extracted, and at 13,000 years old is considered the oldest genetically intact human skeleton ever found in the Americas. The DNA indicates she was from a lineage derived from Asian origins that is represented in the modern native population's DNA.[57]
Pre-Columbian era[edit]
Main article: Pre-Columbian era
See also: Archaeology of the Americas
Language families of North American indigenous peoples
The Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European and African influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original arrival in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the early modern period.[58]
While technically referring to the era before Christopher Columbus' voyages of 1492 to 1504, in practice the term usually includes the history of American indigenous cultures until Europeans either conquered or significantly influenced them, even if this happened decades or even centuries after Columbus' initial landing.[59] "Pre-Columbian" is used especially often in the context of discussing the great indigenous civilizations of the Americas, such as those of Mesoamerica (the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacano, the Zapotec, the Mixtec, the Aztec, and the Maya civilizations) and those of the Andes (Inca Empire, Moche culture, Muisca Confederation, Cañaris).
Ethnic groups circa 1300-1535
Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont
Many pre-Columbian civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies.[60] Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first significant European and African arrivals (ca. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are known only through oral history and through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Mayan, Olmec, Mixtec, and Nahua peoples, had their own written records. However, the European colonists of the time worked to eliminate non-Christian beliefs, and Christian pyres destroyed many pre-Columbian written records. Only a few documents remained hidden and survived, leaving contemporary historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.
According to both indigenous American and European accounts and documents, American civilizations at the time of European encounter had achieved many accomplishments.[61] For instance, the Aztecs built one of the largest cities in the world, Tenochtitlan, the ancient site of Mexico City, with an estimated population of 200,000. American civilizations also displayed impressive accomplishments in astronomy and mathematics. The domestication of maize or corn required thousands of years of selective breeding.
Inuit, Alaskan Native, and American Indian creation myths tell of a variety of origins of their respective peoples. Some were "always there" or were created by gods or animals, some migrated from a specified compass point, and others came from "across the ocean".[62]
European colonization[edit]
Main article: European colonization of the Americas
See also: Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas and Columbian Exchange
Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact
The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the peoples of the continents. Although the exact pre-contact population of the Americas is unknown, scholars estimate that Native American populations diminished by between 80 and 90% within the first centuries of contact with Europeans. The leading cause was disease. The continent was ravaged by epidemics of diseases such as smallpox, measles, and cholera, which were brought from Europe by the early explorers and spread quickly into new areas even before later explorers and colonists reached them. Native Americans suffered high mortality rates due to their lack of prior exposure to these diseases. The loss of lives was exacerbated by conflict between colonists and indigenous people. Colonists also frequently perpetrated massacres on the indigenous groups and enslaved them.[63][64][65] According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1894), the North American Indian Wars of the 19th century cost the lives of about 19,000 whites and 30,000 Native Americans.[66]
The first indigenous group encountered by Columbus were the 250,000 Taínos of Hispaniola who represented the dominant culture in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. Within thirty years about 70% of the Taínos had died.[67] They had no immunity to European diseases, so outbreaks of measles and smallpox ravaged their population.[68] Increasing punishment of the Taínos for revolting against forced labour, despite measures put in place by the encomienda, which included religious education and protection from warring tribes,[69] eventually led to the last great Taíno rebellion.
Following years of mistreatment, the Taínos began to adopt suicidal behaviors, with women aborting or killing their infants and men jumping from the cliffs or ingesting untreated cassava, a violent poison.[67] Eventually, a Taíno Cacique named Enriquillo managed to hold out in the Baoruco Mountain Range for thirteen years, causing serious damage to the Spanish, Carib-held plantations and their Indian auxiliaries.[70] Hearing of the seriousness of the revolt, Emperor Charles V (also King of Spain) sent captain Francisco Barrionuevo to negotiate a peace treaty with the ever-increasing number of rebels. Two months later, after consultation with the Audencia of Santo Domingo, Enriquillo was offered any part of the island to live in peace.
The Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513, were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spanish settlers in America, particularly with regard to native Indians. The laws forbade the maltreatment of natives and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism.[71] The Spanish crown found it difficult to enforce these laws in a distant colony.
Drawing accompanying text in Book XII of the 16th-century Florentine Codex (compiled 1540–1585), showing Nahuas of conquest-era central Mexico suffering from smallpox
Various theories for the decline of the Native American populations emphasize epidemic diseases, conflicts with Europeans, and conflicts among warring tribes. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.[72][73] Some believe that after first contacts with Europeans and Africans, Old World diseases caused the death of 90 to 95% of the native population of the New World in the following 150 years.[74] Smallpox killed up to one third of the native population of Hispaniola in 1518.[75] By killing the Incan ruler Huayna Capac, smallpox caused the Inca Civil War. Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618—all ravaged the remains of Inca culture.
Smallpox had killed millions of native inhabitants of Mexico.[76][77] Unintentionally introduced at Veracruz with the arrival of Pánfilo de Narváez on April 23, 1520, smallpox ravaged Mexico in the 1520s,[78] possibly killing over 150,000 in Tenochtitlán alone (the heartland of the Aztec Empire), and aiding in the victory of Hernán Cortés over the Aztec Empire at Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City) in 1521.[citation needed]
Over the centuries, the Europeans had developed high degrees of immunity to these diseases, while the indigenous Americans had no immunity.[79]
Explorations of the Caribbean led to the discovery of the Arawaks of the Lesser Antilles. The culture was destroyed by 1650. Only 500 had survived by the year 1550, though the bloodlines continued through to the modern populace. In Amazonia, indigenous societies weathered centuries of colonization.[80]
Indians visiting a Brazilian farm plantation in Minas Gerais ca. 1824
Contact with European diseases such as smallpox and measles killed between 50 and 67 per cent of the Aboriginal population of North America in the first hundred years after the arrival of Europeans.[81] Some 90 per cent of the native population near Massachusetts Bay Colony died of smallpox in an epidemic in 1617–1619.[82] In 1633, in Plymouth, the Native Americans there were exposed to smallpox because of contact with Europeans. As it had done elsewhere, the virus wiped out entire population groups of Native Americans.[83] It reached Lake Ontario in 1636, and the lands of the Iroquois by 1679.[84][85] During the 1770s, smallpox killed at least 30% of the West Coast Native Americans.[86] The 1775–82 North American smallpox epidemic and 1837 Great Plains smallpox epidemic brought devastation and drastic population depletion among the Plains Indians.[87][88] In 1832, the federal government of the United States established a smallpox vaccination program for Native Americans (The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832).[89][90]
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated three million[91] to some 300,000 in 1997.[dubious – discuss][not in citation given][92]
The Spanish Empire and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild.[93] The re-introduction of the horse, extinct in the Americas for over 7500 years, had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America and of Patagonia in South America. By domesticating horses, some tribes had great success: horses enabled them to expand their territories, exchange more goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game, especially bison.
Agriculture[edit]
See also: Agriculture in Mesoamerica and Incan agriculture
A bison hunt depicted by George Catlin
Over the course of thousands of years, American indigenous peoples domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of plant species. These species now constitute 50–60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide.[94] In certain cases, the indigenous peoples developed entirely new species and strains through artificial selection, as was the case in the domestication and breeding of maize from wild teosinte grasses in the valleys of southern Mexico. Numerous such agricultural products retain their native names in the English and Spanish lexicons.
The South American highlands were a center of early agriculture. Genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species suggests that the potato has a single origin in the area of southern Peru,[95] from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex. Over 99% of all modern cultivated potatoes worldwide are descendants of a subspecies indigenous to south-central Chile,[96] Solanum tuberosum ssp. tuberosum, where it was cultivated as long as 10,000 years ago.[97][98] According to George Raudzens, "It is clear that in pre-Columbian times some groups struggled to survive and often suffered food shortages and famines, while others enjoyed a varied and substantial diet."[99] The persistent drought around 850 AD coincided with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization, and the famine of One Rabbit (AD 1454) was a major catastrophe in Mexico.[100]
Andenes in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru. The Incan agricultural terraces are still used by many of the Incas' descendents, Quechua-speaking Andean farmers.
Natives of North America began practicing farming approximately 4,000 years ago, late in the Archaic period of North American cultures. Technology had advanced to the point that pottery was becoming common and the small-scale felling of trees had become feasible. Concurrently, the Archaic Indians began using fire in a controlled manner. Intentional burning of vegetation was used to mimic the effects of natural fires that tended to clear forest understories. It made travel easier and facilitated the growth of herbs and berry-producing plants, which were important for both food and medicines.[101]
In the Mississippi River valley, Europeans noted Native Americans' managed groves of nut and fruit trees not far from villages and towns and their gardens and agricultural fields. Further away, prescribed burning would have been used in forest and prairie areas.[102]
Many crops first domesticated by indigenous Americans are now produced and used globally. Chief among these is maize or "corn", arguably the most important crop in the world.[103] Other significant crops include cassava, chia, squash (pumpkins, zucchini, marrow, acorn squash, butternut squash), the pinto bean, Phaseolus beans including most common beans, tepary beans and lima beans, tomatoes, potatoes, avocados, peanuts, cocoa beans (used to make chocolate), vanilla, strawberries, pineapples, Peppers (species and varieties of Capsicum, including bell peppers, jalapeños, paprika and chili peppers) sunflower seeds, rubber, brazilwood, chicle, tobacco, coca, manioc and some species of cotton.
Studies of contemporary indigenous environmental management, including agro-forestry practices among Itza Maya in Guatemala and hunting and fishing among the Menominee of Wisconsin, suggest that longstanding "sacred values" may represent a summary of sustainable millennial traditions.[104]
Culture[edit]
Further information: Mythologies of the indigenous peoples of North America
Quechua woman and child in the Sacred Valley, Andes, Peru
Cultural practices in the Americas seem to have been shared mostly within geographical zones where unrelated peoples adopted similar technologies and social organizations. An example of such a cultural area is Mesoamerica, where millennia of coexistence and shared development among the peoples of the region produced a fairly homogeneous culture with complex agricultural and social patterns. Another well-known example is the North American plains where until the 19th century several peoples shared the traits of nomadic hunter-gatherers based primarily on buffalo hunting.
Writing systems[edit]
See also: Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, Cherokee syllabary, and Quipu
Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico
The development of writing is counted among the many achievements and innovations of pre-Columbian American cultures. Independent from the development of writing in other areas of the world, the Mesoamerican region produced several indigenous writing systems beginning in the 1st millennium BCE. What may be the earliest-known example in the Americas of an extensive text thought to be writing is by the Cascajal Block. The Olmec hieroglyphs tablet has been indirectly dated from ceramic shards found in the same context to approximately 900 BCE, around the time that Olmec occupation of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán began to wane.[105]
The Maya writing system was a combination of phonetic syllabic symbols and logograms — that is, it was a logosyllabic writing system. It is the only pre-Columbian writing system known to represent completely the spoken language of its community. In total, the script has more than one thousand different glyphs, although a few are variations of the same sign or meaning, and many appear only rarely or are confined to particular localities. At any one time, no more than about five hundred glyphs were in use, some two hundred of which (including variations) had a phonetic or syllabic interpretation.[106][107][108]
Aztec codices (singular codex) are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture. The pre-Columbian codices differ from European codices in that they are largely pictorial; they were not meant to symbolize spoken or written narratives.[109] The colonial era codices not only contain Aztec pictograms, but also Classical Nahuatl (in the Latin alphabet), Spanish, and occasionally Latin.
