It was late afternoon on the first Saturday of the Heritage weekends, and if truth be told, I was getting churched out.

 

I was sure I had been to Biddenden before, but as it was open and welcoming, and right beside the main road, i stopped for a quick visit.

 

------------------------------------------

 

Set at the end of the High Street the asymmetry of the building is most pleasing. The thirteenth century original was much alerted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries - the latter being the date of the nave with its crown post roof. The font, sedilia and piscina are all designed to show off the local `Bethersden Marble`, the only local stone that can take a polish. A good selection of memorial brasses includes one to Margaret Godwell who died in 1499. The last lines of its inscription has been obliterated - a common occurrence when prayers for the souls of the departed later caused offence.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Biddenden

 

------------------------------------------

 

BIDDENDEN

IS the next parish eastward from Frittenden. That part of it which is in the boroughs of Ibornden, Wosenden, Hevenden, Omenden, Stepherst, and Wachenden, is in the hundred of Barkley; and the residue of it, being in the borough of the Outbounds of Smithsditch, is in the hundred of Cranbrooke. The borsholder of the above-mentioned borough of Wosenden, is chosen at the court-leet held at Burham, in this county; and the borough of Wachenden has a court-leet of itself, holden in this parish, at which the borsholder of that borough is chosen; so that neither of these two borsholders last-mentioned are chosen at the court-leet held for this hundred, nor do the inhabitants of them attend at that court; but at it there may be chosen a constable for the hundred out of either of these boroughs.

 

The denns of Biddenden and Spelhurst, in this parish, are held of the manor of Shurland, in Pluckley; the liberty of the manor of Wye claims over the borough of Wachenden; and the manor of Godmersham extends into this parish, which is in the division of West Kent.

 

THE PARISH is much the same, as to the appearance of the country, as those in this neighbourhood last-described, having some gentle rises in it; the soil too is much the same, having plently of marle throughout it, the southern and western parts are covered with coppice woods, the large oak trees are numerous throughout it, as well there, as in the hedge rows. It is populous, containing about 2000 inhabitants, of which about a fifth part are dissenters, there are no clothiers remaining in it, though the trade formerly flourished in this equally with the adjoining parishes. The village, usually called in like manner as most others in the Weald, the town of Biddenden, having the church and parsonage on the western side of it, stands rather towards the southern part of the parish, on the high road from Tenterden to Ashford, which is here joined by that from Cranbrooke. There are three principal hamlets, which are dispersed at different parts of the parish, called Wosenden-green, Stroud-quarter, and Standen.

 

There is a fair, formerly held on the day of St. Simon and St. Jude, now on Nov. 8, for Welsh cattle chiefly, and another on Old Lady day.

 

BIDDENDEN PLACE, or, as it was afterwards usually called, THE PLACE-HOUSE, stands at the south and of the town, and was antiently the residence of an old family, who took their surname from it; after which the Mayneys were the next who succeeded to the possession of it, and resided here likewise, being, as well as that great man Sir Walter de Mayney, so noted in history both for his valour and piety, descended from Walter de Meduana, or Mayney, who came into England with the Conqueror, and, as appears by the red book, in the exchequer, held twenty knights fees in this county, and appears by his arms, Or, three chevronels, sable, to have been the elder branch of this family; those of Biddenden and Linton bearing, Per pale, argent and sable, three chevronels, between as many cinquesoils, all counterchanged. Sir John de Mayney resided here in the beginning of king Edward III.'s reign, as did his son, of the same name, who died possessed of this seat, with other lands continguous to it, in the 50th year of that reign; and from him it descended down to John Mayney, esq. of Biddenden, who left two sons, John, who succeeded him here, and Walter, who was of Staplehurst, and sheriff anno 13 Elizabeth, the lands of both whom were disgavelled by the act of 2 and 3 king Edward VI. John Mayney, the eldest son, resided here, and was sheriff anno 7 Elizabeth, 1566, in which year he died, leaving two sons, Anthony and Walter; the former of whom was father of Sir Anthony Mayney, who, in that reign, having purchased a seat at Linton, removed thither. (fn. 1) and alienated this seat to Sir Edward Henden, one of the barons of the exchequer in the reign of Charles I. (fn. 2) whose arms are in the semicircular window of GraysInn hall, of which he was a member, being Azure, a lion passant, between three escallop shells, or; who dying s. p. in 1662, was buried in the chancel of this church, having given it by will to his nephew Sir John Henden, sheriff in the 22d year of that reign, who resided here, as did his descendants down to William Henden; but he having, in the reign of king George I. dissipated his patrimony, pulled down the greatest part of this seat, and left the poor remains of it, consisting of only three or four rooms, and a very few acres of the old garden and park, to his son William, and he sold it to the trustees of Sir Horace Mann, bart. the present proprietor of it.

 

ALMOST opposite the Place-house is A Mansion, formerly the seat of the Taylors, from whom it passed to Mr. Jenkin Hague, whose nephew, of the same name, now owns it. And at the north end of the town is another, called BIDDENDEN-HOUSE, formerly the estate of the Pattensons, who bore for their arms, Argent, on a fess, sable, three fleurs de lis, or; in which name it continued down to Mr. Josias Pattenson, who devised it to his eldest son of the same name. He married Elizabeth, the eldest of the two daughters and coheirs of Felix Kadwell, esq. of Rolvenden, by whom he had Kadwell Pattenson, of the Gate-house, in Rolvenden, who died s. p. Margaret, Ellen, Josias Pattenson, esq. now of Brooke-place, in Ashford, and Mary, who married Samuel Muna, of Hastings, by whom she had Samuel, late of Ashford, gent. and Ellen, married to William Jemmett, gent. of Ashford. The Pattensons bear for their arms, Argent, on a fess, sable, three fleurs de lis, or. After his death his heirs alienated it to Mr. Peter Berry, who afterwards sold it to Mr. Stephen Elmstone, the present owner of it.

 

THE FAMILY OF POMFRET was for several generations possessed of a good estate in this parish. The mansion in which they resided is a large old house, near the town. It formerly belonged to Edmund Steed, gent. who died in 1664, and afterwards to Vincent Quilter, by whose daughter and heir is came by marriage to Pomfret, in one of whose descendants it continues at this time. Many of them lie buried in the south part of the church-yard, where their tombs are yet remaining, with their arms on them, being Quarterly, argent, and gules, a bend, sable; a branch of the family of Seyliard, who intermarried with the Boddenhams, likewise resided here during the last century, bearing for their arms, Gules, a chief, ermine.

 

ALLARDS is an estate in this parish, which had on it an antient seat, which for many generations was the mansion of a family of the same name, one of whom was Gervas Allard, who was admiral of the western seas in the 34th year of Edward I. and in his descendants it continued till the reign of Charles I. when Francis Allard, gent. of this place, leaving an only daughter Elizabeth, she carried it in marriage to Terry Aldersey, gent. of Swanton-court, in Bredgar, who died possessed of it in 1678, and bequeathed this estate to his second son Mr. Henry Aldersey, of Maidstone, whose descendant sold it to Thomas Tong, surgeon, of Milton, from whom it passed by sale to Mr. John Hooker, gent. of Brenchley, and his descendant John Hooker, esq. now of Broadoak, in that parish, is the present owner of it.

 

CASTWISELL is an estate here, situated at the boundary of this parish, next to Cranbrooke, which was once accounted a manor, and had in very early times owners of the same name, as appears by some antient deeds without date, relating to it, in which John de Castwisell is a witness at the teste of them. But before the reign of Edward IV. the Moiles were become possessed of it; in the 6th year of which Sir Walter Moile, of Eastwell, granted to Reginald and William Sands, all those lands, tenements, rents, and services, which Simon Gidenden lately held of him, as of his manor of Castwisell. His grandson Mr. Thomas Moyle (afterwards knighted in the 29th year of Henry VIII.) conveyed it to Stephen Rogers, gent. whose descendant Mr. Jonathan Rogers owned it at the restoration of Charles II. At length, after it had continued for some time in his descendants, it became the property of Sir Henry Fermor, bart. who died possessed of it in 1734, without lawful issue. Since which it has remained vested in the trustees of his will, for the uses mentioned in it.

 

LESSENDEN is an estate here, about a mile and a half northward from the church, which was formerly the residence of a family of the name of Boddenden, or Boddenham, one of whom, William Boddenden, died possessed of it in 1579, leaving by his first wife a son William, who was afterwards knighted. He bore for his arms, Azure, a fess, between three chess rooks, or, and lies buried in the chancel of this church. His sister Jane having married Bernard Randolph, of this parish, Clothier, he by that alliance became afterwards possessed of this estate, of which he died possessed in 1628, and was buried by his wife in the chancel of this church. His eldest son William was of Burton, in Kennington, where his posterity afterwards remained John, the third son, went to Virginia, where his descendants still continue; and Edmund, the fifth son, travelled into Italy, and took the degree of M. D. at Padua, and on his return was incorporated into the university of Oxford in 1628; afterwards he practised physic at Canterbury, and dying in 1649, was buried in St. George's church there, leaving a numerous issue, one of whom was Bernard, author of the account of the Archipelage. Herbert, the fourth son, succeeded him in this estate, whose grandson Herbert Randolph, esq. was recorder of the city of Canterbury, and died possessed of Lessenden in 1724, leaving a numerous issue by his two wives. By the first he left only two surviving children, Herbert; and Mary, who married Christopher Packe, M. D. By his second wife he had eight children, Thomas, D. D. late president of Corpus Christi college, Oxford; George, M. D. of Bristol; Francis, D. D. principal of Alban hall, Oxford; and Charles, bred to the law; and four daughters, of whom a further account may be seen under Aldington. They bear for their arms, Gules, on a cross, argent, five mullets pierced, sable.

 

Herbert Randolph, clerk, the only son by his first wife, succeeded him here. He died in 1755, leaving issue only by Catherine his first wife, daughter of Edward Wake, D. D. prebendary of Canterbury, one son Herbert, and a daughter Mary. Herbert Randolph, the son, is of Wiltshire, and is in holy orders, and married Elizabeth Adcock, of Ashford; he is the present possessor of this estate.

 

ON THE NORTH SIDE of the parish is a seat, called Ibornden-HOUSE, which, with the greatest part of the denne in which it is situated, has been, from the very beginning of the last century, the estate and residence of the family of Pattenson. Roger Pattenson, clothier, came out of Yorkshire, and purchased this estate, with several others in this and the adjoining parishes, and built three several houses in Biddenden. He died about 1638. His descendant Josias Pattenson, left two sons, Josias, late of Biddenden house, and William, the latter of whom inherited Ibornden, in which he was succeeded by his only son Mr. William Pattenson, the present proprietor of it.

 

The denne of Ibornden, or Iberden, as it is sometimes spelt, is held of the manor of Ashford. It lies in the western part of this parish, a little more than a mile north-west from the church.

 

AT ABOUT HALF A MILE northward from the village, is THE BOROUGH OF STANDEN, in which is a hamlet of houses, on the high road; this has formerly been a place of some note, and now beiongs to Mrs. Knight, the widow of Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham, for her life; remainder to Edward Austen, esq. now of Godmersham park.

 

RIVER-HALL is a seat in the south-east part of this parish, near Stroud Quarter, which has been for more than a century in the possession of the Beales, formerly clothiers here. Richard Beale, clothier, of Biddenden, resided here in the beginning of Charles II.'s reign, and his grandson Mr. Richard Beale is the present owner of it, and resides in it. They bear for their arms, Sable, on a chevron, or, between three griffin's heads erased, argent, as many estoiles, gules.

 

WHITFIELD-HOUSE is near the above, taking its name from the owners of it. Thomas, second son of Clement, Whitfield, the second son of John Whitfield, of Tenterden, (fn. 3) possessed it in king James I.'s reign, and was succeeded in it by his son John, who was of Biddenden, gent. and died in 1695, and in his descendants it continued till it was sold, not many years since, to Mr. Jenkin Hague, whose nephew, of the same name, now possesses it.

 

AT THE corner of this parish, among the woods, lies THE MANOR OF WACHENDEN, in the borough of its own name, which belonged to the abbot and convent of Battel, most probably at its first foundation in the reign of the Conqueror, at least they were owners of it in the reign of Edward II. as appears by the patent rolls of the 7th year of that reign; and in the church chest here, there is an antient deed, dated anno 3 king Henry IV. wherein the abbot and convent acknowledge to have received four pounds of Thomas Brickenden, for his ferme of their manor of Wachendenne, which continued part of their revenues at the time of their dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it came, among the rest of their possessions, into the hands of the crown; whence it was granted to Sir John Baker, of Siffinghurst, one of whose descendants sold it to Henden; from which name it passed to Sir John Norris, of Hemsted, at whose death in 1767, it came to his son John Norris, esq. whose trustees alienated it to Thomas Hallet Hodges, esq. of Hemsted, in Benenden, who is the present possessor of it.

 

A court leet is held for this manor.

 

Charities.

TWENTY ACRES OF LAND, called the Bread and Cheese Land, lying in five pieces, were given by persons unknown, the yearly rents to be distributed among the poor of this parish. This is yearly done on Easter Sunday in the afternoon, in 600 cakes, each of which have the figures of two women impressed on them, and are given to all such as attend the church; and 270 loaves, weighing three pounds and an half a-piece; to which latter is added one pound and an half of cheese, are given to the parishioners only, at the same time.

 

There is a vulgar tradition in these parts, that the figures on the cakes represent the donors of this gift, being two women, twins, who were joined together in their bodies, and lived together so till they were between twenty and thirty years of age.—But this seems without foundation. The truth seems to be, that it was the gift of two maidens, of the name of Preston; and that the print of the women on the cakes has taken place only within these fifty years, and was made to represent two poor widows, as the general objects of a charitable benefaction. William Horner, rector of this parish in 1656, brought a suit in the Exchequer, for the recovery of these lands, as having been given for an augmentation of his glebe land; but he was nonsuited. They are altogether of the yearly value of about 31l. 10s.

 

THOMAS TAYLOR, of Cranbrooke, by his will in 1569, gave a parcel of woodland in this parish, upon the denne of Etilte, containing by estimation seven acres, which he purchased of John Pattynden, and ordered, that the profit that should come of it, whether it be wood or otherwise, should always be employed to the use of the poor people of this parish; to be distributed to them by the churchwardens, at their discretion, from time to time for ever.

 

A sum of money, arising from the sale of the timber on the above-mentioned land in 1733, was laid out in the purchase of a house and farm in Bredgar, of the yearly rent of 8l. per annum, by deed of feossment.

 

MRS. HOOPER, of Cranbrooke, widow, in 1682, gave 20l. with which was purchased Tripe-lane house, and one field adjoining, of the yearly rent of one guinea, to be distributed among twenty-one widows. The house is now made into two dwellings for poor people.

 

JAMES STONE, of Cranbrooke, in 1722 gave by will 2l. per annum, payable out of Highpoles-farm, in this parish, to be distributed among sixteen poor widows, or decayed housekeepers, on the 1st of November for ever, by the overseers of the poor.

 

DR. JOHN BANCROFT, rector of this parish, and in 1732 bishop of Oxford, gave a set of communion-plate to this church.

 

A new workhouse has been built for the use of the poor within these few years.

 

The poor constantly relieved are about ninety; casually 36.

 

WILLIAM, or JOHN MAYNE, esq. of this parish, by a deed of feoffment in 1522, founded A FREE Latin grammer school in it, and endowed it with a school-house, garden, and certain payments out of lands in this parish, Tenterden and Bethersden, of the yearly value of 20l. 3s. 4d. (fn. 4) The management of it, and the appointment of the master, is under the direction of Mr. Richard Beale, of this parish, with other feoffees. The Rev. Mr. Pitman is master of it. The archbishop of Canterbury is visitor of this school; which jurisdiction has not been exercised for many years. For want of this interposition, this endowment has been much abused, and the whole of it is now made a sinecure. There is a deputy, who is a decayed tradesman, put in by the master, who lives in the school house, and with whom he shares half the salary. There have been no children taught in it for some time past.

 

BIDDENDEM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Charing.

 

¶The church, which is dedicated to All Saints, stands on an eminence, close at the west end of the village, with the parsonage-house on the north side of it. It is large and well-built, consisting of three isles and three chancels, having a handsome square tower at the west end, with a beacon turret at one corner. In it are six bells, and a set of chimes. There is a small vestry-room on the north side of the great chancel, in which lies buried Sir Edward Henden, baron of the exchequer, anno 1662, and several of the family of Randolph and Everden; in it is a memorial for Richard Allard, alderman of Rochester, 1593. In the north chancel there is a brass plate, fixed to the wall, for Sir William Boddenden and his wife, having the figures of them and their children, and an inscription to their memories. This chancel belonged to the Mayneys, of whom there are monuments in it, and does now to Sir Horace Mann. The south chancel is ceiled with wainscot, in pannels, at the corners of each of which are carved and painted different devices and arms; among others are the arms of the see of Canterbury, impaling Warham, Argent, three birds volant, sable, and portcullis, &c. Alice Bedlyngston, by her will in 1463, ordered her feoffees, out of the money arising from the sale of a piece of land in this parish, to make a new window on the south side of this church; and it appears that in the beginning of king Henry VIII.'s reign, there was a new isle building to this church, by the several legacies left towards it.

 

On the outside of the steeple are three shields of arms, carved in the stone-work, viz. first, A saltier; second, A bend, sinister; and third, A fret. In the church-yard are buried several of the family of Beale.

 

This church is a rectory, and was part of the antient possessions of the see of Canterbury, where it still continues, the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

It is valued in the king's books at thirty-five pounds, and the yearly tenths at 3l. 10s.

 

In 1578 there were five hundred and forty-five communicants here, in 1640 there were four hundred, and it was then valued at one hundred and twenty pounds per annum. It is now of the annual value of about two hundred and forty pounds.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol7/pp130-141

More from Friday morning at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The rain made the chalky rally stage very slick.

The Orion aerosciences team has performed more than 30 tests across the United States in support of the program, investigating the heating of the spacecraft during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Testing recently concluded at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia with a 6-inch Orion heat shield model in the 20-inch Mach 6 wind tunnel. The team includes engineers at Langley, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

 

Photo Credit: NASA/David C. Bowman

  

[CNC] SLEEP OVER BS

 

INCLUDES

 

Mesh NIGHTY TOP

BOM THONG

BOM STOCKING

 

FITS 13 MESH BODY TYPES----

 

MAITREYA, Signature Alisa,Legacy

ISIS, VENUS, FREYA

SLINK Hourglass, Physique

TONIC Gurvy, TONIC Fine, TONIC Minimizer

Star Mesh Body, Altamura

 

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ancient%20Sanctuary/198/36...

