A series of images from a wander up to Easdale Tarn and onto Blea Rigg in the English Lake District on a beautifully bright but chilly day in late November 2021.

 

The geology around Easedale makes it an attractive location for field trips.

Seen in one nature reserve in Zuid-Holland.

Hong Kong - 香港大澳鱼村

Tai O (Chinese: 大澳) is a fishing town, partly located on an island of the same name, on the western side of Lantau Island in Hong Kong.

When the British came to Hong Kong, Tai O was known as a Tanka village. During and after the Chinese Civil War, Tai O became a primary entrypoint for illegal immigration for those escaping from the People's Republic of China. Some of these immigrants, mostly Han Chinese, stayed in Tai O, and Tai O attracted people from other Hong Kong ethnic groups, including Hoklo (Hokkien) and Hakka.

 

Tai O has a history of salt production. In 1940, it was recorded that the Tai Po salt marshes were covering 70 acres (280,000 m2) and that the production has amounted to 25,000 piculs (1,512 metric tons) in 1938.[1]

 

Currently the fishing lifestyle is dying out. While many residents continue to fish, it barely provides a subsistence income. There is a public school on the island and most young people move away when they come of age. In 2000 a large fire broke out destroying many residences. The village is now mostly squatters huts and dilapidated stilt houses.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slinking away, still smirking over how rewardingly gullible the bejeweled wealthy girls in silky dresses had proven, Angie unexpectedly came across fresh, opulently inviting, prey.

 

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Angelique D. at play

 

Angie D

 

Circa 1915

 

Case study 113 subset b

 

Early development: “Pickpocket” of worn Jewelry

 

Sub title:

 

What is it about rich girls that make them so lucratively gullible?

Quoted by Subject: log 1959

 

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What:

 

Along a path just outside where a departing congregation of a small church still gathered.

 

Where

 

The outskirts of Chestermere:

 

When:

 

An early fall day, in the year of our Lord 1915

 

Who:

 

An appealing lady wearing a secret smile, clad expensively in a silky top and flowing satiny ruffled skirt, a pair of gold earrings flashing merrily as she strolls.

 

Excerpted from Diary:

 

A lady in a cream silk blouse and long blue skirt was walking happily along a path on the outskirts of Chestermere. She was coming from the early Sabbath service of a local chapel, filled with the rousing words of the Parson’s homily. As Angie walked, she hummed a cheerful tune, her conscious, as always, free of any guilty feelings.

 

Angie was very pleased with herself, and the main source of the pleasure was now bouncing against her thigh as she briskly walked along. For deep in a small pocket hidden well below the waistline of her flowing sleek skirt, was a pretty jeweled pendent on a delicate gold chain.

 

Only just 15 minutes ago that jeweled pendent was still being worn by a member of a rather wealthy looking family whom had been in attendance at the same Sabbath service. Angie had scoped them out as the family had waltzed in just after the mass had started. The mother was dressed in a pretty white frock with ruffles of lace falling from her throat and wrists, along with a rather nice set of pearls. The rather formal and severe father was in a “monkey suit”, a gold pocket watch and fob stretched across his rather bulging waist. The pair had their hands full with two rambunctious , pre-adolescent twin boys, who had continually distracted them during and after the lengthy service. Which was good, from Angie’s point of view anyway, for it left the parents totally ignoring their seventeen year old daughter , at the end of the pew, standing with a sultry air about her.

 

The daughter was wearing a rather fancy party dress of thick red silk. Dangling down the front of the sheer red silk bodice, on a thin gold chain, was an attention grabbing deep green emerald starburst pendent that fell swaying from her dress’s high neckline. It had been the sleek dress that had whetted Angie’s interest, but it was the pendent that kept that interest focused during the entire service, delightedly eyeing the pendant’s shimmeriness in the low candle lit church. During the communion procession she had managed to slip in behind her in order to closer scrutinize the prospect, soaking in the expectations of acquiring it from the unsuspecting proper acting young lady..

 

As the service ended, the family joined in the stream of the departing congregation. Angie followed closely, looking for her chance. It came when the Parson stopped the father to ask a question, a group soon huddled around the mother and the twins. As everyone bent over to focus attention on the twins, including their sister, Angie circled her prey and slipped in close, hovering briefly over her back before darting in. In one fluid motion, Angie lifted with one practiced hand the chain and flicked open the thin clasp, nimbly catching the swaying pendent in her other hand as it fell, whisking the sparkling emeralds and chain away and palming it from sight. Absolutely no one noticed the flashy necklace as it vanished from the front of the sister’s silky dress. Angie had continued on her way, clutching the pendent, and headed straight out the door without looking back. Instead of heading back the short 3 miles to her hotel in the city, she decided to head out towards the woods, where she planned to lay low until dusk.

   

Angie now turned her head to have a look behind her at the distant chapel and the people milling about, her gold plated earrings flashing as she did so. Good, she thought, no one was following her, and she, in total security that she was out of danger, crossed off the path and went on the road.

  

Angie strolled along the country lane, trees lining it turning red and yellow in their autumn gowns, for quite some time, before she became aware of a band playing off in the distance.. Then turning a bend in the lane, through the thin wall of woods, she spied a wedding reception up on a hill by a white stone Church. From her vantage point she could see a multitude of colourful , richly shimmering gowns and the occasional sparkle of , she hoped , opulent jewelry.

  

As good luck would have it, she decides to crash the party. She was dressed for it, she was hungry, and who knows what pickings she may find inside to increase her earthly riches ,as the Parson had been saying! She walked around, skirting the woods and came across a hillside garden with rose covered arbors and bright flower lined paths. Two grubby boys of about ten and twelve were playing in the woods on the opposite side, by a small pond surrounded thickly with Rhododendron s. She entered the Garden and made her way up the winding path, coming out onto a small field with benches that lay on the opposite side of the church and the auditorium entrance to the reception.

 

Angie entered the crowded auditorium underneath the Church. She helped herself to the food buffet and sat outside enjoying her meal, as she watched the richly dressed crowd. A young man came up and asked her to dance, which she did happily, and just as happily lifted his gold watch and fob. And, too boot, after a few dances with him, she had become a part of his circle, happily mingling, and rubbing elbows with the obviously wealthy guests he presented her to. Including an introduction to his pretty faced teenage sister, who was sporting a pretty diamond ring on all too slender finger, that she kept waving in Angie’s face as she played with her long silky hair.

  

Angie soon left them and started to stalk about for a bit, noting that most of the guests were older, more mature specimens. There seemed to be a lack of young, well dressed children around, whose shiny offerings had been Angie’s main bread and butter for almost two years.. She had just come to the conclusion that she would have to settle for picking a few pockets or purses before leaving. She started to look around for the bloke with the fancy gold pocket watch who had first asked her to dance….

 

Then she saw her.

 

The lady was moving through the crowd, on the arms of a man half her age, giggling, not paying attention to anything else around her. She wore a long gown of a shimmery purple silk. But it was not the gown that had caught Angie’s eye, but the jeweled brooch that hung from the gowns cleavage, shadowed by its mistress’s ample bosom. Like the figurehead in a seagoing schooner it came, shimmering in the dazzling light of at least a hundred diamond chips, surrounded by an oval of blazing sapphires. Angie’s fingers tingled. It was time.

 

****************************************************

Now, it had been better than three years ago when Angie had run across an ancient, toothless Gypsy in a long black dress with a faded shawl around her shoulders, who had spoken Angie’s fortune. When she had read Angie’s palm, she looked Angie dead in the eyes, a most knowing kind of look. Then she had risen, motioning Angie to stay and came back with a rather battered old pamphlet she wanted Angie to look over. Entitled the Cutpurse: skilles, artes and Secretes of the Dip by “Gaston Monescu, 1826”, it covered the various tactics and moves used by master pickpockets. Including whole chapters on successful “Methodes” of relieving a wealthe lady of her” jeweles”.

 

The Gypsy Woman, who had hovering over Angie as she had read deeply into the pamphlet moved and sat back down across from her.

 

Angie ,who by this time in her quite young life, was already an accomplished cutpurse and picker of pockets, looked up at the gypsy, grinned, and asked if it was worth her while. The Gypsy just smiled, reached up and opened her dirty laced shawl, revealing the silvery necklace that Angie had been wearing when she had come in. Amazed she traded the necklace for the pamphlet on the spot and quickly began putting its teachings into play.

 

Angie soon mastered this new level of her chosen craft.

 

She had started on mannequins: clothing them in long silky dresses and jewelry. She had practiced for months, first in a rented studio apartment, then in a secret basement located in an isolated, deserted old barn and then its surrounding woods. Soon she felt confident enough to go out and try it in the crowded streets amongst shopping women. She met with great success, but her gains were only a pittance. Still she practiced, and had gotten so adept that she soon was moved onto more affluent hunting grounds.

 

She reasonably started out with weddings. For the phamplett had suggested starting out at formal parties where there would be an abundance of youngsters dressed in their best by parents wanting to show their off female issues to an adoring public( in the minds of the wealthy parents, anyway). So she went, seeking out young, easily distracted young girls who were not used to wearing the array of enticing jewels placed on them by overly enthusiastic parents.

 

Angie’s first time out was met with some rather sweet success. A large day time wedding reception in Nova Scotia, held in a public park by a majestic sweeping waterfall.

 

Late at the reception, as she was still prowling without making any formal attempts, she soon noticed that the adults at the gathering were becoming quite gay with drink, and noticeably paying less attention to their children. Said children began to wonder off in groups, exploring and starting to run about playing games, their gowns and dresses whispering a Pied Piperish tune to Angie’s ears, their shiny jewels luring her ever closer.

 

Angie soon started to follow a pair of young ladies who had scampered off to explore.

One was an impish girl with long black hair flowing down, drawing ones attention to the frilly white dress she was wearing. Gold chain earrings dancing merrily from her ears, as a longish gold herringbone chain shimmering brightly in the sun as it lay hanging from her silk dresses’’ high neckline.

Her partner in crime was a most fascinating subject. A charmingly bright green eyed proper young imp, a couple of years older than white dress, with a rather pronounced Welsh accent, much like Agie’s remembered her parents having. Her silken red hair lay down her back in a neat long French braid. A long thin satin gown of emerald green swished as she ran with the awkwardness of youth to keep up with her new friend. A matching satin bow was tied just below her throat, its ends trailing down to her svelte waistline. At the bows center was fastened a glittering rhinestone pin. She also was wearing a small rhinestone necklace that encircled her throat just above the bow. Her ears were home to a pretty pair of clasped rhinestone earrings that matched the pattern of her necklace. Around one short shiny green satin gloved wrist was a brite rhinestone bracelet.

 

The duo found the waterfall, by which a photographer had set up a camera. Angie approached the lovely pair, and easily started up a conversation, helped by the fact that as an adult, she was not scolding them for walking off. They seemed pleased that Angie was actually doing the exact opposite, like a favored auntie, she was encouraging them to explore.

 

Angie led them around a bend for a different view of the cascading waterfall, out of earshot of the reception. She helped the black haired lass, Basil, up to sit on a small stone wall for a better look, also helping to slip off the shiny gold herringbone necklace from her throat with an almost effortless ease in the process. As, with itching fingers, she contemplated what to do about Basil’s gold earrings, Angie started to watch Lydia.

 

Oblivious to what was going on around her, the red head, Lydia, was standing next to Angie, looking over the fence which just reached her shoulders. Here dear, Angie said, after pocketing the purloined gold necklace, you’re messing up your pretty dress. Angie turned the girl towards her, reached over and said, here, let my fix your bow, darling. Lydia allowed Angie to retie it, as Basil, her back to them, happily was watching, enraptured, the splashing water. Angie finished undoing and retying Lydia’s satin bow, neatly removing the pretty rhinestone pin in the process, then as she straightened the girl’s color, Angie had her turn around. As Lydia obediently did so, Angie flicked open the rhinestone necklaces clasp, and peeled off the flashy necklace from around Lydia’s throat as she turned round. Just like that, Lydia’s rhinestone necklace went the same way of er pin, both ending up with the gold chain in a secret pocket hidden in the folds of Angie’s skirt.

 

Angie stood behind Lydia, placing her hands on Lydia’s slick silken covered shoulders, all three watching the waterfall. Angie’s left hand caressingly, ever so lithely inched down along Lydia’s side, reaching the girls wrist. As Angie engaged them in conversation, she slowly worked off the bracelet, leaving only the pretty earrings as her last challenge.

 

Angie lifted her right hand and slowly moved it up to one of the girl’s dangling earrings, sparkling in the waterfalls’ reflection.. With her left hand she pointed upstream. As both girls turned their heads to look, off came a rhinestone earring. Angie than playfully lifted Lydia’s long French braid and laid it over Lydia’s shoulder, below her now bare ear. She turned to look down, giggling, and as she did so, Angie plucked away the remaining earring; it easily came off and joined its companion with the rest of the collection of jewelry in Angie’s secret pocket. Amazed that the process of removing young Lydia’s jewels had gone off so easily, Angie almost wished Lydia had been wearing bells like one of her sleekly gowned practice mannequins. Her reasoning being that she would know if it was because her skill level was that good, or just the fact that Lydia was just an unworldly youth easily distracted. Whatever the reason, Angie, feeling fresh inspiration, looked over at the chirpy basil, and her shiny gold earrings.

 

Angie moved behind Basil, placing her hands upon the slippery waistline of her silk dress, then leaned forward, whispering in the girls ear, tickling it with her breath. As Basil giggled Angie reached up gently lifted the gold chain earring up from the lobe of the girl’s opposite ear lobe. Then nimbly with her thumb and index finger, flicked open the hinge clasp and neatly removed the earring, watching for any reaction from her victim. Basil never felt a thing, Lydia was still watching the waterfall, equally as oblivious. Angie kept her chin close to Basil’s ear, and the remaining earring. Cautiously she moved her fingers up, and then darting in with them, successfully repeated the maneuver. As the earring joined the rest of her collection, Angie could not help thinking that if all her future endeavors were as successful, she could end up living quite a comfortable lifestyle.