Spanish mendicants in the sixteenth century taught indigenous scribes in their communities to write their languages in Latin letters, and there is a large number of local-level documents in Nahuatl, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Yucatec Maya from the colonial era, many of which were part of lawsuits and other legal matters. Although Spaniards initially taught indigenous scribes alphabetic writing, the tradition became self-perpetuating at the local level.[110] The Spanish crown gathered such documentation, and contemporary Spanish translations were made for legal cases. Scholars have translated and analyzed these documents in what is called the New Philology to write histories of indigenous peoples from indigenous viewpoints.[111]
The Wiigwaasabak, birch bark scrolls on which the Ojibwa (Anishinaabe) people wrote complex geometrical patterns and shapes, can also be considered a form of writing, as can Mi'kmaq hieroglyphics.
Aboriginal syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of abugidas used to write some Aboriginal Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and Athabaskan language families.
Music and art[edit]
Main articles: Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas and Native American music
Apache fiddle made by Chesley Goseyun Wilson (San Carlos Apache)
Chimu culture feather pectoral, feathers, reed, copper, silver, hide, cordage, ca. 1350–1450 CE
Textile art by Julia Pingushat (Inuk, Arviat, Nunavut Territory, Canada), wool, embroidery floss, 1995
Native American music in North America is almost entirely monophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often centers around drumming. Rattles, clappersticks, and rasps were also popular percussive instruments. Flutes were made of rivercane, cedar, and other woods. The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step. The Apache fiddle is a single stringed instrument.[citation needed]
The music of the indigenous peoples of Central Mexico and Central America was often pentatonic. Before the arrival of the Spaniards and other Europeans, music was inseparable from religious festivities and included a large variety of percussion and wind instruments such as drums, flutes, sea snail shells (used as a trumpet) and "rain" tubes. No remnants of pre-Columbian stringed instruments were found until archaeologists discovered a jar in Guatemala, attributed to the Maya of the Late Classic Era (600–900 CE), which depicts a stringed musical instrument which has since been reproduced. This instrument is one of the very few stringed instruments known in the Americas prior to the introduction of European musical instruments; when played, it produces a sound that mimics a jaguar's growl.[112]
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas comprise a major category in the world art collection. Contributions include pottery, paintings, jewellery, weavings, sculptures, basketry, carvings, and beadwork.[113] Because too many artists were posing as Native Americans and Alaska Natives[114] in order to profit from the cachet of Indigenous art in the United States, the U.S. passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, requiring artists to prove that they are enrolled in a state or federally recognized tribe. To support the ongoing practice of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian arts and cultures in the United States,[115] the Ford Foundation, arts advocates and American Indian tribes created an endowment seed fund and established a national Native Arts and Cultures Foundation in 2007.[116][117]
Demography of contemporary populations[edit]
This map shows the percentage of indigenous population in different countries of the Americas.
The following table provides estimates for each country in the Americas of the populations of indigenous people and those with partial indigenous ancestry, each expressed as a percentage of the overall population. The total percentage obtained by adding both of these categories is also given.
Note: these categories are inconsistently defined and measured differently from country to country. Some figures are based on the results of population-wide genetic surveys while others are based on self-identification or observational estimation
Photos from our road trip down the South Island of New Zealand in January. This shot was taken in Oamaru our stop of for lunch on the first day of our trip, January 20, 2015 New Zealand.
The Steampunk Cafe on the waterfront has just opened we didn't go inside .. wish we had of!
The whitestone townscape of Oamaru contains some of the best-preserved heritage buildings in New Zealand. In the late 19th century, the town prospered through gold-mining, quarrying and timber milling. Some of the wealth was spent on elegant stone buildings made from local limestone.
This Harbour-Tyne Street area in the Victorian precinct is particularly special and great for shopping is great too.
The name Oamaru derives from Māori words meaning the place of Maru.The identity of Maru remains open to conjecture.
For more Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oamaru
Chiesa di San Michele.
L'altare maggiore è stato realizzato a Genova da Giuseppe Maria Massetti e poi montato in loco nel 1707 dal suo discepolo Pietro Pozzo.
Composto da un paliotto marmoreo chiuso da colonne tortili
e sopraelevato rispetto all'aula, è visibile da ogni punto.
La chiesa non presenta strutture divisorie che possano interferire, distraendo il fedele durante il rito.
Sopra l'altare troviamo la statua lignea di San Michele (misure: 190x88 cm) in legno policromo dorato, di scuola napoletana.
La congettura vuole che si tratti di una statua indorata dallo scultore napoletano Giuseppe De Rosa nel 1620 per la chiesa del Collegio di Cagliari.
Ai lati dell'arcangelo due statue marmoree con san Giuseppe e con sant'Anna.
Church of San Michele.
The high altar was built in Genoa by Giuseppe Maria Massetti and then mounted on site in 1707 by his disciple Pietro Pozzo.
Composed of a marble frontal closed by twisted columns
and raised above the classroom, it is visible from every point.
The church has no dividing structures that could interfere, distracting the faithful during the rite.
Above the altar we find the wooden statue of San Michele (size: 190x88 cm) in gilded polychrome wood, from the Neapolitan school.
The conjecture has it that it is a gilded statue by the Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe De Rosa in 1620 for the church of the College of Cagliari.
On the sides of the archangel there are two marble statues with Saint Joseph and Saint Anne.
IMG_4894m
H O L D
You presume to know me, to claim the right to judge simply because I share my work and some thoughts publicly. But I am not yours to dissect or critique. Were our roles reversed, I might conclude you lack fulfillment, engrossed in observing others' lives, and you become desperate to intervene despite lacking control over your own life. You watch existence unfold through a narrow window, yearning to escape your bland reality. Yet, is this my mere conjecture, or have I struck a chord of your truth?
HFF....haven't been back to see if they got the mysterious cube out. someone said they thought it might have been a vault, which makes sense as a conjecture.
Probably the most photographed owl nest in Washington state.
This owl has been on the nest since early December and still no owlets. My conjecture is that she lost the first brood and layed a second set of eggs. This pair has consistently produced young at this location for many years in a row. In a typical year I'm able to find the male owl nearby, haven't seen it at all this winter. Odd to not be seeing young this late into Winter at this location.
Any other informed opinions on what may be going with this nest??
Oamaru is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is 80 kilometres south of Timaru and 120 kilometres north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway Main South Line connect it to both cities. With a population of 13,850, Oamaru is the 28th largest urban area in New Zealand, and the third largest in Otago behind Dunedin and Queenstown. The town is the seat of Waitaki District, which includes the surrounding towns of Kurow, Weston, Palmerston, and Hampden. which combined have a total population of 23,200.
Friendly Bay is a popular recreational area located at the edge of Oamaru Harbour, south to Oamaru's main centre. Just to the north of Oamaru is the substantial Alliance Abattoir at Pukeuri, at a major junction with State Highway 83, the main route into the Waitaki Valley. This provides a road link to Kurow, Omarama, Otematata and via the Lindis Pass to Queenstown and Wanaka. Oamaru serves as the eastern gateway to the Mackenzie Basin, via the Waitaki Valley.
Oamaru has been built between the rolling hills of limestone and short stretch of flat land to the sea. This limestone rock is used for the construction of local "Oamaru stone”, sometimes called "Whitestone" buildings.
Oamaru enjoys a protected location in the shelter of Cape Wanbrow. The town was laid out in 1858 by Otago's provincial surveyor John Turnbull Thomson, who named the early streets after British rivers, particularly rivers in the northwest and southeast of the country.
The name Oamaru derives from the Māori and can be translated as "the place of Maru" (cf. Timaru). The identity of Maru remains open to conjecture.
On 20 February 1770 James Cook in the Endeavour reached a position very close to the Waitaki mouth and "about 3 Miles from the shore" according to his journal. He said the land "here is very low and flat and continues so up to the skirts of the Hills which are at least 4 or 5 Miles in land. The whole face of the Country appears barren, nor did we see any signs of inhabitants." He stayed on this part of the coast four days. Sydney Parkinson, the expedition's artist, described what seems to be Cape Wanbrow, in Oamaru. On 20 February he wrote "...we were near the land, which formed an agreeable view to the naked eye. The hills were of a moderate height, having flats that extended from them a long way, bordered by a perpendicular rocky cliff next to the sea."
Māori did live in the area, and sealers visited the coast in 1814. The Creed manuscript, discovered in 2003, records:
Some of the [local] people [had been] absent on a feasting expedition to meet a great party from Taumutu, Akaroa, Orawenua. They were returning. The [sealers'] boat passed on to the Bluff 8 miles north of Moeraki where they landed & arranged their boat – & lay down to sleep in their boat. At night Pukuheke, father of Te More, went to the boat, found them asleep & came back to the other Natives south of the Bluff. They went with 100 [men] killing 5 Europeans & eat them. Two of the seven escaped through the darkness of the night & fled as far as Goodwood, Bobby's Head, after being 2 days and nights on the way.
Pukuheke's party killed and ate these as well. The Pākehā, a party from the Matilda (Captain Fowler), under the first mate Robert Brown with two other Europeans and five lascars or Indian seamen, made eight in all, not seven as the manuscript says. They had been sent in an open boat from Stewart Island in search of a party of absconding lascars. Brown must have had some reason for searching for them on the North Otago coast.
After Te Rauparaha's sack of the large pa (fortified settlement) at Kaiapoi near modern Christchurch in 1831, refugees came south and gained permission to settle at Kakaunui (Kakanui), and the territory between Pukeuri and Waianakarua, including the site of urban Oamaru, became their domain.
Whalers sometimes visited this part of the coast in the 1830s. The Jason, for example, probably of New London in the United States, Captain Chester, was reported at "Otago Bluff" south of Kakanui, with 2,500 barrels of oil, on 1 December 1839.
Edward Shortland visited the area in 1844, coming overland from Waikouaiti. On 9 January he recorded "Our path to-day was sometimes along the edge of a low cliff, sometimes along the beach, till we approached Oamaru point, where it turned inland, and crossed a low range of hills, from which we looked over an extensive plain … Towards the afternoon, we ascended a range of hills called Pukeuri, separating this plain from another more extensive. The sky was so remarkably clear that, from the highest point of the pathway, Moeraki was distinctly in view..." He made a map and placed Oamaru on it. He was one of several Europeans who passed through the area on foot in the 1840s. James Saunders became the first European resident of the district some time before 1850 when he settled to trade among the Māori of the Waitaki River mouth.
More European settlers arrived in the Oamaru area in the 1850s. Hugh Robison built and lived in a sod hut by the Oamaru Creek in 1853 while establishing his sheep run. J.T. Thomson surveyed the place as a town in 1859, and the Otago Provincial government declared "hundreds" there on 30 November 1860. The town grew as a service-centre for the agricultural/pastoral hinterland between the Kakanui Mountains and the Waitaki River, and rapidly became a major port. A boost was given by public works, including harbour development, and an export trade in wool and grain from the 1860s, following the loss of a number of vessels off the coast, construction of a breakwater design by engineer John McGregor started in 1871. The building of this breakwater was influential in the development of new forms of crane. For many years there was a commercial and fishing harbour under Cape Wanbrow at Friendly Bay.
With the development of pastoralism and the associated frozen-meat industry having its historical origins in New Zealand just south of the town at Totara, Oamaru flourished. Institutions such as the Athenaeum, Chief Post Office and Waitaki Boys' and Waitaki Girls' High Schools sprang up. The locally plentiful limestone (Oamaru stone) lent itself to carving and good designers, such as John Lemon (1828–1890) Thomas Forrester (1838–1907) and his son J.M. Forrester (1865–1965), and craftsmen utilised it. By the time of the depression of the 1880s Oamaru was home to an impressive array of buildings and the "best built and most mortgaged town in Australasia".
A major factor in the near bankruptcy of Oamaru was construction of the "Borough water race", an aqueduct completed after 3 years' work in 1880. This major engineering feat replaced the previous poor water supply (obtained from the local creeks) with abundant pure water (and energy for industrial machinery driven by water motors) from the Waitaki river and conducted water in an open channel for almost 50 km through hilly farmland from Kurow to the Oamaru reservoir at Ardgowan until decommissioned and abandoned in 1983.