  

_____________________________________________________________

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

****ALWAYS TEST DEMO BEFORE BUYING*****

 

____NO REFUNDS____

 

----------------------

 

BUY HERE>>>>>

 

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CNC-SLEEP-OVER-BS/24595274

 

------------------

 

BUY DEMO HERE>>>>>>

 

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CNC-DEMO-SLEEP-OVER-BS/24595273

 

------------------

 

JOIN OUR FLICKR>>>>>>

 

www.flickr.com/photos/156255678@N03/

 

------------------

 

**** JOIN OUR IN-WORLD GROUP FOR UPDATES AND NEW RELEASES****

 

~~>PLUS ADDED BONUS OF 5% OFF With GROUP DISCOUNTS **IN-WORLD STORE ONLY**

 

secondlife:///app/group/223794df-22fc-52b0-77cb-8f7f8410d697/about

 

~~~> IN- WORLD STORE

 

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ancient%20Sanctuary/185/11...

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

PLEASE LEAVE REVIEWS. IT CAN HELP OTHERS AND THE CREATOR KNOW IF ANY ISSUES ARISE<3 THANKS

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

=======================================

A Text in english:

Blue-black Grassquit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blue-black Grassquit

Conservation status

 

Least Concern

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Emberizidae

Genus: Volatinia

Reichenbach 1850

Species: V. jacarina

Binomial name

Volatinia jacarina

(Linnaeus, 1766)

 

The Blue-black Grassquit, Volatinia jacarina, is a small bird of the family Emberizidae, which also includes the buntings. It breeds from southern Mexico through Central America, and South America as far as northern Chile, Argentina and Paraguay, and on Trinidad and Tobago. It is the only member of the genus Volatinia.

This is a common bird in semi-open areas, including cultivation and gardens. It makes a small cup nest, with a typical clutch of one to three pale green eggs blotched with reddish brown. Both sexes incubate for 9–10 days, with about the same period again for the young to fledge.

Adult Blue-black Grassquits are 10.2cm long and weigh 9.3g. They have a slender conical black bill. The male is glossy blue-black, with a black tail and wings; the white inner underwing is visible in flight or display. Female and immature birds have brown upperparts and dark-streaked buff underparts.

Blue-black Grassquit feeds mainly on seeds. It is quite gregarious, and forms communal evening roosts.

The male has a jumping display, often performed for long periods, which gives rise to the local name Johnny Jump-up. This is accompanied by a persistent wheezing jweeee call.

 

Um texto em português:

O Tiziu, nome vulgar utilizado para identificar Volatinia jacarina, é um passarinho da Família Emberizidae, que mede cerca de 11,4cm. Estes pequenos pássaros são vistos com grande freqüência, geralmente aos pares, em áreas alteradas, descampados, savanas, campos e capoeiras baixas da América do Sul, exceto no extremo sul. Alimentam-se principalmente de sementes verdes, encontradas no próprio colmo das gramíneas ou no chão, ou de insetos. Adultos e jovens, fora da época reprodutiva, são pardo-oliváceos no dorso e levemente amarelados no abdômen, com estrias no peito e flancos. Os machos adultos, durante a época de acasalamento, assumem uma brilhante plumagem nupcial preto-azulada, com uma mancha branca nas penas axilares. Estes são facilmente reconhecidos nesse período pois, além da coloração nupcial vistosa, executam uma exibição que consiste de pequenos vôos verticais, ao mesmo tempo em que fazem vocalização da qual resultou seu nome: "tis-ziu". o vôo é repetido seguidamente, sobre o mesmo puleiro, em média cerca de 12 a 14 vezes por minuto, e com pequenos intervalos entre as repetições. Essa exibição é executada principalmente durante a época reprodutiva: todo ano em Belém, no Pará, e restrito ao verão em regiões meridionais, em função da alteração na oferta de recursos alimentares. Através das exibições, os machos delimitam seus pequenos territórios, que podem variar de cerca de 13 a 73m2, também atraindo as fêmeas para o acasalamento. O ninho, feito com raízes emaranhadas e com formato de taça, é construído dentro do território do macho, sempre a 50cm ou menos do chão, recebendo normalmente uma postura de dois ovos. Tanto o macho quanto a fêmea participam dos cuidados com os filhotes.

Os vários nomes vulgares deste pássaro, como tiziu, bate-estaca, serrador e serra-serra, fazem alusão ao canto e ao pulo vertical de cerca de 1 m que o macho executa na época da reprodução, partindo de um galho seco. Durante estes saltos, ele canta, bate as asas, expões a mancha branca das penas axilares e produz um ruído característico com as rêmiges. O macho delimita um território tão pequeno que está entre os menores observados para os pássaros. É uma espécie migratória, desaparecendo de São Paulo durante o inverno.

 

JULIANA BOSI DE ALMEIDA Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia Universidade de Brasília

 

o macho adulto é inconfundível por ser todo preto, exceto por uma pequena mancha branca na parte inferior das asas, já as fêmeas e imaturos são quase idênticas a várias outras espécies da família, especialmente às fêmeas dos papa-capins ( gênero Sporophila ).

Espécie muito conhecida em nosso país, principalmente pelo hábito dos machos fazerem apresentações de corte e defesa do território boa parte do ano. Estas apresentações são geralmente feitas a partir de poleiros não muito altos como mourões de cerca e arbustos. O macho voa verticalmente cerca de 60cm e em seguida solta o corpo, mostrando as manchas brancas nas asas e retornando ao poleiro. Esses movimentos são muito rápidos e repetitivos e a ave vocaliza enquanto voa, lembrando seu nome popular ``tiziu´´.

Alimenta-se principalmente de sementes de gramíneas como a braquiária, mas também captura insetos.

É muito comum nas áreas rurais e também em cidades, especialmente em terrenos baldios.

A fêmea constrói o ninho em forma de bola entrelaçando gravetos finos e folhas de gramíneas. Geralmente são postos 3 ovos. Os pais se revezam na alimentação dos filhotes. A mesma fêmea pode ter mais de uma cria no mesmo ano.

 

The Tiziu, popular name for the Volatinia jacarina, is a bird of the Emberizidae family, whose size is 11.4 centimeters. These small birds, usually in pairs, are frequently seen in plains, prairies, open fields and cleared tracts of land in South America, except in its Southernmost part. They feed mainly upon insects or green seeds, which are collected in the stem of gramineous plants or on the ground. Whenever they are out of their reproductive season, the adult and young bird's back looks dark gray with shades of olive green, while its abdomen looks yellowish with lines on the chest and flank. During their breeding season, the adult male takes up a shiny bluish black nuptial feathering, with white spots in the axillary feathers. They are easily recognized in this period because, besides wearing their showy nuptial feathering, they perform vertical flights, while singing the sound they are named for: "tis-ziu". These flights are repeated over the same spot, at a rate of 12 to 14 times a minute, with short intervals among them. This performance takes place mainly during their reproductive season, which lasts basically all year round in Belém, State of Pará, and is restricted to the summertime in Southern regions. due to variations in food resource. Through these performances, males draw the lines of their small territories, which may range from 13 to 73 square meters, and also attract females for breeding. The nest is built with woven roots in the shape of a cup. It is within the male's territory, always up to 50-centimeter high, and usually receives an offspring of two eggs. Both male and female take part in looking after their issue.

 

JULIANA BOSI DE ALMEIDA Graduation Program in Ecology University of Brasília

The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

 

The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.

 

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.

 

HISTORY

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.

 

The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.

 

CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.

 

Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu

 

CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.

 

The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.

 

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.

 

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.

 

REDISCOVERY

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.

 

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.

 

PAINTINGS

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".

 

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.

 

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.

 

In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.

 

COPIES

The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.

 

Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.

 

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.

 

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).

 

ARCHITECTURE

The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.

 

The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.

 

The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.

 

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.

 

The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.

 

The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.

 

The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.

 

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.

 

ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).

 

The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.

 

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.

 

CAVES

CAVE 1

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

 

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.

 

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

 

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.

 

CAVE 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

 

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

 

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

 

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

 

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

 

CAVE 4

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".

 

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.

 

CAVES 9-10

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.

 

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

 

OTHER CAVES

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

 

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.

 

SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.

 

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.

 

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.

 

Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".

 

IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.

 

The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.

 

WIKIPEDIA

 

At Pevensey Castle

 

Pevensey Castle: a Saxon Shore fort, Norman defences, a medieval enclosure castle, and later associated remains

The monument includes Anderita Saxon Shore fort, traces of later, Norman defences, an enclosure castle, a 16th century gun emplacement and World War II defences situated on a low spur of sand and clay which now lies around 2km north west of the present East Sussex coastline at Pevensey. During the Roman and medieval periods the spur formed a peninsula projecting into a tidal lagoon and marshland, but coastal deposition and land reclamation have gradually built up the ground around it so that it is now completely land-locked. The roughly oval, north east-south west aligned Roman fort is the earliest of the structures which make up the monument and has been dated to the first half of the fourth century AD. Covering almost 4ha, the fort survives in the form of substantial ruins and buried remains. It is enclosed by a massive defensive wall with a flint and sandstone rubble core faced by coursed greensand and ironstone blocks, interspersed with red tile bonding courses. The whole is up to 3.7m thick and survives to a height of up to 8.1m. The wall was originally topped by a wall walk and parapet. Part excavation in 1906-8 showed that the wall was constructed on footings of rammed chalk and flints underpinned by oak piles and held together by a framework of wooden beams. Investigation of the internal face indicated that this was stepped upwards from a wide base so as to provide extra strength and support. Despite these precautions, a landslip on the south eastern side of the fort has resulted in the destruction of a c.180m length of the perimeter walls and, although fragments of the fallen masonry do survive, most have been removed over the years. Smaller sections of wall have also collapsed along the north western and eastern stretches. The defensive strength provided by the perimeter wall was enhanced by irregularly-spaced, externally projecting semicircular bastions with diameters of around 5m. There were originally at least 15 of these, of which 10 survive today. The fort was entered from its south western, landward approach by way of the main gateway. In front of this a protective ditch 5.5m wide was dug, and, although this became infilled over the years, a 40m stretch located towards its south eastern end has been recut and exposed. The ditch would have been spanned originally by a wooden bridge, although this no longer survives. The main gateway takes the form of a rectangular gatehouse set back between two solid semicircular bastions 8m apart. The 2.7m wide, originally arched entrance is flanked by two oblong guardrooms and the whole gateway structure projects beyond the inner face of the perimeter wall into the fort and is thought to have been originally two or even three storeys high. On the eastern side of the fort is a more simply designed subsidiary gateway, originally a 3m wide archway entrance, giving access to part of the adjacent Roman harbour, now overlain by Pevensey village. The extant archway is a modern reconstruction of the Norman rebuilding of the original entrance. Traces of a wooden causeway which led from it into the fort have been found during partial excavation. Midway along the north western stretch of perimeter wall is a now ruined postern c.2m wide, approached by a curved passage set within the wall. Part excavation between 1906-1908 indicated that the internal buildings which housed the garrison of up to 1,000 men, along with their livestock and supplies, were constructed of timber infilled with wattle and daub. A c.1m sq timber-lined Roman well was found in the south western sector of the fort, at the bottom of which were the remains of the wooden bucket with rope still attached. The well was found to have been filled with rubbish in Roman times and the presence of the bones of cattle, sheep, red deer, wild boar, wild birds, domestic dogs and cats, along with sea shells, gives some indication of the diet and lifestyle of the fort's original inhabitants. Anderita is thought to have been abandoned by its garrison by the latter half of the 4th century AD, and although little is known of its subsequent history until the 11th century, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a massacre of Britons by the invading Saxons at the fort in AD 491. The Bayeux Tapestry states that William the Conquerer landed at Pevensey in 1066, and the Norman army are believed to have made use of the Roman fort as one of their first armed camps. The defences at Pevensey and the surrounding land were granted to King William's half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain. The medieval defences then went through at least 300 years of development, culminating in the construction of a stone built enclosure castle within the largely intact walls of the earlier Roman fort. It is thought that the first Norman defences took the form of a wooden palisade surrounded by a bank and ditch, and a c.40m length of partially infilled ditch up to 9m wide which survives across the north eastern sector of the earlier fort may indicate their original extent. Limited excavations in 1993-94 showed that the ground surface in the south eastern sector of the fort, in the vicinity of the later stone-built keep, was artificially raised some time before 1200, suggesting that a motte may also have been constructed. The original Roman gateways were rebuilt and a new ditch dug in front of the south western gate. Most of the Norman defences and interior wooden buildings will now survive in buried form beneath the later medieval castle, although herringbone-pattern repairs to the Roman masonry, by then serving as the outer bailey of the medieval defences, also date from this time. Around 1100 the defences were strengthened and the accommodation improved by the addition of a masonry keep in the south eastern sector of the earlier fort. The subject of a complex history of alteration, collapse and repair, the keep utilises part of the earlier, Roman perimeter wall and bastions. It takes the form of a rectangular block measuring c.16.8m by c.9m internally, reinforced by apsidal projections on all sides. Now surviving in ruined form up to first floor level, the keep originally took the form of a tall tower with an entrance on the first floor. A rectangular building measuring 7.6m by 6m was later constructed in the south eastern angle between the keep and the Roman wall. At around 1200 work began on the construction of a smaller, stone-built inner bailey in the south eastern sector of the earlier fort. An L-shaped ditch around 20m wide was dug to define the new enclosure, and this retains water in its northern arm. The material excavated from the ditch and from the destruction of the earlier bank was spread over much of the outer bailey to a depth of up to 1.5m. The ditch was recut during extensive renovations carried out during the early 20th century. The first structure to be built in this phase was the gatehouse to the south west which has an arched entrance between twin, semicircular external towers, now ruined. The basement chambers beneath each tower have ashlar-faced walls and barrel-vaulted ceilings, the southern chamber being entered by way of a newel staircase, the northern by a trapdoor. Both were used to house prisoners. Many subsequent alterations included the replacement, during the 15th century, of the wooden bridge over the outer ditch by a stone causeway. The originally embattled curtain wall enclosing the inner bailey was built within the ditch and inner berm around 1250. This survives almost to its full original height and is faced with coursed Greensand ashlar. Three semicircular external towers provided flanking cover from the narrow embrasures which pierce their walls. Each has a narrow staircase to a basement, a branch staircase off it into the ditch and a room and garderobe, or latrine, at ground floor level. Upper rooms were entered by way of the wall walk and were heated by fireplaces. The basement of the northernmost tower has two rib-vaulted bays, the keeled ribs resting on stiff-leaf corbels. The interior castle buildings continued to be built mainly of wood and these will survive in buried form, although the stone foundations of a chapel were exposed during partial excavation of the northern sector of the inner bailey. Around 20m south east of the chapel is a large stone-lined well at least 15.5m deep, and near this is a pile of medieval stone missile-balls, a selection of those recovered from the ditch. These were thrown from trebuchets during the four sieges of the castle. William, Count of Mortain forfeited Pevensey after an unsuccessful rebellion against Henry I in 1101 and the castle, which remained in the royal gift until the later Middle Ages, passed into the hands of the de Aquila family. The most famous siege took place in 1264-65 when the supporters of Henry III, fleeing from their defeat by the Barons at Lewes, took refuge in the castle. In 1372 the castle was given to John of Gaunt, and during his period of office was used to imprison James I, King of Scotland, who had been seized in 1406, and Joan, Queen of Navarre, accused of witchcraft by her stepson, Henry V. By 1300, the sea had gradually begun to recede from around the castle and its military importance declined as a result. Contemporary records show that the castle walls were constantly in need of expensive repair and by the end of the 14th century were not being properly maintained, although the roof leads were kept intact until the middle of the 15th century. By 1500 the castle had ceased to be inhabited and fell rapidly into decay. The threat of the Spanish Armada led to some renewed interest in the defensive value of the site, and a survey of 1587 records that the castle housed two demi-culverins, or heavy guns. These were sited on the contemporary, south east orientated, M-shaped earthen gun emplacement situated in the outer bailey around 90m north east of the main Roman gateway. This takes the form of a raised level platform c.20m long bounded on the seaward side by a slight bank c.0.4m high and around 3m wide. One of the cast iron guns, manufactured in the East Sussex Weald, is now housed within the inner bailey on a modern replica carriage. From the 17th century the castle passed through the hands of various private owners. Valued as a picturesque ruin during the 18th and 19th centuries, it features in many contemporary engravings and illustrations. In 1925 the Duke of Devonshire presented the monument to the state, and extensive repairs began with a view to opening the monument to the public. These were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, when the castle resumed its original military purpose of protecting the south coast. The castle was refortified in May 1940 as an observation and command post. It was continuously occupied by regular troops, including Canadian forces and the United States Army Air Corps, who used it as a radio direction centre, and by the Home Guard until 1944. The World War II defences include two pillboxes and three machine gun posts of concrete faced with rubble and flints, carefully concealed and camouflaged within the earlier Roman and medieval fabric. An internal tower was built just to the south of the Roman east gateway and a blockhouse housing anti-tank weapons was built in front of the main Roman gateway. The blockhouse no longer survives. Modifications carried out to the medieval mural towers included lining the interiors with brick and inserting wooden floors. In 1945 the monument was returned to peaceful use and is now in the guardianship of the Secretary of State and open to the public.

[Historic England]

Barnard Castle is a well-documented example of a ringwork which developed into a shell keep. It is one of the largest castles in the north of England and its importance lies not only in the good state of preservation of its standing remains but also in the wide range of ancillary features which survive as buried features within its four wards. Equally important are its associations with the Balliols and the Earls of Warwick, the former being one of the most important families in Scottish medieval history and the latter in later medieval English history.