 

Angie stayed a few more minutes, keeping the pair distracted the whole time before she cautiously moved off, leaving the two of them there by stream. Basil happily perched on the stone wall, and Lydia bent down, busily plucking at the moss growing on the old stones. Both girls still quite fetching in their pretty gowns, both a bit less weighted down by any added trimmings.

 

For the next year, fueled by her early success, she started focusing entirely on wedding receptions. Honing her skills until it became almost mundane for her nimble fingers to lift a jewel, no matter where is was being worn by a squirming young lady upon her fancy dressed person. And, actually, some of her acquisitions where worth a surprising bit of dough when pawned.

  

Favored Case in Point:

 

It was in New Hampshire, on her 24th outing late during the wedding season of the following year when she came upon a rather prim young miss of about 13, clad in a long sleeved thick yellow satin blouse, a black velvet vest and matching gold and black vertical striped satin skirt. A young raven haired bumble bee with no stinger, but with pearls, black pearls in a long string dangling down along the front of her shiny back buttoned blouse. She was also wearing matched black pearled earrings, and a small, daintily jeweled pin in the shape of a humming bird on her velvet vest. She was sitting alone at a table, playing with some crayons and a book. Angie, who had been watching her for some time from a bar stool, had come up and caught the pretty little things full attention, easily capturing her interest, then, finally, suggesting they go and watch the activity on the ballroom floor from a small alcove in a corner. Liking the adventurous way Angie had suggested it, the bumble bee had eagerly followed Angie away from the table.

 

Angie continued making small talk as the pretty thing was watching the exquisitely gown guests on the dance floor, including the girls’ parents. She was met with youthful exuberance by the youth, who was so enthralled with the activity on the dance floor that she was as unaware of what was going on around her , much like one of Angie’s practice Mannequins. After quite easily removing the dainty jeweled pin, Angie’s subtle fingers were able to lift up and flick open the rhinestone clasp of the child’s pearled necklace. Angie than coolly waited for a prime moment before whisking away the wholly distracted young miss’s gleaming black strand of pearls from around the high ruffled collar of her yellow satin blouse.

 

And also, like one of her gowned and jeweled practice Mannequins, the young girl never noticed anything amiss as Angie continued on with her conversation for quite some time afterwards. It was daring, but exciting as Angie kept stealing looks at the bare front of the glossy yellow blouse where the pearls had hung down so deliciously, knowing they were in her own pocket, so close, but for the young lady, so far.. Finally she decided she was pressing her luck, and she wished the child a goodnight, before beating a hasty exit,( but not before circling back to the now deserted table and heartlessly lifted the fat, expensively made purses, of both the young girl, and her mother!)

 

The jeweled hummingbird pin, and string of matched black pearls, dainty and long, fetched a pawned price that left whetted Angie’s appetite for more!

 

So, it was after this that Angie, looking for fresher, richer challenges, decided to seek out slightly older prey in their natural habitats, proms and social teenage dances. Where real gems, usually borrowed from their mothers or Grandmothers, would be replacing rhinestones.

 

Still very youthful looking despite her twenty something age, Angie’s first attempt was an upscale dance she had come across while out about in a neighboring city. It was held in an old ballroom for a local boy’s prep school and their dates. Figuring the girls attending would be ripe for the picking in tight gowns and loose fitting jewels, Angie stole inside for a closer look. The only obstacle was getting one of the begowned girls away from her group long enough to make a play for something of value that she was wearing.

  

But, Angie came away with nothing but valuable experience on that first attempt.

 

And it was actually her third try before she met with success in the form of a gold bracelet. It was at a formal dance being held in a large room of a rather posh hotel called the Red Lion Inn. She had gone in for a peek, and spying a pretty young thing heading for the ladies room, fell in step behind her. She was a long brown haired girl, wearing a short silk dress, blue, forming the perfect backdrop for her mouthwatering selection of shimmering gold jewellery. Waiting in a small alcove, Angie made her move as the young lady came back out the door. Bumping against her, Angie’s right hand held onto the youngster by the waist, drawing her close, as she steadied herself, apologizing. At the same time, Angie placed her left hand on the unsuspecting mark’s left wrist, easily flicking open the clasp of the thick gold etched bracelet and slipping it off and away. The young lady, accepting Angie’s apology, went on her way, and Angie, swiftly darted for the nearest exit, securing the rather overly brite bracelet in her bosum.

 

Over the spring and early summer dance seasons Angie practiced, acquiring bracelets and rings down pat using her skillfully developing fingers. She soon also was having some success with necklaces, including one with a long gold chain and a flower pendent set with a diamond carpel surrounded by ruby petals that had turned a quite tidy profit.

 

Then there had been the night of her first big haul, at a private girl’s school homecoming in Connecticut

 

She had started out by finally selecting and shadowing a young lady clad a slinky black dress, draped in her mother’s diamonds. Angie was drooling over a flashy wide glittering gemmed silver bracelet that hung loosely from the young vixen’s limp wrist. She was sure it was made up of real diamond chips. As the girl squirmed past Angie heading to the dance floor, her bracelet was easily plucked off the wrist of her black elbow length satin glove and secured deep in the bosom of Angie’s dress.

 

It was now becoming all too easy, smirked Angie as she unflappably headed out of the exit with her trophy. But, as she crossed the street, she was stopped by a hard looking Italian thug who emerged from the shadows. Angie at first thought wanted to mug her for her earrings, but it turned out he just wanted to see a girl who was inside attending the dance . He described her, and Angie, her interest growing, agreed to locate her and give her his message to meet him outside.

 

Angie went inside and soon found the girl. All her wishes had been answered. The unsuspecting lass was both richly gowned and even more richly jeweled, combined with zero common sense. This fidgeting girl had been seeing the young Italian on the sly, away from her disapproving family and friends. Angie led her out the back way, the opposite side of the Dance Parlor where the Italian was waiting in an alley.

 

Angie pointed across the street towards an entirely different Alleyway, offering to wait with her when the girl balked about going down it. As they waited, Angie fawned over the poor, beautifully adorned young innocent. Helping her straighten her luxurious gown, and helping her primp her long hair, so she would look just right for her east end Romeo. After waiting ten minutes, Angie instructed the girl to wait, while she went out and peeked down the street to see what was keeping her lover.

 

As she left, Angie stole a look back at the still primping young lass, eyeing her slinky gown, and remaining jewels, before heading off down the street, looking into her palm at the pair of long Garnet and diamond earrings that lay nestled, glittering fire there. She then placed them into a secret pocket, joining them with the girl’s small, expensive matching pendent, liberated as Angie had helped her negotiate a curb with her stiletto heels. Both pieces of the lass’s jewelry shared the same pocket with the wide silver bracelet encrusted with diamond chips that Angie had taken earlier..

 

More than once since then, Angie wondered if the ditzy, well jeweled girl ever had made it back out of that alleyway unscathed.

 

The experience had even more so whetted Angie’s appetite. So, even though she was still practicing on younger females, she was now dying to ply her trade upon mature women displaying the real McCoy.

 

***********************************************************

 

So it was with that in mind that Angie now watched, with itching fingers, the beckoning brooch. Though Angie was still unsure enough of trying her abilities on wealthy ladies who would not be as easily distracted as young girls, the timing felt right. As the lady recklessly displaying the brooch passed, her attention lost in the arms of her lover, Angie turned and followed, getting a close look first at the brooch and its pin, noting that it was not tightly clasped onto the gowns thin material.

 

As the couple headed to a table they passed two wealthy dames arguing vigorously with each other. Pricey rings flashing as they pointed fingers emphatically in each other’s face. On the side of table away from the pair, but near to Angie as she was passing by, lay a small, fat silvery clutch purse . Figuring that any dames loaded down with that many gems should be carrying a healthy wad of dosh in it, Angie, on the fly, took action.

 

As she passed she snatched it, and slipping it under her arm turned and headed towards the ladies powder room. Just before entering Angie looked back watching as the two still argued, gemmed rings flashing she had gotten away with it! Going into a stall she scrutinized the clutch for its valuables; disappointed to find only a fiver, some loose change, and a silky laced handkerchief. How cheap can you get she thought ruefully over the wasted effort? Hiding the clutch in the folds of her satin skirt, she left the stall, passing a lady applying makeup in a mirror. She was very pretty in a fluid teal gown, wearing dazzling white pearls upon her ears, neck and wrists. Something about this lady seemed familiar, and Angie’s senses started to sound an alarm. Catching each other’s eye, Angie nodded, but the lady appeared not to recognize Angie, nor Angie her, but the feeling still lingered. Angie left ,guardedly perplexed.

 

Angie went to the bar to have a drink while she thought about who the lady may have been. She was in a position to see the dance floor and she soon spotted the purple clad lady with the brooch Angie had her eye on, again in a deep embrace with her lover. The Brooch would be profitable, but risky as along as she stuck close with the Boyfriend. Angie needed a way to get him out of the picture for a while. It was as she considered several options to carry out the challenge that Angie again spotted the lady in teal , dancing with a tall red headed man. . Cold prickles like ice ran down her spine, It was the pearls! She suddenly remembered who the lady, and her dance partner were!

 

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Only 5 days ago she had been starting her third week operating in Calgary. She had been following a rather attractive, obviously wealthy woman, wearing an eye catching purple silk dress, carrying a dress bag and some smaller parcels. Close at her side was an unheeded calfskin purse. Alongside the lady was a smaller version, obviously her daughter, a girl of about 14. She was wearing a white shiny turtleneck with an equally shiny long tiered skirt. Both of her hands were occupied with department store bags also. When the ladies darted into a swanky hotel ,Angie had followed, she always had had luck in these types of establishments. They had entered a crowded lift and Angie had worked her way in behind the pair, riding up with them in the rickety contraption. Mother and Daughter got off on 12 and Angie stayed on until 15, exiting with not only the fat wallet from the calfskin purse, but also the shiny gold herringbone necklace that had been flashing from the daughter’s throat, securely in her pocket.

 

Angie decided to call it a day. She had already made about 30 dollars from wallets lifted at the department store she had been working over when she had spotted the mother and daughter at the checkout. The mother was paying from a thick wad of cash, and judging from the jewelry of both were an indication of how wealthy the family was. She had followed them out onto the street and it had paid off in spades. Now, all she had to do was find an exit. She saw a stairwell next to a slightly open door with a maids cart outside. She stopped and hovered over the cart to peer inside the room. It was at that moment a door opened on the opposite side of the hallway.

 

A red headed man in an open tux shirt came out of a room, looking at the cart, and Angie standing next to it. Seizing the opportunity, Angie quickly asked if he needed something. I was looking for a maid; I spilled some wine on the cashmere carpet. Seeing the name Bannister above the bell, she said sweetly, certainly Mr. Bannister, I can have someone take care of that for you.. I was just coming up to let you know there is an urgent message down at the desk for you. (Quick improvisation was a special talent of Angie’s.) Why didn’t you bring it, he started to snap, than , never mind, just get a maid, and he headed towards the elevator.

 

Angie picked up the towels and headed cautiously into the massive suite. From the bedroom off one side she heard running water. She looked around quickly, seeing many valuable articles, but nothing small enough to quickly conceal. She took the towels into the bedroom.

 

Angie went into the bedroom, expertly taking everything in. A long silver lamee gown lay out on the bed. On the vanity lay a silvery purse, a pair of long silver satin gloves , a silver watch, silver necklace, a pair of long dangling silver earrings, and a small blue velvet pouch. On a side dresser laid a man’s thick gold watch and a money clip with a wad of bills, a tenner showing on top. In less than a minute after entering the room she had scooped up the money clip, watches, silver jewelry and gloves stuffing them into the purse and lifting up her long skirt hid it in one of its secret pockets. She lifted up the pouch and found it was empty. A picture on the vanity showed an attractive lady in a black dress and pearls. She briefly wondered where the pearls were, did not see any likely spot, and so had turned to make a hasty exit, when a feminine voice called out from the bathroom where a shower could be heard running. Steam was coming out from the slightly ajar door.

 

Dear, a refined voice stated, I have soap in my eyes and cannot find the washcloth. Angie, smelling an opportunity, peaked her head around the corner into the steamy bathroom. There was a shower stall with glass doors at the end of the long room with a double sink running along the side. From the hook by the shower hung a peach negligee and matching long robe. The door was open slightly and a very soapy femine hand was reaching out trying to feel along a towel bar, just missing a hanging washcloth.

 

A soapy hand from which glittered a pretty gold pinky ring set with small diamonds. Angie went over and pulling off the washcloth, rapped on the glass door , receiving a thank you dear in return as the hand reached out for it. Angie wiped off the protruding hand, and a dry voice said, no, not my hand dear, as the washcloth was plucked playfully from Angie’s grasp , and the door closed. Angie bent down and picked up the diamond pinky ring that had been slipped from the showering woman’s finger by the wash cloth, from the carpeted floor underneath the shower door. she than turned ran a hand along the satin rode, looking around. Bingo, on the counter lay a pair of sparkly long diamond earrings. Dumbstruck at her luck she grabbed them off the sink. , she was jolted back to realty when the voice again called out, are you still there dear? She scurried out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

 

She was at the apartment door in a flash, opening it a crack to make sure the coast was clear, it was. In the hallway Angie headed for the stairs because she knew that Bannister was far too important a man to take a stairway. She had been in the apartment less than 4 minutes, and had probably looted it of enough valuables to more than double her take so far of the last three weeks since arriving in Calgary. Leaving by a back exit she came out of a small alley. Looking over she spotted the young lady whose necklace she had lifted in the elevator kneeling down and looking in some bushes. Her shiny skirt pleasantly splayed out upon the ground around her. Angie briskly walked past her and off down the street. She made it without incident to the dingy apartment she was renting by the day. Collecting her meager belongings Angie checked out immediately. Leaving by bus for Chestermere, where at a small bank she rented a safety deposit box to stash all her ill-gotten gains for safe keeping until the heat wore down a bit.

 

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Now Back to the Present

 

Angie now knew how lucky she had been. The red headed man, Bannister, may have recognized her. Calgary was too close to Chestermere , she should have been more cautious when scoping out the receptions guests. Angie turned and headed to the bar to think the situation over.