The district went 'dry' in 1906, and stayed that way until 1960 – the last South Island district to resume alcohol sales.
Development slowed apart from a few years in the 1920s, and in the 1950s, but the population continued to grow until the 1970s. With the closure of the port the local economy began to stall, New Zealand then went through radical economic restructuring in the mid 1980s – known as "Rogernomics", North Otago was then hit by two droughts from 1988 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 1999. Oamaru found itself hard hit. In response it started to re-invent itself, becoming one of the first New Zealand towns to realise its built heritage was an asset.
A public art museum, the Forrester Gallery (whose first curator in 1882 was Thomas Forrester), opened in 1983 in R.A. Lawson's neo-classical Bank of New South Wales building. Restoration of other buildings also took place. The Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust was formed in 1987 with a vision of redeveloping the original commercial and business district of Oamaru's Harbour and Tyne Streets, and work began on restoring the historic precinct beside the port, perhaps the most atmospheric urban area in New Zealand.
By the early 21st century, "heritage" had become a conspicuous industry and today, the number of buildings owned by the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust had grown from the original eight to 17. Oamaru contains over 70 buildings registered as Category 1 or 2 Historic Places in Heritage New Zealand register.
Amedeo Modigliani
Italian, 1884 - 1920
Woman with a Necklace, 1917
Oil on canvas
(closeup)
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was a Jewish-Italian painter and sculptor who pursued his career for the most part in France. Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy and began his artistic studies in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906. Influenced by the artists in his circle of friends and associates, by a range of genres and movements, and by primitive art, Modigliani's oeuvre was nonetheless unique and idiosyncratic. He died in Paris of tubercular meningitis—exacerbated by a lifestyle of excess—at the age of 35.
Early life
Modigliani was born into a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy.
Livorno was still a relatively new city, by Italian standards, in the late nineteenth century. The city on the Tyrrhenian coast dates from around 1600, when it was transformed from a swampy village into a seaport. The Livorno that Modigliani knew was a bustling centre of commerce focused upon seafaring and shipwrighting, but its cultural history lay in being a refuge for those persecuted for their religion. His own maternal great-great-grandfather was one Solomon Garsin, a Jew who had immigrated to Livorno in the eighteenth century as a religious refugee.
Modigliani was the fourth child of Flaminio Modigliani and his wife, Eugenia Garsin. His father was in the money-changing business, but when the business went bankrupt, the family lived in dire poverty. In fact, Amedeo's birth saved the family from certain ruin, as, according to an ancient law, creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. When bailiffs entered the family home, just as Eugenia went into labour, the family protected their most valuable assets by piling them on top of the expectant mother.
Modigliani had a particularly close relationship with his mother, who taught her son at home until he was ten. Beset with health problems after a bout of typhoid at the age of fourteen, two years later he contracted the tuberculosis which would affect him for the rest of his life. To help him recover from his many childhood illnesses, she took him to Naples in Southern Italy, where the warmer weather was conducive to his convalescence.
His mother was, in many ways, instrumental in his ability to pursue art as a vocation. When he was eleven years of age, she had noted in her diary that:
“The child's character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?"
Art student years
Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself "already a painter", his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. Despite her misgivings that launching him on a course of studying art would impinge upon his other studies, his mother indulged the young Modigliani's passion for the subject.
At the age of fourteen, while sick with the typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence. As Livorno's local museum only housed a sparse few paintings by the Italian Renaissance masters, the tales he had heard about the great works held in Florence intrigued him, and it was a source of considerable despair to him, in his sickened state, that he might never get the chance to view them in person. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself, the moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli.
Micheli and the Macchiaioli
Modigliani worked in the studio of Micheli from 1898 to 1900. Here his earliest formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere deeply steeped in a study of the styles and themes of nineteenth-century Italian art. In his earliest Parisian work, traces of this influence, and that of his studies of Renaissance art, can still be seen: artists such as Giovanni Boldini figure just as much in this nascent work as do those of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Modigliani showed great promise while with Micheli, and only ceased his studies when he was forced to, by the onset of tuberculosis.
In 1901, whilst in Rome, Modigliani admired the work of Domenico Morelli, a painter of melodramatic Biblical studies and scenes from great literature. It is ironic that he should be so struck by Morelli, as this painter had served as an inspiration for a group of iconoclasts who went by the title, the Macchiaioli (from macchia—"dash of colour", or, more derogatively, "stain"), and Modigliani had already been exposed to the influences of the Macchiaioli. This minor, localised art movement was possessed of a need to react against the bourgeois stylings of the academic genre painters. While sympathetically connected to (and actually pre-dating) the French Impressionists, the Macchiaioli did not make the same impact upon international art culture as did the followers of Monet, and are today largely forgotten outside of Italy.
Modigliani's connection with the movement was through Micheli, his first art teacher. Micheli was not only a Macchiaioli himself, but had been a pupil of the famous Giovanni Fattori, a founder of the movement. Micheli's work, however, was so fashionable and the genre so commonplace that the young Modigliani reacted against it, preferring to ignore the obsession with landscape that, as with French Impressionism, characterised the movement. Micheli also tried to encourage his pupils to paint en plein air, but Modigliani never really got a taste for this style of working, sketching in cafes, but preferring to paint indoors, and especially in his own studio. Even when compelled to paint landscapes (three are known to exist), Modigliani chose a proto-Cubist palette more akin to Cézanne than to the Macchiaioli.
While with Micheli, Modigliani not only studied landscape, but also portraiture, still-life, and the nude. His fellow students recall that the latter was where he displayed his greatest talent, and apparently this was not an entirely academic pursuit for the teenager: when not painting nudes, he was occupied with seducing the household maid.
Despite his rejection of the Macchiaioli approach, Modigliani nonetheless found favour with his teacher, who referred to him as "Superman", a pet name reflecting the fact that Modigliani was not only quite adept at his art, but also that he regularly quoted from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Fattori himself would often visit the studio, and approved of the young artist's innovations.
In 1902, Modigliani continued what was to be a life-long infatuation with life drawing, enrolling in the Accademia di Belle Arti (Scuola Libera di Nudo, or "Free School of Nude Studies") in Florence. A year later while still suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to Venice, where he registered to study at the Istituto di Belle Arti.
It is in Venice that he first smoked hashish and, rather than studying, began to spend time frequenting disreputable parts of the city. The impact of these lifestyle choices upon his developing artistic style is open to conjecture, although these choices do seem to be more than simple teenage rebellion, or the cliched hedonism and bohemianism that was almost expected of artists of the time; his pursuit of the seedier side of life appears to have roots in his appreciation of radical philosophies, such as those of Nietzsche.
Early literary influences
Having been exposed to erudite philosophical literature as a young boy under the tutelage of Isaco Garsin, his maternal grandfather, he continued to read and be influenced through his art studies by the writings of Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Carduzzi, Comte de Lautréamont, and others, and developed the belief that the only route to true creativity was through defiance and disorder.
Letters that he wrote from his 'sabbatical' in Capri in 1901 clearly indicate that he is being more and more influenced by the thinking of Nietzsche. In these letters, he advised friend Oscar Ghiglia,
“(hold sacred all) which can exalt and excite your intelligence... (and) ... seek to provoke ... and to perpetuate ... these fertile stimuli, because they can push the intelligence to its maximum creative power.”
The work of Lautréamont was equally influential at this time. This doomed poet's Les Chants de Maldoror became the seminal work for the Parisian Surrealists of Modigliani's generation, and the book became Modigliani's favourite to the extent that he learnt it by heart. The poetry of Lautréamont is characterised by the juxtaposition of fantastical elements, and by sadistic imagery; the fact that Modigliani was so taken by this text in his early teens gives a good indication of his developing tastes. Baudelaire and D'Annunzio similarly appealed to the young artist, with their interest in corrupted beauty, and the expression of that insight through Symbolist imagery.
Modigliani wrote to Ghiglia extensively from Capri, where his mother had taken him to assist in his recovery from the tuberculosis. These letters are a sounding board for the developing ideas brewing in Modigliani's mind. Ghiglia was seven years Modigliani's senior, and it is likely that it was he who showed the young man the limits of his horizons in Livorno. Like all precocious teenagers, Modigliani preferred the company of older companions, and Ghiglia's role in his adolescence was to be a sympathetic ear as he worked himself out, principally in the convoluted letters that he regularly sent, and which survive today.
“Dear friend
I write to pour myself out to you and to affirm myself to myself. I am the prey of great powers that surge forth and then disintegrate... A bourgeois told me today - insulted me - that I or at least my brain was lazy. It did me good. I should like such a warning every morning upon awakening: but they cannot understand us nor can they understand life...”
Paris
Arrival
In 1906 Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the avant-garde. In fact, his arrival at the epicentre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris.
He settled in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre, renting himself a studio in Rue Caulaincourt. Even though this artists' quarter of Montmartre was characterised by generalised poverty, Modigliani himself presented - initially, at least - as one would expect the son of a family trying to maintain the appearances of its lost financial standing to present: his wardrobe was dapper without ostentation, and the studio he rented was appointed in a style appropriate to someone with a finely attuned taste in plush drapery and Renaissance reproductions. He soon made efforts to assume the guise of the bohemian artist, but, even in his brown corduroys, scarlet scarf and large black hat, he continued to appear as if he were slumming it, having fallen upon harder times.
When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother, he sketched his nudes at the Colarossi school, and he drank wine in moderation. He was at that time considered by those who knew him as a bit reserved, verging on the asocial. He is noted to have commented, upon meeting Picasso who, at the time, was wearing his trademark workmen's clothes, that even though the man was a genius, that did not excuse his uncouth appearance.
Transformation
Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from a dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds.
The poet and journalist Louis Latourette, upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that the studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point.
Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work. He explained this extraordinary course of actions to his astonished neighbours thus:
“Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois."
The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self is the subject of considerable speculation. The self-destructive tendencies may have stemmed from his tuberculosis and the knowledge (or presumption) that the disease had essentially marked him for an early death; within the artists' quarter, many faced the same sentence, and the typical response was to set about enjoying life while it lasted, principally by indulging in self-destructive actions. For Modigliani such behavior may have been a response to a lack of recognition; it is known that he sought the company of other alcoholic artists such as Utrillo and Soutine, seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues.
Modigliani's behavior stood out even in these Bohemian surroundings: he carried on frequent affairs, drank heavily, and used absinthe and hashish. While drunk he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings. He became the epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well-known as that of Vincent van Gogh.
During the 1920s, in the wake of Modigliani's career and spurred on by comments by Andre Salmon crediting hashish and absinthe with the genesis of Modigliani's style, many hopefuls tried to emulate his 'success' by embarking on a path of substance abuse and bohemian excess. Salmon claimed—erroneously—that whereas Modigliani was a totally pedestrian artist when sober,
“...from the day that he abandoned himself to certain forms of debauchery, an unexpected light came upon him, transforming his art. From that day on, he became one who must be counted among the masters of living art.”
While this propaganda served as a rallying cry to those with a romantic longing to be a tragic, doomed artist, these strategies did not produce unique artistic insights or techniques in those who did not already have them.
In fact, art historians suggest that it is entirely possible for Modigliani to have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences. We can only speculate what he might have accomplished had he emerged intact from his self-destructive explorations.
Output
During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost - destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them.
He was first influenced by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but around 1907 he became fascinated with the work of Paul Cézanne. Eventually he developed his own unique style, one that cannot be adequately categorized with other artists.