The monument is situated on a cliff above the River Tees and includes an early 12th century ringwork, a 12th to 14th century shell keep castle with four wards or enclosures, a chapel and a dovecote. Formerly, an outer ditch enclosed the east side of the castle between the curtain wall and the Horse Market. Although the remains of this ditch will survive beneath later urban development, it is not included in the scheduling as the extent of the remains is not sufficiently understood. A series of partial excavations carried out within the later castle walls between 1974 and 1982 has shown that the earliest fortification dates to between c.1109 and 1125. It was constructed overlooking the river where the cliff turned eastwards into the mouth of a gully. A ditch was quarried in an arc from the north cliff to the west cliff, enclosing a roughly circular area with a diameter of c.50m. The upcast from the ditch was used to create a rampart along the inside of the ditch and this, together with the cliff edge, was surmounted by a timber palisade. Within this ringwork the remains of wooden outbuildings and a large timber hall have been found beneath the floors of later stone buildings. Access to the interior was via a bridge across the ditch which led through a timber gatehouse located at the junction of the ditch with the west cliff. This gatehouse was soon afterwards rebuilt in stone and was the earliest stone building of the castle. The main period of reconstruction came in two phases between c.1125 and 1170. During the first phase, 1125-1140, the ringwork was strengthened by the excavation of the Great Ditch, a substantial rock-cut feature along the line of the earlier ditch, and the palisade was replaced by a multi-angular curtain wall with a wall walk and an interval tower along the east side. The original entrance was blocked and a new entrance was built alongside it at the head of a wooden bridge across the Great Ditch. The stone gatehouse became incorporated into the larger Headlam Tower and a small rectangular keep was built at the north east angle of the enclosure. In addition, the rampart was widened to create a site for timber buildings along the inside of the east and south curtain. The resultant shell keep, occupying the site of the original ringwork, formed the Inner Ward of the castle. To the south and east were three more wards which originated at the same time as the ringwork though they were not fortified in stone until the second phase of rebuilding between 1140 and 1170. The smallest of these was the Middle Ward, situated south of the Inner Ward with the Great Ditch forming its north side and walls enclosing it on the south, west and east sides. The walls here have been heavily robbed but it is clear that this enclosure acted as a barbican or fortified entry for the Inner Ward. It controlled access to the Inner Ward by means of a gate beneath the Constable Tower, a three storey gate-tower on the south side of the Middle Ward. Little of the Constable Tower remains standing, but its foundations and those of other buildings, located by excavation in the south east corner of the ward, survive as buried remains. The approach to the gate was from the Outer Ward which lay to the south and was the largest of the four wards with an area of c.1.5ha. It was enclosed by a curtain wall on the south, west and east sides, and also by the outer ditch which lay outside the east curtain. On the north side another ditch ran from west to east, below the cross-curtain wall that separated the Outer Ward from the Middle and Town Wards and effectively divided the castle in two. The main route into the castle ran parallel with this ditch before turning north to pass beneath the Constable Tower. The Outer Ward has not been excavated but documentary evidence indicates that a chapel dedicated to St Margaret had been built on the east side by the mid-12th century and bestowed on St Mary's Abbey, York. The remains of this chapel survive incorporated into a later stable. Further remains which survive as buried features beneath the buildings, paddocks, yards and gardens that now occupy the Outer Ward, are the farm buildings belonging to the castle and the gate-tower in the east curtain which controlled the approach from the town. The fourth ward was the Town Ward, located in the north east quarter of the castle and enclosed on the north side by the outer curtain. On the east side it was bounded by the curtain and the outer ditch, on the south side by a cross-curtain wall and, on the west side, by the Great Ditch. Excavations inside the Town Ward have uncovered a number of buildings set against the curtain wall round at least one cobbled courtyard containing a pond and a well. Other buildings and yards occupied the open interior and also the wide bank extending round the inside of the walls. Incorporated into the curtain wall were at least three towers and also a postern or pedestrian gate, located in the east curtain. The east curtain does not survive well round the Town Ward, having in places been replaced by a modern wall. Towards the north angle, however, it survives sufficiently well to illustrate a typical defensive feature of the castle: arrow loops set inside recessed arches. In addition, it includes the remains of Brackenbury Tower, a large rectangular structure of two storeys which projects slightly beyond the wall. The upper storey contained a fireplace, two garderobes or privies, and a window with seats converted from one of three recessed arrow loops. Beneath was a barrel-vaulted basement which also contained a fireplace, a garderobe and cupboards. The arrangements on both floors indicate that the tower had a domestic or administrative function. The curtain wall round the north side of the Town Ward is unusual in that it is too narrow to have carried the usual wall walk. It also contains many nesting boxes for pigeons or doves. Included within it is the north gate, a two storey tower with a chamber above the gate passage and rooms flanking it. Though both ground floor rooms contain fireplaces, that to the right is less elaborate and would have been the guardroom while that to the left opened onto the ward and probably also had an administrative function. The third tower of the Town Ward is a small square structure in the north curtain, adjacent to the Great Ditch. It is known as the Dovecote Tower because the interior, from top to bottom, consists of tiers of nesting boxes. In construction the tower dates, like the rest of the ward, to the later 12th century but, before it was a dovecote, it may have had another function connected with a doorway which now opens into mid-air. The doorway led into another building set against the curtain wall, but nothing of this structure survives above ground. As yet, its buried remains have not been excavated, and so its function and relationship to the Dovecote Tower cannot yet be determined. Between 1170 and 1185, following the second building phase, there was a third period of reconstruction carried out only in the Inner Ward. The timber hall was rebuilt in stone and was connected to the gate-tower by a wall behind which lay kitchens and other ancillary buildings. The keep in the north east angle was replaced by the three-storey Round Tower which had both a military and a domestic function, and, between the tower and the new hall was built the Great Chamber: a three-storey residence for the lords of Barnard Castle. The wall round the Inner Ward was strengthened by the addition of the Postern Tower and the Prison Tower, the latter replacing the earlier projecting tower. A bakehouse was also constructed against the curtain. Following this, there were no further alterations until the 14th century when the hall and service buildings were rebuilt and enlarged by the addition of the Mortham Tower, and the access into the Inner Ward was changed to make it more secure. This was achieved by relocating the bridge over the Great Ditch, so that it now ran alongside the west curtain, and by building a demi-bastion, or semicircular tower, which extended from the original Headlam Tower to the edge of the ditch. The route from the bridge was then walled off so that the way into the Inner Ward was completely covered by the new defences even before it reached the gate under the demi-bastion. Also at this time, a portcullis was inserted into the curtain wall at the bottom of the Great Ditch so that the bridge over the Tees could be protected from the castle. During this period the Outer Ward went out of use and at least one building in the Town Ward was demolished. A wet moat was dug alongside the east wall of the Middle Ward and a tower was built to overlook the moat and protect the drawbridge across it. In this way, the castle was made smaller and more defensible, cheaper to run and also more comfortable for its residents. For the next hundred years no further changes were made, and then modifications were only of a minor and domestic kind, including the insertion of an oriel window into the Great Chamber and the addition of a turret onto the Mortham Tower. The first castle was built by Guy de Balliol to be the caput or chief centre of his estates in the north of England. At that time the site was defended not only by the cliffs alongside the Tees but by a steep gully to the north. This gully has since been infilled but, in the 12th century, it still carried the old Roman road between Bowes and Binchester, and the castle commanded the point where this road forded the river. Guy was succeeded by his nephew Barnard de Balliol who, together with his second son, also called Barnard, was responsible for the reconstruction of the castle and the creation of the borough which bears their name. Throughout the next hundred years, the Balliols grew in power and importance until, in 1290, John Balliol defeated the claim of Robert de Brus and became King of Scotland. In his bid for the Scottish throne, however, he had been dependent on the support of Edward I and, in the war which followed his subsequent refusal to do homage to the English king, he rapidly lost power, was taken prisoner by the English, and lost all his estates save the family lands in Picardy. Meanwhile, Barnard Castle was seized by Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham, in response to a long-standing claim that the bishops had rights over the estates which included the castle. Edward I tolerated this for a time but, in 1306, confiscated the lordship of Barnard Castle and granted it in 1307 to Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. From being a home and a stronghold, the castle became merely a source of revenue, and, though it was kept on a war-footing due to the ever-present threat from Scotland, the Beauchamps rarely visited it despite the domestic improvement carried out during their period of lordship. In 1445 the Nevilles succeeded to the Earldom of Warwick and, with the death of Richard Neville at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, the castle passed to Richard, Duke of Gloucester who in 1481 became King Richard III. Richard planned to found an ecclesiastical college within the castle, but these plans had not been realised by the time of his death in 1485.

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries the castle gradually fell into disrepair, as illustrated by surveys done at the time. In 1569 it enjoyed a brief period of importance during the so-called Rising of the North when the Earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, together with the Scropes and Dacres, moved to release Mary, Queen of Scots from Castle Bolton, place her on the throne of England and restore the country to Catholicism. Their rebellion failed, in part due to the time bought by Sir George Bowes, a loyal supporter of Elizabeth I, who moved to Barnard Castle and managed to withstand a ten-day siege before surrendering the castle, thus giving the Earl of Sussex time to muster an army in support of the queen. Following this, the castle and its estate were rented out by the Crown to various tenants, including the Bowes family, until 1603 when James I granted it to Robert Carr, together with the lordship of Raby. By 1630, both Barnard Castle and Raby were in the possession of Sir Henry Vane who proceeded to dismantle the former to provide building material for his improvements to the latter. Since 1952, by a number of Deeds of Gift, the Inner, Middle and Town Wards have been brought into State care. The ruins are also a Grade I Listed Building. (Scheduling Report)

Includes teams from Deuel, Hot Springs, Madison, Parkston/Ethan/Hanson/Mt. Vernon. Permission granted for journalism outlets and educational purposes. Not for commercial use. Must be credited. Photo courtesy of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

©2021 SDPB

 

Japanese food is so neatly presented - from a lunch in a Japanese restaurant in Shanghai

Part of a list of Auckland public houses inspected by Auckland Customs for compliance with regulations concerning beer and tobacco.

 

The list includes many pubs that have since been closed or demolished, including the Army and Navy Hotel which was demolished to make way for the building of Auckland Town Hall, and former live music venues the Gluepot (originally the Ponsonby Club Hotel) closed 1994 and the Kings Arms, Newton, closed last year. Some of the hotels still exist, including the Birdcage (originally the Rob Roy), Freemans Bay, which has been moved around to accommodate Motorway overpasses and the Albion in Hobson Street. The Prince of Wales, Hobson Street, was home to the Auckland City Mission for 38 years.

 

Customs Inwards Letters -

BBAO 5544/185/a 1881/1171

Henry Parker, Tide Surveyor, Customs Office, Auckland - Public Houses - detailed report on compliance with Act. Inspections made together with Constable Kelly - United Service Hotel, J N Abbott - Rising Sun Hotel, C F Main - Royal Mail Hotel, J Codlin - James Slater, Grocer, Wellesley Street - Governor Brown Hotel, Dunningham and King - Star Hotel, Newton, Brophy - Forrester's Arms Hotel, Albert Street, S Coombes - Waitemata Hotel, McGregor - Wharf Hotel, Archard - Cosmopolitan Hotel, Bain - Nevada Hotel, Richmond - British Hotel, Humphreys - Thistle Hotel, Gallagher - Albert Hotel, Gorman - Anchor Hotel - Army and Navy Hotel - Market Hotel, Mrs Hacket - Crown Hotel, Andrews - Carpenters Arms Hotel - Naval Hotel, Kearns - Queens Hotel, Newton - Kings Arms Hotel, King - Newton Hotel, Williams - Working Mans Club, Queen Street - Working Mans Club, Newton - Ponsonby Club Hotel, Sanford - Safalk? [Suffolk] Hotel, College Road - Rob Roy Hotel, Regan - Freemans Hotel, Dervan - Red Lion Hotel, Anderson - Robert Burns Hotel, Mrs Jeffery? - Wellington Hotel, Dinnin - Prince Of Wales Hotel, McCormack - Prince Arthur Hotel, Orams - Albion Hotel, Palmer - Scotia Hotel, Mrs Coyle - Old House at Home, Hobson Street - Empire Hotel, McDermott - Aurora Hotel, Lynch - Victoria Hotel, HILL - Gleeson's Hotel - Black Bull, Clements - Clanrickard [Clanricarde?], Mrs Lynch - Eagle Hotel, McDonald - Bricklayers Arms, Gallagher - Alexandra Hotel, Urquhart - Shamrock Hotel, Adams - Brown Barrett and Company, Elliott Street - 1881

 

Archives reference: BBAO 5544/185/a 1881/1171

 

This item is held in Auckland Regional Office of Archives New Zealand

 

This item has been digitised, and is available online - ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServle...

 

To enquire about this record, please email auckland.archives@dia.govt.nz

Includes teams from Deuel, Hot Springs, Madison, Parkston/Ethan/Hanson/Mt. Vernon. Permission granted for journalism outlets and educational purposes. Not for commercial use. Must be credited. Photo courtesy of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

©2021 SDPB

 

Into the pits for a driver change during the Kinrara Trophy

The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

 

The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.

 

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.

 

HISTORY

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.

 

The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.

 

CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.

 

Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu

 

CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.

 

The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.

 

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.

 

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.

 

REDISCOVERY

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.

 

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.

 

PAINTINGS

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".

 

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.

 

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.

 

In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.

 

COPIES

The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.

 

Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.

 

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.

 

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).

 

ARCHITECTURE

The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.

 

The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.

 

The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.

 

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.

 

The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.

 

The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.

 

The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.

 

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.

 

ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).

 

The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.

 

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.

 

CAVES

CAVE 1

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

 

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.

 

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

 

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.

 

CAVE 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

 

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

 

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

 

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

 

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

 

CAVE 4

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".

 

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.

 

CAVES 9-10

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.

 

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

 

OTHER CAVES

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

 

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.

 

SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.

 

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.

 

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.

 

Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".

 

IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.

 

The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

 

The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.

 

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.

 

HISTORY

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.

 

The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.

 

CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.

 

Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu

 

CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.

 

The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.

 

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.

 

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.

 

REDISCOVERY

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.

 

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.

 

PAINTINGS

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".

 

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.

 

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.

 

In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.

 

COPIES

The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.

 

Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.

 

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.

 

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).

 

ARCHITECTURE

The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.

 

The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.

 

The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.

 

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.

 

The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.

 

The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.

 

The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.

 

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.

 

ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).

 

The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.

 

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.

 

CAVES

CAVE 1

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

 

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.

 

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

 

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.

 

CAVE 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

 

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

 

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

 

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

 

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

 

CAVE 4

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".

 

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.

 

CAVES 9-10

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.

 

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

 

OTHER CAVES

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

 

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.

 

SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.

 

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.

 

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.

 

Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".

 

IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.

 

The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.

 

WIKIPEDIA

There are three Ashfords, really. The modern newtown, Swindonesque newbuilds stretching into the countryside; the Victorian railway town, all neat rows of brick buit houses and the station, and then there is the old town, timber-framed houses along narrow lanes, with St Mary standing towering above all but the modern office blocks.

 

The west end church was given over to a Christmas Fayre, but is also used now as a concert venue, while under the tower westwards is still in use as a church, with many of its ancient features left alone by the Victorians.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

A stately church in a good position set away from the hustle and bustle of this cosmopolitan town. The very narrow tower of 1475 is not visually satisfactory when viewed from a distance but its odd proportions are hardly noticed when standing at its base. The church is very much the product of the families who have been associated with it over the centuries and who are commemorated by monuments within. They include the Fogges and the Smythes. The former is supposed to have wanted to create a college of priests here, but by the late fifteenth century such foundations were going out of fashion and the remodelling of the church undertaken by Sir John Fogge may have just been a philanthropic cause. Unusually, when the church was restored in 1860 the architect Ewan Christian kept the galleries (he usually swept them away), but Christ Church had yet to be built and the population of this growing town would have needed all the accommodation it could get. Even in 1851 1000 people had attended the church in a single sitting. The pulpit, designed by Pearson, was made in 1897.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ashford+1

 