 

She saw the young man whose watch she had lifted, talking to an older, pretty lady laden with pearls. Behind them stood his sister, her diamond ring sparkling as she twirled her hair. Angie circled wide, coming up behind the lad, she grabbed his shoulder, why hello there. He smiled, introducing her to his Aunt, whose jeweled fingers she took into her hand in a gracious shake. He continued talking to his Aunt, it seems that they were discussing a family matter of some importance .Angie, finding the rings were tight on the Aunt’s chubby fingers, let go of her hand and moved over to the sister, and engaged her in conversation, moving a little off so that the sister turned her back to her brother and aunt.

 

The sister twittered, curling her hair impishly as Angie asked her why she wasn’t dancing. No ones asked, she giggled nervously. What about the boy who has been watching you all eyeing, Angie nodded her head outwards, the girl turned , her hair flying, as she lowered her hand, which Angie took up, petting it in a conspiratorial fashion, go over and ask him, Angie suggested. Go an ask him? I don’t see him she said, but I couldn’t, and she turned back to Angie, flashing her baby blues innocently. That’s okay deary, Angie patted the girl’s hand, keeping her eyes in contact, not allowing her to break the gaze, and perhaps looking down and noticing her loose ring was now gone from her slender finger. Angie took her leave of the sister, and of girl’s annoying nervously twittering giggle. Angie, slipping the diamond ring securely away, continued on until she reached a small alcove from where she could see most of the reception hall.

 

She lit a cigarette, purple silk and her desirably take able brooch was still safely out of reach on the dance floor, and Bannister’s attention was all on his wife. She thought it over, weighing her options, and the risks that were now in play. The song ended, and the dancers started to head off the floor. Angie’s eyes darted, Red headed Bannister and his wife were heading off to the far side of the room, Purple silk and her partner were heading to the bar. Angie’s heart stopped, no, Purple silk was heading to the bar, her lover was off to the men’s rest room. Angie snubbed out her cigarette, rising to the bait, it was now or never. Like a feral feline, Angie began to slowly stalk her prey.

 

But then Angie saw her chance slip through her fingers and evaporate into nothingness, like the smoke from her crushed cigarette. For at that moment an older man bumped into the lady Angie was tailing, spilling his drink down the front of her purple silk gown. Angie retreated and watched from a distance. As the man profusely apologized he produced a silk handkerchief and help wipe down the pretty lady. As he did so, the beautiful diamond broach vanished from her bosom. He had been slicker, slicker than Angie was ( for the time being) able to be. Angie felt her heart sink. Not only had she been deprived of the broach, but the existence of another member of her trade meant that she had better scram, not wishing to cross him. She could tell by the look in the man’s eyes that this was one not to be tangled with

 

Giving up on any plans she had been harboring, she got up, turned her back to the dance floor, headed as quickly as she could to the far exit, keeping her gains, and cutting her (presumed) losses.

 

Angie reached the door without challenge, opening it, she found stairs leading into the Church above. But first she stole a look back. She observed the man suavely talking to the now brooch less lady wearing purple silk. In that second a long haired (ginger) young lady passed by him, wearing a slinking green satin dress. Angie saw the man watching her walk on bye, and then immediately took his leave of purple silk, and began following the perky girl in green satin, with her savory collection of loosely dangling silver jewelry, heavily encrusted with flickering emeralds.

 

Angie turned away, and while wondering how she had failed to have spotted that prime prey in green earlier, went to the stairs.

 

She went up the stairs, coming out into a small chapel in back of the church. A door led to the outside, which Angie took, pouting inwardly, feeling all the world like a child who had been deprived of a desirable toy. She found herself on the side leading down to the Garden from which she had entered. The Church was now in between Angie and the reception, so she felt free to move unobserved. She crossed over to the gardens entrance and headed down the hill.

 

In front of her was a hedgerow, on the other side, Angie knew, was the small field with benches that lay at the entrance to the gardens proper. It was coming from there that she head the voices of children playing, on the other side, but she paid no heed, her mind was on leaving the area.

 

As she hurried along the hedgerow she saw something sparkle expensively in the sunlight through one of the gaps in the hedges. She stopped and curiously looked through a small opening. That’s were all the young darlings have been hiding she remarked to herself, her interest peaking. Forgetting all about leaving and lost opportunity of the brooch, she now focused on the new “toy” now dangling its enticement to her. It belonged to a girl in a slithering silvery gown, with her long hair done up in a long plait. Angie eyed the girl’s sparklers, which Angie first took as all rhinestones.. But, as Angie took inventory, her eye focused on a ring that she was wearing on one of her petite fingers. It held a fiery display, diamonds and rubies. There was no way the ring was rhinestone. Looking around to access the situation, Angie decided that by hook or crook, she needed to get a better look.

 

Watching the colourfully gowned young ladies innocently at play, Angie mused over the golden opportunity just waiting for someone unscrupulous to acquire the jewelry they were wearing. Someone should make them aware Angie decided, surprised that no one older than 16 was watching over them. Knowing that the scene before her was too fertile an opportunity to pass up without at least a long glance, Angie looked around, making sure no adults were about unseen in the woods, or any other nook and cranny of the play area.

 

Angie had found she had a knack for capturing young, well dressed lady’s interest, much to her amusement, and profit! It was with this in mind that Angie decided to allow herself a few precious minutes to watch from her hidden opening to see what may transpire. There were six children, four young ladies who were obviously dressed for a wedding, and the two urchin boys of about 12 and 10 she had spotted earlier. They were dressed as the local poor farm boys they obviously were. Angie quickly overheard the names of the girls as they called out to one another. .

 

The group were playing, appropriately enough for Angie’s point of view, a children’s standard game of cops and robbers. All Angie could think about, as she watched the boys with exuberance chasing and holding the giggling, squirming girls, was that there would hopefully be no actual robbing of jewelry as the game was played out. As each girl, Angie quickly memorizing their names, was ”captured” and taken to “prison”, Angie was able to scope them out at leisure.

 

The youngest Cecilia, about six, was wearing a long smooth gown of deep cream, with a midnight black bolero style jacket of velvet. From her neck was happily swaying a long silver chain with a jeweled winged beetle pendent, her jacket was home to a matching pin.

 

Cecilia’s older sister, 10 year old Claire, was wearing a puffy blue satin blouse with a long bow dancing down the front. Her long skirt of glistening black flowed in ripples as she ran. Also moving in ripples were the long gold herringbone chains she wore dangling from her neck, as were also her matching earrings and bracelet. A thick, expensively shiny gold ring encircled her middle finger.

 

Claire’s friend, Abbey, of about the same age, was wearing a longish gown of sunset pink satin, with a white satin sash encircling her waist. At the center of the sash glistened a gold pin set with pearls. Around her throat, dangling from her ears, were glimmering white pearls.

 

The oldest girl, the one in charge, was a fourteen year old named Amanda. Young and flighty, she kept looking up into the voluminous white clouds in the sky as if trying to see what they were forming. She was dressed in a longish slithering silver princess style gown, the style one may see flowing along the shapely figure of an actress at the moving picture awards ceremony. A fancy necklace with large garnet stones and small diamonds was flapping against her chest as she ran. The necklace matched her long earrings, bracelet, along with her pretty ring. She was wearing a flashy red jeweled head band , with strings of gold and rhinestones interwoven into her long plait of naturally wavy chestnut hair. The head band was all rhinestone, as were the garnets in the rest of her jewels. But what from a distance appeared to be small diamonds in her matching set that separated the garnets, were actually ¼ caret diamonds. Angie, upon realizing this, felt her heart burning with desire at acquiring a piece of the set being so vulnerably dangling from Amanda’s slickly attired person. But a couple of ripping gold herringbone chains, or even a jeweled beetle pendent flicked from a velvet jacket would be nice to acquire also, if only for the practice benefits.

 

To Angie’s secret joy, Amanda was the last girl to be captured, only because a stone lodged itself in her shoe brining her up lame. She was held by one of the boys, and lead, limping, to the other two girls. As a new game was started, she sat out. She hobbled to a nearby stone bench, brushed herself off , watching the group play before removing her shoe to find the annoying stone.

 

Angie started to make her move even before Amanda had made it to the stone bench. She reached her as she was shaking her shoe, slipping up alongside her on the cool bench. The girl jumped, but Angie’s special (practiced!) smile soon won her over. Angie soon enticed the young thing into casual conversation, extracting useful information as Angie, feigning a cheerful interest on the outside, while studying the girls expensive gown and drooling over the glistening garnet and diamonds that adorned it on the inside.

 

Angie tried to direct Amanda’s attention to her young charges, commenting about their pretty baubles, then asking who the boys were, and how well they knew them, about who suggested the game they were playing, how robbers were attracted to pretty things you know, and, were the boys playing the robbers next? Surreptitiously trying to plant seeds of distrust in the immature girls mind, and Angie could see that those seeds had found rich soil. Her intention was to keep the girl distracted long enough for a go at acquiring her necklace.

 

Angie, not unlike a feral cat, waited patiently for her opportunity to take the necklace from the unassuming Amanda to arise. But the girl was not cooperating; her attention on the playing girls lasting for mere seconds before focusing it back on Angie. Angie decided to use a different tactic. Angie placed an arm around girl’s silken shoulder and pointed up into the fluffy white clouds, asking her if she could see what Angie saw.

 

In the clouds, Amanda asked? As she leaned back into Angie who drew her close, relishing in the silky , quite scintillating feel of the child’s slick gown. No, Angie thought unkindly, you silly rich twit, the clasp of your necklace is what I see ( her fingers snaked up the backside of the sleek silver gown towards the tantalizingly easy open able clasp). The one you are about to lose to me, she continued thinking before answering the girl.

 

But seconds later, when Angie did answer, it was with a sweet motherly tone that dripped honey. Yes dear, in the clouds, doesn’t that one look like a soldier, or perhaps a highway man on a horse she inquired to Amanda? No, I think it’s a prince answered Amanda, and Angie thought , not for the first time, about the power of suggestion, for the mass of clouds looking like absolutely nothing but a mass of clouds to her!

 

But, it was an opportunity opened, and as the guileless girl was happily lost in her thoughts, Angie began to lift the clasp into position. As the necklace move up the girls chest, Angie could see its jewels, all sparkly, as the sun came back, peeking through the clouds. But Angie was not the only one who noticed, for the oldest lad who had been stalking up on the youngest sister’s hiding spot, was attracted by the sparklers now flashing around the distracted girl’s throat.

  

The boy headed towards them, and Angie’s fingers retreated. As the girl noticed the boy approaching, she gave a nervous giggle, and placed a hand to her throat. Angie began to rise from the bench, feeling the opportunity was slipping away, for the second time that day. But she hesitated a minute, and she was glad she did.

  

The boy came up and asked Amanda if she was going to play again. He was openly gawking at the necklace Amanda was nervously fiddling as he spoke, and Angie drooled to herself, you dear sweet child. For She could feel Amanda pressing hard into Angie as if seeking protection from his eyes. Angie took action, pointing out the sister the boy had been stalking. Successful diverting the boy’s attention, she sent him after the girl.

  

Maybe it was the things Angie had been feeding the girl about strangers and playing robbers, or pointing out the highway man in the clouds, but the attention to her necklace by the lad had had an obvious effect on Amanda. Angie, seizing the opportunity, exploited it to the fullest. With an Epiphany like thought, she knew what to say, and do next. And if it worked, then Amanda’s necklace would not be the only bauble acquired by old Angie girl.

  

Angie shooed the lad away, and he left, reluctantly to rejoin the game in progress. Then, in an inspired bit of deceitful storytelling, Angie related to Amanda a sad tale about an incident in her childhood, one she made up on the spot. The girl listened, still cuddling for whatever reason, as Angie stroked her enticingly attired figure down, relishing in the softness of her gown, along with admiring jewels she was so intent on acquiring. It was not often in Angie’s line of work that she was able to really check out one of her victims in this manner, and she relished every minute of it.

  

As Angie went full bore into her tale of woe ,she lifted up the attractive necklace from pretty girl’s chest, as she chokingly told the youngster that when she was her age she had been playing dress up in one of her mother’s gowns and had put on some of her mother’s jewelry without her permission.

  

Angie than took up the girl’s slender hand into hers, fingering gently the pleasingly expensive ring , seeing tin the young ladies eyes that she had struck a chord, and Amanda was totally held captivated with her story. Angie continued on… She had gone outside and over to the playground where a group of older children had convinced her to play a game of cops and robbers. When they had been done playing and Angie had gone home, she discovered some of her mother’s pretty jewelry was missing.

  

Angie noticed with satisfaction that as she was reaching the end of her story Amanda had stiffened, her heart started beating faster, and she started to check over her own jewelry. Your mother’s than, Angie drooled to herself, she had nailed it on the head. Carpe Diem Angie said to herself, throwing all caution to the wind.

  

Cops and robbers? That’s the game the boys are having us play, Amanda questioned with visible concern. As she was making this statement, Angie saw with satisfaction Amanda’s open mouth gasping as her eyes went to the boys who were now high in a tree, innocently unaware of what they were underhandedly being accused of eventually attempting to do ( steal the young girls jewelry)!

  

The two Boys had spotted a bird’s nest and where trying to see if it had eggs as the sisters watched them, backs to the bench where Amanda and Angie sat. Seeing the coast was clear, Angie quickly acted, before her story lost its effect over Amanda. Angie produced the purloined silver purse and pulled out the silky handkerchief. She spread the handkerchief out on Amanda’s silken covered lap, setting the purloined purse down upon her own.

  

I really think you should put your jewelry somewhere for safekeeping. Why don’t you wrap it up in this handkerchief, you can keep it in my purse. I’ll lend it too you if you promise to bring it back to me when you get back to the reception. Amanda nodded wisely (those earrings were very pretty Angie told herself) , Angie’s heart went to her throat, the young innocent, abroad from the reception, had swallowed Angie’s deviously luring tactic. Here, Angie promised, I’ll start, and she took of her gilded earrings and laid them gently out upon the shiny white surface of the silk handkerchief. This way I won’t lose mine either, she confided in Amanda, who looked back at Angie with her innocently wide blue eyes.