He met the first serious love of his life, Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, in 1910, when he was 26. They had studios in the same building, and although 21-year-old Anna was recently married, they began an affair. Tall (Modigliani was only 5 foot 5 inches) with dark hair (like Modigliani's), pale skin and grey-green eyes, she embodied Modigliani's aesthetic ideal and the pair became engrossed in each other. After a year, however, Anna returned to her husband.
Experiments with sculpture
In 1909, Modigliani returned home to Livorno, sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. Soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse. He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume, an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brancusi.
Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in the Salon d'Automne of 1912, he abruptly abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting.
Question of influences
In Modigliani's art, there is evidence of the influence of primitive art from Africa and Cambodia which he may have seen in the Musée de l'Homme, but his stylisations are just as likely to have been the result of his being surrounded by Mediaeval sculpture during his studies in Northern Italy (there is no recorded information from Modigliani himself, as there is with Picasso and others, to confirm the contention that he was influenced by either ethnic or any other kind of sculpture). A possible interest in African tribal masks seems to be evident in his portraits. In both his painting and sculpture, the sitters' faces resemble ancient Egyptian painting in their flat and masklike appearance, with distinctive almond eyes, pursed mouths, twisted noses, and elongated necks. However these same chacteristics are shared by Medieval European sculpture and painting.
Modigliani painted a series of portraits of contemporary artists and friends in Montparnasse: Chaim Soutine, Moise Kisling, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Marie "Marevna" Vorobyev-Stebeslka, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, and Jean Cocteau, all sat for stylized renditions.
At the outset of World War I, Modigliani tried to enlist in the army but was refused because of his poor health.
The war years
Known as Modì, which roughly translates as 'morbid' or 'moribund', by many Parisians, but as Dedo to his family and friends, Modigliani was a handsome man, and attracted much female attention.
Women came and went until Beatrice Hastings entered his life. She stayed with him for almost two years, was the subject for several of his portraits, including Madame Pompadour, and the object of much of his drunken wrath.
When the British painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse in 1914, on her first evening there the smiling man at the next table in the café introduced himself as Modigliani; painter and Jew. They became great friends.
In 1916, Modigliani befriended the Polish poet and art dealer Leopold Zborovski and his wife Anna.
Jeanne Hébuterne
The following summer, the Russian sculptor Chana Orloff introduced him to a beautiful 19-year-old art student named Jeanne Hébuterne who had posed for Foujita. From a conservative bourgeois background, Hébuterne was renounced by her devout Roman Catholic family for her liaison with the painter, whom they saw as little more than a debauched derelict, and, worse yet, a Jew. Despite her family's objections, soon they were living together, and although Hébuterne was the love of his life, their public scenes became more renowned than Modigliani's individual drunken exhibitions.
On December 3, 1917, Modigliani's first one-man exhibition opened at the Berthe Weill Gallery. The chief of the Paris police was scandalized by Modigliani's nudes and forced him to close the exhibition within a few hours after its opening.
After he and Hébuterne moved to Nice, she became pregnant and on November 29, 1918 gave birth to a daughter whom they named Jeanne (1918-1984).
Nice
During a trip to Nice, conceived and organized by Leopold Zborovski, Modigliani, Tsuguharu Foujita and other artists tried to sell their works to rich tourists. Modigliani managed to sell a few pictures but only for a few francs each. Despite this, during this time he produced most of the paintings that later became his most popular and valued works.
During his lifetime he sold a number of his works, but never for any great amount of money. What funds he did receive soon vanished for his habits.
In May of 1919 he returned to Paris, where, with Hébuterne and their daughter, he rented an apartment in the rue de la Grande Chaumière. While there, both Jeanne Hébuterne and Amedeo Modigliani painted portraits of each other, and of themselves.
Last days
Although he continued to paint, Modigliani's health was deteriorating rapidly, and his alcohol-induced blackouts became more frequent.
In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, his downstairs neighbor checked on the family and found Modigliani in bed delirious and holding onto Hébuterne who was nearly nine months pregnant. They summoned a doctor, but little could be done because Modigliani was dying of the then-incurable disease tubercular meningitis.
Modigliani died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse.
Hébuterne was taken to her parents' home, where, inconsolable, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani.
Modigliani died penniless and destitute—managing only one solo exhibition in his life and giving his work away in exchange for meals in restaurants. Had he lived through the 1920s when American buyers flooded Paris, his fortunes might well have changed. Since his death his reputation has soared. Nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films have been devoted to his life.
With the upcoming mid-terms, I couldn't help but draw a parallel when I saw these squabbling cranes.
A pity CNN wasn't there to give a play by play analysis, full of conjecture and childish insinuations. (I've often wondered, what with all their leading annalists and supposed experts, they can offer such brainless dribble).
"So Wilf, it may look like Hilarious Clayton the crane is expressing her disappointment that Timmy Trumple the boss crane is displeased with the arrival of a caravan full of riff raff cranes. But in fact should you carefully examine her body language (bring in BS, I mean BL expert), you will notice in effect, that her hostility is the result of a resentment to forced subjugation of all female cranes."
"We go live to AC who's on the scene sipping café latte's. Tell us AC is Timmy actually having an affair with a Stripper Crane? If not, can we pretend he is? Hmm, can we impeach the pecker, I mean crane anyways?"
In nature, the biggest bird is boss, the little birds get eaten. Hmm - possible solution?
just saying...
Chronicles of lifting Light B (Bridesmaids)
The alternate version of Chronicles of lifting Light C (The Reception Game)- Album
“ The wedding was a little over the top. The bride wanted her girl’s dresses to be something they would wear out again. A nice thought, but the gowns she found were a little too long for anything but formal evening wear, according to our girls who were asked to be part of the bridal party. The maid of honor wore a red satin version; midnight black satin was selected for the 6 bridesmaids.”
“A few years ago, “Ginny” was watching some type of show when I heard her squeal out. Our Golden Retriever ‘Sam’ meandered back in to see what all the fuss was about? I obediently followed. She pointed out to me an actress ( Emma Watson at the premier for NOAH) , That’s M’gown she exclaimed with enthusiasm, you remember, The ones your sister and I first wore for “Shiela’s” brides party, the one where your sister thought she had been ro… but she broke it off as something caught her attention on the telly.”
“Squirrel I thought, as Sam and I both looked. It was a black satin gown very strikingly similar in colour, cut, and material ( but Ginny’s version lacked a dangling train behind) to the one worn by Ginny ( and me sister) at thier chums wedding years before ( and winningly worn several times hence I might add). It is a pretty thing to behold my charming Ginny wearing it, and in its time, it has born witness to a few goings on that most ladies wearing a gown like that would most likely never encounter…….”
Chronicles of lifting Light B
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This story is true, and is really pretty much told as it happened, but in writing it down for the first time ever I found I could not resist the temptation to embellish and expand some of the scenarios. It makes for a much better story I believe.
It is long, so here goes it….
My twin sister and our friend “Ginny” were invited to join in a school chums bridal party. The groom didn’t have enough to go around so my sister’s boyfriend “Brian” and I were pressed into service.
At the reception Ginny made a comment about the flimsy clasps on the longish rhinestone earrings they were wearing. My sister, touching an earring, told her, “ no worries, luv, no one would nick them anyways, they are only rhinestones”. I wasn’t sure what was going on in my sister’s head that made her come out with that reply. But as I watched her pull at an earring, a seed was planted in my head about something I myself had seen in an old TV show (An episode that first wakened an interest in pickpocketing).
Much later that evening found Brian and I alone, and a little drunk (always a precarious time with us). I had been enjoying watching our girls on the dance floor. “Ginny” was dancing a slow dance with the brides Groom ( an awkward chap with the sometimes unfortunate name of Cecil), Sis was dancing with some boorish banker bloke whose name I choose not to remember. As I watched the girl’s swishing gowns move and flutter about in quite an interesting exhibition, I found meself mesmerized by the manner in which their display of jewels were sparkling. Not being able to shake Ginny’s earlier comment, nor its answer, out of my head, my mind began to drift and wander in some very deep waters; pulled about in some strong personal currents.
Suddenly, I had an epiphany, and I started to tell Brian about the show that had vexed me all these years past. It was an old Gilligan’s Island episode ( The Kidnapper). Ginger was dancing in formal wear with the thief they were trying to reform. He lifted up her long hair, exposing these long diamonded earrings she was wearing. When he let her hair back down, gone went Ginger’s diamond Earrings.( he also nicked another ladies diamond necklace in a similarly devious fashion).
I had been thinking about it, and saw that this may be a prime opportunity to try and mimic what I had found so intriguing in my younger day’s ( is what happened to Ginger possible in real life?) and so I drew Brian’s attention to where my sister was dancing and intentionally pointed out her healthy collection of rhinestones ( the lot of matching sets the bride had picked out for her girls to wear with their silky gowns was a bit overkill in Brian’s opinion, a view not shared by me).
I decided then to plant my own seed, so I questioned out loud if it was possible to pickpocket jewelry in the manner the thief in Gilligan’s Island had so cunningly carried out? We discussed it for bit, ending the friendly dispute that ensued by daring that the other couldn’t pull it off. I focused on my sister, because I figured that would be more of a tantalizing bait to dangle in front of Brian, who was horribly smitten with her, and I was right on the money! So my twin sister in the black satin gown and her rhinestones ended up being the preferred guinea pig for the goad.
Brian lost the toss and danced with her first,( happily cutting in on the banker fella) and was surprisingly as successful as he was swift. I watched as he swirled sis around the dance floor. For such a gig guy, “Brian” is surprisingly light on his feet, which is why in school he was an outstanding rugby player. I was watching eagerly, trying to guess what he was going after. His large hands began inching down her satin gown’s sleeves, so I was sure he was going for one of her dangling rhinestone bracelets.
He must have said something funny, for my sister raised her head back laughing, her long straight hair falling charmingly back, baring her throat to him. Brian’s hands moved back up, and in behind her throat. Then in a manner quite graceful for fingers that large, unclasped and slipped away the thin necklace from around her sweat glistened throat and pocketed it before she had finished her spurt of laughter. The song soon ended, and the pair of ‘em came back, Brian with a very smug grin on his bearded mug. He then took “Ginny” (who had just rejoined us after shaking off a seedy looking bloke who had wanted her to dance) by the hand and led her off dancing, his eyes taunting me to make my attempt.
Not to be outdone, I immediately led Sis back onto the floor before she had time to catch a breath. We danced to a rather Latin type beat. My sister turned her backside into me, and sort of did this gyrating move up and down my front side, with her hands held high above her head. As her warm, sweaty figure, slipped up and down slickly against mine, I looked things over, deciding on which of her remaining jewelry to target.
I started by placing my hands at her waist and let them slither up the silky sides of her satin gown, as I made my choice, one of her shimmering bracelets that were winking at me from her wrists waving above my head. With the prize within my grasp, I made my move. I found meself trembling a bit, as I moved my hands to her shoulders , with the thought bring down her arms in order to work my fingers down her gowns’ sleeve, where just below would be lying my objective. But just as I did, Sis pulled her arms behind me head, and laid her head back on my shoulder and closing her eyes, getting into the music’s deep beat. Her longish rhinestone earrings just hung there, like Gingers, ripe for the picking.
Without really putting any thought into it, I reached up and placed my hands gently alongside her ears, her eyes still shut, my victim smiled. The rest of the maneuver was surprisingly easy, as I glided my fingers down and slipped it off the pair of em in one effortless motion. The sparkling beauties came away from her sweaty ears as smoothly as an ice cube moves along a steaming hot grill ( I actually did have a thought like that). I held them in one fist for a bit, relishing in my success, before securing them away. We finished out the song, me basking in the fact that she was innocently unaware that her shiny earrings were now in her dance partners vest pocket.