------------------------------------------

 

THE TOWN AND PARISH OF ASHFORD

LIES the next adjoining to Hothfield eastward. It is called in Domesday both Estefort and Essetesford, and in other antient records, Eshetisford, taking its name from the river, which runs close to it, which, Lambarde says, ought not to be called the Stour, till it has passed this town, but Eshe or Eschet, a name which has been for a great length of time wholly forgotten; this river being known, even from its first rise at Lenham hither, by the name of the Stour only.

 

A small part only of this parish, on the east, south and west sides of it, containing the borough of Henwood, alias Hewit, lying on the eastern or further side of the river from the town, part of which extends into the parish of Wilsborough, and the whole of it within the liberty of the manor of Wye, and the borough of Rudlow, which adjoins to Kingsnoth and Great Chart, are in this hundred of Chart and Longbridge; such part of the borough of Rudlow as lies adjoining to Kingsnoth, is said to lie in in jugo de Beavor, or the yoke of Beavor, and is divided from the town and liberty by the river, near a place called Pollbay; in which yoke there is both a hamlet and a green or common, of the name of Beavor; the remainder of the parish having been long separated from it, and made a distinct liberty, or jurisdiction of itself, having a constable of its own, and distinguished by the name of the liberty of the town of Ashford.

 

ASHFORD, at the time of taking the general survey of Domesday, was part of the possessions of Hugo de Montfort, who had accompanied the Conqueror hither, and was afterwards rewarded with this estate, among many others in different counties; in which record it is thus entered, under the general title of his lands:

 

¶Maigno holds of Hugo (de Montfort) Estefort. Turgisus held it of earl Godwin, and it is taxed at one suling. The arable land is half a carucate. There is nevertheless in demesne one carucate, and two villeins having one carucate. There are two servants, and eight acres of meadow. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth twenty five shillings; when he received it, twenty shillings; now thirty shilling.

 

The same Hugo holds Essela. Three tenants held it of king Edward, and could go whither they would with their lands. It was taxed at three yokes. The arable land is one carucate and an half. There are now four villeins, with two borderers having one carucate, and six acres of meadow. The whole, in the reign of king Edward the Confessor, was worth twenty shillings, and afterwards fifteen shillings, now twenty shillings.

 

Maigno held another Essetisford of the same Hugo. Wirelm held it of king Edward. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two, and two villeins, with fifteen borderers having three carucates. There is a church, and a priest, and three servants, and two mills of ten shillings and two pence. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth seventy shillings, and afterwards sixty shillings, now one hundred shillings.

 

Robert de Montfort, grandson of Hugh abovementioned, favouring the title of Robert Curthose, in opposition to king Henry I. to avoid being called in question upon that account, obtained leave to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, leaving his possessions to the king; by which means this manor came into the hands of the crown. Soon after which it seems to have come into the possession of a family, who took their name from it. William de Asshetesford appears by the register of Horton priory to have been lord of it, and to have been succeeded by another of the same name. After which the family of Criol became owners of it, by whom it was held by knight's service of the king, in capite, by ward to Dover castle, and the repair of a tower in that castle, called the Ashford tower. (fn. 1) Simon de Criol, in the 27th and 28th year of Henry III. obtained a charter of free warren for this manor, whose son William de Criol passed it away to Roger de Leyborne, for Stocton, in Huntingdonshire, and Rumford, in Essex. William de Leyborne his son, in the 7th year of king Edward I. claimed and was allowed the privilege of a market here, before the justices itinerant. He died possessed of this manor in the 3d year of Edward II. leaving his grand-daughter Juliana, daughter of Thomas de Leyborne, who died in his father's life-time, heir both to her grandfather and father's possessions, from the greatness of which she was stiled the Infanta of Kent, (fn. 2) though thrice married, yet she died s. p. by either of her husbands, all of whom she survived, and died in the 41st year of Edward III. Upon which this manor, among the rest of her estates, escheated to the crown, and continued there till king Richard II. vested it, among others, in feoffees, for the performance of certain religious bequests by the will of king Edward III. then lately deceased; and they, in compliance with it, soon afterwards, with the king's licence, purchased this manor, with those of Wall, and Esture, of the crown, towards the endowment of St. Stephen's chapel, in the king's palace of Westminster, all which was confirmed by king Henry IV. and VI. and by king Edward IV. in their first years; the latter of whom, in his 7th year, granted to them a fair in this town yearly, on the feast of St. John Port Latin, together with all liberties, and to have a steward to hold the court of it, &c. In which situation they continued till the 1st year of Edward VI. when this collegiate chapel was, with all its possessions, surrendered into the king's hands, where these manors did not continue long; for that king, in his 3d year, granted the manor of Esshetford, with that of Wall, and the manor of Esture, to Sir Anthony Aucher, of Otterden, to hold in capite; and he, in the 2d and 3d of Philip and Mary, sold them to Sir Andrew Judde, of London, whose daughter and at length heir Alice, afterwards carried them in marriage to Thomas Smith, esq. of Westenhanger, commonly called the Customer, who died possessed of them in 1591, and lies buried in the south cross of this church, having had several sons and daughters, of, whom Sir John Smythe, of Ostenhanger, the eldest, succeeded him here, and was sheriff anno 42 Elizabeth. Sir Thomas Smith, the second son, was of Bidborough and Sutton at Hone, and ambassador to Russia, of whom and his descendants, notice has been taken in the former volumes of this history; (fn. 3) and Henry, the third son, was of Corsham, in Wiltshire, whence this family originally descended, and Sir Richard Smith, the fourth, was of Leeds castle. Sir John Smythe, above-mentioned, died in 1609, and lies buried in the same vault as his father in this church, leaving one son Sir Thomas Smythe, of Westenhanger, K. B. who was in 1628 created Viscount Strangford, of Ireland, whose grandson Philip, viscount Strangford, dying about 1709, Henry Roper, lord Teynham, who had married Catherine his eldest daughter, by his will, became possessed of the manors of Ashford, Wall, and Esture. By her, who died in 1711, he had two sons, Philip and Henry, successively lords Teynham; notwithstanding which, having the uncontrolled power in these manors vested in him, he, on his marriage with Anne, second daughter and coheir of Thomas Lennard, earl of Sussex, and widow of Richard Barrett Lennard, esq. afterwards baroness Dacre, settled them on her and her issue by him in tail male. He died in 1623, and left her surviving, and possessed of these manors for her life. She afterwards married the hon. Robert Moore, and died in 1755. She had by lord Teynham two sons, Charles and Richard-Henry, (fn. 4) Charles Roper, the eldest son, died in 1754 intestate, leaving two sons, Trevor-Charles and Henry, who on their mother's death became entitled to these manors, as coheirs in gavelkind, a recovery having been suffered of them, limiting them after her death to Charles Roper their father, in tail male; but being infants, and there being many incumbrances on these estates, a bill was exhibited in chancery, and an act procured anno 29 George II. for the sale of them; and accordingly these manors were sold, under the direction of that court, in 1765, to the Rev. Francis Hender Foote, of Bishopsborne, who in 1768 parted with the manor of Wall, alias Court at Wall, to John Toke, esq. of Great Chart, whose son Nicholas Roundell Toke, is the present possessor of it; but he died possessed of the manors of Ashford and Esture in 1773, and was succeeded in them by his eldest son John Foote, esq. now of Bishopsborne, the present owner of them. There are several copyhold lands held of the manor of Ashford. A court leet and court baron is regularly held for it.

 

THE TOWN OF ASHFORD stands most pleasant and healthy, on the knoll of a hill, of a gentle ascent on every side, the high road from Hythe to Maidstone passing through it, from which, in the middle of the town, the high road branches off through a pleasant country towards Canterbury. The houses are mostly modern and well-built, and the high-street, which has been lately new paved, is of considerable width. The markethouse stands in the centre of it, and the church and school on the south side of it, the beautiful tower of the former being a conspicuous object to the adjoining country. It is a small, but neat and chearful town, and many of the inhabitants of a genteel rank in life. Near the market place, is the house of the late Dr. Isaac Rutton, a physician of long and extensive practice in these parts, being the eldest son of Matthias Rutton, gent of this town, by Sarah his wife, daughter of Sir N. Toke, of Godinton. He died in 1792, bearing for his arms, Parted per fess, azure, and or, three unicorns heads, couped at the neck, counterchanged; since which, his eldest son, Isaac Rutton, esq. now of Ospringeplace, has sold this house to Mr. John Basil Duckworth, in whom it is now vested. In the midst of it is a large handsome house, built in 1759, by John Mascall, gent. who resided in it, and died possessed of it in 1769, and was buried in Boughton Aluph church, bearing for his arms, Barry of two, or, and azure, three inescutcheons, ermine; and his only son, Robert Mascall, esq. now of Ashford, who married the daughter of Jeremiah Curteis, esq. is the present owner, and resides in it. At the east end of the town is a seat, called Brooke-place, formerly possessed by the family of Woodward, who were always stiled, in antient deeds, gentlemen, and bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, sable, between three grasshoppers, or; the last of them, Mr. John Woodward, gent. rebuilt this seat, and died possessed of it in 1757; of whose heirs it was purchased by Martha, widow of Moyle Breton, esq. of Kennington, whose two sons, the Rev. Moyle Breton, and Mr. Whitfield Breton, gent. alienated it to Josias Pattenson, esq. the second son of Mr. Josias Pattenson, of Biddenden, by Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Felix Kadwell, esq. of Rolvenden; he married Mary, daughter of Mr. Henry Dering, gent. of this parish, and widow of Mr. John Mascall above-mentioned, by whom he has no issue, and he is the present owner of this seat, and resides in it. There have been barracks erected lately here, which at present contain 4000 soldiers. The market is held on a Saturday weekly, for the sale of corn, which is now but little used; and a market for the sale of all sorts of fat and lean stock on the first and third Tuesday in every month, which has been of great use to prevent monopolies. Two fairs are annually held now, by the alteration of the stile, on May 17, and Sept. 9, and another on Oct. 24; besides which, there is an annual fair for wool on August 2, not many years since instituted and encouraged by the principal gentry and landholders, which promises to prove of the greatest utility and benefit to the fair sale of it. That branch of the river Stour which rises at Lenham, runs along the southern part of this parish, and having turned a corn mill belonging to the lord of this manor, continues its course close at the east end of the town, where there is a stone bridge of four arches, repaired at the expence of the county, and so on northwards towards Wye and Canterbury. On the south side of the river in this parish, next to Kingsnoth, within the borough of Rudlow, is the yoke of Beavor, with the hamlet and farm of that name, possessed in very early times, as appears by the register of Horton priory, by a family of that name, one of whom, John Beavor, was possessed of it in the reign of Henry II. and was descended from one of the same furname, who attended the Conqueror in his expedition hither. The parish contains about 2000 acres of land, and three hundred and twenty houses, the whole rental of it being 4000l. per annum; the inhabitants are 2000, of which about one hundred are diffenters. The highways throughout it, which not many years ago were exceeding bad, have been by the unanimity of the inhabitants, which has shewn itself remarkable in all their public improvements, a rare instance in parochial undertakings, and by the great attention to the repairs of them, especially in such parts as were near their own houses, are now excellent. The lands round it are much upon a gravelly soil, though towards the east and south there are some rich fertile pastures, intermixed with arable land, and several plantations of hops; but toward the west, the soil is in general sand, having much quarrystone mixed with it, where there is a great deal of coppice wood, quite to Potter's corner, at the boundary of this parish.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a large handsome building, consisting of three isles, with a transept, and three chancels, with the tower in the middle, which is losty and well proportioned, having four pinnacles at the top of it. There are eight bells in it, a set of chimes, and a clock. In the high chancel, on the north side, is the college John Fogge, the founder of the college here, who died in 1490, and his two wives, the brasses of their figures gone; but part of the inscription remains. And formerly, in Weever's time, there hung up in this chancel six atchievements, of those of this family whose burials had been attended by the heralds at arms, and with other ceremonies suitable to their degrees. Underneath the chancel is a large vault, full of the remains of the family. On the pavement in the middle, is a very antient curious gravestone, having on it the figure in brass of a woman, holding in her left hand a banner, with the arms of Ferrers, Six masctes, three and three, in pale; which, with a small part of the inscription round the edge, is all that is remaining; but there was formerly in brass, in her right hand, another banner, with the arms of Valoyns; over her head those of France and England quarterly; and under her feet a shield, being a cross, impaling three chevronels, the whole within a bordure, guttee de sang, and round the edge this inscription, Ici gift Elizabeth Comite D' athels la file sign de Ferrers . . . dieu asoil, qe morust le 22 jour d'octob. can de grace MCCCLXXV. Weever says, she was wife to David de Strabolgie, the fourth of that name, earl of Athol, in Scotland, and daughter of Henry, lord Ferrers, of Groby; and being secondly married to John Malmayns, of this county, died here in this town. Though by a pedigree of the family of Brograve, she is said to marry T. Fogge, esq. of Ashford; if so, he might perhaps have been her third husband. Near her is a memorial for William Whitfield, gent. obt. 1739. The north chancel belonged to Repton manor. In the vault underneath lay three of the family of Tuston, sometime since removed to Rainham, and it has been granted to the Husseys; Thomas Hussey, esq. of this town, died in 1779, and was buried in it. In the south chancel are memorials for the Pattensons, Whitfields, and Apsleys, of this place; and one for Henry Dering, gent. of Shelve, obt. 1752, and Hester his wife; arms, A saltier, a crescent for difference, impaling, on a chevron, between three persons, three crosses, formee; and another memorial for Thomasine, wife of John Handfield, obt. 1704. In the north cross are several antient stones, their brasses all gone, excepting a shield, with the arms of Fogge on one. At the end is a monument for John Norwood, gent. and Mary his wife, of this town, who lie with their children in the vault underneath. The south cross is parted off lengthways, for the family of Smith, lords of Ashford manor, who lie in a vault underneath. In it are three superb monuments, which, not many years since, were beautified and restored to their original state, by the late chief baron Smythe, a descendant of this family. One is for Thomas Smith, esq. of Westenhanger, in 1591; the second for Sir John Smythe, of Ostenhanger, his son, and Elizabeth his wife; and the third for Sir Richard Smyth, of Leeds castle, in 1628: all which have been already mentioned before. Their figures, at full length and proportion, are lying on, each of them, with their several coats of arms and quarterings blazoned. In the other part of this cross, is a memorial for Baptist Pigott, A. M. son of Baptist Pigott, of Dartford, and schoolmaster here, obt. 1657, and at the end of it, is the archbishop's consistory court. In the south isle is a memorial for Thomas Curteis, gent. obt. 1718, and Elizabeth his wife; arms, Curteis impaling Carter. Under the tower is one for Samuel Warren, vicar here forty-eight years, obt. 1720. The three isles were new pewed and handsomely paved in 1745. There are five galleries, and an handsome branch for candles in the middled isle; the whole kept in an excellent state of repair and neatness. There was formerly much curtious painted glass in the windows, particularly the figures of one of the family of Valoyns, his two wives and children, with their arms. In the south window of the cross isle, and in other windows, the figures, kneeling, of king Edward III. the black prince, Richard, duke of Gloucester, the lord Hastings. Sir William Haute, the lord Scales, Richard, earl Rivers, and the dutchess of Bedford his wife, Sir John Fogge, Sir John Peche, Richard Horne, Roger Manstone, and—Guildford, most of which were in the great west window, each habited in their surcoats of arms, not the least traces of which, or of any other coloured glass, are remaining throughout this church. Sir John Goldstone, parson of Ivechurch, as appears by his will in 1503, was buried in the choir of this church, and gave several costly ornaments and vestments for the use of it.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol7/pp526-545

  

The whole set

This set include seven pieces...

- A blouse, fully lined, sewn in a cotton batiste dyed with bright pink color, edged with lace on the bottom sleeves and with pale pink rayon cord around de neckline. Embroidered roses adorn this piece witch closes in the back with beads and loops.

- A pancake tutu sewn with a gradient in different tulle overlays: gold at the top, on dotted cream, on pale pink, and ending below with mauve pink. I used the traditional technique, that is to say, with lots of layers fixed together and with a metal circle inside to maintain a certain rigidity.

- A corseted over-skirt sew in a lovely yellow-cream jacquard silk satin, fully embroidered and edged with lace and burgundy rayon cord. A fake lacing, a knotted rose on the front panel and a real lacing on the back...

- A cream pantyhose, hand painted with acrylic painting, decorated with tiny flowers and leaves rising from the ankle to the knee.

- A short cape, sewn with lace on satin with tiny embroidered roses, edged with fur and closed with a cordon ended with small pompoms. Because I couldn't make up my mind about the color, I I decide to make it reversible: pink or green depending on the mood of the day.

- Hair accessory: some millinery flowers... mounted on hair clips.

- A pair of ballerina shoes.

SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010

 

Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant

 

photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing

 

www.Sports604.com

www.RedBull.ca

www.TerracottaVancouver.com

 

www.PacBluePrinting.com

www.RonSombilonGallery.com

  

About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball

 

"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"

 

Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!

 

Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play

     

.

💡HOW ? 🔽

📋Licence : You are free to use this video in any of your projects within the restrictions and obligations described by the copyright holders, but you must include the following in the description of your video (Copy and paste [---]) [This is not always obligatory ... but highly appreciated].

Music is also free of rights (More information in the description) :

 

✔️ Download VIDEO by Taryn Elliott (Without the background music) : www.dropbox.com/s/zvu9s3g82c5qwli/Taryn%20Elliott%20-%20S...

 

👑 Senses : 👀 Vision 👆 To Touch 💃 Proprioception 👂 Hearing Equilibrioception 👃 Smell ♨️ Thermoception

⚡ Intelligences : ️ Spatial Intelligence

⛹️ Kinesthetic Body Intelligence

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Interpersonal Intelligence

🌲 Ecologicalist Naturalist Intelligence

🔭 Existential Intelligence

 

📋 WHAT ? 🔽

🌟 Taryn Elliott - Second Umbilical Cord

💫 Family/Mother/Children/Water World

🌌 Human & No Copyright Video Galaxy

✨ Scene (🎬)

📝 Type : Ground eXploration

🎨 Style : eXploration

🔊 Language : International (🇬🇧 description in English, but comprehensible by the whole world)

 

---

Support :

🎥 Taryn Elliott :

📌 Website : www.peanutbuttervisuals.com/

📌 Pexels : www.pexels.com/fr-fr/@taryn-elliott-1522664

📌 Instagram : www.instagram.com/tea_for_taryn/

📌 Facebook : www.facebook.com/peanutbuttervisuals

💰 www.paypal.com/donate/?token=oCrU-SFTFfVwpBgz2FeMeFEqrNgk...

---

🎵Kevin MacLeod :

ℹ️ How to use music : creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

➡️ Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

📌 Youtube : www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic/videos

📌 Facebook : www.facebook.com/kmacleodmusic/

📌 Twitter : twitter.com/kmacleod

📌 Twitch : www.twitch.tv/kevinmacleod

📌 Wikipedia : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_MacLeod

💰 Patreon : www.patreon.com/kmacleod

---

 

🎼Music promoted by eMotion

📼Video Link : youtu.be/erYB_JGao7g

 

️Video promoted by eXploration

📼Video Link : youtu.be/IFn5QAD0QO0

 

📏 HOW MUCH ? 🔽

👑 7 Senses

⚡ 5 Intelligences

 

WHO ? 🔽

🎥 Filmed by Taryn Elliott

📡 Posted by Laurent Guidali (Music Add)

🎵Music by Kevin MacLeod

 

❓ WHY ? 🔽

Use free, royalty free and of course quality videos

 

📍 WHERE ? 🔽

🇿🇦 South Africa (Video)

? (Location)

🇫🇷 France [Laurent Guidali] (Repost)

 

🕓 WHEN ? 🔽

?

 

👉 Follow us :