  

Amanda now showed no inhibitions while reaching up and removing her glittery necklace, laying it gently out upon the handkerchief. It was soon followed by rings and bracelet. Removing the headband and rhinestones chains, undoing her plait in the process, her long hair flowed down her back in curls. It curled up as she laid it upon the ever growing, sweetly glimmering, pile. Then she flung back her long hair and undid the screw backs of her flashy earrings, placing them on top of the heap. Angie’s heart began beating faster as she realized she was going to get away with this! Aw, she thought, as the last of Amanda’s expensively glittering jewels was added to the already glistening pile, wealthy children are so adorably cute when they are being gullible.

  

When Amanda finished, Angie looked down upon the glittering mound, unbelieving her luck. But then the unimaginable happened. Amanda, laying the handkerchief with its precious cargo on the bench next to her, stood and called back the two sisters and their young friend to the bench.

  

Angie held her breath as the girls, turned and dutifully ran up to her, the boys still high in the tree, paid no attention to them. Angie watched, almost salivating as the pretty darlings in their fluttering frocks came bouncing back, necklaces flinging in and out, obediently to Amanda’s call.

  

As they reached Amanda, she told them that they had better remove their jewelry for safe keeping. Why, Challenged Cecilia, with childish accusation? Amanda looked back at the boys in the tree, because I think you may lose them while you play, she scolded. We’re careful Cecilia retorted obstinately, as she looked from Amanda to her sister Claire. Amada looked at Claire, and lifting the girls gold necklace pointed her chin at the tree containing the two boys, and said, they will be the robber’s next game. Claire went wide eyed, and told Cecilia and Abby that they had better do as they were told.

  

Claire was closest, and with a nod from Amanda, unfastened her necklace and laid it out on the silky handkerchief. They were soon followed by her gold drop earrings, bracelet and ring. She started to back away still wearing her rhinestone hairclips. Don’t forget them… Angie started to say, but was cut off as Amanda told Claire to remove them, which she did promptly. Angie was glad she had been able to hold her tongue.

  

Cecilia was next. She approached Angie and Amanda, her long dress swishing richly as she came. She politely asked Amanda for help. Turning her back to Amanda she lifted up her long hair, Amanda remover her necklace and pin, laying them upon the growing shimmery pile. Cecilia removed her earrings and ring, happily placing them with the rest. Very pretty Angie said, admiring the dress, she lifted up the sleeve, admiring it, no bracelets, she whispered to herself, as she pulled the silky sleeve back ever so slightly.

  

Abby than approached, and quietly, obediently, unfastened her pearled necklace, and then removed her glistening matching earrings, and placed them all delicately upon the pile. Momma said to be careful with them, their Grand mama’s, she bleated sweetly, and Angie felt her heart skip several beats, suppressing an evil grin upon hearing those delicious words. Claire then helped Abby remove the pearled brooch from her satin sash.

  

Angie stood back, her heart had been pounding with cutting swords of mixed delicious pleasure and anticipation as, there on that sunlit church playground, the girls in swishy gowns, removed their valuables for “safe” keeping. She knew she now had to work fast, for there was an ever growing chance that an adult would show up from the reception and ruin Angie’s fun.

  

Angie than folded up the silk handkerchief, and in a classic bit of misdirection that would have made Gaston Monescu proud, appeared to place it inside the purse she was going to leave in the children’s safe keeping. But she actually palmed it, and slipped the bundle deep into her skirts pocket as she handed the purse over with her free hand. All three sets of eyes watching the purse, not what Angie’s other hand was doing.

  

Now go and have fun, Angie encouraged the girls as she handed the purse to Amanda. The youngsters seemed thrilled that they had an adult’s permission to keep on playing, and knowing that they would not be in danger of now being yelled at for possibly losing some of their pretty jewelry, they scurried off happily, in waves of whispery satin. Amanda stopped and gave Angie a hug before following the two sisters and their friend. The kind of hug that would have sealed the fate of any jewelry she may have still been wearing, and for which Angie did a double check for. Angie then watched Amanda run off, long gown fluttering out from behind her.

  

As the four girls rejoined the two boys, Angie slowly slinked away, melting into the woods. She allowed herself to smirk over how rewardingly gullible rich young girl’s in silky dresses ,wearing ripe for the plucking jewelry ,always proved to be.

  

Folle est l’agneau de la prune qui dans le loup avoue! She whispered to herself as she disappeared from the frolicking children’s sight.

  

She stopped suddenly as she reached a small clearing with the path leading to the rose covered arbor crossed. Not believing her eyes, as she unexpectedly saw below her fresh, opulently attired, prey.

  

A young couple was busily snogging in the garden the garden just ahead of Angie. As she looked over the pair of richly dressed pretty young things, she could not help but wonder if this couple had been in charge of watching over the children and had snuck away to be by themselves. She quickly ducked behind some bushes as the girl broke away, and with a come hither look, led her boyfriend through a rose covered arbor. Not a moment too soon, for the couple looked behind them, before crossing over the path and disappearing into the woods.

  

Angie cautiously snuck forward, and reaching the spot where they had disappeared into the woods, hears the girl giggling along with the unmistakable sounds of kissing. As the couple is otherwise occupied, Angie carefully moves into the woods. She spies the lad’s suit lying over some branches, and sees the shrubs moving underneath as the couple obviously have progressed now beyond kissing.

  

Angie spies something bright and shiny laying on the ground just in front of the shrub. She inches forward. It is the girls gown, laying spread out like a slick wet fluid purple pond , and there, in a nice neat pile, is the diamond jewelry she was wearing. Angie wonders what would have happened if some miscreant, or unscrupulous hobo were to stumble upon this scene. In her mind she reasoned that they would probably steal the jewels. So, why shouldn’t ole Angie be the one to acquire this one’s jewels also? Since she would probably be losing them anyway!

  

Angie reaches down and quietly pulls away the fluidly glossy gown, the silky material whispering along the grass as it moves. Angie keeps one ear on the couple just out of sight, the other listens for any noise on the path behind her that may betray her as she melts away back into the woods. Then, when she is a safe distance away, happily scoops up the girls small fiery diamonds. Picking up the gown she carried it back, hanging it from a limb just before leaving the path, she ran a hand along its enticing length, before leaving, snickering to herself the whole way.

  

Coup-Fourré, Angie thinks too herself as she regains the path, after carefully making sure no one else was about. Off in the distance she can just barely hear the children still at play. The purse where they innocently believed held their jewelry safe, she imagines still sitting on the bench. She thinks for a second about going back and lifting that purse, but decides not to push her luck, now that she had finally found some.

  

She once again pictured the beaming faces of the three young girls as they were being complimented on their shiny dresses by the pretty lady with the nice smile and gentle fingers as she carefully looked them over for anything missed that those nasty boys may try to take. Naively unaware that they had, in reality, been robbed of the precious gems that they had been convinced to remove for “safe keeping.”

  

Angie, for the first time, but not the last, imagined in her mind, what the children’s wide eyed astonishment would be like, they opened that sleek little purse , only to find the handkerchief had vanished! . And what the couple snogging about in the woods would make of the missing gown and jewels.

  

Editors notes:

 

Even though Angie related this story as having occurred on the same afternoon ,the chronicler felt she was keeping something back. It was never discover what, if anything had been. The answer may lie in the events unfolded above. It may be worth re-reading the story to see if anyone can pick up on it.

 

Folle est l’agneau de la prune qui dans le loup avoue!

 

Silly is the plump lamb to whom in the wolf confesses

 

Our Thanks to Mr Gardner for pointing out the existence of Mr. Monescu’s 1826 guide

 

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Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives

 

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DISCLAIMER

 

All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents

 

The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.

 

No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.

 

These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

 

As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment and/or educational purposes only, and should never be attempted in real life.

 

We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.

 

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Join us in celebrating the Grand Opening of Gather Cowork! After an office blessing with Kahu Curt Kekuna, listen to live music in our stage area while you enjoy delicious food from PAI Honolulu, Olena Cafe, Scratch Kitchen, Sage Creamery, and Sushi on Wheels. Refreshments include cocktails, mocktails, soft drinks and more!

Paint the Moon week 12/52

Theme: Gather

Processed with Luminosity

 

blogged here

polaroid

Gather round, my good hearers, gather round for my tale.

A tale of a time long ago.

When heroes roamed over hill and dale,

Unflinching before every foe!

 

There once was a King, a wise old King,

Who rejoiced at the birth of his son,

And there once was a captain, a mean old thing,

Who couldn't wait 'til the King's life was done!

 

This Captain was jealous at the birth of the son,

He fumed and he growled through the hall,

This little baby boy was spoiling his fun,

He wanted to be King over all!

 

So he thought up a plot, a terrible plot,

And he waited for the next stormy night.

The clock struck midnight and he was on the spot;

He grabbed the young son and took flight!

 

The King's chagrin was quite frightening,

And the Queen could not be consoled,

Until one brave young knight came bursting in;

"I'll save him, despite dangers untold!"

 

The King let him go, and he eagerly pursued

The trail which the Captain had left.

He caught up with him in a terrible mood,

Of all human compassion bereft.

 

For there in a pot, over newly cut logs,

Lay the King's little son, his only heir,

And beyond it stood those vile dogs,

The Captain's henchmen, those two of a pair.

 

With a shout and a swirl the young knight attacked,

Waving his black sword in the air.

The Captain turned round and hacked and hacked -

Clanging filled the air.

 

"Hand over the Prince, or, you villain, you'll pay!"

Cried the knight, his sword clasped in his hands.

"Give him here, give him back, this very day,

Or I'll lay you low in history's sands!"

 

The Captain only scoffed and struck another blow,

But the young knight was prepared.

He parried the blow meant to lay him low,

With such force that the captain despaired.

 

With a mighty shout - "Die, you villain, you lout!"

The young knight drove deep his sword.

And the Captain, falling, just managed a shout,

Before he lay sprawling on the bloody red sward.

 

In triumph the knight sent the henchmen to rout,

And the babe he pulled out of the pot,

He gathered him up and turned right about,

And left to tell the King what good he had wrought.

 

The King and the Queen rejoiced that day,

And the young knight was made high in the land.

For the heir had returned and was back to stay,

And the King and his household would stand.

 

And that, my good hearers, that is my tale,

A tale of the days long ago,

Back when heroes roamed o'er hill and dale,

Unflinching before every foe!

 

I got the scroll idea and knew I just had to enter this category! Unfortunately I didn't have quite as many tan 2x1s as I had anticipated, so that put a cap on how big these could be, but I'm still pretty happy with how they ended up!

Sneaky peek for my partner. Hope you like it! I lined it with linen as well, and learned at the last minute that wasn't such a good idea. So, please forgive me for my not-so-perfect corners at the zipper ends because it is too bulky :(. Hope you like it anyway!

 

Adapted from the gathered clutch tutorial found here: noodleheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/gathered-clutch-tutorial...

A friendly Srilankese woman working in tea plantations, during her pause.

Just got around to taking some close up's of this years Halloween Build.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/legominifig/15490424789/

This is a photo of the finished art, of my latest drawing, and has the nearest-to-the-original color. The drawing was done in colored pencils on dirty gray illustration/matboard.

Pacific Fair Shopping Centre in Broadbeach,Gold Coast, Queensland Australia. August 2018.

 

The shopping centre has been done up since we were last here and it is amazing.

More accurate

Assemble sequence

Emphatic aggregate

 

ink drawing (detail)

….at Positve Faith, Stockwell.

@ 白沙灣海水浴場 Baisha Bay, Taipei, Taiwan

"Gather round children!" announced Guy, holding up a bottle of booze in his hand. "It's time for dinner!"

  

The laugh that came from Simon gained him a smack to the arm from Jessica, who also had a smile on her face. Guy currently stood in the dining room with a Santa hat on, shit faced drunk.

  

The hand of John reached for the hat, plucking it off his head as he rounded the corner with a tray of macaroni and cheese. "Still a month off, man," he sighed, walking to the table to place the tray.

  

Simon lifted himself from the couch, offering his hand to Jessica, who took it. "Thanksgiving never fails, huh?" he asked, causing her to giggle.

  

"The daily life of a superhero," she added, following him to the dining hall. Upon arriving, they both saw the plethora of dishes prepared by Lynn, John, and Hal, all skilled in the kitchen.

  

As Jessica sat down, Lynn called out to Simon, "Hey, Simon, mind getting Virgil and Richie?"

  

Simon gave a nod, turning to head back to the costume chamber. He found it odd for the Lantern Lair to have a chamber specified for costumes, especially when their costumes came from their rings. He didn't mind though, as the display of their suit replicas were very cool to look at.

  

Things were always an adventure on Thanksgiving. Every year Hal would offer everyone a meal at the Lantern Lair. Eventually, it became everyone's yearly tradition.

  

"I'm telling you man, a good lightning bolt would look sick," noted Richie from the room over. "It'll give you a more recognizable symbol than the clothing brand one you have."

  

"Yeah, but it's gotta be the right design, y'know?" replied Virgil, Simon seeing him with a pondering expression as he entered the room. "I don't wanna end up recognized for a shitty logo."

  

"I feel ya."

  

Virgil Hawkins, Static. He became the sidekick of Jefferson when he was affected by a genetic altering gas from Stagg Enterprises. Due to Guy and Jeff's own friendship, Virgil and Richie became good friends. Richie often acted as the "Support" for Virgil, helping him with designs and creative ideas of his powers.

  

"Alright Dynamic Duo," Simon announced, causing their heads to turn. "Dinner is all ready."

  

The two nod, closing the notebooks they held and joining Simon on the walk back. As they return, the seats at the table are near full. Hal sat at one of the table, on his left sat Guy. Next to Guy were two open seats, meant for Richie and Virgil, with Jeff, Lynn, and the baby seat that held Anissa following. John held the next seat, Todd and Jennifer Rice both sat next to him. It left Jessica sitting next to Jennifer, a seat open for him next to her and Hal.

  

Simon smiled as he moved to his seat, sitting back against the chair.

  

"So, everyone," spoke Hal, raising to a stand to gain everyone's attention, "I know that we've done this for a few years now, but this year has been… pretty chaotic to say the least."

  

Simon reminisced on the events that went down this year. Between an alien invasion, the formation of the Justice League, and Alan's sacrifice, the year had been one to remember.