But, not willing to be satisfied with the initial success of our experiment, we found that the dares kept coming out. Becoming so competitive between us, that by the time we left for the evening, the score was 5 pieces of jewelry to 4, with Brian winning the bragging rights, and my sister out all of the rhinestone pieces she had started out wearing about on her person.
Of course this is sounding like a masterful bit of pickpocketing, but our efforts were aided by keeping our pretty victim plied with alcohol ( wondering all the while if that is a technique is used by pickpockets working over their victims in real life?). Using that as an edge; another turn on the dance floor, a compliment induced hug, and the victim falling into deep sleep in a lounge armchair, enabled us vultures to eventually part my twin from all of her sparkling jewelry.
Also, as a side note here, all four of us had a discussion later about what it said of us as a society that none outside our group seemed to notice or bother pointing out to my sister about her slowly disappearing baubles!
We left the reception well after midnight and started walking the ten city blocks back to the hotel where Ginny and my sister shared a joining room with Brian and meself. As were making our way through a wooded Provincial park, we stopped in a small, isolated clearing and circling around her ,finally asked my sister about her missing jewels. Her reaction was absolutely, rewardingly priceless.
Her startled response was to the effect of: “Gasping, My God” as she fruitlessly felt about for them, her rustling gown glistened dark in the moon light. “My jewels, where did they go!, who took them, I’ve been robbed, mugged?” she pleaded helplessly, her thought patterns and speech a little slurred by her rather intoxicated condition. She looked desperately around at us, then seeing the look on upon our faces, and upon noticing that Ginny was still adorned with her jewels, Sis froze with the realization that we had all been up to something no good. As the silliness of her conjectures came home, she blushed, and told us to spill it out.
Here, we had all thought she had eventually caught on to what we had been up to all evening and was just humoring us, but in reality she had been utterly clueless. Ginny ( who had soon caught on to our little game but played dumb) was merciless in her teasing of my sister, rubbing it all in as she helped my twin place back on the Rhinestones that Brian and I dug from our pockets. I didn’t add any fuel to the fire, but I noticed that when Sis had uttered the word mugged, Ginny had automatically held onto her necklace and pendent!
Sis ended up taking it all with her usual good humor, or so we thought.
This next bit is my favorite.
We went up to the boys room, as the girls called our room, where we drank beer, danced to music and talked a bit. About two hours later found Brian passed out on the couch, and me sitting next to him in kind of a hazy stupor while holding onto a beer. Ginny and my sister were standing directly in front of me, holding beers of their own and giggling over some girlish nonsense, the swaying of their long glossy black satin gowns slowly putting me to sleep.
Ginny started giggling at one of sis jokes, and turned her figure so the brooch at the center of her gowns’ waistline almost hit me on the nose. Half asleep I reached up and lifted it. Looking up at the girls I saw that Ginny was paying no never mind towards me, my sister however, did notice (this is why I like the Sonia clip) and she laid a hand on Ginny’s shoulder, drawing her close so she could whisper a secret. I was able to undo the brooch, and slip it carefully off without notice. I held it up to my sister’s hand, which closed over it, and then she turned and plopped down next to me on the couch.
We both started talking to Ginny, now standing in front of us, as if nothing was going on. Puzzled I waited for my sister to flaunt the brooch in Ginny’s face. Instead, as she got Ginny into another giggling fit, she leaned over and whispered the word pendant in my ear, her hand holding out her own for added emphasis. I knew then she had thought up some grand plan.
Now wide awake, I got into fully my sister’s game. As I watched the giggling Ginny, my eyes took careful inventory of all her finer points (not just her jewels I will admit) . Now role playing that I was a professional pickpocket, and my twin was the spotter, pointing out whose jewels were worth taking. Ginny stopped, and caught my eyes looking her over, she blushed, and not knowing what was really going through my mind, smiled at me, as I smiled back, my eyes drinking her fetchingly attired figure up. I was imagining that all of Ginny’s collection of rhinestones was real diamonds. And that I was an actual thief after her lovely sparklers.
Thinking for a moment, I rose to my feet, and feeling like the real thing, I took Ginny’s hand and led her across to the window the couch was facing. We were on the 14th floor with a grand sweeping view of the great cities skyline. I asked her if she knew what the pink lights were about (there were no pink lights) and as she looked and kept asking where, I saw in the windows reflection that behind me my sister was pinning Ginny’s brooch onto the Brian’s passed out figure. Smiling, I got to the task at hand.
Using my hands I got Ginny to bend over more to help in her search, watching her dangling “diamond “ chain with its’ oval “diamond” pendent swinging an enticingly beckoning reflection in the window. I reached around with one hand and easily undid the clasp to poor befuddled Ginny’s chain. Using the pendants reflection in the window as a focal point, I subtly lowered my other hand underneath it, and as I caught it, let go of the chain. Pendent and chain slithered into a nice little pile in my palm, which I immediately closed up around it, hiding it from my victim’s possible notice.
I turned and nodded to my sister, who rose, tipsily, and slinked across the room to us. She brushed up against me with the pretense of seeing what we were up to. I felt her arm go around my waist, and handed Ginny’s necklace off. Sis than circled around us, giving Ginny a squeeze, and looked at me meaningfully, her fingers brushing an earring. She went back to the couch and began draping the shimmery chain and pendent on poor Brian.
A slow song had been playing, so I told Ginny to no never mind pink lights, and taking her hand, asked “madameswell” if she cared to dance. I tried it in an accent, failed miserably, and got Ginny to giggling as she accepted. I lead her the long way around the couch to where we had cleared out a little bit of a dancing floor. As I took her into my arms I found it exciting that she was oblivious to my intentions. Innocently unaware, that in indifference to my sisters words earlier, someone did now want to nick the earrings so merrily sawing from her ears.
I bided my time, appearing to look into Ginny’s eyes, my mind was working on something else. When I made my first move it was as subtle as could be, and it paid off. Raising me hand, I lifted her hair above an ear, and an let my fingers run back down through. One of her earrings vanished into my hand, and reaching around, was neatly tossed into another. As my sister placed it on Brian’s ear,( by now he was looking quite comical, and it was all we could do to keep from bursting out laughing), I leaned in and whispered something into Ginny’s now bare ear, while my other hand reached around and plucked the other earring away, and tossed the sparkler gracefully over to my sisters waiting hands.
Needing no more direction from sis now that I knew her plan ( It was her way of getting back at Brian for our game, and at Ginny for her teasing, it never occurred to me to wonder what my punishment would be!), I carried on alone.
Employing the same method that the thief had used in the Gilligan’s Island episode to remove his dance partners necklace, I began to compliment Ginny on how devastating she looked ( no lies), slowly moving my one hand up the slick material of the gown covering her back until I reached the dangling part of her hook and eye necklace with its’ glittering row of single “diamonds”. Lifted it up as she fawned over my words of (not false) praise, holding her ever so her tightly around the waist with my free hand, I unhooked the clasp, and let the necklace fall over one shoulder. Ginny never felt it hanging, or noticed it as I slipped it off her chest and over her gown’s satin shoulder till it slipped sparkling down behind her. I held it hanging behind her back for a few turns, still pouring out the compliments, until I was close enough to neatly toss her necklace over the couch to my waiting partner in crime.
Sis was waiting, and as the necklace sailed over the couch, I saw her raise a hand, and pull at one of her rings. How?, I mouthed, and she held up a finger motioning me to wait a sec. I continued to dance with Ginny, who was growing ever heavier in my arms, as sis placed the necklace around poor Brian’s throat.
I watched as me twin got up and passed us , her satin gown whispering as she walked, heading to get a beer from the fridge. She stood for a moment then gave me a signal to twirl our victim around.
I lifted her hand, and spun Ginny around in a pirouette . The poor thing, already more than a little tipsy, fell hard against me, giggling. I did it again, and as she stared to lose her balance, my sister walked past and faking a trip, bumped into Ginny and both girl’s went down in a heap of black swishing satin. As I bent over to help the pair of giggling dolls untangle, I manage to slip off a ring off from over the sweaty knuckles of Ginny’s left pinky finger.
I helped them both up, and as my sister helped straighten Ginny’s gown while giggling over the incident, Ginny placed her hands behind her back, exposing her bracelets. I pocketed the ring, and moving up against Ginny from behind, attempted to remove the first “Diamond” bracelet from around her wrist. It came away with absolutely no resistance, or notice, and I moved off, and went to stand next to my sister, hands crossed behind me back. She put her arm around me, hugging me against her, I felt her fingers go to my hand, and I opened my fingers and let her take the ring and bracelet. Keeping her fist closed, she coolly left us, retrieving her unopened beer from the floor, and headed back smoothly to the couch.
I will admit I was now getting overly confident. I asked Ginny if she wanted a beer and we went over to the kitchenette to get them. As we walked, I placed my hands on her slick waist and led her there, as she giggled tipsily the whole way. I held the door open, and as she was bending down to get them, she laid her arm along the top of the drawer. I then made my seventh attempt, on her other “Diamond” bracelet
I had undone the clasp, and was getting ready to take it when I made the fatal error at looking over her shoulder at the couch. My sister was inwardly laughing at her handiwork, and to see a person like Brien, who takes his masculinity with pride, now decked out like some bearded floozy, was too much. I chuckled, and the bracelet fell, clanking against the door, landing at Ginny’s feet. I was caught red handed and my attempt at any more thievery was thwarted. Ginny smirked; here now lad, don’t try yer games on me.
Behind her, Ginny head my sister snort, and looking at my smirk, demanded to know what we had found so funny. So I grabbed her, spun her around, and led her back around the couch until she caught sight of the still snoring Brian! We both joined my sister in busting a gut laughing. Then, come to find that poor innocent Ginny thought that it was my sister’s rhinestones plastered all over poor Brian. When we pointed out the errors of her conclusion, it was my sister’s turn to laugh and tease the poor girl over her dumbfounded expression as now it was her hands failing to find her missing pieces of jewelry. Then Brian woke and he became the new center of the joke.
Ginny had reclaimed her rhinestones and had disappeared into the ladies room to replace them to their rightful perch and rejoin in with their remaining companions, which I thought, being so late, why bother? And Brain and Sis were on the couch still teasing the other. Suddenly I felt a hand softly placed on my shoulder, and looking up found myself trapped in a “come hither” look, emanating from Ginny’s twinkling green eyes, a look that I have come since to know very well.
We left the pair of gigglers on the couch, and went out into the evening, just the two of us, meeting nary another living soul at that early morning hour. The only exceptions were a weary desk clerk with a nose buried in her book, and a curious short blue-haired lady wearing a grey pant-suit, carrying a large handbag, who came upon Ginny in the lobby, while I was absent using its restroom . The odd thing here is, that until I showed up after doing my business, the lady appeared to be trying to lead good hearted Ginny outside to help search for some lost keys or such, at 2:30 Am! I suggested her to wait until light.
After managing to pry Ginny away, receiving the now disapproving look from purse –lipped blue haired lady for my efforts, we otherwise were not held up in our progress. The world was now ours, as my richly attired lady and her tuxedoed (handsome?)Escort made their journey together hand in hand. We ended up making a very long stroll in the Provincial park, and reentering the same isolated, secret clearing, proceeded to acting out our own role playing game, ala the movie “to Catch a Thief”, complete with fireworks of our own making.
And I still remember feeling pretty bloody cocky as Ginny and I left our room and rode the elevator down. And why not, I ask? Cause now , not only was I out strolling about with the most captivating ginger haired lass, sparkling in fancy dress around, but I had totally creamed Brian’s score in the jewelry lifting department, and that’s what life is all about for us boys, winning the game, isn’t it?
So ends my story, of which I have written 2 versions.
My question is now this:
Which version, if one reads both, do you believe to be the truer?