💥 Facebook : www.facebook.com/EXploration-160662074522859

💥 Instagram : www.instagram.com/explorationetoile

💥 Flickr : www.flickr.com/people/explorationetoile

💥 Dailymotion : www.dailymotion.com/explorationetoile

💥 Youtube : www.youtube.com/channel/UCpvj7oecmX3AsJT6R0JP2pQ?

💥 Tumblr : explorationetoile.tumblr.com

💥 Pinterest : www.pinterest.fr/eXplorationEtoile

💥 Twitter : twitter.com/eXplorationETL

 

🔖 React with official Hashtags :

#Etoile

#ETL

#eXploration

 

💌 Contact : contactexploration@gmail.com

 

⭐ www.etoile.app

Humpback whales are rorquals (Balaenopteridae, a family that includes the blue, fin, Bryde's, sei, and minke whales). The rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene. The sole member of its genus, the humpback was first identified as baleine de la Nouvelle Angleterre off the coast of New England by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Regnum Animale of 1756. The common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name Megaptera comes from the Greek mega-/μεγα- ("giant") and ptera/πτερα ("wing") and refers to their large front flippers.

 

Genetic research in mid-2014 by the British Antarctic Survey confirmed that the separate populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans are more distinct than previously thought. Some biologists believe that these should be regarded as separate, independently evolving subspecies.

 

Humpbacks have a stocky body, obvious hump, and black dorsal colouring. The head and lower jaw are covered in tubercles, knobby hair follicles characteristic of the species. Humpbacks have 270-400 dark baleen plates on each side of their mouths. The plates measure from 46 centimetres in the front to almost a metre in the back. About 14-22 wide ventral grooves run from the lower jaw to the umbilicus. The female has a hemispherical lobe about 15 centimetres in diameter in her genital region. Fully grown males average 13-14 metres and females are slightly larger at 15-16 metres; one large recorded specimen was 19 metres long and had pectoral fins measuring 6 metres each. Body mass is typically around 25-30 metric tons, with large specimens weighing over 40 metric tons.

 

The long black and white tail fin can be up to a third of body length. The varying patterns on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals. During a study using data from 1973 to 1998 on whales in the North Atlantic, a photographic catalogue of all known North Atlantic whales was developed; it's maintained by the College of the Atlantic. Several hypotheses attempt to explain the humpback's pectoral fins, proportionally the longest fins of any cetacean, such as higher maneuverability and increased surface area for temperature control when migrating between warm and cold climates.

 

Whales produce a three-metre-long, heart-shaped blow through the blowholes. They don't generally sleep at the surface but must continue to breathe: it's possible that only half of their brain sleeps at one time, allowing the other half to manage the surface/blow/dive process.

 

The lifespan of rorquals ranges from 45 to 100 years. Females reach sexual maturity at age five, achieving full adult size a little later. Males reach sexual maturity around seven years of age. Courtship rituals take place during the winter months, following migration toward the equator from summer feeding grounds closer to the poles. Competition is usually fierce. Unrelated males, or "escorts," frequently trail single cows and cow-calf pairs. Males gather into "competition groups" around a female and fight for the right to mate with her. Groups shrink and grow as unsuccessful males retreat and others arrive. Behaviors include breaching, spy-hopping, lob-tailing, tail-slapping, pectoral fin-slapping, peduncle throws, charging, and parrying.

 

Both male and female humpback whales vocalize, but only males produce the long, loud, complex song for which the species is famous. Each song consists of several sounds in a low register, varying in amplitude and frequency and typically lasting from 10 to 20 minutes. Individuals may sing continuously for more than 24 hours. Cetaceans have no vocal cords, instead forcing air through their massive nasal cavities (blowholes).

 

Whales within a large area sing a single song: all North Atlantic humpbacks sing the same song, while those of the North Pacific sing a different song. Each population's song changes slowly over a period of years without repeating. Many of the whales observed to approach a singer are other males, often resulting in conflict: singing may, therefore, be a challenge to other males as well as a way to impress females. Some scientists have hypothesized the song may serve an echolocative function. During the feeding season, humpbacks make unrelated vocalizations to herd fish into their bubble nets and they use other sounds to communicate, such as grunts, groans, "thwops," snorts, and barks.

 

Females typically breed every two or three years. The gestation period is 11.5 months. The peak months for birth are January, February (northern hemisphere), July, and August (southern hemisphere). Females wait for one to two years before breeding again. Recent research on mitochondrial DNA reveals that groups living in proximity to each other may represent distinct breeding pools.

 

A newborn calf is roughly the length of its mother's head. At birth, calves measure six metres and two tons. They nurse for about six months, then mix nursing and independent feeding for around six months more. Humpback milk is pink and 50% fat.

 

Humpbacks have a loosely knit social structure: individuals usually live alone or in small, transient groups that disband after a few hours. Groups may stay together longer in summer to forage and feed cooperatively. Longer-term relationships of months or even years between pairs or small groups have occasionally been observed, and some females might create lifelong bonds through cooperative feeding.

 

Humpbacks inhabit all major oceans, in a wide band running from the Antarctic ice edge to 77° N latitude. The four distinct tribes are the North Pacific, Atlantic, Southern Ocean, and Indian Ocean populations. Whales were once uncommon in the eastern Mediterranean or the Baltic Sea but have increased their presence in both waters as global populations have recovered. They have also returned to Scotland, Skagerrak, and Kattegat, as well as Scandinavian fjords such as Kvænangen, where they had not been observed for decades. Since November 2015, Hachijo-jima has been recognized as the northernmost breeding ground in the world.

 

Humpbacks typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each year. A 2007 study identified seven individuals wintering off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica as having traveled from the Antarctic—around 8,300 kilometres. Identified by their unique tail patterns, these animals made the longest mammalian migration ever documented.

 

The humpback's range overlaps with other whale and dolphin species. Humpbacks are friendly and interact with other cetaceans such as bottlenose dolphins and right whales. These behaviors have been recorded in all oceans, and humpback whales regularly appear in mixed groups with other species, such as the blue, fin, minke, gray, and sperm whales. Humpback and southern right whales demonstrating what were interpreted to be mating behaviors have been observed off the Mozambique and Brazilian coasts. A male humpback whale was seen singing to a fin whale at Rarotonga in 2014, and another individual was observed playing with a bottlenose dolphin in Hawaiian waters. Incidents of humpback whales protecting other species of animals such as seals and other whales from killer whales have also been documented.

 

Humpbacks feed primarily in summer and live off fat reserves during winter, when they feed only rarely and opportunistically. The humpback is an energetic hunter, taking krill and small schooling fish such as herring, salmon, capelin, and American sand lance, as well as Atlantic mackerel, pollock, and haddock in the North Atlantic. Pleated grooves in the whale's mouth allow water to easily drain out, filtering out the prey. The humpback has the most diverse hunting repertoire of all baleen whales, sometimes stunning prey by hitting the water with pectoral fins or flukes. Its most inventive technique is known as bubble net feeding, in which a group of up to a dozen whales swims in a shrinking circle below a school of prey and traps it in a cylinder of bubbles. The ring can start out about 30 metres in diameter. Some whales blow the bubbles, some dive deeper to drive fish toward the surface, and others herd prey into the trap by vocalizing. The whales then all suddenly swim up, swallowing thousands of fish.

 

The technique of lobtail feeding, observed in the North Atlantic, involves slapping the surface of the ocean with the tail up to four times before creating the bubble net. Based on network-based diffusion analysis, researchers believe that these whales learned the behavior from other whales in the group over a period of 27 years in response to a change in the primary form of prey.

 

Visible scars indicate that killer whales can prey upon juvenile humpbacks. Mothers and (possibly related) adults escort neonates to deter such predation. It's believed that orcas turned to other prey when humpbacks suffered near-extinction during the whaling era but are now resuming their former practice.

 

Humpback whales were hunted by humans on a commercial level as early as the 18th century. By the 19th century, many nations (the United States in particular) were hunting the animal heavily in the Atlantic and to a lesser extent in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The explosive harpoon introduced in the late 19th century, along with the extension of hunting into the Antarctic ocean from 1904, drastically reduced whale populations. During the 20th century, over 200,000 humpbacks were taken, reducing the global population by over 90%. North Atlantic populations dropped to as low as 700 individuals.

 

In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was founded: they imposed hunting regulations and seasons. To prevent extinction, IWC banned commercial humpback whaling in 1966, by which time the global population had been reduced to around 5,000 animals (around 90% having been exterminated). The Soviet Union deliberately under-recorded its catches; the Soviets reported catching 2,820 whales between 1947 and 1972, but the true number was over 48,000.

 

As of 2004, hunting was restricted to a few animals each year off the Caribbean island of Bequia in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The take is not believed to threaten the local population. Japan's announcement that it planned to kill 50 humpbacks in the 2007/08 season under its JARPA II "research" program sparked global protests and a visit to Tokyo by the IWC chair, and the Japanese whaling fleet agreed to take no humpback whales during the two years it would take to reach a formal agreement. In 2010, the IWC authorized Greenland's native population to hunt a few humpback whales for the following three years.

 

In Japan, humpback, minkes, sperm, and many other smaller Odontoceti, including critically endangered species such as North Pacific right, western gray, and northern fin whales, have been targets of illegal captures. Humpback meat can be found on the markets. Harpoons are used to hunt dolphins or intentionally drive whales into nets, reporting them as cases of entanglement. Unknown numbers of humpbacks have been illegally hunted in the Exclusive Economic Zones of anti-whaling nations such as off Mexico and South Africa.

 

Because they're easily approachable, curious, identifiable as individuals, and display many interesting behaviors, they have become the mainstay of whale tourism around the world. Analyses of whale songs in the 1960s led to worldwide media interest and convinced the public that whales were highly intelligent, aiding the anti-whaling advocates. Humpbacks are popular with whale-watchers because of their distinctive surface behaviors: they frequently breach, throwing two-thirds or more of their bodies out of the water and splashing down on their backs. Some humpbacks, referred to as "friendlies," often stay under or near whale-watching boats for many minutes.

 

While whaling no longer threatens the species, individuals are vulnerable to collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing gear, and noise pollution. Like other cetaceans, humpbacks can be injured by excessive noise. In the 19th century, two humpback whales were found dead near sites of repeated oceanic sub-bottom blasting, with traumatic injuries and fractures in the ears.

 

The species was listed as vulnerable in 1996 and endangered as recently as 1988. In August 2008, the IUCN changed humpback's status from "vulnerable" to "least concern," although two subpopulations remain endangered. Most monitored stocks have rebounded since the end of commercial whaling and now reach around 80,000 worldwide. Though the North Atlantic stocks are believed to be approaching pre-hunting level, the species is still considered endangered in some countries, including the United States.

 

A few of the planes displaying at the Eastbourne Airshow this weekend based themselves at Shoreham Airport. I popped over for a look and saw the Pitts Special take-off.

Shannan, Tibet :

 

Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Shannan includes Gonggar County within its jurisdiction with Gongkar Chö Monastery, Gonggar Dzong, and Gonggar Airport all located near Gonggar town.

 

Located on the middle and lower reaches of the Yarlung Valley, formed by the Yarlung Tsangpo River, Lhoka region is often regarded as the birthplace of Tibetan civilization. It is bounded by the city of Lhasa to the north, Nyingchi to the east, Shigatse on the west and the international border with India and Bhutan on the south. The city measures 420 kilometres (260 mi) east to west and 329 kilometres (204 mi) from north to south. Its uniqueness stems from the fact that Tibet's earliest agricultural farmland, its first palace and first Buddhist monastery are all located in Lhoka. It also has the distinction of having held the first lhamo performance. Tibetan people constitute 98% of the population, the remaining 2% being Han, Hui, Mönpa, Lhoba and other ethnic groups.

 

Shannan has 1 district and 11 counties and its capital is Tsetang, which is located 183 kilometres from Lhasa. It covers an area of 79,700 square kilometres (30,800 sq mi), which includes South Tibet, a disputed territory under the Administration of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Its topography averages 3,700 metres (12,100 ft) above sea level. The population of Tsetang city was 330,100 as of 2007 with Tibetans accounting for 96% of the total population.

 

Lhoka region has not only an ancient historical background but is also the most prosperous in Tibet.

willowgrovedaycamp.com/willows/

 

At this time in the camp season each child has found his/her favorite activities, which include Basketball, Soccer, Nature, Boating/Fishing, Tennis, Mini-Golf, Dance, etc.. Another favorite activity is when the Willows ride the Big Wheels. Everyone really loves racing their cars around the track. Of course, all The Willows love swimming and riding “Magic,” the pony.

 

Last week ended on a tasty note with our campers making Tie Dye bread in Cooking. After the bread was dyed, it was turned into grilled cheese or toast. Everyone found it yummy!

On Tuesday the Tadpoles and Minnows went to Woodcraft where they painted bird houses. They really enjoyed choosing their favorite colors. The Willows really love participating in big kid activities.

 

Our theme this week was “Up, Up and Away.” In Camper Creations, the children had fun making and decorating refrigerator kite magnets. They can’t wait to display them at home! In Ceramics, the children enjoyed adorning their ceramic bathing suits. These projects will be painted and sent home before the end of camp. We hope you enjoyed your child’s

ceramic hands/foot prints and ceramic faces.

 

While Carnival was postponed on Thursday the day was full of terrific rainy day activities. Our theme was “Harry the Dirty Dog” and we made a special snack, read the book, watched the movie and made our furry friends.

 

This fun filled week ended as the campers were thrilled to participate in the annual Carnival on Friday. It was a huge success and everyone had a terrific time. The campers played games, went on rides, ate lots of goodies and won prizes at various booths. Also on Friday was “Puttin’ on the Hits” where The Willows danced to the “Banana” song from “Despicable Me.”

 

About Willow Grove Day Camp

Willow Grove Day Camp provides summer fun for kids who live in Willow Grove, Abington, Blue Bell, Hatboro, Horsham, Huntingdon Valley, Lafayette Hill, Philadelphia, Plymouth Meeting, Southampton and the surrounding areas. For more information on the Willows at Willow Grove Day Camp please visit: willowgrovedaycamp.com/willows/

 

This beautiful edition of “The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature” is over 500 pages long, with amazing illustrations appearing on nearly every page. A few of the more well known illustrated stories include ; Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wizard of Oz, The Goose with the Golden Eggs, Humpty Dumpty, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Puss in boots, Three Blind Mice, Robinhood, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The Velveteen Rabit, Rapunzel, The Night Before Christmas, Gulliver’s Travels, The Three Little Pigs, Goldylocks and the Three Bears, Sleeping Beauty, Treasure Island, etc….etc….. Works by A. A. Milne, The Brothers Grimm, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dr. Seuss, Rudyard Kipling, Aesop, Robert Louis Stephenson, Beatrix Potter, and Lewis Carroll just to name a few.

 

This Vintage book appears to be a first edition, as there are no other copy write or printing / publishing dates printed. The Hardcover book measures 10 ½” tall by 8” wide. The boards have a beautiful blue leaf design, and a blue spine with gold lettering. The spine has a small piece missing from the top, and there is a very minor and unnoticeable light stain on the back cover of the book. All pages are present, and very clean with NO tears, folding, or internal markings. The Binding is tight, and the gold lettering on the spine is in excellent condition.

 

Many of the pictures are taken from antique bookplates, and several are suitable for framing. The book itself has NO visible shelf ware, and appears to have been kept in its slipcase throughout the years. The original slipcase is included, and it is in great vintage condition as well. There is some minor shelf wear to the edges and corners of the slipcase, and the original picture is still tightly affixed to the front.

 

Hagerstown, Indiana (September 10, 2012) The new Model T Ford Museum is slated to hold its grand opening during Richmond’s Octoberfest on September 28 at 6 p.m. The museum which was previously located in Centerville, Indiana near the Warm Glow Candle Factory for 5 years moved just a few miles east to Richmond, Indiana’s Historical Depot District this past spring.

 

Since the move to Richmond volunteers have been steadily preparing the museum’s new home, displays and vehicles for the event.

Today, a photo shoot for the Model T Museum’s newly acquired 1930 Pietenpol Sky Scout was held at the Hagerstown Airport.

 

The plan arrived at the airport around 10:00 a.m. this morning and was assembled by Model T enthusiasts and many of them brought their own Model Ts to use during the photo shoot.

 

One of the people there today was Mr. Jay Klehfoth who is the CEO and publisher of the Vintage Ford Magazine.

 

Jay is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to all things Model T. I was to learn he’s pretty knowledgeable in a lot of areas too. During our walk around of the plane Jay pointed out one of the parts for the engine had been made by a former factory in Richmond of all places. And there are many other special things about this airplane I’m sure he’ll be writing about in the next issue of the the Vintage Ford Magazine. He not only knew a lot about the Pietenpol Sky Scout plane that was being photographed for the magazine cover. He’s pretty sharp when it comes to airports too. He said that the Hagerstown airport were today’s photo shoot was done has the longest grass landing strip in the United States which to me made it the perfect place for today’s event.

 

This Pietenpol that will be on display at the museum is powered by a 20 HP Model T engine which was modified to include dual-ignition which is used in aviation. According to an article in the AntiqueAirfield.com website from September 10, 2012 there was only one original Pietenpol Sky Scout built by Bernard Pietenpol himself, and just two replicas. The article also said that all 3 were still flying.

 

The new Model T Ford Museum is going to be an exciting addition to what is one of Indiana’s grandest historical areas and a must in this part of the Midwest.

 

Richmond is a perfect place for any day trip. But, if you want to see all that Richmond has to offer you’ll need to plan on staying several days.

 

The Model T Ford Museum is located in Richmond’s Historic Depot District at 309 N 8th St, Richmond, IN 47374 - 765-488-0026.

Model T Ford Museum website: www.mtfca.com/clubpages/museum.htm

 

Additional Information:

The Model T Ford Club of America has nearly 8,000 families worldwide. Members are from all 50 states and 41 other countries.

The Vintage Ford Magazine is published bimonthly by the Model T Ford Club of America, 119 W. Main Street, Centerville, Indiana and is mailed to all members. Subscription rates are $35.00 per year (six issues) in the United States ($42.00 Canada and $44.00 elsewhere) and include member ship in the club.

All correspondence should be ad dressed to:

THE MODEL T FORD CLUB

OF AMERICA

P.O. Box 126

Centerville, IN 47330-0126

765-855-5248 fax 765-855-3428

e-mail: admin@mtfca.com

 

Raw Video: Prepping Pietenpol Sky Scout For Photo Shoot youtu.be/7_JnszAF8GA

 

Video: Pietenpol Sky Scout Photo Shoot youtu.be/h3m6ZWgNJMg

 

Video: Model T Ford Museum Grand Opening Set youtu.be/OwIiE5O1UQk

THE ALBUMS

 

June 23rd 2008 sees the re-release of a salvo of Orb albums through Universal Catalogue. All four albums, Pomme Fritz, Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion & Cydonia were all originally released on Island Records.

 

All four albums come as 2-CD packages and include fully re-mastered versions of the original albums, deluxe, expanded packaging with sleeve notes from Kris Needs plus rare and previously unreleased mixes from the period of the original album releases.

 

Released in July 1994, Pomme Fritz was the bands first album for Island Records having released their first two albums for Big Life. By now something of a ‘household name’ thanks to the success of 2nd album U.F.Orb, Pomme Fritz, sub-titled The Orb’s Little Album, came as something of a shock to fans and critics alike. At 41 minutes it was, in Orb terms, something of a sprint and following the almost ‘pop’ sensibility of tracks such as Perpetual Dawn & Little Fluffy Clouds the disjointed, dissonance of Pomme Fritz was at odds to what had gone before, yet with hindsight Orb leader Alex Paterson see the album in terms of wiping the slate clean in order to begin again.

 