  

"But while the year may have been filled to the brim, it also brought us new faces, ones that I'm glad are here," he continued, motioning to Richie, Virgil, and Jennifer. "I may sound a bit cheesey, but it was only 16 years ago when I got my ring. It… it's brought a lot of trouble for me… betrayal and heartbreak… but it also led me to meet each and every one of you."

  

Everyone smiled at that, holding up their glasses to match his, even baby Anissa holding up her sippy cup.

  

"To family," Hal announced, "and never having to fight alone."

  

With that, the group all took a drink, chatter beginning as food was passed around and eaten with joy.

  

Simon was thankful. No matter what he had lost, he had found something too. Something he'd never give up.

Extinction Rebellion supporters gathered in Hyde Park prior to a march across central London.

 

Never has the issue of climate change been more urgent. The most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, published on 4 April 2022, stated that drastic action was needed immediately in order to prevent a climate catastrophe that would mean millions becoming refugees and millions more suffering from malnutrition and famine.

 

This would require an immediate halt to any investment in or expansion of fossil fuel production. However, despite the stark warning, the UK government is determined to continue investment in North Sea oil and gas, seemingly dedicated to accelerating climate change..

 

Professor Jim Skea, co-chair of the working group at the IPCC responsible for determining the best measures for mitigating climate change, declared "It's now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.'

 

Realising that years of petitioning and protests had failed to persuade the British government of the need for immediate and profound measures to reduce emissions, Extinction Rebellion decided to launch a week of direct action across Britain. In London, this started on the weekend of 9 and 10 April, with climate change activists marching through central London, for two days of protests which included sit down blockades of Vauxhall and Lambeth bridges. On Lambeth Bridge a group of doctors and nurses refused to leave and were arrested by the police.

 

According to the group website Doctorsforxr.com, 'Doctors for Extinction Rebellion is a doctors' collective who, appreciating that climate change is an impending public health catastrophe, have decided to undertake civil disobedience with Extinction Rebellion.

  

here's a little diagram for those who have trouble with the end tabs of the zipper not turning out right. You won't be able to actually see the zipper (that dashed line through the middle), but it's there. The circled areas are where you want to make sure to not sew through the end tabs but right along next to them (again, they're not visible when you're sewing, you just have to feel for them). The red dotted line is the line where you're stitching.

Bee/Wasp on some Sarsparella flowers using the 150-600mm Sigma from about three meters away

© Stephen R. Mingle / Gonzo ®

 

Feeding Time on the Farm

The forecast thunderstorm gathers over the hills and hay fields... however it passed right over with not a drop of rain to be seen

On Friday 24 March, hundreds gathered in central London to protest the rolling out of a red carpet at Number 10 Downing Street for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

يوم الجمعة 24 مارس 2023 ، تجمع المئات في وسط لندن للاحتجاج على طرح السجادة الحمراء في رقم 10 داونينج ستريت لرئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو

 

ביום שישי ה-24 במרץ 2023, מאות התאספו במרכז לונדון במחאה על פריצת השטיח האדום ברחוב דאונינג מספר 10 עבור ראש ממשלת ישראל, בנימין נתניהו

 

Israeli liberals, angry at Netanyahu's attempt to crush the independence of the judiciary and protect himself from a corruption indictment, joined Palestinian and other activists infuriated by 56 years of Apartheid, since Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

 

Netanyahu is still on trial for corruption in three separate cases. In 2019 he had already been officially indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes and fraud, and, as a consequence, he lost the support of his coalition partners in parliament. However, last November, he returned to power in coalition with the ultra-orthodox and ultra nationalist factions, forming what almost commentators agree is the most right wing government Israel has witnessed since its independence in 1948.

 

Israel has been rocked by massive protests and strikes ever since Netanyahu's justice minister, Yariv Levin, revealed the government's plan to overhaul the country's justice system in January. Activists pointed out that its intent was clear. To weaken judicial independence and to shield Netanyahu from corruption charges.

 

Resistance to the government's proposals escalated even further two days after this photograph was taken when Netanyahu returned to Israel and fired his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Within an hour tens of thousands had taken to the streets in central Jerusalem and also surrounded Netanyahu's home.

 

Returning to Friday morning in London when this photo was taken, protesters waiting peacefully on the pavement opposite 10 Downing Street were doubtless surprised at the huge number of police, including dogs, deployed on Whitehall. Later, and despite heavy rain, around a hundred protesters made their way to the Savoy Hotel where Netanyahu was rumoured to be staying, where the police presence was far more low key.

 

Many activists carried placards such as "democracy and occupation cannot coexist" and "Free Palestine = Free Israel." They pointed out that Palestinians live in what both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded is an Apartheid state, many without any access to clean water or electricity, many fearing the demolition of their homes and others the detention for lengthy periods of their relatives and children for protesting the continuing occupation. Meanwhile, Britain's ongoing military and diplomatic support for Israel make us complicit in the continued oppression of the Palestinian people.

 

Where Do Mermaids Come From?

Where do mermaids come from? Mermaid legends are told all over the world. We hear of mermaids in Ireland, Scotland, England, Israel, India, Greece, Syria, China, and in Africa. How is it that so many different cultures across the world have their own mermaid legends? How is it that cultures far away from one another have similar tales of mermaids? Most people believe mermaids are mythical creatures fit for a kid’s imagination and nothing more. But legends come from somewhere. Truth lies behind every legend, including the legends of mermaids and where they come from. A new age concept tells us mermaid origins come from lost civilizations like Lemuria and Atlantis. Learn more below.

 

Edgar Cayce on Atlantis I

364-1

2. Atlantis as a continent is a legendary tale. Whether or not that which has been received through psychic sources has for its basis those few lines given by Plato, or the references made in Holy writ that the earth was divided, depends upon the trend of individual minds. Recently, however, the subject has taken on greater import, since some scientists have declared that such a continent was not only a reasonable and plausible matter, but from evidences being gradually gathered was a very probable condition.

3. As we recognize, there has been considerable given respecting such a lost continent by those channels such as the writer of Two Planets, or Atlantis - or Poseida and Lemuria - that has been published through some of the Theosophical literature. As to whether this information is true or not, depends upon the credence individuals give to this class of information.

4. Then, it has seemed well to many of this group, that those channels through which information may be obtained interest themselves in such an undertaking, as to gain through those channels such information that might be applicable in the lives or experiences of individuals interested in such.

5. From time to time, in and through the information obtained for some individuals in their life readings, has come that they, as an entity or individual, occupied some particular place, or performed some activity in some portion of that continent; or emigrated from the continent to some other portion of the earth's surface at the time, and began some particular development. These must have been a busy folk, for with their advent into other climes (as the information runs) they began to make many changes from the activities in that particular sphere in which they entered.

6. Then, if we are to accept such as being a fact or fiction, may truly depend upon what value to the human family knowledge concerning such a peoples would be in the affairs of individuals today. What contribution would information be to the minds of individuals, as to knowing or understanding the better or closer relations to the Creative Forces? Or, to put it another manner, what would information of that nature mean to my SOUL today?

7. Be it true that there IS the fact of reincarnation, and that souls that once occupied such an environ are entering the earth's sphere and inhabiting individuals in the present, is it any wonder that - if they made such alterations in the affairs of the earth in their day, as to bring destruction upon themselves - if they are entering now, they might make many changes in the affairs of peoples and individuals in the present? Are they, then, BEING born into the world? If so, what WERE their environs - and will those environs mean in a material world today?

 

364-3

1. EC: Yes, we have the subject and those conditions. As has been said, much data has been received from time to time through psychic forces as respecting conditions in or through the period, or ages, of this continent's existence. That the continent existed is being proven as a fact.

2. Then, what took place during the period, or periods, when it was being broken up? What became of the inhabitants? What was the character of their civilization? Are there any evidences of those, or any portion of, the inhabitants' escape? The POSITION of the continent, and the like, MUST be of interest to peoples in the present day, if either by inference that individuals are being born into the earth plane to develop in the present, or are people being guided in their spiritual interpretation of individuals' lives or developments BY the spirits of those who inhabited such a continent. In either case, if these be true, they ARE WIELDING - and are to wield - an influence upon the happenings of the present day world.

3. The position as the continent Atlantis occupied, is that as between the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand - and the Mediterranean upon the other. Evidences of this lost civilization are to be found in the Pyrenees and Morocco on the one hand, British Honduras, Yucatan and America upon the other. There are some protruding portions within this that must have at one time or another been a portion of this great continent. The British West Indies or the Bahamas, and a portion of same that may be seen in the present - if the geological survey would be made in some of these - especially, or notably, in Bimini and in the Gulf Stream through this vicinity, these may be even yet determined.

4. What, then, are the character of the peoples? To give any proper conception, may we follow the line of a group, or an individual line, through this continent's existence - and gain from same something of their character, their physiognomy, and their spiritual and physical development.

5. In the period, then - some hundred, some ninety-eight thousand years before the entry of Ram into India [See 364-3, Par. R2] - there lived in this land of Atlantis one Amilius [?], who had first NOTED that of the separations of the beings as inhabited that portion of the earth's sphere or plane of those peoples into male and female as separate entities, or individuals. As to their forms in the physical sense, these were much RATHER of the nature of THOUGHT FORMS, or able to push out OF THEMSELVES in that direction in which its development took shape in thought - much in the way and manner as the amoeba would in the waters of a stagnant bay, or lake, in the present. As these took form, by the gratifying of their own desire for that as builded or added to the material conditions, they became hardened or set - much in the form of the existent human body of the day, with that of color as partook of its surroundings much in the manner as the chameleon in the present. Hence coming into that form as the red, or the mixture peoples - or colors; known then later by the associations as the RED race. These, then, able to use IN their gradual development all the forces as were manifest in their individual surroundings, passing through those periods of developments as has been followed more closely in that of the yellow, the black, or the white races, in other portions of the world; yet with their immediate surroundings, with the facilities for the developments, these became much speedier in this particular portion of the globe than in others - and while the destruction of this continent and the peoples are far beyond any of that as has been kept as an absolute record, that record in the rocks still remains - as has that influence OF those peoples in that life of those peoples to whom those that did escape during the periods of destruction make or influence the lives of those peoples TO whom they came. As they MAY in the present, either through the direct influence of being regenerated, or re-incarnated into the earth, or through that of the MENTAL application on through the influences as may be had upon thought OF individuals or groups by speaking from that environ.

6. In the MANNER of living, in the manner of the moral, of the social, of the religious life of these peoples: There, classes existed much in the same order as existed among others; yet the like of the warlike INFLUENCE did NOT exist in the peoples - AS a people - as it did in the OTHER portions of the universe.

 

364-4

2. EC: Yes, we have the subject here, The Lost Continent of Atlantis.

3. As the peoples were a peaceful peoples, their developments took on rather that form - with the developing into the physical material bodies - of the fast development, or to the using of the elements about them to their own use; recognizing themselves to be a part OF that about them. Hence, as to the supplying of that as necessary to sustain physical life as known today, in apparel, or supplying of the bodily needs, these were supplied through the natural elements; and the DEVELOPMENTS came rather in the forms - as would be termed in the PRESENT day - of preparing for those things that would pertain to what would be termed the aerial age, or the electrical age, and supplying then the modes and manners of transposition of those materials about same that did not pertain to themselves bodily; for of themselves was transposed, rather by that ability lying within each to be transposed in thought as in body.

4. In these things, then, did Amilius [?] see the beginning of, and the abilities of, those of his own age, era, or period, not only able to build that as able to transpose or build up the elements about them but to transpose them bodily from one portion of the universe to the other, THROUGH the uses of not only those RECENTLY re-discovered gases, and those of the electrical and aeriatic formations - in the breaking up of the atomic forces to produce impelling force to those means and modes of transposition, or of travel, or of lifting large weights, or of changing the faces or forces of nature itself, but with these transpositions, with these changes that came in as personalities, we find these as the Sons of the Creative Force as manifest in their experience looking upon those changed forms, or the daughters of men, and there crept in those pollutions, of polluting themselves with those mixtures that brought contempt, hatred, bloodshed, and those that build for desires of self WITHOUT respects of OTHERS' freedom, others' wishes - and there began, then, in the latter portion of this period of development, that that brought about those of dissenting and divisions among the peoples in the lands. With the attempts of those still in power, through those lineages of the pure, that had kept themselves intact as of the abilities of forces as were manifest IN their activities, these BUILDED rather those things that ATTEMPTED to draw BACK those peoples; through first the various changes or seasons that came about, and in the latter portion of the experience of Amilius [?] was the first establishing of the altars upon which the sacrifices of the field and the forest, and those that were of that that SATISFIED the desires of the physical body, were builded.

5. Then, with the coming in or the raising up of Esai [?], with the change that had come about, began in that period when there were the invasions of this continent by those of the animal kingdoms, that brought about that meeting of the nations of the globe to PREPARE a way and manner of disposing of, else they be disposed of themselves by these forces. With this coming in, there came then the first of the destructive forces as could be set and then be meted out in its force or power. Hence that as is termed, or its first beginning of, EXPLOSIVES that might be carried about, came with this reign, or this period, when MAN - or MEN, then - began to cope with those of the beast form that OVERRAN the earth in many places. Then, with these destructive forces, we find the first turning of the altar fires into that of sacrifice of those that were taken in the various ways, and human sacrifice began. With this also came the first egress of peoples to that of the Pyrenees first, OF which later we find that peoples who enter into the black or the mixed peoples, in what later became the Egyptian dynasty. We also find that entering into Og, or those peoples that later became the beginning of the Inca, or Ohum [Aymara'?], that builded the walls across the mountains in this period, through those same usages of that as had been taken on by those peoples; and with the same, those that made for that in the other land, became first those of the mound dwellers, or peoples in that land. With the continued disregard of those that were keeping the pure race and the pure peoples, of those that were to bring all these laws as applicable to the Sons of God, man brought in the destructive forces as used for the peoples that were to be the rule, that combined with those natural resources of the gases, of the electrical forces, made in nature and natural form the first of the eruptions that awoke from the depth of the slow cooling earth, and that portion now near what would be termed the Sargasso Sea first went into the depths. With this there again came that egress of peoples that aided, or attempted to assume control, yet carrying with them ALL those forms of Amilius [?] that he gained through that as for signs, for seasons, for days, for years. Hence we find in those various portions of the world even in the present day, some form of that as WAS presented by those peoples in THAT great DEVELOPMENT in this, the Eden of the world.