Please leave a comment at the end of the story you believe is..
In appreciation,
Thank You
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In Appraisal
This story may be unique in its nature, but if not we would love to hear about it. Please leave a comment or drop an email ( or both) about you own experience.
Thank You
The Sonia clip shortcut ( recommended viewing)
youtu.be/HAZdjhNVjxk
Ps. Check out Chronicles of lifting light C for a less embellished telling this particular event
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Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives
This composite NASA image of the spiral galaxy M81, located about 12 million light years away, includes X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (green), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (pink) and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple). The inset shows a close-up of the Chandra image. At the center of M81 is a supermassive black hole that is about 70 million times more massive than the Sun.
A new study using data from Chandra and ground-based telescopes, combined with detailed theoretical models, shows that the supermassive black hole in M81 feeds just like stellar mass black holes, with masses of only about ten times that of the Sun. This discovery supports the implication of Einstein's relativity theory that black holes of all sizes have similar properties, and will be useful for predicting the properties of a conjectured new class of black holes.
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley and CfA/A.Zezas; Optical: NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA
Learn more/access larger images:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photos08-07...
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
It had been intended that a second rear-engined Routemaster (FRM) prototype would be completed in Sheffield Corporation colours but this bus was a victim of the project’s premature demise. This image supposes that the second prototype was completed to London specifications but in full Sheffield livery, complete with the corporation’s coat of arms. Sheffield had been a loyal AEC customer but whether it could have been turned away from the Leyland Atlantean, which it had adopted after the end of Regent V production, is a matter of conjecture. Commonality of parts with the standard Routemaster would be irrelevant as Sheffield did not operate the latter, and the narrower build, compared to contemporary bodies on Atlantean and Fleetline chassis, could have been an issue. Thanks to John Lidstone for the base image (21-Mar-25).
Not to be posted on Facebook under any circumstances but you are welcome to post a link. Not to be posted elsewhere without prior written permission. Follow the link below for additional information about my Flickr images, including an explanation of the terms 'fiction', 'digital representation' and 'digitally-coloured':
www.flickr.com/photos/northernblue109/6046035749/in/set-7...
...Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighbourhood. It sits conspicuously on the intersection of a congested commercial corner; a good and sensible place for a restaurant to be. Walk-in traffic must be numerous as it is the only restaurant in a walkable neighborhood. But despite this, the building does manage to successfully stand out and then surprise. Marlow’s tarantula on a slice of angel-food cake comes to mind; the business catches the eye because of the extravagant colours found on its exterior; a tangerine-yellow awning emerging from a contrasting purple affair complete with faux-billows that informs the potential customer what delights from the perfumed East (and I don’t mean Hoboken) may be found within. This frontage is not only informative, but it also provides the passerby with a stunning representation of mid-century American culinary-signage kitsch. Who could not patronize such a place?
Despite these aesthetic advantages, I many times over the years drove by the establishment and kept on going. This is embarrassing to confess: in all that long stretch of time, never once did I stop in to order “take away”. The lettering preserved from a different time inscribed on the extravagant amber of the plastic awning made for a magnificent incongruity. Yet these ornamentations were not enough to get me to pull over and give the place a try. Why is this? A suburban shyness, perhaps, but more accurately (the truth reluctantly comes out) it was culinary bigotry that kept me away. A mis-guided affection for trendier places closer to home urged me to drive on by. Wasn't this place, so my misguided thinking went, an artifact from a past epoch; when I love Lucy was in prime time and Ed Sullivan was the cultural arbitrator of our nation’s musical taste? Aren’t we better than that now? Haven’t we moved on to the authentic; to what is real and true? Are we not modern people? Such were the questions, born out of prejudice and ignorance, that kept me away from the Pacific Orient Express.
Let Ed, Lucy, and fried rice into history melt (so ran my ill-composed interior soliloquy) my forage and gathering will never stray far from Oakland Avenue in Shorewood. This is my space.
What an idiot.
At first blush then, and even the second one, everything about this restaurant, like that crime scene in a story by Chesterton, seemed wrong. The Pacific Ocean couldn’t be further away, at least in spirit and ambiance, from this dry and fatigued intersection. The stately pleasure domes and Alph the sacred river of Xanadu were as distant from it as a voluptuous opiate dream is from an insurance adjuster in Oshkosh.
Two days ago, as I was driving down 51st, the recent recommendation of a friend came to mind. He is a “regular” at the counter of this restaurant; his artistic judgments never fail to be both perceptive and wise. His verdict was that the “Singapore Noodles” at the Express are tasty beyond the ability of mere words to describe. It was time to see if he was right. Recalling his effusive praise, and realizing my proximity to those very noodles, I made the stop that I should have made in 1975. Casting aside the arrogant trepidation that is so much weaved into a warped personality, I went in there to find an unexpected scene. There were no chairs. In front of the counter was an object routinely not seen in the lobby of a restaurant: a traffic cone with a top grotesquely disfigured perhaps by the flame of a welding iron. Looking up from this remarkable object I realized that I would need to place my order in tones molto fortissimo. This is because the order-taker and customer are separated by an impressively thick pane of glass. My conjecture is that the partition is “bullet proof.” This theory may well have been a dramatic fantasy bred from the workings of an over-sensitive, if not fevered, suburban imagination. Next time I go to the Pacific Orient, I will ask about the glass.
And, in case you are doubtful, I will go back. Posthaste.
I soon learned that the litany of the restaurant’s cosmetic wrongs turned into irrelevancies and dust when the fried rice and “Singapore Noodles” were brought home and put on the table. Everything about these dishes was right. The noodles were of a perfect gentle doneness. Most fell away from each other into myriad strands infused with a faint and sweet adumbration of anise flavour; sometimes the pasta would gather itself together into miniature caramelised globes; delightful ornaments surrounded by their slender and single neighbours in a curried sea. Abundant with fresh vegetables as well, the dish was memorable for the disparities it offered and the divisions of flavours it contained. It was G. F. Handel’s Harmonious Blacksmith Variations turned vigorously in a wok and then dumped, with a spirit of splendid chaos, into a ceramic bowl.
As for the rice, it was superb. But it was more than that. For many years I have been searching for a reputable version of the fried rice I grew up with in the mid 60’s at the long-gone New China Cafe on Colfax Avenue and Clarkson Street in Denver. The splendid and local YICK INN, previously mentioned enthusiastically on this page offers such an example: jonathanbrodie.substack.com/p/yicks-inn. Now found here on Burleigh Street, praise be to Saint Cecilia (patron saint not only of music, but also, I believe, of happy tummies) was another source of the rare recipe. It took only the first forkful of this dish to know that I had returned to the green glades of my childhood; to "The New China" and a convivial visit with its amiable proprietor, Mr. Herbert Wong For me, it is only in the clearings of those long and vague grasses that that restaurant can be found; along with the velveteen and tasseled menus that seemed, to my ten-year-old eyes, to be ancient documents lining the bottom of Marco Polo’s luggage. The physical manifestation of that structure was torn down in the 70’s and replaced by a liquor store. Mr. Wong is gone as well; lovingly carried off by a parliament of those same soft, red funerary menus to where Marco Polo is. Yet somehow, there the shrine is again; astonishingly reconstructed not on a fancy avenue, not on Colfax and Clarkson in Denver, but to a place close to where I am now.
51st and Burleigh in Sherman Park.
‘This is a hundredal church, the central church of the Hundred of Singleton owned by the great Earl Godwin (Goodwood – Godwin’s Wood) father of King Harold who died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It housed in its tower and conjectured long room over the nave, priests who served the other churches in the hundred. This upper room is probably why there is a window high up over the chancel arch and a fine triangular headed Saxon doorway half way up the tower inside.
NGC6946 sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 (NGC 5457) in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
Discovered by William Herschel on 9 September 1798, this well-studied galaxy has a diameter of approximately 40,000 light-years, about one-third of the Milky Way's size, and it contains roughly half the number of stars as the Milky Way. It is heavily obscured by interstellar matter due to its location close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way. Due to its prodigious star formation it has been classified as an active starburst galaxy.
Various unusual celestial objects have been observed within NGC 6946. This includes the so-called 'Red Ellipse' along one of the northern arms that looks like a super-bubble or very large supernova remnant, and which may have been formed by an open cluster containing massive stars. There are also two regions of unusual dark lanes of nebulosity, while within the spiral arms several regions appear devoid of stars and gaseous hydrogen, some spanning up to two kiloparsecs across. A third peculiar object, discovered in 1967, is now known as "Hodge's Complex". This was once thought to be a young supergiant cluster, but in 2017 it was conjectured to be an interacting dwarf galaxy superimposed on NGC 6946.
Equipment used
ZWO ASI2600MC camera cooled to -20c
Sky Watcher 150 PDS telescope
ASIAIR Pro
ASI 120mm Guide Scope and Camera
EQ6-R Pro Mount
Optolong L Pro Filter
89 x 300 second exposures stacked and processed in Pixinsight.
Other photos in First Comment Box and Photos from the net to make this tribute up and put it together to remember the lives lost that night 40 years ago
Remembered Today.
December 19th 1981, 40 years ago.
Loss of the Penlee Lifeboat "Solomon Browne"47 ft Watson Class going to the aid of the coaster "Union Star".
The helicopter stood by as Penlee’s 14m Watson class wooden lifeboat launched into the hurricane force 12 gale, fighting against 90-knot winds and 18m waves.
The Solomon Browne struck against the side of the coaster and the lifeboat crew stood against the railings, throwing lines across to pull themselves alongside.
The lifeboat valiantly battled to come alongside the coaster for half an hour.
The Solomon Browne radioed back to the Coastguard: ‘we’ve got four off’
But the lifeboat decided to make a final rescue attempt – and after that point, all radio contact was lost at 21.21
The Coastguard radioed back to the lifeboat, but there was no response. Ten minutes later, the lights of the Solomon Browne disappeared.
All 8 Crew of the Lifeboat Lost.
All 8 on board of the coaster lost.
The Penlee lifeboat
Cornwall, at the south-west corner of England, juts out into the Atlantic, attracting the worst of the weather and the massive breakers that crash against its granite cliffs and rocks. It is not surprising that there are no fewer than fourteen lifeboat stations around the coast of this one county alone.
Penlee Point is just to the north of the fishing village of Mousehole (pronounced Mousle to rhyme with tousle). The first lifeboat was stationed here in 1913, transferred from nearby Newlyn, although there had been a rescue service in the area from as far back as 1803. In the years before 1981 the station distinguished itself by carrying out many operations and saving lives, recognised by the award of many medals and certificates.
In 1981 the station was equipped with “Solomon Browne”, a 47-foot Watson class wooden boat, a type that has long been superseded. However, it was highly manoeuvrable and could be launched straight down a steep slipway into St Mount’s Bay.
The voyage of Union Star
Union Star was a small bulk carrier, registered in Dublin, that was making its maiden voyage from Denmark via the Netherlands to Ireland, with a cargo of fertiliser. The master was Henry Morton, who had a crew of four on board, plus his wife and her two teenage daughters. He was breaking the rules by having family members on board, but that is a rule that is often broken.
Weather conditions were bad as Union Star beat her way towards Lands End, hoping to make it round the headland and into relatively calmer waters before the worst of the storm struck. However, Captain Morton’s luck ran out when his engines failed just as he reached the most exposed part of the voyage. He was offered a tow from a tugboat, the Noord Holland, but declined the offer. By riding out the storm at anchor and repairing the engines in calmer weather, he would avoid having to pay salvage charges.