1995 saw the release of Orbus Terrarum, an album many Orb officianados see as something of a lost classic. The last album to feature Kris ‘Thrash’ Weston (who would be replaced with Andy Hughes), it still baffled many UK critics who were, at the time, in thrall to the prevailing flavour du jour of Britpop, yet it proved to be the bands biggest success in the U.S. More organic and straight-forward than its predecessor only one single, Oxbox Lakes was lifted from the album.

 

2 years later in 1996 and the Orb would return with Orbilivion, an album that would see them return to the commercial success they had achieved with their first two albums and spawn what was to be their biggest single to date. Now primarily Paterson & Hughes, the Orb scored their 1st top 5 single with Toxygene the first single to be lifted from the album. Starting life as a rejected remix of the Jean Michel Jarre track Oxygene (turned down as it bore no resemblance to the original) the single reached number 4 in January of 1996. The album saw the band re-capture some critical ground as reviews celebrated the long-player as something of a ‘return to form’.

 

Despite the various corporate reshuffles at the Orb’s label, Cydonia, the final album for Island, finally emerged in 2001. Recorded in 1999, the album played to the Orb’s strengths. Moments of bass heavy ambience, recalling the heady days of the early 90’s sat alongside ‘pop’ moments such as the first single from the album, Once More. Soon after its release the band parted company with the label, following a final ‘greatest hits’ complilation U.F.Off and a legendary show at the Royal Albert Hall.

 

THE HISTORY

 

Essentially the brainchild of Alex Paterson, the Orb sprang forth from the punk rock ethos of ‘anything-goes’. Initially working with Killing Joke’s Youth and KLF-er Jimmy Cauty and inspired by New York mix-tapes from the likes of Shep Pettibone, the Orb’s initial game plan was to operate outside any restrictive notion of genre by utilising anything from dub to punk to abstract electronic bleeps and blips. The mentality, which spawned the Orb, stemmed from having a laugh but being deadly serious about amazing music of whatever strain or period.

 

With the advent of acid-house in 1988 their ambient workings and DJ sets, which straddled the gaps between the ambience of Eno & White Noise, early house tracks and the wide-screen space of classic dub, saw them much in demand in the capitals nascent club-scene. Providing back-room entertainment at legendary bashes such as Trancentral and Land of Oz the early incarnation of the Orb soon gained a reputation for something different in a world where the 4/4 beat ruled supreme.

 

It wasn’t long before their formative ideas made it to vinyl and early releases such as A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld and Little Fluffy Clouds became acclaimed as defining a genre that would be loosely referred to as ‘ambient-house’.

 

Their debut album, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, released in 1991 established them as one of the UK’s most innovative and expansive electronic bands; a deeply textured album of other-worldly sounds and subtle beats it was widely hailed as unique and highly original record.

 

The following year, 1992, saw the release of arguably their ‘piece de la resistance’ U.F.Orb which saw them really capture the spirit of the time: rumbling bass heavy moments in dub, dis-jointed snippets of sound, abstract beats and dialogue segments from long-forgotten counter-culture films. It reached number one upon release, the first album by a British electronic / dance act to do so and went on to become one of the definitive electronic releases of the period.

 

20-years after acid-house first exploded it’s easy to forget how pioneering artists such as the Orb really were. They took the DIY ethos of punk and fused it with a sense of musical exploration afforded by the explosion of electronic music and created a sound that was unique and something that would spawn a slew of imitators.

 

Alex would continue to record as the Orb putting out albums that continued to explore beyond the norm and became a much in-demand collaborator / remixer working with the likes of Primal Scream who all appreciated the pranksters one-off, devil-may-care musical abilities.

 

The full tracklisting of the albums are as follows:

 

Pomme Fritz

 

Disc 1 (original album)

 

Pomme Fritz (Meat ‘n’ Veg)

 

More Gills Less Fish Cakes

 

We’re Pastie To Be Grill You

 

Bang ‘Er ‘N’ Chips

 

Alles Ist Schoen

 

His Immortal Logness

 

Disc 2 (Remixes)

 

Sausage Tats Mit Gravy (Dom Mix no.1)

 

Star Twister (Pomme Fritz & Apple Sauce Mix)

 

Potato Fields Of Electric Gliding Blue (Ambient Mix)

 

Eastern Hot Dogs In Gardens Of Dub (Lx Mix)

 

Wrapped With Salt & Vinegar (Thomas Fehlmann Mix)

  

Orbus Terrarum

 

Disc 1 (original album)

 

Valley

 

Plateau

 

Oxbox Lakes

 

Montagne D’or (Der Gute Berg)

 

White River Junction

 

Occidental

 

Slug Dub

 

Disc 2 (Remixes)

 

Plateau (All Hands On Deck Mix – 2am)

 

Slug Dub (Dumpy Dub)

 

Valley (Mix 3 Dubby)

 

White River Junction (Zoom Vinegar Mix)

 

Oxbox Lakes (Andy’s Space Mix)

 

Peace Pudding (Occidental)

 

Orblivion

 

Disc 1 (original album)

 

Delta Mk II

 

Ubiquity

 

Asylum

 

Bedouin

 

Molten Love

 

Pi - Part One

 

S.A.L.T

 

Toxygene

 

Log Of Deadwood

 

Secrets

 

Passing Of Time

 

72

 

Disc 2 (remixes)

 

Delta Mk II (Love Bites Mix)

 

Bedouin (The Sheiks Film Mix)

 

Log Of Deadwood (Implanting Machines Mix)

 

Secrets (I Love A Woman In Uniform Mix)

 

Passing Of Time (Ambient Mix)

 

Molten Love (Orbits Of Venus Mix)

 

S.A.L.T. (Snow Mix)

 

Toxygene (Kris Needs Up For A Fortnight Mix)

 

Asylum (Soul Catcher Mix)

  

Cydonia

 

Disc 1 (original album)

 

Once More

 

Promis

 

Ghostdancing

 

Turn It Down

 

Egnable

 

Firestar

 

A Mile Long Lump Of Lard

 

Centuries

 

Plum Island

 

Hamlet Of Kings

 

1,1,1

 

Edm – The Blackhole Mix

 

Thursday’s Keeper

 

Terminus

 

Disc 2 (remixes)

 

Centuries (Europhen Mix)

 

Ghostdancing (version)

 

Hamlet Of Kings (version)

 

Firestar (Front Bits)

 

Centuries (Wine, Woman & King Mix)

 

Once More (Scourge Of The Earth Mix)

 

Plum Island (Flat Mix)

 

Promis (Version)

 

Once More (Bedrock Edit 2)

 

Turn It Down (Long Version)

 

Terminus (Andy’s Mix)

 

For further information contact:

Steve Phillips

Coalition PR 0208 987 0123

Steve@coalitiongroup.co.uk

 

Landscape of the SDZSP include :

 

Bamboo, Cactus, Flowers, Plants, Shrubs, Trees with a wealth of plant life that graces the grounds. San Diego's mild Mediterranean climate makes it possible to grow more different kinds of plants than almost anywhere else in the United States. With more than a million plants on a total of 1,900 acres at the Zoo and the Safari Park, their grounds make up a truly world-class botanical garden and they have been recognized as such. Next visit look beyond the animals to the world they live in and appreciate this botanical treasure.

 

Hope you enjoy!

Pix.by.PegiSue www.flickr.com/photos/pix-by-pegisue/

 

Taken @ SDZ Safari Park

Escondido, California

Includes High Commander Culln with his Honour guard and eight of the Red Scorpions Commanders.

BLM's Cebolla Wilderness, located within the El Malpais National Conservation Area, includes 61,600 acres of rimrock country east of NM 117. Sanstone mesas, canyons and grassy valleys characterize the area. The Mesas and canyons are clad with juniper, piñon, and ponderosa pine. Vertical escarpments provide excellent nesting habitat for golden eagles, prairie falcons, red-tail hawks, and great horned owls.

 

The Cebolla Wilderness is rich in prehistoric archaeological sites, petroglyphs and historic homesteads. One such archaeological site is the Dittert Site (Download Brochure). Sometime between A.D. 1000 and1300, the Dittert Site was built and occupied by the Anasazi people, who were the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indian people. Cebolla Wilderness also contains La Ventana Natural Arch, a dramatic arch sculpted through wind and water erosion in the sandstone cliffs located about ¼ mile inside the wilderness.

 

Recreation activities include primitive types, such as hiking, backpacking, camping, wildlife viewing and horseback riding.

 

Learn more: on.doi.gov/1eYnhHW

 

Photo: Bob Wick, BLM California

Webb Telescope: supernova discovery machine!

 

Webb has identified 10 times more supernovae in the early universe than previously known. Several are the most distant examples of their type, including those used to measure the universe's expansion rate.

 

As the universe expands, light gets stretched into longer (infrared) wavelengths over time. This is called redshift! Because their light has been traveling such great distances, and for so long, Webb’s powerful and sensitive infrared eye is ideal for observing far-off supernovae.

 

Before Webb, only a handful of supernovae above a redshift of 2 (corresponding to when the universe was 3.3 billion years old) had been found. Now Webb’s data sample includes dying stars that exploded when the universe was less than 2 billion years old, in its pre-teens. Learn more:

science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-opens-new-windo...

 

This image: The JADES Deep Field uses observations taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the JADES (JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey) program. A team of astronomers studying JADES data identified about 80 objects (circled in green) that changed in brightness over time. Most of these objects, known as transients, are the result of exploding stars or supernovae. Prior to this survey, only a handful of supernovae had been found above a redshift of 2, which corresponds to when the universe was only 3.3 billion years old — just 25% of its current age. The JADES sample contains many supernovae that exploded even further in the past, when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. It includes the farthest one ever spectroscopically confirmed, at a redshift of 3.6. Its progenitor star exploded when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old. |

 

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JADES Collaboration

 

Image description: Space telescope image showing hundreds of objects of different colors, shapes, and sizes scattered across the black background of space. There are small red blobs; larger, fuzzy white or blueish ball-shaped masses with bright centers; white, pink, or blue disc shapes; clear spiral structures; and barely discernible specs. Eighty-three of the smaller objects in the image are circled in green. Some of the circles are close together; some are far apart; some overlap. There is no apparent pattern in the distribution.

   

A cigarette break for the kitchen staff in the nearby and aptly named "Bela Vista" Restaurant.

SEE OTHER PICTURES IN ALBUM.AIRCRAFT ON GROUND INCLUDE U.S. AIR FORCE B-1B 85-0073,C-17A 93-0604,C-130J 03-8154,F-15C 86-0154,F-15E 01-2004,A-10A 81-0954,F-16 89-2127,U.S. NAVY E2C 163694,S-3B 160143,SH-60 164454,UAE A/F F-16E 3050,3056,C-130 311,EGYPT A/F CH-47D 3002,RUSSIA A/F MIG 29 777,918,PC12 ZS-YEA,A319 F-OHJY,P180 I-RAIL,ITALY A/F P180 MM62213,C208 N8HZ,LET 410 OK-WDC,RAF MERLIN HC3 ZJ124,M346 CMX616,FRENCH A/F RAFALE B 302,T-50 ROKAF 05-001,06-003,SAAB GRIPPEN 39816,39227,AERO L-159 6073,PAKISTAN A/F K8 03-02-812,03-02-810,AN74TK UR-YVA,UR-74038,747-400 A6-HRM,7377BBJ A6-AIN,HB-HZC PC21,N6066Z 777 BOEING,F-WWDD A380 AIB/EK,PP-XJG E175,5R-MJF ATR72 AIR MADAGASCAR,C-FGRE CRJ700 UA EXPRESS,ZS-POT BE400,ZS-ULT LJ45,F-GUDC F2000,F-GSNA F900,A6-RJM BD300,A6-RJA G300,HB-JEX BD700,JY-AW1 C560XL,HB-VOB H800XP,N517LR BAE 125-1000,N238CX C750X,N6128Y BEECH 390,N232LJ LJ60,N606GA G200,N142HC G450,N571GA G550,N604CD CL604,N300BZ BD300,N900UD C650,N132SV C680,N140AE G5000,074 AH-64 UAE A/F

 

LGB_5045_Train_Station_Figures_Signalman_Shunter_w_Lantern_Waiter_Sausage_Vendor

 

LGB 5045 - 3 Train Station Figures from the 1980's for your G Scale set. Includes Signalman/Shunter with lantern/lamp, waiter, and a Sausage/Hot-dog Vendor/Seller. All three figures included in this listing. Marked as Discontinued in the 1990/1991 World of LGB Catalog for sale in my store.

 

Additional items in photos are not included and are for display purposes only. Other photos are taken from LGB catalogs which are listed in my store, many of the anniversary catalogs list the figures. All figures and accessories are from the 1980's and are made in West Germany. Please search completed listings for the LGB catalog/model number and you will see that 80-90% the figures in my store have not been available this year.

   

All items come with a 14-day return and ship FREE.

 

For additional LGB figures and railroad items see the train store.

 

stores.ebay.com/1-Antique-and-Vintage-Collectibles/Railro...

     

Or check out the storefront...

  

stores.ebay.com/1-Antique-and-Vintage-Collectibles

I never plan my churchcrawling to see anything in particular I have no idea what I will see when I go to visit a church, I do no research beforehand, instead prefer to let my impressions lead me to take shots.

 

It has served me well.

 

So, in planning a day out, I will look on Google maps, find churches to visit and come up with a plan, but it rarely perfect. Like last weekend, when I planned the day, I failed to include Cobham.

 

Thankfully, the lady at Meopham said I should go, look at the brasses and eat at the Leather Bottle opposite.

 

Good advice.

 

Cobham is a little way of the busy A2 as that road nears London. It has eight lanes and is usually a racetrack, when not jammed. Cobham is signposted, you might think it is a suburb of Gravesend.

 

But it is an attractve village, all timber framed houses and pubs, with a huge church on the hill overlooking the main road passing through the village.

 

We did park at the pub, and I walked up the hill to the church, which was open, its huge and grand interior opening up before me, and looking down the nave I could see the tomb in the middle of the chancel, with the pavement of 17 fine brasses laid out before it.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

In a county with more memorial brasses than any other, Cobham takes pride of place, with a set of nineteen, the majority of which have been grouped together in the chancel. The church consists of a thirteenth-century chancel, and fourteenth-century nave, aisles and west tower. In 1362 the church was refounded as a college by Sir John de Cobham, and the medieval domestic buildings survive to the south of the church. The south wall of the chancel displays several items of interest. There is a fine double piscina which has been moved further west of its original position. The latter is now occupied by an elaborate fourteenth-century piscina, with a finely wrought canopy of three arches and a parapet of quatrefoils and leaves. Next to it is a slightly plainer sedilia of three equal arches. The last feature of note is the stairway in the south-east corner of the chancel which led to a gallery over the altar - a unique feature in Kent. In the centre of the chancel is the alabaster table tomb of Sir George Brooke (d. 1558). It was badly damaged when a beam fell on it in the eighteenth century and is much restored. In front of the monument are sixteen of the medieval brasses, brought here from other parts of the church, the most interesting of which are: Sir John de Cobham (d. 1407), founder of the college, who is seen holding a lovely spired church in his hands; Sir Nicholas Hawkberk (d. 1407) - a super visor hinges from his face; William Tanner (d. 1418) the first master of the collegiate foundation.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Cobham

 

-------------------------------------------

 

COBHAM.

NORTHWARD from Cookstone lies Cobham, a very small part of which is within the hundred of Hoo.

 

THE PARISH of Cobham is rather an unfrequented place, not having any road of traffic through it. It is a healthy and rather a pleasant situation, tho' the woods and foliage in Cobham-park give it in general a gloomy appearance; it extends about two miles and a half from east to west, and a mile and a half from north to south; it contains about two thousand nine hundred and fifty acres of land, seventy houses, exclusive of the college, about seven hundred and sixty inhabitants. Cobham park, having the mansion of Cobham-hall situated in a vale within it, contains the greatest part of the parish; on an eminence in the park, about a mile from the house, is a costly mausoleum, built pursuant to the will of the late earl, as a burial place for himself and family, which being finished, his body, which was deposited in the church, was brought hither, and laid in it. The building is a conspicuous object to a considerable distance round it. It stands on Williams's-hill, on a spot of ground where it is said there was once a chapel. This elegant structure is octangular, built of Portland stone, the columns at each angle supporting a sarcophagus, the top terminating with a quadrangular pyramid over the vault, which has sixteen recesses or burial places in it, besides those for the late earl and his countess; there is a chapel elegantly sitted up, the windows of which are of stained glass, and ornamented with Brocotello marble. The soil is various; strong good mould, chalk, and some gravel, and is in general accounted a good wheat land. The village is situated on high ground, in the south west part of the parish, having the church within it, from which there is a most extensive view southwestward over the country; adjoining to the church yard is Cobham college, and at the west end of the street the parsonage, the property and residence of Mr. Pemble. At a small distance further is the estate of Outlets, and at the western boundary of the parish the manor of Henhurst; Cobham mount is situated about a quarter of a mile's distance from the Shinglewell road, which runs along the northern side of this parish, by the pales of the park. The northeast parts adjoining Cobham-park, formerly called the out park grounds, are covered with coppice woods.

 

The antient Roman road, or Watling-street-way, shews itself very plainly from Shinglewell hither, in its way to Rochester, with the hedges standing on it, sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left of the present road, and at other times falling in with it. It goes on to Cobham-park, where the pales seem to stand on it for some little space, soon after which it leaves them, as may be seen in the passage out of the north gate of the park, where the way crosses it, from thence it runs into a thick wood, where it is not to be followed. At the north west boundary of this parish, adjoining the above road, is a water, called St. Thomas's-well, probably from the use made of it by St. Thomas Becket in his journeyings through these parts.

 

Our HERBALISTS have taken notice of the following scarce plants, growing in this parish, viz.

 

Pneumonanthe, Calathian violet.

 

Trachelium majus, blue and also white Canterbury bells, found under Cobham park pales, in the road from Shinglewell to Rochester.

 

Chamæpitys, ground pine of several sorts.

 

Tragoriganum, goats marjorom, or organy, near Cobham house.

 

Lamium luteum etiam rubrum, the yellow archangel, as also the red, found in Cobham woods.

 

Lautana five viburnum, the wayfaring tree. (fn. 1)

 

¶Narcissus sylvestris pallidus calyce luteo, the wild English daffodil, observed by Mr. Thorpe of Bexley, in a moist place or two in Cobham park.

 

COBHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese and deanry of Rochester. The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, is a handsome spacious building, consisting of three isles and a large chancel, and has a good tower at the west end of it, with a ring of bells.

 

¶Among other monuments and inscriptions in it, in the middle of the chancel is a most noble monument of white marble, on which lie the essigies of Sir George Brooke lord Cobham, governor of Calais, K. G. and his wife, in full proportion; the figures and names, of their children, ten sons and four daughters, were likewise cut in marble round it; he died in 1558. This fine piece of sculpture seems once to have had a canopy of marble over it, which, with the pillars that supported it, and many pieces of the figures, now lie broken and scattered upon the tomb. It was erected by his son, Sir Wm. Brooke, in 1561, arms, Brooke quartering Cobham, and seven other coats within the garter. Almost the whole of the pavement of this chancel is covered with the gravestones of the family of Cobham and Brooke, with several of the brasses remaining on them, though so very loose, that in all probability they will soon be purloined, as numbers of the same sort were by some workmen a few years ago. Those which remain are as follows: a brass plate and figure, and inscription in French, in very antient capitals, cut round the edge of the stone, for dame Joan de Cobham; a brass plate and figure in armour, with a like inscription, south of the former, for Thomas de Cobham, and for Maud, the wife of Sir Thomas Cobeham, who died in 13 3 Richard II. another of the like sort, south of the last, with the figure of a man in armour, holding a church in his hands, for John de Cobham, founder of this place. On another, south of the former, on brass, on a chevron three lions rampant, and the same impaling three roundles, a file of three points in chief, and the figure of a woman, and round the verge of the stone, a French inscription in brass, for Margaret de Cobham, daughter of the earl of Devonshire, wife of the lord of Cobham, builder of this place, obt. 1395. In like manner with the last, are the figures of two women, for dame Maud de Cobham, 13 the rest lost; south of the last a brass plate, with the figure of a man in armour, and arms of Cobham as above, and inscription round the verge of the stone, in French, for John de Cobham, ob. 1390; westward of this, on brass plates, are the figures of a man and woman, eight sons and ten daughters, and round the verge of the stone an inscription in brass, for Sir John Brooke, baron of Cobham, and Margaret his wife, daughter of Edward Nevile, lord of Burgavenny; he died in 1506, she died in 1500; arms, Cobham as above, impaling Nevile with quarterings; north of the former, brass and figure of a man in armour, and round the verge in brass, an inscription for Sir Nicholas Hawberk, husband of Joan lady Cobham, heir of John lord Cobham, founder of this college; he died at the castle of Cowling, in 1407; underneath the figure of a child, and inscription, for John their son; another, north of the last, and brass, with the figure of a woman, six sons, and four daughters, for Joan lady Cobham, wife of Sir Reginald Braybrooke, ob. 1433; arms, Cobham as above, with impalements and quarterings. Northward of the last, on brass, the figure of a man in armour, and round the verge and inscription in brass for Sir Reginald Braybrook, husband of Joan lady Cobham; he died at Middleburgh in Flanders, in 1405; on the same stone the figure of a child, and inscriptions for Reginald and Robert, their sons; northward of the former, the figures of a man in armour, his wife, five sons, and six daughters, and round the verge, in brass, an inscription for Sir Thomas Brooke, lord Cobham, and kinsman and heir of Sir Richard Beauchamp; he married first Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Haydon, by whom he had seven sons and six daughters; and secondly Dorothy Fowthewel, widow; and thirdly Elizabeth Hart; by neither of whom he had issue, ob. 1529, arms quarterly, 1st, on a chevron, a lion rampant, crowned; 2d, Cobham as above; 3d, seven mascles, three, three, and one; 4th, on a fess between three leopards heads an annulet. A brass plate for John Sproltle, master of this college, ob. 1498; on brass the figure of a man, and these arms, on a chevron three cross croslets bottone, in the dexter chief a star, for Ranf. de Cobham, esq. of Kent, who died in 1402; a brass plate and figure for William .......... master of this college, obt. 14. another like for Wm. Tanner, first master of it, ob. 1418. A stone and inscription for Tho. Webb, esq. secretary to James Stuart duke of Richmond, ob. 1649. In the nave a brass figure for master John Gladwyn, master of this college. In the north isle, a brass for John Gery, fellow of this college, obt. 1447; a brass, on a chevron between three trefoils as many annulets, and inscription for several of the Claverings; in the nave, now almost worn out, an inscripition for Alice, daughter of Nicholas Harpur, esq. first wife of William .......... and late to Edmond .......... There is a vault in this church, which belonged to the family of Hayes, of this parish, and being full, another was granted to them in the church yard, by the good will of the parishioners. Against the wall of the church on the outside, on the east side of the porch, is a small figure cut in stone, about two feet high, of a man to his waist, and under it an inscription, to the memory of one Robert Hoth, but the date is obliterated, and the whole of it in so perishing a condition, that a few years will entirely destroy it.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol3/pp404-442