6. In the latter portion of same we find as CITIES were builded more and more rare became those abilities to call upon rather the forces in nature to supply the needs for those of bodily adornment, or those of the needs to supply the replenishing of the wasting away of the physical being; or hunger arose, and with the determinations to set again in motion, we find there - then Ani [?] [See the name ANI mentioned on pp. 6, 57, 187 and 324 of the book, MYTHS & LEGENDS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, by Lewis Spence.] [GD's note: I put a question mark because I didn't know whether this was the correct spelling or not.], in those latter periods, ten thousand seven hundred (10,700) years before the Prince of Peace came - again was the bringing into forces that to TEMPT, as it were, nature - in its storehouse - of replenishing the things - that of the WASTING away in the mountains, then into the valleys, then into the sea itself, and the fast disintegration of the lands, as well as of the peoples - save those that had escaped into those distant lands.

7. How, then, may this be applicable to our present day understanding? As we see the effects as builded in that about the sacred fires, as through those of Hermes, those of Arart, those of the Aztec, those of Ohum [Aymara'?], each in their respective sphere CARRYING some portion of these blessings - when they are kept in accord and PURE with those through which the channels of the blessings, of the Creative Forces, may manifest. So, we find, when we apply the lessons in the day - would ye be true, keep that EVERY WHIT thou KNOWEST to do within thine own heart! Knowing, as ye USE that as is KNOWN, there is given the more and more light to know from whence ye came and whither ye go!

8. Ready for questions.

9. (Q) Please give a description of the earth's surface as it existed at the time of Atlantis' highest civilization, using the names of continents, oceans and sections of same as we know them today?

(A) As to the highest point of civilization, this would first have to be determined according to the standard as to which it would be judged - as to whether the highest point was when Amilius [?] ruled with those understandings, as the one that understood the variations, or whether they became man made, would depend upon whether we are viewing from a spiritual standpoint or upon that as a purely material or commercial standpoint; for the variations, as we find, extend over a period of some two hundred thousand years (200,000) - that is, as light years - as known in the present - and that there were MANY changes in the surface of what is now called the earth. In the first, or greater portion, we find that NOW known as the southern portions of South America and the Arctic or North Arctic regions, while those in what is NOW as Siberia - or that as of Hudson Bay - was rather in that region of the tropics, or that position now occupied by near what would be as the same LINE would run, of the southern Pacific, or central Pacific regions - and about the same way. Then we find, with this change that came first in that portion, when the first of those peoples used that as prepared FOR the changes in the earth, we stood near the same position as the earth occupies in the present - as to Capricorn, or the equator, or the poles. Then, with that portion, THEN the South Pacific, or Lemuria [?], began its disappearance - even before Atlantis, for the changes were brought about in the latter portion of that period, or what would be termed ten thousand seven hundred (10,700) light years, or earth years, or present setting of those, as set by Amilius [?] - or Adam.

 

364-5

2. EC: Yes, we have the information as given respecting the continent Atlantis. In the considerations that may be had concerning such information, many are the questions that must naturally arise in the minds of individuals who would consider same in any way or manner. However, will a very close check be kept upon those who evince an interest, these will be found to be those who occupy in the present some influence innate or manifested from their experience or sojourn under or in that environ. As has been given, this would be well to do; for to the analytical or to the research character of mind, there will be little that may escape the attention of such a mind - when spiritual or psychic, or occult, or those kindred subjects are approached - as to how quick there is the desire, that expression of "I know it, but don't know how to tell it, will be in that individual's or entity's feeling, and expression - when one may be obtained at all. They will immediately become the dreamer! Try this!

3. Ready for questions.

4. (Q) Explain the information given regarding Amilius [?], who first noted the separation of the peoples into male and female, as it relates to the story in the Bible of Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden giving the name of the symbols Adam, Eve, the apple, and the serpent.

(A) This would require a whole period of a lecture period for this alone; for, as is seen, that as is given is the presentation of a teacher of a peoples that separated for that definite purpose of keeping alive in the minds, the hearts, the SOUL minds of entities, that there may be seen their closer relationship to the divine influences of Creative Forces, that brought into being all that appertains to man's indwelling as man in the form of flesh in this material world. These are presented in symbols of that thought as held by those peoples from whom the physical recorder took those records as compiled, with that gained by himself in and through the entering into that state where the entity's soul mind drew upon the records that are made by the passing of time itself in a material world. As given, these are records not only of the nature as has been termed or called akashic records (that is, of a mental or soul record), but that in a more material nature as set down in stone, that was attempted to be done - HAS been attempted to be done throughout ALL time! WHY does man NOW set in stone those that are representatives of that desired to be kept in mind by those making records for future generations? There are many more materials more lasting, as is known to many.

In the records, then, as this: There are, as seen, the records made by the man in the mount, that this Amilius [?] - Adam, as given - first discerned that from himself, not of the beasts about him, could be drawn - WAS drawn - that which made for the propagation OF beings IN the flesh, that made for that companionship as seen by creation in the material worlds about same. The story, the tale (if chosen to be called such), is one and the same. The apple, as 'the apple of the eye', the desire of that companionship innate in that created, as innate in the Creator, that brought companionship into the creation itself. Get that one!

In this there comes, then, that which is set before that created - or having TAKEN ON that form, able of projecting itself in WHATEVER direction it chose to take, as given; able to make itself OF that environ, in color, in harmony, in WHATEVER source that makes for the spirit of that man would attempt to project in music, in art, in ANY form that may even be conceivable to the mind itself in what may be termed its most lucid moments, in its most esoteric moments, in its highest animation moments; for were He not the SON of the living God made manifest, that He might be the companion in a made world, in material manifested things, with the injunction to subdue all, BRING all in the material things under subjection - all UNDER subjection - by that ability to project itself IN its way? KNOWING itself, as given, to be a portion OF the whole, in, through, of, by the whole? In this desire, then, keep - as the injunction was - thine self separate: OF that seen, but NOT that seen. The apple, then, that desire for that which made for the associations that bring carnal-minded influences of that brought as sex influence, known in a material world, and the partaking of same is that which brought the influence in the lives of that in the symbol of the serpent, that made for that which creates the desire that may be only satisfied in gratification of carnal forces, as partake of the world and its influences about same - rather than of the spiritual emanations from which it has its source. Will control - inability of will control, if we may put it in common parlance.

 

364-6

1. GC: You will have before you the material and information given through this channel on the lost continent of Atlantis, a copy of which I hold in my hand. You will answer the questions which I will ask regarding this:

2. EC: Yes, we have the information as written here, as given. In following out that as just given, with these changes coming in the experience of Amilius [?] and I [Ai? Ay?], Adam and Eve, the knowledge of their position, or that as is known in the material world today as desires and physical bodily charms, the understanding of sex, sex relationships, came into the experience. With these came the natural fear of that as had been forbidden, that they know themselves to be a part of but not OF that as partook of EARTHLY, or the desires in the manner as were ABOUT them, in that as had been their heritage.

3. Were this turned to that period when this desire, then, becomes consecrated in that accomplished again in the virgin body of the mother of the SON of man, we see this is then crystallized into that, that even that of the flesh may be - with the proper concept, proper desire in all its purity - consecrated to the LIVING forces as manifest by the ability in that body so brought into being, as to make a way of escape for the ERRING man. Hence we have found throughout the ages, so oft the times when conception of truth became rampant with free-love, with the desecration of those things that brought to these in the beginning that of the KNOWLEDGE of their existence, as to that that may be termed - and betimes became - the MORAL, or morality OF a people. Yet this same feeling, this same exaltation that comes from association of kindred bodies - that have their lives consecrated in a purposefulness, that makes for the ability of retaining those of the essence of creation in every virile body - can be made to become the fires that light truth, love, hope, patience, peace, harmony; for they are EVER the key to those influences that fire the imaginations of those that are gifted in ANY form of depicting the high emotions of human experience, whether it be in the one or the other fields, and hence is judged by those that may not be able, or through desire submit themselves - as did Amilius [?] and I [?] to those ELEMENTS, through the forces in the life as about them.

7. (Q) How large was Atlantis during the time of Amilius?

(A) Comparison, that of Europe including Asia in Europe - not Asia, but Asia in Europe - see? This composed, as seen, in or after the first of the destructions, that which would be termed now - with the present position - the southernmost portion of same - islands as created by those of the first (as man would call) volcanic or eruptive forces brought into play in the destruction of same.

8. (Q) Was Atlantis one large continent, or a group of large islands?

(A) Would it not be well to read just that given? Why confuse in the questionings? As has been given, what would be considered one large continent, until the first eruptions brought those changes - from what would now, with the present position of the earth in its rotation, or movements about its sun, through space, about Arcturus, about the Pleiades, that of a whole or one continent. Then with the breaking up, producing more of the nature of large islands, with the intervening canals or ravines, gulfs, bays or streams, as came from the various ELEMENTAL forces that were set in motion by this CHARGING - as it were - OF the forces that were collected as the basis for those elements that would produce destructive forces, as might be placed in various quarters or gathering places of those beasts, or the periods when the larger animals roved the earth - WITH that period of man's indwelling. Let it be remembered, or not confused, that the EARTH was peopled by ANIMALS before peopled by man! First that of a mass, which there arose the mist, and then the rising of same with light breaking OVER that as it SETTLED itself, as a companion of those in the universe, as it began its NATURAL (or now natural) rotations, with the varied effects UPON the various portions of same, as it slowly - and is slowly - receding or gathering closer to the sun, from which it receives its impetus for the awakening of the elements that give life itself, by radiation of like elements from that which it receives from the sun. Hence that of one type, that has been through the ages, of mind - that gives the SUN as the father OF light in the earth. Elements have their attraction and detraction, or those of ANIMOSITY and those of gathering together. This we see throughout all of the kingdoms, as may be termed, whether we speak of the heavenly hosts or of those of the stars, or of the planets, or of the various forces within any or all of same, they have their attraction or detraction. The attraction increases that as gives an impulse, that that becomes the aid, the stimuli, or an impulse to create. Hence, as may be seen - or may be brought to man's own - that of attraction one for another gives that STIMULI, that IMPULSE, to be the criterion of, or the gratification of, those influences in the experience of individuals or entities. To smother same oft becomes deteriorations for each other, as may come about in any form, way or manner. Accidents happen in creation, as well as in individuals' lives! Peculiar statement here, but - true!

9. (Q) What were the principal islands called at the time of the final destruction?

(A) Poseidia and Aryan [?], and Og [?].

10. (Q) Describe one of the ships of the air that was used during the highest period of mechanical development in Atlantis.

(A) Much of the nature, in the EARLIER portion, as would be were the hide of MANY of the pachyderm, or elephants, many into the CONTAINERS for the gases that were used as both lifting and for the impelling of the crafts about the various portions of the continent, and even abroad. These, as may be seen, took on those abilities not only to pass through that called air, or that heavier, but through that of water - when they received the impetus from the NECESSITIES of the peoples in that particular period, for the safety of self. The shape and form, then, in the earlier portion, depended upon which or what skins were used for the containers. The metals that were used as the braces, these were the COMBINATIONS then of what is NOW a lost art - the TEMPERED brass, the temperament of that as becomes between aluminum (as now called) and that of uranium, with those of the fluxes that are from those of the COMBINED elements of the iron, that is carbonized with those of other fluxes - see? These made for lightness of structure, non-conductor OR conductors of the electrical forces - that were used for the IMPELLING of same, rather than the gases - which were used as the lifting. See? For that as in the NATURE'S forces may be turned into even the forces OF that that makes life, as given, from the sun rays to those elements that make for, or find CORRESPONDING reaction in their APPLICATION of same, or reflection of same, TO the rays itself - or a different or changed form of storage of FORCE, as called electrical in the present.

11. We are through for the present.

 

364-7

3. (Q) How is the legend of Lilith connected with the period of Amilius?

(A) In the beginning, as was outlined, there was presented that that became as the Sons of God, in that male and female were as one, with those abilities for those changes as were able or capable of being brought about. In the changes that came from those THINGS, as were of the projections of the abilities of those entities to project, this as a being came as the companion; and when there was that turning to the within, through the sources of creation, as to make for the helpmeet of that as created by the first cause, or of the Creative Forces that brought into being that as was made, THEN - from out of self - was brought that as was to be the helpmeet, NOT just companion of the body. Hence the legend of the associations of the body during that period before there was brought into being the last of the creations, which was not of that that was NOT made, but the first of that that WAS made, and a helpmeet to the body, that there might be no change in the relationship of the SONS of God WITH those relationships of the sons and daughters of men.

In this then, also comes that as is held by many who have reached especially to that understanding of how NECESSARY, then, becomes the PROPER mating of those souls that may be the ANSWERS one to another of that that may bring, through that association, that companionship, into being that that may be the more helpful, more sustaining, more the well- ROUNDED life or experience of those that are a PORTION one of another. Do not misinterpret, but knowing that all are OF one - yet there are those divisions that make for a CLOSER union, when there are the proper relationships brought about. As an illustration, in this:

In the material world we find there is in the mineral kingdom those elements that are of the nature as to form a closer union one with another, and make as for compounds as make for elements that act more in unison with, or against, other forms of activity in the experience in the earth's environ, or the earth's force, as makes for those active forces in the ELEMENTS that are ABOUT the earth. Such as we may find in those that make for the active forces in that of uranium, and that of ultramarine, and these make then for an element that becomes the more active force as with the abilities for the rates of emanation as may be thrown off from same. So, as illustrated in the union, then, of - in the PHYSICAL compounds - that as may vibrate, or make for emanations in the activities of their mental and spiritual, and material, or physical forces, as may make for a GREATER activity in this earth environ. Then, there may be seen that as is in an elemental, or compound, that makes for that as is seen in the material experience as to become an antipathy for other elements that are as equally necessary in the experience of man's environ as in the combination of gases as may produce whenever combined that called water, and its antipathy for the elements in combustion is easily seen or known in man's experience.