The storm was one of the worst to strike that part of the coast for years, with winds of 85 mph, gusting to 95 mph, which is hurricane force. Union Star started to drag her anchor, and the fuel tanks became contaminated with seawater. The ship was being driven towards the Cornish coast and had no means of avoiding her fate if the storm continued, which it did. The Noord Holland was still in the area, should the captain change his mind, but even this option vanished when conditions became so bad that the tug itself would have been in danger. Eventually, Henry Morton called Falmouth Coastguard for help, and the call went out to the Penlee lifeboat crew.
The launch of Solomon Browne
When the call goes out, a lifeboat crew stops what it is doing and gets to the lifeboat station with all due speed. All the crew of the Penlee boat lived in Mousehole, some of them being local fishermen, and some with other jobs. They included the landlord of the Ship Inn, for example. That night, most of the crew were socializing in the British Legion club in the village, but, knowing that they were on call and also being aware of the state of the weather, they would have kept their alcohol intake to a minimum.
The Coxswain was William Trevelyan Richards, at 56 a highly experienced lifeboatman who already had commendations for bravery for previous rescues. Richards knew that this was going to be a very dangerous mission, and for that reason he refused the services of Neil Brockman, aged 17, because his father was already in the crew, and the Coxswain would not risk the lives of two members of any one family. This is common practice in the lifeboat community. The lifeboat was launched shortly after 8pm, well after dark, into waves that reached as high as forty feet.
Solomon Browne did not have far to go to find the Union Star, which was approaching the rocks close to Boscawen Bay and the Tater Du lighthouse, only a few miles down the coast. A helicopter from the Royal Naval Air Station at Culdrose was overhead, but conditions were so bad that it was impossible to winch anyone off the ship. Eventually the helicopter had to break off, and so did not witness the final outcome. There were also people on the cliff top, but in the darkness they could see very little apart from the lights of the two vessels.
Tragedy strikes
In those tumultuous seas, and in the dark, it was essential that nobody went into the water, as their chances of survival would be virtually nil. Solomon Browne therefore had no choice but to get alongside Union Star and for the crew and passengers to be helped across on to the lifeboat. Coxswain Richards was in radio contact with Falmouth Coastguards, and we know from the radio transcripts that several attempts were made get the two vessels as close as possible. On at least one occasion, it would appear that the lifeboat actually landed on the deck of the coaster and was then thrown off again.
We know that four people did manage to get aboard Solomon Browne, as Coxswain Richards’s final message was “we’ve got four off at the moment”. Exactly what happened next must be conjecture, because no more was heard from the Coxswain, and the watchers on the cliffs saw no more lights from shortly afterwards. Nobody from either vessel survived.
A huge rescue mission was launched, but nothing could be done. Other lifeboats were called out, but the Sennen Cove boat could not get round Land’s End, and the Lizard boat, from the other direction, only found wreckage when it arrived. Only eight bodies were ever recovered, four from Union Star and four from Solomon Browne. Union Star lay capsized at the foot of the cliffs for several days before she broke up, but little was ever found of Solomon Browne.
The aftermath
So what happened? It is highly unlikely that the lifeboat capsized, because all lifeboats of its class were self-rightable. However, if a huge wave had turned the boat over, would all of its crew have been washed over the side? Or was one more collision between the vessels too much for Solomon Browne’s wooden hull?
Whatever the cause, the result sent shockwaves through the whole country, which had been looking forward to Christmas and was suddenly reminded of the perils faced by seafarers and the courage of those who volunteer to save their lives.
The shock was particularly profound among those people whose living is made from the sea, and the entire population of south-west England. The custom at Mousehole itself has been, on the evening of 19th December every year, to extinguish all lights in the village as a mark of respect.
A local appeal raised three million pounds to support the families of the crew and provide fitting memorials, although many contributions came from well beyond the local area.
There are always “might have beens” that are asked on such occasions. Should Henry Morton have been required to take a tow from the Noord Holland? One consequence of the disaster has been that, in similar circumstances, today’s regulations demand exactly that. Had Morton’s three family members not been on board, would Solomon Browne have needed to make another attempt to get alongside? Perhaps so, given that only four people had been rescued and not five, but would it have been easier to rescue five seafarers rather than eight people who included two teenage girls? Such questions can be asked, but probably not answered.
There is still a Penlee lifeboat today, although the old lifeboat station is no longer used, being instead preserved as a memorial to Solomon Browne and her crew. In 1983, an Arun class lifeboat, the Mabel Alice, came into service, based at Newlyn. In 2003, a Severn class boat, the Ivan Ellen, came into service. Both boats have made many lifesaving rescues in recent years, including some that have earned awards for courage and outstanding service.
The full list of the lost crew of Solomon Browne, all of whom received posthumous awards, is as follows:
William Trevelyan Richards (age 56) (Coxswain)
James Madron (35) (2nd Coxswain)
Nigel Brockman (43)
John Blewett (43)
Kevin Smith (23)
Barrie Torrie (33)
Charles Greenhaugh (46)
Gary Wallis (23)
In 1992, Neil Brockman, who at 17 was refused a place aboard Solomon Browne on the night that his father lost his life, was appointed Coxswain of the Penlee lifeboat.
I grew up in Poole, which is where the Royal National Lifeboat Institution has its headquarters. I have known many men and women who have gained their living or recreation from the sea, and some who have been members of lifeboat crews. I am delighted to have this opportunity to pay my own tribute to the selfless dedication of these volunteers who put their lives at risk to help save others.
player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-loss-of-the-penlee-...
The falcon returned to the perch after a hunting foray clutching two Emperor dragonflies, presumably a mating pair as dragonflies mate in flight. In this sequence of 5 shots the male detached itself from the female and made a bid for freedom. The final fate of the male is not known, the last shot showing it tumbling from the perch, legs upwards. Females are known to feign death to avoid the attentions of males. The conjecture is was the male feigning death to avoid the attentions of the falcon?
Many thanks to all who visit, view and comment upon, my efforts
No, the title of this snap is not a mistyped quote from the film Babe. It more a sequence of events leading up to the shot.
Everything started OK. My GLW didn’t complain too much at being dragged away from a glass of fine wine and a warm fire just so she could stand on a cold Welsh hillside and press the shutter button. Setting up the camera equipment was a doddle. Driving around the singletrack winding road, with all lights blazing was not an issue. Everything went smoothly until I met the testosterone overdosed ram standing in the middle of the road. Apparently, he thought that he owned this section of the Queen’s Highway. From the demon look in his eye I deduce he also thought I, and my 2 tonnes of car, was challenging him for the right to copulate with the ewe that was beside him.
At this point I must digress a tad. It is true that I have Welsh heritage, and it is also true that the goodly Welsh have a certain unsavoury reputation, propagated by the slanderous English, when it comes to sheep. For the record, the case against me was never proven in a court of law and anything you hear otherwise is only rumour and conjecture. Unless it was on Twitter, in which case it is probably true. Especially if it was written by a certain D Trump. Although, I’ve noticed that, of late, he has gone a bit quiet on the Twitter front.
Back to the story. This riled ram really didn’t revel in my road antics. The beast lived up to its own verb by ramming my innocent auto. My car now proudly sports a horn-shaped dent in the passenger door. The things us tog have to endure for our art. The wife found it most entertaining, mind. Well worth delaying her wine for.
As general-purpose locomotives, C17’s like Ken could almost go anywhere in the state, and could be found on any sort of load – passenger, freight, express, mixed – anything!
It appears that Ken spent a fair bit of his early life near the district he was built at Maryborough. Details are fairly scant on the period from 1922 until the 1950s. However from the history we do have, we surmise that he was attached to many different depots in his life, using his history from the 1950s onwards as an example :
– April 1953 – Ipswich
– Dec 1956 – Bowen
– Early 1957 – Townsville
– May to Sept 1957 – did not run -stored
– 1958 – Overhaul?
– 1959 – Toowoomba
– Nov 1960 – June 1961 – did not run -stored
– August 1962- Warwick
– August 1964 – Toowoomba
& back and forth between Warwick and Toowoomba until 1967, after which records stop. It was very unusual for locmotives to “move” from the South to the North, and back again. From that you could conjecture that Ken wasn’t “anyone’s favourite”. It was condemned and stored in 1968, awaiting scrapping.
At the end of steam in the late 1960s, QR undertook a program of placing some retired steam locomotives in council parks around the state. Ken was selected to be saved for this purpose, and was plinthed in a park at Goondiwindi some time around 1968-1970. There he stayed until 1993.
By the early 1990s, the plithed locomotives around the state were beginning to become an insurance headache for the various local councils who had responsibility for them. Sharp corroded metal, potential asbestos risks and a general increase in health-and-safety concerns of the general public meant that councils wished to be rid of their locomotives, but at the same time were conscious of their history, so late 1993, representatives of the Rosewood Railway were contacted to gauge their interest in Ken.
After initial inspections and discussion, the decision was made to accept Ken in the Rosewood family with the view to restoring him. Early 1994, Ken arrived on-site to begin the slow process of restoration.
Over the next 13 years, volunteers worked tirelessly with meager funds to transform what was essentially a bare shell of a locomotive to a fully functioning , living and breathing machine!
Since 2008 Ken has been back in action as the main attraction, making his way up our small mountain railway.
Unlucky Evening
Cadence
First off, I would like to thank my twin brother for writing this out as a story. A brilliant part of his recent birthday gift to me.
It is a written memory-based loosely on a dress-up play game we used to act whilst in our sixth form years. We called it the “Cons game”.
Named after Conner, a lad I once met as a naive young teen lass while attending a dress-up dance. Conner attached himself to our group, joining our table, dancing, and acting as a chum. As he took a breather, Conner offered to watch over our things as my cousin Micke and I went back to the dance floor. Well, as our backs were turned, the Git snuck off with Micke’s wallet along, with the expensive gold lamee clutch purse I had “borrowed” from mum. It may have been a wee bit less painful if I had actually asked mum to take it.
“Con’s game” borrowed from that unsettling occurrence. Except that it evolved to where it was my jewels that were taken from me using various deceitful devices. Then we introduced the French jewels thief Arsene’ Lupin into the mix and the game grew into even more cunning as elaborated attempts upon tricking me out of my valuables were dreamed up. This by far eclipsing a mere purse snatching by a common rude twit of a thief.
Of course, after reading through my brother’s story “ gift “ I knew where he got his inspiration to write it from. I had been showing off the black gown I have purchased to wear at a dance next month(still need to lose a few pounds yet)when he came into the room. I also was wearing my rhinestones, which match the “diamonds” in the story, though the gown in it is pure fantasy.
My brother is picking me up after the affair. So I am expecting he has an ulterior motive and I may have a “price to pay” for the ride home. Lol.
So with that, all background said, here is the story he wrote for me. (with maybe some embellishments by, me-giggles)
Con’s Game: An Unlucky Evening
Cadence had been having a smashing time at the royal ball.
It was an upper-class posh affair that requires one to dress appropriately at their very best. No holds barred, sky’s the limit.
She had risen to the occasion, in her opinion. Confirmed by the way attention had been coming her way by the various(and varied) tuxedo-clad males that were in attendance. She felt that her look was not very far off the mark set by the other richly attired ladies there.
But all the dancing and drinking she had been doing finally took a toll and she found herself rushing down a long corridor leading to a ladies powder room. ( no mere loo’s here ).
Fortunately, it was not too crowded, and by the time she had finished, found herself alone there.
She took the time before leaving to fix her mascara, apply more apple red lipstick, and admire the overall effect of what she had chosen to wear out that evening.
A long midnight black sheath gown of luxurious(and expensively sleek)satin. The gown’s appearance was that it had to have been poured onto her figure, it fit that tightly. Smoothly outlining the subtle bumps and curves of her rather pleasantly youthful figure.