In the future, all Fast Food restaurants will limit their drive-thrus to two vehicles at a time and all fast food drive-thrus will include electric stop sign gates to warn drivers that the drive-thru is at its limited capacity and this will help to save the environment and reduce litter and keep the whole world nice and clean and fast food restaurants like McDonald's will have more dinning tables and will have arcade games in the playplaces in the future which is the 1997 My McDonald's rebrand to limit down the drive-thrus too stop from pollution and everybody who uses drive-thrus must wait until they get to their designated areas to eat their food instead of eating in the vehicles for safety and that will be the new law for the future. Pear-shaped wrecking balls MUST BE BANNED and NEVER EVER get restored and revived in the future and Pear-shaped Wrecking Balls also MUST GET BURNED INTO ASHES AND GET SHATTERED INTO TINY PIECES and get replaced by new modern spherical wrecking balls forever because pear-shaped wrecking balls are trash and very ineffective and makes people upset. This is why Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) MUST BE BANNED and NEVER EVER get revived in the future I am glad the new Tom and Jerry movie that is coming out this year is replacing the old Tom and Jerry Movie from 1992 which is the movie this pear-shaped wrecking ball that destroyed a good house is from this movie which abused Blue's Clues Steve Fans. Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) MUST BE BANNED never ever get revived in the future because Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) does have an upsetting unrealistic house demolition with an old fashioned pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying a beautiful old fashioned living house because of it being decades old ruining nostalgia and ruining my golden toddlerhood and abused many Blue's Clues Steve fans making them think the wrecking ball destroyed the handy dandy notebooks which we all love because the destroyed house at the beginning of Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) does look slightly identical to the Blue's Clues House and now even the destroyed Handy Dandy Notebooks are getting mended back together. So I hereby Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) to BE BANNED FOREVER due to abusing Blue's Clues Steve Fans like me. Tom and Jerry: The Movie MUST BE BANNED because it has an unrealistic house demolition with a very bad old fashioned wrecking ball that upsets people so bad and abused many Blue's Clues Steve Fans and some bratts were getting bad advice from this movie with convience taking over good old fashioned traditional stuff is the exaggerated house demolition in 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie with a pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying the beautiful old fashioned living house and replacing it with a garage full of ice cream trucks with the bad old outdated confusing misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO which is extremely mean-spirited and is a yield sign that says stop which is extremely wrong and confusing to people who are deaf, color blind, can't read, or don't speak English. Also old fashined traditional stuff are extremely important not just conviences and even polluting andhaving Eastern cottontail rabbits extinct. Good thing I am making safety collaborations by updating all ice cream trucks to all have the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word children slow crossing and or school bus swing arm stop signs which are octagon shaped especially I know for a fact in all traffic signs the shape is the most important not just the word and color especially in all stop signs the octagon shape is the most important not just the word and color.

 

. Similar to modern Simpsons (seasons 19 and Later) 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie is another bad media showing convience taking over good important traditional stuff with a pear-shaped wrecking ball destroying a beautiful old fashioned living house and replace the house with convient high rise appartment building with a garage full of ice cream trucks with the bad old oudated confusing misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO which was mean-spirited and ruining my golden toddlerhood. In the 2000s, Warner Bros reviving 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie and and selling too many DVD copies of that movie surpassing Corduroy the Bear and his buttons was all McDonald's corporation and Bogen Communication's fault because the super size at McDonald's was brainwashing many people by reviving the bad old 1992 Tom and Jerry movie and popularizing Bogen Multicom 2000 and their mean spirited bell tones that are haunted chimes that don't sound like a bell at all scaring off kids especially kids with autism and making them not want to go to school and abandoning my golden toddler stuff like Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls but good thing I am undoing all of the bad influence the super size gave us by restoring my golden toddlerhood, safety improvements, kindness improvements, reviving Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and that corduroy the bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever and bringing back all nostalgic inducing stuff like green chalkboards and electric mechanical wall bells etc and create a nostalgic inducing future. So this is why all broadcasts of The Simpsons MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be ONLY reruns of classic Simpsons (first 18 seasons of The Simpsons). This is why all schools MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be set up like Middleborough, Hilltop School from Timothy Goes to School, and or my DeVry building in North Brunswick, NJ and all with green chalkboards, electric mechanical wall bells, and Corbeil school buses and other school buses with electric stop arms, and only kind-spirited stuff like Disney Snow White and Pinocchio stuff and Corduroy the Bear with two buttons on his green corduroy overalls and Steve Notebooks etc, and no mean-spirited stuff like Bogen Multicom 2000 and that mean scary looking grumpy face with the freaky spikey eyelashes and triangular eyes and razor blade forehead wrinkles they used to have on Gordon in the old live action model version of Thomas and Friends and no processed foods in the school lunches. This is why McDonald's restaurants MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be McEyebrows with the yellow and orange striped awnings, arch wedge the new aluminum exterior I have created, or the original 1970s version of the iconic double sloped mansard roof and better and safe updated indoor PlayPlaces with low and safe steps and slides and green chalkboards and or just the dining room option (no playplace), This is why all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be all updated to the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word CHILDREN SLOW CROSSING and or school bus stop signs and that all ice cream trucks MUST BE BY LAW MANDEDTED TO GET RID of the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO for good, This is why Crayola Crayon boxes MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be new modern 1997 boxes. This is why school PA systems MUST BE BY LAW MANDATED to be Rauland Telecenter or PA systems with no bell tones. And this is why Nelvana and Hanna-Barbera MUST TAKE OVER Warner Bros. Animation. The reality is that demolition are based on how bad the building is damaged not on how old the building is like in 1992's Tom and Jerry the movie.

Humpback whales are rorquals (Balaenopteridae, a family that includes the blue, fin, Bryde's, sei, and minke whales). The rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene. The sole member of its genus, the humpback was first identified as baleine de la Nouvelle Angleterre off the coast of New England by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Regnum Animale of 1756. The common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name Megaptera comes from the Greek mega-/μεγα- ("giant") and ptera/πτερα ("wing") and refers to their large front flippers.

 

Genetic research in mid-2014 by the British Antarctic Survey confirmed that the separate populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans are more distinct than previously thought. Some biologists believe that these should be regarded as separate, independently evolving subspecies.

 

Humpbacks have a stocky body, obvious hump, and black dorsal colouring. The head and lower jaw are covered in tubercles, knobby hair follicles characteristic of the species. Humpbacks have 270-400 dark baleen plates on each side of their mouths. The plates measure from 46 centimetres in the front to almost a metre in the back. About 14-22 wide ventral grooves run from the lower jaw to the umbilicus. The female has a hemispherical lobe about 15 centimetres in diameter in her genital region. Fully grown males average 13-14 metres and females are slightly larger at 15-16 metres; one large recorded specimen was 19 metres long and had pectoral fins measuring 6 metres each. Body mass is typically around 25-30 metric tons, with large specimens weighing over 40 metric tons.

 

The long black and white tail fin can be up to a third of body length. The varying patterns on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals. During a study using data from 1973 to 1998 on whales in the North Atlantic, a photographic catalogue of all known North Atlantic whales was developed; it's maintained by the College of the Atlantic. Several hypotheses attempt to explain the humpback's pectoral fins, proportionally the longest fins of any cetacean, such as higher maneuverability and increased surface area for temperature control when migrating between warm and cold climates.

 

Whales produce a three-metre-long, heart-shaped blow through the blowholes. They don't generally sleep at the surface but must continue to breathe: it's possible that only half of their brain sleeps at one time, allowing the other half to manage the surface/blow/dive process.

 

The lifespan of rorquals ranges from 45 to 100 years. Females reach sexual maturity at age five, achieving full adult size a little later. Males reach sexual maturity around seven years of age. Courtship rituals take place during the winter months, following migration toward the equator from summer feeding grounds closer to the poles. Competition is usually fierce. Unrelated males, or "escorts," frequently trail single cows and cow-calf pairs. Males gather into "competition groups" around a female and fight for the right to mate with her. Groups shrink and grow as unsuccessful males retreat and others arrive. Behaviors include breaching, spy-hopping, lob-tailing, tail-slapping, pectoral fin-slapping, peduncle throws, charging, and parrying.

 

Both male and female humpback whales vocalize, but only males produce the long, loud, complex song for which the species is famous. Each song consists of several sounds in a low register, varying in amplitude and frequency and typically lasting from 10 to 20 minutes. Individuals may sing continuously for more than 24 hours. Cetaceans have no vocal cords, instead forcing air through their massive nasal cavities (blowholes).

 

Whales within a large area sing a single song: all North Atlantic humpbacks sing the same song, while those of the North Pacific sing a different song. Each population's song changes slowly over a period of years without repeating. Many of the whales observed to approach a singer are other males, often resulting in conflict: singing may, therefore, be a challenge to other males as well as a way to impress females. Some scientists have hypothesized the song may serve an echolocative function. During the feeding season, humpbacks make unrelated vocalizations to herd fish into their bubble nets and they use other sounds to communicate, such as grunts, groans, "thwops," snorts, and barks.

 

Females typically breed every two or three years. The gestation period is 11.5 months. The peak months for birth are January, February (northern hemisphere), July, and August (southern hemisphere). Females wait for one to two years before breeding again. Recent research on mitochondrial DNA reveals that groups living in proximity to each other may represent distinct breeding pools.

 

A newborn calf is roughly the length of its mother's head. At birth, calves measure six metres and two tons. They nurse for about six months, then mix nursing and independent feeding for around six months more. Humpback milk is pink and 50% fat.

 

Humpbacks have a loosely knit social structure: individuals usually live alone or in small, transient groups that disband after a few hours. Groups may stay together longer in summer to forage and feed cooperatively. Longer-term relationships of months or even years between pairs or small groups have occasionally been observed, and some females might create lifelong bonds through cooperative feeding.

 

Humpbacks inhabit all major oceans, in a wide band running from the Antarctic ice edge to 77° N latitude. The four distinct tribes are the North Pacific, Atlantic, Southern Ocean, and Indian Ocean populations. Whales were once uncommon in the eastern Mediterranean or the Baltic Sea but have increased their presence in both waters as global populations have recovered. They have also returned to Scotland, Skagerrak, and Kattegat, as well as Scandinavian fjords such as Kvænangen, where they had not been observed for decades. Since November 2015, Hachijo-jima has been recognized as the northernmost breeding ground in the world.

 

Humpbacks typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each year. A 2007 study identified seven individuals wintering off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica as having traveled from the Antarctic—around 8,300 kilometres. Identified by their unique tail patterns, these animals made the longest mammalian migration ever documented.

 

The humpback's range overlaps with other whale and dolphin species. Humpbacks are friendly and interact with other cetaceans such as bottlenose dolphins and right whales. These behaviors have been recorded in all oceans, and humpback whales regularly appear in mixed groups with other species, such as the blue, fin, minke, gray, and sperm whales. Humpback and southern right whales demonstrating what were interpreted to be mating behaviors have been observed off the Mozambique and Brazilian coasts. A male humpback whale was seen singing to a fin whale at Rarotonga in 2014, and another individual was observed playing with a bottlenose dolphin in Hawaiian waters. Incidents of humpback whales protecting other species of animals such as seals and other whales from killer whales have also been documented.

 

Humpbacks feed primarily in summer and live off fat reserves during winter, when they feed only rarely and opportunistically. The humpback is an energetic hunter, taking krill and small schooling fish such as herring, salmon, capelin, and American sand lance, as well as Atlantic mackerel, pollock, and haddock in the North Atlantic. Pleated grooves in the whale's mouth allow water to easily drain out, filtering out the prey. The humpback has the most diverse hunting repertoire of all baleen whales, sometimes stunning prey by hitting the water with pectoral fins or flukes. Its most inventive technique is known as bubble net feeding, in which a group of up to a dozen whales swims in a shrinking circle below a school of prey and traps it in a cylinder of bubbles. The ring can start out about 30 metres in diameter. Some whales blow the bubbles, some dive deeper to drive fish toward the surface, and others herd prey into the trap by vocalizing. The whales then all suddenly swim up, swallowing thousands of fish.

 

The technique of lobtail feeding, observed in the North Atlantic, involves slapping the surface of the ocean with the tail up to four times before creating the bubble net. Based on network-based diffusion analysis, researchers believe that these whales learned the behavior from other whales in the group over a period of 27 years in response to a change in the primary form of prey.

 

Visible scars indicate that killer whales can prey upon juvenile humpbacks. Mothers and (possibly related) adults escort neonates to deter such predation. It's believed that orcas turned to other prey when humpbacks suffered near-extinction during the whaling era but are now resuming their former practice.

 

Humpback whales were hunted by humans on a commercial level as early as the 18th century. By the 19th century, many nations (the United States in particular) were hunting the animal heavily in the Atlantic and to a lesser extent in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The explosive harpoon introduced in the late 19th century, along with the extension of hunting into the Antarctic ocean from 1904, drastically reduced whale populations. During the 20th century, over 200,000 humpbacks were taken, reducing the global population by over 90%. North Atlantic populations dropped to as low as 700 individuals.

 

In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was founded: they imposed hunting regulations and seasons. To prevent extinction, IWC banned commercial humpback whaling in 1966, by which time the global population had been reduced to around 5,000 animals (around 90% having been exterminated). The Soviet Union deliberately under-recorded its catches; the Soviets reported catching 2,820 whales between 1947 and 1972, but the true number was over 48,000.

 

As of 2004, hunting was restricted to a few animals each year off the Caribbean island of Bequia in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The take is not believed to threaten the local population. Japan's announcement that it planned to kill 50 humpbacks in the 2007/08 season under its JARPA II "research" program sparked global protests and a visit to Tokyo by the IWC chair, and the Japanese whaling fleet agreed to take no humpback whales during the two years it would take to reach a formal agreement. In 2010, the IWC authorized Greenland's native population to hunt a few humpback whales for the following three years.

 

In Japan, humpback, minkes, sperm, and many other smaller Odontoceti, including critically endangered species such as North Pacific right, western gray, and northern fin whales, have been targets of illegal captures. Humpback meat can be found on the markets. Harpoons are used to hunt dolphins or intentionally drive whales into nets, reporting them as cases of entanglement. Unknown numbers of humpbacks have been illegally hunted in the Exclusive Economic Zones of anti-whaling nations such as off Mexico and South Africa.

 

Because they're easily approachable, curious, identifiable as individuals, and display many interesting behaviors, they have become the mainstay of whale tourism around the world. Analyses of whale songs in the 1960s led to worldwide media interest and convinced the public that whales were highly intelligent, aiding the anti-whaling advocates. Humpbacks are popular with whale-watchers because of their distinctive surface behaviors: they frequently breach, throwing two-thirds or more of their bodies out of the water and splashing down on their backs. Some humpbacks, referred to as "friendlies," often stay under or near whale-watching boats for many minutes.

 

While whaling no longer threatens the species, individuals are vulnerable to collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing gear, and noise pollution. Like other cetaceans, humpbacks can be injured by excessive noise. In the 19th century, two humpback whales were found dead near sites of repeated oceanic sub-bottom blasting, with traumatic injuries and fractures in the ears.

 

The species was listed as vulnerable in 1996 and endangered as recently as 1988. In August 2008, the IUCN changed humpback's status from "vulnerable" to "least concern," although two subpopulations remain endangered. Most monitored stocks have rebounded since the end of commercial whaling and now reach around 80,000 worldwide. Though the North Atlantic stocks are believed to be approaching pre-hunting level, the species is still considered endangered in some countries, including the United States.

 

By the gently running waters of the Mosel River

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet ARA (28 August 1833 – 17 June 1898) was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company. Burne-Jones was closely involved in the rejuvenation of the tradition of stained glass art in Britain; his stained glass works include the windows of St. Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, St Martin in the Bull Ring, Birmingham, Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, Chelsea, St Martin's Church in Brampton, Cumbria (the church designed by Philip Webb), St Michael's Church, Brighton, All Saints, Jesus Lane, Cambridge, Christ Church, Oxford and in St. Anne's Church, Brown Edge, Staffordshire Moorlands. Burne-Jones's early paintings show the heavy inspiration of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but by the 1860s Burne-Jones was discovering his own artistic "voice". In 1877, he was persuaded to show eight oil paintings at the Grosvenor Gallery (a new rival to the Royal Academy). These included The Beguiling of Merlin. The timing was right, and he was taken up as a herald and star of the new Aesthetic Movement.