So in those unions of that in the elemental forces of creative energies that take on the form of man, either in that of man or woman, with its NATURAL or ELEMENTAL, see? ELEMENTAL forces of its vibration, with the union of two that vibrate or respond to those vibrations in self, create for that ideal that becomes as that, in that created, in the form - as is known as radium, with its fast emittal vibrations, that brings for active forces, principles, that makes for such atomic forces within the active principles of all nature in its active force as to be one of the elemental bases from which life in its essence, as an active principle in a material world, has its sources, give off that which is EVER good - unless abused, see? So in that may there be basis for THOSE forces, as HAS been, as IS sought, thought, or ATTAINED BY those who have, through the abilities of the vibrations, to make for a continued force in self as to meet, know, see, feel, understand, those sources from which such begets that of its kind, or as those that become as an antipathy for another, or as makes for those that makes for the variations in the tempering of the various elements, compounds, or the like; so, as is seen, THESE - then - the BASIS for those things as has been given here, there, in their various ways and manners, as to the companion of, and COMPANIONS of, that that first able - through its projection of itself and its abilities in the creation - to bring about that that was either of its OWN making, or creation, or that given in the beginning to BE the force THROUGH which there might BE that that would bring ever blessings, good, right, and love, in even the physical or material world. See?

4. (Q) How long did it take for the division into male and female?

(A) That depends upon which, or what branch or LINE is considered. When there was brought into being that as of the projection of that created BY that created, this took a period of evolutionary - or, as would be in the present year, fourscore and six year. That as brought into being as was of the creating OF that that became a portion of, OF that that was already created by the CREATOR, THAT brought into being as WERE those of the forces of nature itself. God said, "Let there be light" and there WAS light! God said, "Let there be life" and there WAS life!

5. (Q) Were the thought forms that were able to push themselves out of themselves inhabited by souls, or were they of the animal kingdom?

(A) That as created by that CREATED, of the animal kingdom. That created as by the Creator, with the soul.

6. (Q) What was meant by the Sons of the Highest in Atlantis and the second coming of souls to the earth, as mentioned in a life reading given thru this channel? [See 2802-1 on 5/18/25.]

(A) In this period or age, as was seen - There is fault of words here to PROJECT that as actually OCCURS in the FORMATIONS of that as comes about! There was, with the WILL of that as came into being through the correct channels, of that as created by the Creator, that of the CONTINUING of the souls in its projection and projection - see? while in that as was OF the offspring, of that as pushed itself INTO form to SATISFY, GRATIFY, that of the desire of that known as carnal forces of the SENSES, of those created, there continued to be the war one with another, and there were then - FROM the other SOURCES (worlds) the continuing entering of those that WOULD make for the keeping of the balance, as of the first purpose of the Creative Forces, as it magnifies itself in that given sphere of activity, of that that had been GIVEN the ABILITY to CREATE with its OWN activity - see? and hence the second, or the CONTINUED entering of souls into that known as the earth's plane during this period, for that activity as was brought about. Let's REMEMBER that as was given, in the second, third from Adam, or fourth, or from Amilius, there was "In that day did they CALL UPON the NAME of the Lord" - is right! and ever, when the elements that make for littleness, uncleanness, are crucified in the body, the SPIRIT of the Lord, of God, is present! When these are overbalanced, so that the body (physical), the mental man, the imagination of its heart, is evil, or his purpose is evil, then is that war continuing - as from the beginning. Just the continued warring of those things within self as from the beginning; for with these changes as brought SIN into the world, with same came the FRUITS of same, or the seed as of sin, which we see in the material world as those things that corrupt good ground, those that corrupt the elements that are of the compounds of those of the first causes, or elementals, and pests are seen - and the like, see? So does it follow throughout all creative forces, that the fruits of that as is active brings that seed that makes for the corrupting of, or the clearing of, in the activative forces of, that BEING acted upon.

7. (Q) What was meant by "As in the first Adam sin entered, so in the last Adam all shall be made alive?"

(A) Adam's entry into the world in the beginning, then, must become the savior OF the world, as it was committed to his care, "Be thou fruitful, multiply, and SUBDUE the earth!" Hence Amilius, Adam, the first Adam, the last Adam, becomes - then - that that is GIVEN the POWER OVER the earth, and - as in each soul the first to be conquered is self - then ALL THINGS, conditions and elements, are subject unto that self!

That a universal law, as may be seen in that as may be demonstrated either in gases that destroy one another by becoming elements of the same, or that in the mineral or the animal kingdom as may be found that destroy, or BECOME one WITH the other. Hence, as Adam given - the SON of God - so he MUST become that that would be able to take the world, the earth, back to that source from which it came, and ALL POWER is given in his keeping in the earth, that he has overcome; self, death, hell and the grave even, become subservient unto Him THROUGH the conquering of self in that made flesh; for, as in the beginning was the word, the Word WAS with God, the Word WAS God, the same was IN the beginning. The Word came and dwelt among men, the offspring of self in a material world, and the Word OVERCAME the world - and hence the world BECOMES, then, as the servant of that that overcame the world!

8. (Q) Please give the important re-incarnations of Adam in the world's history.

(A) In the beginning as Amilius, as Adam, as Melchizedek, as Zend [?], as Ur [?] [Enoch? GD's note: Perhaps Ur was prehistory person [364-9, Par. 3-A] who established Ur of the Chaldees? I don't think he was mentioned anywhere else in the readings as an incarnation of Jesus.], as Asaph [?] [Songs of Asaph? See Ps. 81:5 indicating that Joseph and Asaph were one and the same?], as Jesus [Jeshua] - Joseph - Jesus. [See 364-9, Par. 3-A.]

Then, as that coming into the world in the second coming - for He will come again and receive His own, who have prepared themselves through that belief in Him and acting in that manner; for the SPIRIT is abroad, and the time draws near, and there will be the reckoning of those even as in the first so in the last, and the last shall be first; for there is that Spirit abroad - He standeth near. He that hath eyes to see, let him see. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear that music of the coming of the Lord of this vineyard, and art THOU ready to give account of that THOU hast done with thine opportunity in the earth as the Sons of God, as the heirs and joint heirs of glory WITH the Son? Then make thine paths straight, for there must come an answering for that THOU hast done with thine Lord! He will not tarry, for having overcome He shall appear even AS the Lord AND Master. Not as one born, but as one that returneth to His own, for He will walk and talk with men of every clime, and those that are faithful and just in their reckoning shall be caught up with Him to rule and to do JUDGEMENT for a thousand years!

9. (Q) Describe some of the mental abilities that were developed by the Atlanteans at the time of their greatest spiritual development.

(A) Impossible to describe achievements physical in their spiritual development. The use of MATERIAL conditions and spiritual attributes in a material world would, and do, become that as are the miracles of the Son in the material world; for even as with Him in - and as He walked, whether in Galilee, in Egypt, in India, in France, in England, or America - there WERE those periods when the activities of the physical were as was what would be termed the everyday life of the SONS of God in the Atlantean or Eden experience; for as those brought the various changes from the highest of the SPIRITUAL development to the highest of the mental, then of the MATERIAL or physical developments, then the fall - see?

 

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Edgar Cayce on Atlantis II

364-10

1. GC: You will have before you the information given through this channel on the lost continent of Atlantis. You will please continue with this information, and answer the questions which I will ask regarding same.

2. EC: Yes. In understanding, then, in the present terminology, occult science, or psychic science - as seen, this was the natural or nature's activity in that experience, and not termed a science - any more than would be the desire for food by a new born babe. Rather the natural consequence. This explanation may of necessity take on some forms that may possibly be confusing at times, but illustrations may be made through the various types of occult science, or psychic manifestations, that may clarify for the student something of the various types of psychic manifestations in the present, as well as that that was natural in this period.

3. There is, as has been oft given, quite a difference - and much differentiation should be made - in mysticism and psychic, or occult science as termed today.

4. From that which has been given, it is seen that individuals in the beginning were more of thought forms than individual entities with personalities as seen in the present, and their projections into the realms of fields of thought that pertain to a developing or evolving world of matter, with the varied presentations about same, of the expressions or attributes in the various things about the entity or individual, or body, through which such science - as termed now, or such phenomena as would be termed - became manifest. Hence we find occult or psychic science, as would be called at the present, was rather the natural state of man in the beginning. Very much as (in illustration) when a baby, or babe, is born into the world and its appetite is first satisfied, and it lies sleeping. Of what is its dreams? That it expects to be, or that it has been? Of what are thoughts? That which is to be, or that which has been, or that which is? Now remember we are speaking - these were thought forms, and we are finding again the illustrations of same!

5. When the mental body (Now revert back to what you are calling science) - when the mental body, or mind, has had training, or has gone through a course of operations in certain directions, such individuals are called so-and-so minded; as one of an inventive turn, and trained; one of a statistician turn, and trained; one of a theologian turn, and trained; one of philosophical turn, and trained. Of what does the mind build? We have turned, then, to that that has become very material, for the mind constantly trained makes for itself MENTAL pictures, or makes for that as is reasoned with from its own present dimensional viewpoints - but the babe, from whence its reasoning? from whence its dream? From that that has been taken in, or that that has been its experience from whence it came? Oft has it been said, and rightly, with a babe's smile 'Dreaming of angels', and close in touch with them - but what has PRODUCED that dream? The contact with that upon which IT has fed! Don't forget our premise now from which we are reasoning! and we will find that we will have the premise from which those individuals, or the entities, reasoned within the beginning in this land. (We are speaking of Atlanteans, when they became as thought forces.) From whence did THEY reason? From the Creative Forces from which they had received their impetus, but acted upon by the thought FORMS as were in MATERIAL forms about them, and given that power (will) to be one WITH that from what it sprang or was given its impetus, or force, yet with the ability to USE that in the way that seemed, or seemeth, good or well, or pleasing, unto itself. Hence we find in this particular moulding or mouldive stage, that in which there was the greater development of, and use of, that as is termed or called psychic and occult forces, or science - in the present terminology, or age.

6. Illustrating, then, that as to how this was used by those entities, those beings, in the formative stage of their experience or sojourn among that as had been created in all of its splendor to supply every want or desire that might be called forth by that being, with all of its attributes physical, mental AND SPIRITUAL at hand; for, as has been given, even unto the four hundred thousandth generation from the first creation was it prepared for man's indwelling. As we today (turn to today), we find there the developments of those resources. How long have they remained? Since the beginning! How long has man been able to use them for his undoing, or his pleasure, or for his regeneration? Since the knowledge of some source has awakened within its psychic force, or source, of the apparatus, or the form that it takes, either in a physical or mental (for remember, Mind is the Builder - and it moves along those channels through which, and by which, it may bring into existence in whatever dimension or sphere from which it is reasoning, or reasoning toward - see) - and as these may be illustrated in the present:

7. When there is a manifestation of a psychic force, or an occult action, or phenomena, or activity in, upon, of or for, an individual, there is then the rolling back, as it were, or a portion of the physical consciousness - or that mental trained individual consciousness - has been rolled aside, or rolled back, and there is then a visioning - To what? That as from the beginning, a projection OF that form that assumed its position or condition in the earth as from the beginning, and with those so endowed with that as may be called an insight into psychic sources there may be visioned about a body its astral (if chosen to be termed), rather its THOUGHT body, as is projected FROM same in such a state; especially so when there is the induction, or the inducing of, an unconsciousness of the normal brain, or normal mental body. Submerged - into what? Into the unconscious, or subconscious. Sub, in THIS instance, meaning BELOW - not above normal; below - SUBJECTED to the higher consciousness, or to the higher thought, that has been builded - just as sure as has a physical body been builded, from what?

That as has been given from its first nucleus as passed through in its experience. Then there may be visioned by such a body, as may be called with the second sight, or with a vision, that accompanying thought body of such an one, manifesting in much the way and manner as individuals in the Atlantean period of psychic and occult development brought about in their experience. Through such projections there came about that first necessity of the division of the body, to conform to those necessities of that as seen in its own mental vision as builded (MENTAL now - Don't confuse these terms, or else you will become VERY confused in what is being given!).

8. The mental vision by its action upon what body is being builded? On the mental body of the individual in a material world, out of Spirit, out of the ability to have all the attributes of the spiritual or unseen forces - but MATERIALIZED forces, as is necessary from the mental body in a material world MENTALLY trained to, or in, certain directions, or given directions, or following the natural bent of its threefold or threeply body, as is seen in every individual or every entity. As these projected themselves, then we find these DEVELOPMENTS were in this portion of the development in the Atlantean period. How were these used? In much as were from the beginning. Remember there was ever the instruction to those peoples that were to hold to that that would bring for the spiritual forces, rather than the abuses of the abilities - as those with familiar spirits, as those that spoke to or partook of the divinations of those that had passed from the earth's plane, or those that partook of the animal magnetism - that came from the universal consciousness of animal matter as passed into its experience, in its interchange through those periods of integration and disintegration - and the spirit forces possessing those that would lay themselves open to such conditions, for these are as real as physical bodies if the attunements of the entity are such that it may vision them! and they are about you always, sure! These, then, are entities - sure; whether animal or those endowed with the soul - until they pass through those changes - as there ever has been, see? Also there are those that ever make for those channels in the psychic and occult (we are speaking of, through which man - as it reached that stage, or that position that it became farther and farther from its natural sources, through the same CHARACTER of channel may it communicate with that from which it is a portion of, or the Creative Forces), and hence the terminology arose as 'Good Spirits' and 'Bad Spirits'; for there are those that partake of the earth, or of the carnal forces, rather than of those forces that are of the spiritual or CREATIVE. Those that are destruction are of the Earth. Those that are constructive, then, are the good - or the divine and the devilish, bringing for those developments in their various phases. Hence the greater development of that called occult, or psychic forces, during the Atlantean period - and the use of same, and the abuse of same - was during its first thousand years, as we would call light years; not the light of the star, but the sun goes down and the sun goes down - years. That brought about those cycles, or those changes. Hence we have that which has been given through many of the sources of information, or the channels for individuals - and in those, these, the entity - as a voice upon waters, or as the wind that moved among the reeds and harkened, or again as when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God beheld the coming of man into his own, through the various realms as were brought by the magnifying of, or the deteriorating of, the use of those forces and powers as manifested themselves in a MATERIAL area, or those that partook of carnal to the gratification of that that brought about its continual HARDENING and less ability to harken back through that from WHICH it came, and partaking more and more OF that upon which it became an eater of; or, as is seen even in the material forces in the present: We find those that partake of certain elements, unless these become very well balanced WITH all SOURCES - Of what? That of which there were the first causes, or nature, or natural, or God's sources or forces are. Hence ELEMENTS - not rudiments; elements - as are termed in the terminology of the student of the anatomical, physiological, psychological forces within a body - GERMS! Sure they are germs! for each are as atoms of power - From what? That source from which it has drawn its essence upon what it feeds. Is one feeding, then, its soul? or is one feeding its body? or is one feeding that interbetween (its mental body) to its own undoing, or to those foolishnesses of the simple things of life? Being able, then, to partake OF the physical but not a part of same - but more and more feeding upon those sources from which it emanates itself, or of the SPIRITUAL life, so that the physical body, the mental body, are attuned TO its soul forces, or its soul source, its Creator, its Maker, in such a way and manner, as it develops.