Her jewels, all diamonds on silver chains, sparkled and shimmered in the incandescent light above the mirror. The same showy fireworks of sparkles she knew had been displayed while dancing on the ballroom floor. As she had caught herself multiple times silhouetted in one of the long mirrors that lined the dance floor.
She decided to wear her long cascading diamond earrings. Loving the glittering effect they made swinging in and out of her long freshly washed reddish hair. To increase the effectiveness of her dazzling earrings, she had not worn any necklace.
One black satin gloved wrist held her decadently wide, diamond cuff bracelet. Cadence also wore one solitary ring, her finest. Cadence wore it on the index finger of her right hand. It was a quite large diamond encrusted cocktail ring that flashed like the powerful beacons of a surfside lighthouse. At the v of her gown, nestled just below her breasts, she had pinned a long, valley fern leaf-shaped, a diamond brooch, the most expensive piece of jewellery Cadence possessed and one that spent most of its time in her father’s bank box.
Sighing happily, she finished applying her lipstick, remarking under her breath, into her reflection as she pulled back on her long blush satin gloves…
“I must say, you look brilliant this evening Luv!”
Smiling with conviction, Cadence then headed back out to the adventures ahead that she knew was awaiting her back at the ballroom
She did not have long to wait:
For no sooner had she entered the corridor before the door had time to even close, a smooth, gloved hand was placed around her eyes, while another was delicately placed just below her heaving breasts, as Cadence had been duly startled.
As she was pulled back against a warm figure, a male voice, with a heavy, heavenly, French accent said…
“Allo Sarah you minx, caught you at last.
Cadence, a wee bit disappointed, answered back in a teasing tone.
“If I was Sarah, that you did, but unfortunately you have hold of the wrong “minx,” my devious capture…”
Cadence felt herself swirled around by strong arms, which did not appear to be in sync with the delicate way his hands had been placed along her figure.
She found herself facing a far too handsome Frenchman. A full tux-wearing gentleman complete within a monocle in his mischievously twinkling left eye and a neatly trimmed mustache. A dead ringer for a 30ish David Niven (the actor who portrayed the Raffles character)
He lifted Cadence’s black-gloved hand and holding down her fingers, kissed it gently on the back, apologizing as he did.
“Bon seigneur je suis tellement désolé , I am so sorry miss, but you are the mirror image of my dazzling friend Sarah. I do hope you can forgive me. Perhaps the honour of a dance would repair my boldness ?”
Cadence smiled, pleased at the tantalizing offer so gallantly extended. She gave him her hand and he led her off down the darkened corridor.
A waltz was playing and the mystery man proved to be an adept dancer.
As they swirled around in and out of the other couples, Cadence introduced herself.
Her partner smiled and again apologized.
“My manners have left me with my blunder. Of course, dazzling Cadence, my pleasure to make you acquaintance, my name is Arsene’. “
Cadence smiled, then closed her eyes to soak in the dance, and the titillating feeling of being held by this dashingly suave gentleman.
After a minute Arsene spoke again, his words warningly cutting into Cadence’s reverie.
“Allow me, madam, to apologize once again for startling you as I did. Especially under the circumstances…”
As his voice trailed off Cadence opened her eyes wide with puzzlement.
“What circumstances, Arsene?”
Arsene’ looked deeply into her eyes, appearing surprised that she did not know.”
“‘Ave you heard, no? The police, Mademoiselle, they have tracked a notorious jewel thief here this evening!”
As Cadence gasped, Arsene’ quickly twirled her in a circle, as he dispelled her concerns over his announcement.
“No worries dear Cadence, you are quite safe with me. Trust me, a thief would not be admitting himself to one he planned to rob, now would he?”
Cadence shook her head In agreement, her earrings swaying from under her long red hair, sparkling merrily. She happily saw that Arsene had noticed them.
The newly met couple now danced on, twirling in and out in rhythm with the slow chamber music. Cadence had had her eyes closed. Feeling another lady’s gown swirl by her, she now opened them.
The lady in question was wearing a real diamond tiara. Cadence watched for a few seconds thinking how the lady in her fancy satin ball gown looked like a princess, and may have actually been.
She turned to her partner, who was also watching the same lady with a look upon his face that appeared to be one of savoring. She could see the tiara’s diamonds sparkling in the reflection of Arsene’s eyes.
She mused to herself for a moment, relishing in a few more beats of the dance, musing that what if the tiara-wearing lady’s partner had been the thief Arsene had mentioned. After a few more seconds of pondering, Cadence boldly spoke aloud her thoughts.
“Arsene, what if that lady’s dance partner was the thief, what would he do? I mean, how does one go about stealing jewels at a Ballroom dance ?”
Arsene’, lost in thought also, jumped a little at the question, looked down at Cadence, and chuckled his answer.
“Ah sweet Cadence, apologies not paying attention to my partner, and most sincere ones for planting that seed of worry in your mind.”
He smiled winning you into Cadence’s eyes. Not saying anything, she simply shivered with delight as he divulged his thoughts on the matter …
“For it was upon my mind also. My guess is that he could not do anything but look and admire. One would not believe he could do nothing else. For how could even a renowned jewel thief steal without his pretty victim’s notice? What trickery could he possibly use? Eh Mon Cherie ?”
Cadence nodded her head in agreement, her curiosity happily placed in check as she said.
“Your right, it’s not as if a thief could very well trick her into giving her jewels over to him?”
“Arsene’ looked his dance partner over, pursing his lips in thoughtful examination.
“Very well put. And as for my not giving you my full admiration, let me repair that at once.”
“I have been meaning to give you a compliment. Your earrings Mademoiselle, they are rather breathtakingly beautiful, may I ?”
As he asked this, he lifted Cadence’s left hand and, with his fingers over hers, guided them into her silky hair lifting the hair off one side of her face, exposing an earring in all its dazzling beauty… Then slowly repeated the performance on the other side using her right hand to pull back her long red hair, obviously admiring the jewel dangling there.
Arsene’ started to say something, but at that moment the music came to an unexpected stop. The dance had ended far too soon for Cadence, who was still very much caught up in the enchanting moment.
They followed the group of dancers heading off the floor.
Stopping at the edge of the dance floor Arsene’ took Cadence’s hand thanking her for the dance.
As he kissed it as she asked him if he would like to go and have some champagne.
Arsene’ placed his arm around her waist he guided Cadence from the dance floor while apologizing.
“Mon Cherie, I must take leave of you. And this wonderful gala.”
Cadence felt her heart drop. She had been looking forward to spending more time with her newfound friend. She found herself discarding etiquette, pleading with him, the words leaving her mouth before thinking.
“Arsene, couldn’t you stay for one more dance?”
He looked at her fondly as she realized her faux pas…. And promptly began to make amends
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that. Silly of me, now it is my turn to apologize. I realize you are a busy man…“
Arsene’ took her up by the hand, Smiling as his eyes looked over her puppy sad face before catching her gaze.
“Ah my sweet Cadence, how can a mere mortal refuse such a charming request. Arsene’ shall do it, postpone his business to spend a few more precious moments with such a charming lady. Yes, that will be best. ”
As luck would have it, the music was starting back up. As the lights now dimmed, Cadence was thrilled to realize was a more modern, jazzier beat that was now being played.
Arsene’ led the willing Cadence back in retreat to the Ballroom’s polished dance floor.
An arm around her waist, the other holding her hand high, Arsene’ propelled Cadence into the thick of the now again crowded dance floor.
It was a vigorous and invigorating cotillion type of experience as Arsene’ expertly led his partner in circles and loops . She could barely catch her breath as he twirled her around several times with Cadence ending up backside against her partner, laughing merrily.
The music suddenly slowed and the couples took a more formal position.
As Arsene’ twirled her around, Cadence found herself face to face with him, looking into his eyes as he practically beamed into hers. Their figures touched, almost embraced. Cadence felt the points of her breasts slightly being massaged as her partner move up against her figure. Relishing, she closed her eyes firmly to absurd as much of the enticement as possible.
Arsene‘s figure moved even closer, causing Cadence to almost squeal in a decadent ecstasy as she leaned back her head, soaking in the moment.
Arsen’s fingers slipped in alongside her face and lifted up Cadence‘s silky long hair above her head. Then letting it fall back down, ran his fingers back alongside her upturned face. Cadence had kept her eyes pressed shut relishing the moment, not ever wishing it to end.
Arsene’ placed his closed hands upon her satin-clad shoulders as hers went to his waist.
Maintaining that position, the couple then made a swirling twirl, their now hot figures brushing up against one another’s as they managed to make a complete circle of the ballroom dance floor before the musicians began to enter the final chords of the music.
Arsene’ slipped his balled hands down along from Cadence’s shoulders till they fell behind her. His left hand then went around her waist, where she could feel it pressing against her while he pulled Cadence in closer to him. His right hand pulled her left from his waist and held it up.
Cadence finally opened her eyes and locked into Arsene’s deliciously happen gaze. He winked at her and she smiled.
All too soon, again for Cadence, the chords waned and the chamber music ended and faded away.
Arsene’ gazed tenderly down upon Cadence’s upturned face. He found her gleaming with delight.
“Come,” he said, placing his arm around her svelte waist walking Cadence towards the main exit.
Drained, She submissively allowed him to do so, still caught up in the rapture of the moment.
At the cloak check, Arsene’ let her go and went up to the booth.
Cadence waited obligingly as he reclaimed his evening cloak, top hat, and walking stick.
Once retrieved he put on his top hat and cloak before turning turned to face her.
“Au revoir ma Jolie mademoiselle Cadence, thank you for being such a lovely partner. I could hope to have encountered no one more endearing and promising this evening …”
He took up her limp hand and kissed it on the back. Her ring sparkling like the fire the still fawning Cadence had felt stirring deep within ever since meeting Arsene.
Gracefully letting go of her, he tipped his hat with a wink of his eyes.
Arsen’ then turned and walked out the door with a proud skip to his step, not looking back.
Amazed, and still utterly speechless, Cadence watched him disappear through the door.
Placing a hand just underneath her breasts, once again heaving with her astonishment. Cadence marvels over what all had transpired since she had gone off to the loo, sorry, a powder room.
“That was quite riveting in its way .”
Cadence murmured to herself as she stroked her fingers along her slick gown.
Indeed, it was quite interesting how a bit of mistaken identity could be …could be such ….!?
Cadence had stopped frozen, as her fingers felt around the lower neckline of her gown
finding nothing….
Horror stricken, Cadence went up the full-length mirror on the wall next to the cloak check stand to verify that which her fingers appeared to indicate.
“My broach, it is gone. lucidity mulled it over, coming to an all to obvious conjecture…
“The scoundrel must have nicked it while distracting me over being Sarah !”
“That man had absolutely no conviction!”
In shock, Cadence looked over at the still swinging exit door.
Her mind going darting back to how a gloved hand had so slickly went around her chest, as the name Sarah distracted and drew away from her attention, to anything else going on…. Like a brooch being removed from a gown!
Then she froze. Something else was decidedly not right. “
As she quickly pulled back her hair to reveal a startling revelation that jolted her entire being
“No, it’s not possible, how could he?”
But the stark reality was evidenced by the bare earlobes that she was staring at. Her lovely earrings were bloody well…. gone!”
Had he been testing the water while admiring her earrings, during that first dance?
Had he decided the earrings were too difficult, then the music ended so he was just going to be happy with her lifted broach? Then she had talked him into a second dance and he saw an opportunity come knocking again?
“What a gullible twit I am. “
Cadence muttered as she looked towards the old iron strapped oak exit door
Arsene, you devious, devilishly rotten bugger!”
Cadence yelped to the empty exit not caring who heard.
Then, without grabbing her red taffeta wrap, scurried out through those doors into the cool evening outside, in hot pursuit of the conniving Frenchman Arsene’, and Lucidity's recently nicked diamond jewellery!