Autumn boating on the Wild and Scenic Rogue River at the Rainbow Recreation Site, Oct. 24, 2019, by Greg Shine, BLM.

 

The Rogue River is located in southwestern Oregon and flows 215 miles from Crater Lake to the Pacific Ocean. The 84 mile, Congressionally-designated "National Wild and Scenic" portion of the Rogue begins 7 miles west of Grants Pass and ends 11 miles east of Gold Beach.

 

The Rogue was one of the original eight rivers included in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. The Rogue National Wild and Scenic River is surrounded by forested mountains and rugged boulder and rock-lined banks.

 

Steelhead and salmon fishing, challenging whitewater, and extraordinary wildlife viewing opportunities have made the Rogue a national treasure. Black bear, river otter, black-tail deer, bald eagles, osprey, Chinook salmon, great blue heron, water ouzel, and Canada geese are common wildlife seen along the Rogue River. Popular activities include: whitewater rafting, fishing, jet boat tours, scenic driving, hiking, picnicking, and sunbathing.

 

The Smullin Visitor Center is located at the Rand National Historic Site, on the river near the town of Galice, approximately 20 miles from I-5 on the Merlin-Galice Road.

 

Visitor Center Address:

14335 Galice Road

Merlin, Oregon 97532

541-479-3735

BLM_OR_MD_Rogue_River_Mail@blm.gov

 

 

Sunday 5th February 2012 Doors open at 3.00pm - 9.00pm

Our acts are unsuitable for under 18's. £5 on the door but all confirmed performers are free.

 

We have an amazing sixth line up for you at The New inn Gloucester which includes the usual eclectic mix of acts bands singers and spoken word performers but for February we will have a predominantly large and diverse range of hilarious stand up comedy...lucky lucky Gloucester!!

  

As usual ARTournament will be giving away £100 in cash for the best audience voted performance of the day. Each member of the audience will be given one vote on the door when they arrive. The performer/s with the most votes at 8.45pm will be presented with £100 in cash-good luck everyone.

 

IMPORTANT.....PLEASE CAN ALL ACTS SIGN IN AN HOUR BEFORE THEY ARE DUE TO PERFORM AS DUE TO ILLNESS TRAINS PLANES AND AUTOMOBILES WE MAY HAVE TO CHANGE THE TIME SLOTS TO EARLIER OR LATER DEPENDING ON HOW THINGS ARE RUNNING and THERE WILL BE A FILM CREW ON SITE, IF ANYONE OBJECTS TO BEING FILMED CAN YOU PLEASE LET US KNOW ASAP.

 

On the Elephant Stage we have a good PA, 2 sm58 mics and can use CDs for backing tracks. The Moroccan Stage has a small PA and MIc and is acoustic/spoken word. if you need any help our engineer is James Candler (in friends list) Thanks

 

Compered by the talented Guy Williams who will also be performing his poetry for us on during the day.

 

3-3.30pm James Evans-Musician

3.30-3.45pm Lyn Cinderry

3.30-4pm Jim Evans and his tantalising Banjo

4-4.15pm Jeremy Toombs Poet

4.15-4.30pm James Bunting

4.30- 5pm Benita Johnson-Acoustic Set

5pm-5.15pm Alison Hustwitt

5.15-5.30pm Helen Gregory-Poet

5.30-5.40pm Citizen Smith-A poem

5.40-6pm Sophia Marie Bovall

6-6.15pm Debra hannis

6.15-6.30pm Andrew Owens

6.30-7pm Jade Richards Poetess.

7-7.15pm Guy Williams-a poet and also our compere for April.

7.15-7.30 Sarah Snell Pym TBC

7.30-8pm Angus McDressence Clements-very talented local musician who will be treating us to some new music.

8-8.30pm Damon Thomas and his beautiful blues.

 

Compere for the Elephant Stage is the multi talented hilarious comedy guru Josh Richards. He and Guy Williams are consistently a couple of the audience's favorite performers and we are looking forward to having them on our stages for the whole day.

 

3-3.30pm Hartley playing some sweet music

3.30-4pm Ratface Russ and his musical box of tricks.

4-4.30pm Shadowlight Sounds

4.30-5pm Rebecca Cant-Novembers favourite singer and £100 cash winner

5-5.15pm Claire Nelson-Our special funny lady and winner of last months audience vote.

5.15-5.30 Jamie Doughty-a special brand of funny

5.30-6pm Our funny Birmingham friends Louise+Nadeem and Lou

6-6.15pm Julie ‘Psycho’Jones-hilarious and winner of dec £100 prize.

6.15-6.30pm Demitris Deech-brilliant, witty, fast stand up

6.30-6.45pm Bambos- special kind of greek Musician-looking forward to this one..

6.45-7pm Matt Leigh-Clever Comedy and brand new material especially for you lot...

7.15-7.30pm Darren Hoskins and his box of comedy tricks

7.30-7.45pm John Bassett-very very funny

7.45-8pm Mark Chatterley-A laugh a minute

8.00-8.45pm Gregory Davies and the Simplistic Scientists-and its Greg's Birthday!

    

MARCH 2012

 

Elephant Stage-Bands and Comedy March 2012

Compered by the hilarious Josh Richards and his alter ego the Koala....

3.00-3.30pm Lisa Wilkinson-Acoustic

3.30-3.45pm Alison Hustwitt and her hilarious little songs

3.45-4.10pm Way Out West-a band you have to see to believe!

4.15-4.30pm Darren Hoskins and his box of comedy tricks

4.30-4.50pm Martin Thorne-An amazing blues singer and guitarist

5.00-5.10pm James Rushbrook and his new 2012 comedy set-lucky lucky us

5.15-5.25pm Mark Chatterley-A laugh a minute

5.30-5.45pm Julie ‘Psycho’Jones - Januarys winner and hilarious is an understatement!

5.45-6.00pm Demitris Deech-brilliant, witty, fast stand up and Febs Winner

6.00-6.15pm Josh Richards brings in the Koala-be scared, very scared!

6.15-6.45pm Stephen Grimes will be treating us all to a bit of hip hop

6.45-6.55pm Paul Cook With Some New Stand Up Comedy

7.00-7.30pm Martin Maidment and his infamous band Gagarin

7.30-8.00pm Club 41 James Alexander Dart and his rocking band

8.00-8.20pm Damon Thomas and his beautiful blues-came in second last month!

8.30-9.00pm Liam Dunn and his band www.stereoinfluence.com

   

Moroccan Stage-Spoken Word and Acoustic

Compered by the brains behind Worcester Literary Festival and a poet in her own right...the multi talented Lisa Ventura.

3.00-3.30pm Rebecca Cant-Decembers winner and an unbeleivable voice. TBC

3.30-3.45pm Lisa Ventura

3.45-4.00pm Andrew Owens

4.00-4.15pm Keith Hyatt-bringing some acoustic flamenco guitar and poetry

4.15-4.30pm Sarah Snell Pym

4.30-4.45pm Mark Chatterley

4.45-5.00pm Julie Jones and her comedy from the freezer

5.00-5.15pm Tony Judge-satirical short stories.

5.15-5.30pm Jeremy Toombs TBC

5.30-5.45pm Lyn Cinderry TBC

5.45-6.00pm James Bunting-Amazing Bristol Poet

6.00-6.15pm Chloe Lees-Grown up stories

6.15-6.30pm John Bassetts Dark Tales TBC

6.30-6.45pm Guy Williams and his broken foot!

6.45-7.00pm Suz Winspear

7.00-7.15pm Dan Holloway-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXXdIqA8LsI

7.15-7.30pm Joel Denno

7.30-7.45pm Closing from Lisa Ventura

7.45-8.00pm TBC

           

Joel Denno

  

Tony Judge-satirical short stories and a regular reader at Parole Parlate (Worcester) and on Radio Wildfire.

Keith Hyatt-bringing some acoustic flamenco feel guitar and poetry all the way from Swindon. TBC

 

April 2012 Bookings

Paul Johnson and his guitar will be treating us all again.

Emmet Brown-Whitey Shakespliff Oldham rapping and highly recommended

The Bonfire of the insanities Sunday Chill was reviewed by the Citizen so don't listen to us blowing our own trumpet - see what they have to think...http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/nailed-arts-festival/story-13787726-detail/story.html

Entries for June 6th 1909. Guests include:

 

Sir Frederick Treves.

Dr. R.C. Brown.

William Margerison (Mayor of Preston)

 

The purpose of Sir Frederic Treves visit to Preston was to open the new isolation hospital at Deepdale and as guest of Dr. Brown pay a visit to the new operating theatre at Preston Royal Infirmary.

 

Frederick Treves is remembered for his involvement in the treatment of Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man)

Dr. Brown (Sir Charles Brown) was a prominent Preston surgeon whose book "Sixty Four Years a Doctor" can be read Here

Duncansby Head is the most northeasterly part of both the Scottish and British mainlands, slightly northeast of John o' Groats. It lies approximately 20 km (12 mi) east-southeast of Dunnet Head, the northernmost point of both the Scottish and British mainlands. Duncansby Head is located in Caithness, Highland, in north-eastern Scotland. The headland juts into the North Sea, with the Pentland Firth to its north and west and the Moray Firth to its south.

 

The point is marked by Duncansby Head Lighthouse, built by David Alan Stevenson in 1924.

 

A minor public road leads from John o' Groats to Duncansby Head, which makes Duncansby Head the farthest point by road from Land's End.

 

The Duncansby Head Site of Special Scientific Interest includes the 6.5-kilometre (4-mile) stretch of coast south to Skirza Head. It includes the Duncansby Stacks, prominent sea stacks just off the coast.

 

In 2016, it was reported in The Sunday Post newspaper that scientists from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldemarston had proposed a nuclear weapon test on the Stacks of Duncansby in 1953, but that the prevailing wet weather was too much for contemporary electronics and the idea was shelved

 

The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.

 

The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim  The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.

 

The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.

 

The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.

 

Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.

 

Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".

 

Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".

 

Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West.  Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way.  The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes. 

 

Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities.  Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land.  In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.

 

In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.

 

When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected.  This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms.  Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.

 

The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.

 

Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.

 

According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".

 

The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.

 

For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.

 

In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.

 

A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.

 

Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.

 

The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

 

Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.

 

There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.

 

Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.

 

The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.

 

These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.

 

The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.

Climate

 

The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.

 

Places of interest

An Teallach

Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)

Arrochar Alps

Balmoral Castle

Balquhidder

Battlefield of Culloden

Beinn Alligin

Beinn Eighe

Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station

Ben Lomond

Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Cairngorms National Park

Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore

Cairngorm Mountains

Caledonian Canal

Cape Wrath

Carrick Castle

Castle Stalker

Castle Tioram

Chanonry Point

Conic Hill

Culloden Moor

Dunadd

Duart Castle

Durness

Eilean Donan

Fingal's Cave (Staffa)

Fort George

Glen Coe

Glen Etive

Glen Kinglas

Glen Lyon

Glen Orchy

Glenshee Ski Centre

Glen Shiel

Glen Spean

Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)

Grampian Mountains

Hebrides

Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.

Highland Wildlife Park

Inveraray Castle

Inveraray Jail

Inverness Castle

Inverewe Garden

Iona Abbey

Isle of Staffa

Kilchurn Castle

Kilmartin Glen

Liathach

Lecht Ski Centre

Loch Alsh

Loch Ard

Loch Awe

Loch Assynt

Loch Earn

Loch Etive

Loch Fyne

Loch Goil

Loch Katrine

Loch Leven

Loch Linnhe

Loch Lochy

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Loch Lubnaig

Loch Maree

Loch Morar

Loch Morlich

Loch Ness

Loch Nevis

Loch Rannoch

Loch Tay

Lochranza

Luss

Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)

Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran

Rannoch Moor

Red Cuillin

Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83

River Carron, Wester Ross

River Spey

River Tay

Ross and Cromarty

Smoo Cave

Stob Coire a' Chàirn

Stac Polly

Strathspey Railway

Sutherland

Tor Castle

Torridon Hills

Urquhart Castle

West Highland Line (scenic railway)

West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)

Wester Ross

【Maiko, November 30, 2019】

Maiko is Hidekano.

Shooting location is Ryuhonji Temple.

Photo by echoes405.

 

【舞妓, 2019-11-30】

舞妓は秀華乃さんです。

撮影場所は立本寺。

Photo by echoes405.

 

-----------------

About reprint of photograph :

The reproduction and use of photographs are welcome, but please be sure to include the following information.

写真の転載について :

写真の転載・使用は歓迎いたしますが、その際に必ず 次の記載をしていただくようお願いします。

 

Maiko is Hidekano.

Photo by Photographer name/撮影者名.

(licensed CC BY-SA 2.0)

55maiko.net

Slovenian army Pvt. Andrej Vrbnjak pulls security on the side of a hill and watches his sector of fire from an armored personnel carrier at Hohenfels Training Area Sept 4. Exercise Saber Junction 2014 includes participants from the U.S., NATO allies and European security partners, conducting unified land operations at the 7th Army's Joint Multinational Training Command's Hohenfels Training Area. The exercise trains units in the simultaneous combination of offensive, defensive and stability operations while improving international interoperability, commitment to NATO and allied nations and strategic access to critical areas within the European Command's area of responsibility. More information about Saber Junction 2014 can be found at www.eur.army.mil/SaberJunction/ (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Christina M. Dion/Released)

E.K.Yap, the MPA & MPAS multi-award winning photographer, has created many iconic masterpieces and photographed covers & campaigns for influential publications & luxury brands. His projects include Patek Philippe, Breguet, Chopard, Bvlgari, Cartier, Chanel & Franck Muller to name a few.

 

With his wide-ranging experience in art as a creative director in the advertising & publishing industry, he consistently achieves the best results with his precision skill, specialising in luxury projects particularly jewellery, timepiece, product, interior, portrait & fashion.

 

PHILOSOPHY

“I'm passionate in capturing more than just a beautiful image, I like to craft an inspiring masterpiece with soul & meaning”

 

AWARD

Advertising/Advertorial/ Editorial - MPA Far East

Architecture/ Cityscape/ Interior - MPA Far East

Illustrative & Creative - MPA Far East

Fashion - MPA Far East

Still Life - MPA Far East

Best Cover - MPAS

 

PROJECT

A. Lange & Söhne/ Audemars Piguet/ Azimuth/ Aston Martin/ ABN Ambro/ Arium Collection/ Arcatel/ Anlene/ Aqua Culture/ Adidas/ Aries Gold/ Bvlgari/ Breguet/ Bottega Veneta/ Boucheron/ Blancpain/ Breitling/ Baker Furniture/ BBDO/ Borobudur/ Bonhams/ Berggren Jewellery/ Cartier/ Chanel/ Chopard/ CitiGold/ Carat Club/ CapitaLand/ CLIO/ CEL Development/ Coty/ Confetti by Mui/ Canon/ Dolce & Gabbana/ Distillery/ D Editors/ Dell/ Franck Muller/ Flower Diamonds/ Fujitsu/ Fuchsia Lane/ Farm Best/ Ferrari/ Girard-Perregaux/ Genting/ Green Chapter/ Gucci/ Geyer/ Harry Winston/ Hassell Studio/ Hilton Hotel/ Heeton/ Hublot/ Hassell Studio/ HDB/ Hermès/ I.D.Department/ IWC/ Image Bank/ ICI Duluxe/ Inoue Japan/ Jobstreet/ Jaeger-LeCoultre/ Johnny Walker/ JOID/ Kwanpen/ Krieit Associate/ KrisShop/ KFC/ K-Suites/ Louis Moinet/ Levi’s/ Lalique/ Luminox/ Lloyd’s Asia/ Ladurée/ Lush Radio/ Louis Vuitton/ Leonard Drake/ Livita/ Lifelink/ Manolo Blahnik/ Montblanc/ Mediacorp/ MCL Land/ Mirinda/ Marc Anthony/ Maxis Mobile/ Novetel Hotel/ NTU/ National Geographic/ Omega/ Patek Philippe/ Piaget/ Philips/ Playboy/ Prada/ Pepsi/ Pure Earth/ Richard Mille/ Rolex/ Roger Dubuis/ Resort World Sentosa/ Richemont/ Reebonz/ SkysShop/ Singland/ Splendor/ Sarcar/ Sinn/ Shangri-La Hotel/ SIA/ Shelton/ Sally Hansen/ Skin Science/ StarAsia/ Skin79/ Sally Hansen/ Sports Toto/ Spritzer/ 7-Up/ The Mill/ Tag Heuer/ Tiffany/ Transware/ The Hour Glass/ Tudor/ TV3/ Universal Studio/ Ulysse Nardin/ UOI/ UOB/ Vihari Jewels/ Vacheron Constantin/ Van Cleef & Arpels/ Wild Rice/ Zenith

 

EDITORIAL

August Man/ Affluent/August Women/ Appetite/ Adore/ Awesome/ Business Time/ Baccarat/ Business Craft/ Crown/ CitaBella/ Esquire/ ELLE/ Fiori/ Golf Vacations/ Harper’s Bazaar/ Inspire Travel/ Jewels & Time/ Jewellery Craft/ L’Official/ Luxury Guide/ Luxury Insider/ Luxx Jewellery/ Legacy of Singapore/ Men’s Folio/ Man Stuff/ OASiS/ Prestige/ Prestige Lifestyle/ Pen Craft/ PC World/ PC Magazine/ Robb Report/ RWS Invites/ Solitaire/ Style/ Tatler/ Tatler Wedding/ Tatler Home/ Time Craft/ TiCTalk/ World of Watches

The history of railways goes back in the UK well over 200 years, longer if you include wagonways.

 

The industrial revolution saw the invention of the locomotive, and this was used to move freight, more of it, quicker than ever before.

 

Passengers were an afterthought.

 

There is a website which is trying to map every railway there has ever been in the UK, and looking at it, you can see lines criss-crossing the country, most are freight lines leading to and from mones or ports, to factories or cities.

 

Moving people by rail came as an afterthought, but enabled social and geographical mobility on a scale not seen before.

 

Globalisation and the exhaustion of resources has been many frieght lines close, but some still exisit, and some were opened to exploit new discoveries.

 

A railtour was announced to Baulby Potash Mine, situated on the North Sea cost just south of Teesside, along a private branch, and as the line features what is possible the most spectacular clifftop views of any line remaining, the chance to ride this proved irristable to me. I booked us on the tour in 1st class dining, but we had to join it at Potters Bar, north of London, as rail services from Dover would not have got us there in time.

 

So, an early start was needed. Even earlier as there were jams still in and around Dover, and Google Maps was telling me the Dartford Tunnels were closed until half eight.

 

The A2 was blocked at The Duke of Yorks, but going through Guston we got on our way, and had no trouble, and found the Dartford crossing fully up and flowing well.

 

We got there with 50 minutes to spare, but registering on the parking app took a good twenty minutes. So, enough time to stand on the platforms and watch trains hammer by on the ECML.

 

On the platform, a large group of men of a certain age was gathering. And it seems I am doomed to join them, but I also realise that when these fine gentlemen can no longer go on these trips, who will? There are a few women, like Jools accompanying their partners, though I don't have notebooks.

 

Already, I recognise faces from previous trips, does this mean I am now one of them?

 

67007 lead the tour, and is in a bright purple colour scheme to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. I stand at the end of the platform to snap it coming up the slow line from London.

 

We get into coach B, find our seats and settle into the armchair like seats. We can smell breakfast cooking. We were offered some fruit to start.

  

Coffee is brought round at regular intervals, and soon cooked breakfast is brought round, though I skip the fried egg, there is really nothing like eating on a train whilst the countryside rolls by the large carriage windows for our entertainment.

  

It took us op the main line to Northallerton, picking up more passengers as we went, but for rare track fans, we took the freight avoiding line at York.

 

From Northallerton, we headed to Middlesbrough, where we swapped Locos at Tees Yard and 60066 took over to lead us on.

 

That took nearly an hour. Lunch of quiche was served while we looked at flatbed trucks loaded with recently rolled steel bars.

 

then through the post-industrial landscape of the South Tees hellscape to Saltburn, then on the private branch to Bouldby.

 

We passed small stations used to two carriage DMUs, so a double loco hauled eleven carriage train was something of a surprise for those waiting. They waved at us, and we waved back.

 

Highlight is the line nearing the edge of the cliffs with views to the rocks below and along the rugged coastline. There was barely enough room for the coastal path between the line and the cliff-edge, just wide enough for one person, fences on either side stopped people getting onto the line or going over the cliffs.

 

A few photographers had taken positions to record our progress, so rare is a passenger train on this line. We waved at them too.

  

We crossed over the Saltburn Viaduct, an impressive structure, which once carried trains down the coast to Whitby and beyond, but now is on the freight only branch.

 

There was passage through the delightfully named Grinkle Tunnel before we emerged from the woods into the freight yard at the mine.

 

We went all the way to the buffer stops, paused, then began to long journey back.

 

I took shots. Don't lean out of the windows they said, so I waved the camera out of the window and clicked the shutter.

A win for Shoreham RFC over Worthing 3s.

includes tattoo layer and universal layer, tintable, and includes brow shape - $l100 or 70 in Darkerside Group - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Realm/48/216/801

♕I Includes♕

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

★ HUD BENTO AO ★

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

15 standing,2walking,4sitting,4sitting on ground, pre jumping,3jumping,landing, crouching,typing3, hovering

hovering up,hovering down, flying ,falling standing up, turring left/right.

LINK:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moonlight%20Pleasure/220/2...

 

M.P.

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/RICH-STORY-FRIDA-FEMALE-BENT...

Lewis and Clark Community College baseball team 2015-16 season includes: Top Row (L to R): Assistant Coach Dave Hopkins, Andrew Smith, Max Goepel, Nick Crossman, Jacob Siebert, Eric Pingolt, Jake Lowry, David Ertl, Colton Lee; Second Row down (L to R): Kyle Jasper, Jordan Johnson, Drew Drinen, Dylan Okenfeuss, Jordan White, Andrew Fry, Blake Lawson, Caleb Deford; Third Row down (L to R): Spencer Heineman, Nelson Martz, Will Lewis, Jacob Mueller, Jacob Skrabacz, Clint Cress, Howard Fisher, Leo Lunatto, Manager Joey Johnson; Bottom Row (L to R): Drake Hampton, Tanner Martin, Titus Taylor, John Dozier, Jacob Eggering, Hunter Bryant, Curtis Leible.