9. What, then, IS psychic force? What IS occult science? A developing of the abilities within each individual that has not lost its sonship, or its relation to its Creator, to live upon - or demonstrate more and more through phenomena of whatever nature from which it takes its source, for that individual activity of that entity itself through the stages of development through which it has passed, and giving of its life source that there may be brought INTO being that which gives more knowledge of the source FROM which the entity ESSENCE (Isn't a good word, but signifies that intended to be expressed; not elements, not rudiments, but ESSENCE of the entity itself, ITS spirit and soul - its spirit being its portion of the Creator, its soul that of its entity itself, making itself individual, separate entity, that may be one WITH the Creative Force from which it comes - or which it is! of which it is made up, in its atomic forces, or in its very essence itself!) emanates; and the more this may be manifest, the greater becomes the occult force.

10. To what uses, then, did these people in this particular period give their efforts, and in what directions were they active? As many almost as there were individuals! for, as we find from the records as are made, to some there was given the power to become the sons of God; others were workers in brass, in iron, in silver, in gold; others were made in music, and the instruments of music. These, then, we find in the world today (Today, now - we are reasoning from today). Those that are especially gifted in art - in its various forms; and a real artist (as the world looks at it) isn't very much fit for anything else! yet it is - What? An expression of its concept OF that from WHICH it, that entity, sprang - through the various stages of its evolution (if you choose to call it such) in a material world, or that which it fed its soul or its mental being for its development through its varied experiences IN a material world. These, then, are but manifestations (occult forces) in individuals who are called geniuses, or gifted in certain directions.

11. These, then, are the manners in which the ENTITIES, those BEINGS, those SOULS, in the beginning partook of, or developed. Some brought about monstrosities, as those of its (that entity's) association by its projection with its association with beasts of various characters. Hence those of the Styx, satyr, and the like; those of the sea, or mermaid; those of the unicorn, and those of the various forms - these projections of what? The abilities in the PHYCHIC forces (psychic meaning, then, of the mental AND the soul - doesn't necessarily mean the body, until it's enabled to be brought INTO being in whatever form it may make its manifestation - which may never be in a material world, or take form in a three-dimensional plane as the earth is; it may remain in a fourth-dimensional - which is an idea! Best definition that ever may be given of fourth-dimension is an idea! Where will it project? Anywhere! Where does it arise from? Who knows! Where will it end? Who can tell! It is all inclusive! It has both length, breadth, height and depth - is without beginning and is without ending! Dependent upon that which it may feed for its sustenance, or it may pass into that much as a thought or an idea. Now this isn't ideal that's said! It's idea! see?)

12. In the use of these, then, in this material plane - of these forces - brought about those that made for all MANNERS of the various forms that are used in the material world today. MANY of them to a much higher development. As those that sought forms of minerals - and being able to be that the mineral was, hence much more capable - in the psychic or occult force, or power - to classify, or make same in its own classifications. Who classified them? They were from the beginning! They are themselves! They were those necessities as were IN the beginning from an ALL WISE Creator! for remember these came, as did that as was to be the keeper of same! The husbandman of the vineyard! Each entity, each individual - today, has its own vineyard to keep, to dress - For who? Its Maker, from whence it came! What is to be the report in thine own life with those abilities, those forces, as may be manifest in self - through its calling upon, through what? How does prayer reach the throne of mercy or grace, or that from which it emanates? From itself! Through that of CRUCIFYING, NULLIFYING, the carnal mind and opening the mental in such a manner that the Spirit of truth may flow in its psychic sense, or occult force, into the very being, that you may be one with that from which you came! Be thou faithful unto that committed into thy keeping! Life ITSELF is precious! For why? It is of the Maker itself! That IS the beginning! The psychic forces, the attunements, the developments, going TO that! As did many in that experience. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not for God took him. As was many of those in those first years, in this land, this experience.

13. These in the present, then, do not justly call it science; rather being close to nature. Listen at the birds. Watch the blush of the rose. Listen at the life rising in the tree. These serve their Maker - Through what? That psychic force, that IS Life itself, in their respective sphere - that were put for the service of man. Learn thine lesson, O Man, from that about thee!

 

364-11

1. GC: You will have before you the information given through this channel on the lost continent of Atlantis. You will continue with this information, and will answer the questions which I will ask regarding this:

2. EC: Yes. As to why, then, each individual must be, and is, the keeper of his own vineyard? For there is, as from the beginning, in each entity that - of the Father, or the First Cause - that enables one to make manifest even in the material world through the attributes OF the First Cause, that makes for the manifestation OF that power, or force, in a material world. As to what one does WITH same is an action of the will that entity himself, or herself.

3. As to occult or psychic science, as called, then - it is, as we have found through some manifestations, that these forces are first recognized in or by the individual. Hence, as has been seen, in the beginning these were the natural expressions of an entity. As there developed more of the individual association with material conditions, and they partook of same in such a manner as to become wholly or in part a portion OF same, farther - or more hidden, more unseen - has become occult or psychic manifestations. First there were the occasional harking back. Later by dream. Again we find individuals raised in certain sections for specific purposes. As the cycle has gone about, time and again has there arisen in the earth those that MANIFESTED these forces in a more magnificent, more beneficent, way and manner. And, as has been given, again the time draws near when there shall be seen and known among men, in many places, the manifestations of such forces in the material world; for "As ye have seen him go, so will He return again." Be thou faithful unto those words He has given while yet with you. Hence it behooves every individual to take cognizance of that force that may manifest in their material lives, even in this material age; for those that become ashamed for His sake - for THAT sake - of that that may manifest (which is as the Spirit's manner of activity) through those many channels that are open to those who will look up, lift up - and these, we find, are often in the lowliest of places and circumstances. Why? Since these are forces of the Most High, since these supplied - as of old - those secular things in abundance, and were supplied the needs not only of the physical being but of the mental and spiritual also, contributing to those forces as made for the gratification also of that builded in a material world, does it become any wonder that he that shall be abased and remains true shall wear the Crown of Life? Does it become unreasonable, then, that ye are being chastised for that which has been builded within the material forces of the body itself, that must be tried so as by fire? for the chaff must be burned out! Even as with the use of those sources of information, the abilities to become a portion of those elements that were the creative forces OF the compounds or elements within the universal forces, at that period brought about those forces that made for destruction of the land itself, in the attempt to draw that as was in man then back TO the knowledge; and these brought about those destructive forces (that are known today) in gases, with that called the death ray [See 364-11, Par. R2], that brought from the bowels of the earth itself - when turned into the sources of supply - those destructions to portions of the land. Man has ever (even as then) when in distress, either mental, spiritual OR physical, sought to know his association, his connection, with the divine forces that brought the worlds into being. As these are sought, so does the promise hold true - or that given man from the beginning, "Will ye be my children, I will be thy God!" "Ye turn your face from me, my face is turned from thee", and those things ye have builded in thine own endeavor to make manifest thine own powers bring those certain destructions in the lives of individuals in the present, even as in those first experiences with the use of those powers that are so tabu by the worldly-wise, that are looked upon as old men's tales and women's fables; yet in the strength of such forces do WORLDS come into being!

4. THIS is what psychic force, and so called occult science, DID mean, HAS meant, DOES mean in the world today.

5. Ready for questions.

6. (Q) Describe in more detail the causes and effects of the destruction of the part of Atlantis now the Sargasso sea.

(A) As there were those individuals that attempted to bring again to the mind of man more of those forces that are manifest by the closer association of the mental and spiritual, or the soul forces that were more and more as individual and personal forms in the world, the use of the these elements - as for the building up, or the passage of individuals through space - brought the uses of the gases then (in the existent forces), and the individuals being able to become the elements, and elementals themselves, added to that used in the form of what is at present known as the raising of the powers from the sun itself, to the ray that makes for disintegration of the atom, in the gaseous forces formed, and brought about the destruction in that portion of the land now presented, or represented, or called, Sargasso sea.

7. (Q) What was the date of the first destruction, estimating in our present day system of counting time in years B.C.?

(A) Seven thousand five hundred (7,500) years before the final destruction, which came as has been given.

8. (Q) Please give a few details regarding the physiognomy, habits, customs and costumes of the people of Atlantis during the period just before this first destruction.

(A) These, as we find, will require their being separated in the gradual development of the body and its physiognomy as it came into being in the various portions of that land, as well as to those that would separate themselves from those peoples where there were the indwelling of peoples, or man - as man, in the various areas of the land, or what we call world.

In the matter of form, as we find, first there were those as projections from that about the animal kingdom; for the THOUGHT bodies gradually took form, and the various COMBINATIONS (as may be called) of the various forces that called or classified themselves as gods, or rulers over - whether herds, or fowls, or fishes, etc. - in PART that kingdom and part of that as gradually evolved into a physiognomy much in the form of the present day may (were one chosen of those that were, or are, the nearest representative of the race of peoples that existed in this first period as the first destructions came about). These took on MANY sizes as to stature, from that as may be called the midget to the giants - for there were giants in the earth in those days, men as tall as (what would be termed today) ten to twelve feet in stature, and in proportion - well proportioned throughout. The ones that became the most USEFUL were those as would be classified (or called in the present) as the IDEAL stature, that was of both male and female (as those separations had been begun); and the most ideal (as would be called) was Adam, who was in that period when he (Adam) appeared as five in one - See?

In this the physiognomy was that of a full head, with an extra EYE - as it were - in those portions that became what is known as the EYE. In the beginning these appeared in WHATEVER portion was desired by the body for its use!

As for the dress, those in the beginning were (and the Lord made for them coats) of the skins of the animals.

Students travel in packs around Havana, each grade defined by their uniform.

Fisheye on Red Pine Stand. Using my new Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L fisheye zoom on the full frame Canon 6D. The lens gives 180 degrees circumferential perspective at the 8mm end. The above is @ 8mm, below 15mm, at the exact location, camera @ 6 inches from the tree.

www.bittersweetblog.com

Super Sparrow

Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Hadriani, also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Aelium in Latin), is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.[1] Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front of it and behind it that crossed the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles, and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.

 

Hadrian's Wall Path generally runs very close to the wall. Almost all of the standing masonry of the wall was removed in early modern times and used for local roads and farmhouses. None of it stands to its original height, but modern work has exposed much of the footings, and some segments display a few courses of modern masonry reconstruction. Many of the excavated forts on or near the wall are open to the public, and various nearby museums present its history. The largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain, it runs a total of 73 miles (117.5 kilometres) in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The turf-built Antonine Wall in what is now central Scotland, which briefly superseded Hadrian's Wall before being abandoned, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008.

 

Hadrian's Wall marked the boundary between Roman Britannia and unconquered Caledonia to the north. The wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border, though it is sometimes loosely or colloquially described as being such.

 

Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.

 

Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.

 

The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.

 

Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.

 

Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.

 

History

Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.

 

The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.

 

The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.

 

Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.

 

Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.

 

Roman invasion

The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

 

The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.

 

The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.

 

Establishment of Roman rule

After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.

 

On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.

 

While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.

 

There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.

 

In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.

 

For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.

 

Roman military organisation in the north

In 84 AD

In 84 AD

 

In 155 AD

In 155 AD

 

Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall

There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.

 

Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.

 

A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.

 

In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.

 

The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.

 

During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.

 

In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.

 

The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.

 

3rd century

The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.

 

Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.

 

The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.

 

Northern campaigns, 208–211

An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.

 

As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.

 

During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.

 

Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.

 

The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.

 

Diocletian's reforms

As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).

 

The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.

 

Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.

 

The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.

 

The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.

 

Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.

 

In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.

 

A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.

 

4th century

Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.

 

In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.

 

As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.

 

Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.

 

End of Roman rule

The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.

 

The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.

 

Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.

 

Sub-Roman Britain

Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.

 

In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.

 

Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.

 

Trade

During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.

 

Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.

 

These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.

 

It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.

 

From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.

 

Economy

Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.

 

The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.

 

By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.

 

Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.

 

Government

Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain

Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.

 

To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.

 

Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.

 

Demographics

Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.

 

Town and country

During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.

 

Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.

 

Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C

 

Alcester (Alauna)

Alchester

Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C

Bath (Aquae Sulis) C

Brough (Petuaria) C

Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)

Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C

Caernarfon (Segontium) C

Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C

Caister-on-Sea C

Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C

Carlisle (Luguvalium) C

Carmarthen (Moridunum) C

Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)

Chester (Deva Victrix) C

Chester-le-Street (Concangis)

Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C

Cirencester (Corinium) C

Colchester (Camulodunum) C

Corbridge (Coria) C

Dorchester (Durnovaria) C

Dover (Portus Dubris)

Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C

Gloucester (Glevum) C

Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)

Ilchester (Lindinis) C

Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C

Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C

London (Londinium) C

Manchester (Mamucium) C

Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)

Northwich (Condate)

St Albans (Verulamium) C

Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C

Towcester (Lactodurum)

Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C

Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C

Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C

York (Eboracum) C

 

Religion

The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.

 

The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.

 

Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.

 

Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).

 

Christianity

It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.

 

The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.

 

A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.

 

Environmental changes

The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas

 

Legacy

During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.

 

Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and Welsh. Examination of these languages suggests some 800 Latin words were incorporated into Common Brittonic (see Brittonic languages). The current majority language, English, is based on the languages of the Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe