View allAll Photos Tagged Reputation
It was early in the morning, some were still sleeping, some went to take care of the cattle, and some where enjoyiing the fresh air!
The Massai live only on the Tanzania-Kenya border, along the Great Rift Valley on semi-arid and arid lands.They have been deported from their best traditional grazing lands, that are now known as the Maasai Mara National Reserve, the Amboseli National Park, and other protected forests.
The Maasai comprise 5 clans. They have reputation of fierce warriors. But they are traditionally seminomadic, and live off their cattle almost exclusively. The Maasai believe that all cattle belong to them and they are known to be cattle raiders. Cattle raiding used to be a common inter tribal activity. The livestock is a sign of wealth and is traditionally used to pay dowry for the wedding. Women are worth 10 cows. They consistently come from another village. Parents are the ones who negociate for the marriage. In the Maasai community, women construct the huts, collect firewood, bring water, milk the herds of cattle and cook for the family. Young boys look after the beasts while the warriors protect the clan. Older men take care of the daily operations in the community. The Maasai live in families in a Manyatta (a form of enclosed homestead), surrounded by a fence made of thorny bushes to protect them and their livestock from intruders and predators. Each Manyatta has about 10 to 20 huts known as "Inkajijik". These huts are made of tree branches, mud, grass and cow dung. If a man has more than one woman, he must build another house to welcome his second wife (to avoid rivalry). So a man who has 3 wifes must own 3 houses and therefore be rich. In the Maasai culture, the colorful ornaments are dedicated to their beauty, which is one of the most important aspects. Visual arts consist mainly of body decoration and beaded ornaments. These decorations are displayed in their dances, which are a popular art form. Women wear beaded necklaces and bangles, and men a red checked shuka (Maasai blanket). The warriors carry a spear and a ball-ended club, and paint their body with ochre. Maasai's diet includes meat, cow blood 2 times a week, and a lot of milk. The cows are bled by opening a vein in the neck with a blunt arrow or knife. The blood is then drunk on it’s own or with milk. The Maasai speak a Nilotic language, called Maa.
They believe in one God, Ngai (meaning "One Creator God"), the creator and giver of all things. They also believe in witchcraft. In each tribal group, there is a prophet who is seen as helping to cope with the endemic sorcery, by the means of protective medicines and advices for the rituals. In addition to the prophets, they also have diviners who are supposed to have the power to diagnose illnesses and causes of misfortune, and can prescribe a range of herbal medicines and ritual cures. Despite the fact that some members have moved to cities, many have kept their customs. The most distinctive feature of Maasai society is the age system for men, divided in sets and spaced apart by about fifteen years. Excision, as well as circoncision, is an initiatory ceremony that mark the passage to adulthood. Although excisions are prohibited in Kenya, it is widespread throughout the country, especially in rural areas. Only 4 ethnic groups (Luo, Luhya, Teso and Turkana) out of 42 don't practise it. According to the ethnies and regions, excisions vary considerably and range from 4.1% in the western region to 98.8% in the North-Est. They are common within the Somali (97%), Kisii (96%) and Maasai (93%) while they are less frequent among the Kikuyu (34%) and Kamba (27%). The kenyan law is rarely enforced and it sometimes lead this practice to clandestinity instead of slowing it down. For the 3 months of recovery period after excision, Maasai girls wear jewellery and chalk make-up, to show they must not be seen by men. Circumcision happens at the age of 18 in the Maasai tribes. Maasai woman are not allowed to attend the ceremony. Boys who show their pain with tears during the operation, are considered as cowards and bear this shame all his life. On the contrary, the ones who don't cry during circumcision are authorized to hunt colorful birds with their bow and arrows. Then they make a headdress indicating their new warrior's status. After the operation, boys go in their mother's hut to drink cow's fresh blood to recover their forces. The promotion of warriors to elderhood involve two distinct ceremonies. The 4 days eunoto ceremony raise the warriors to the senior warrior status. For this occasion, warriors gather in the same village. They are led by a ritual leader (olotuno). Each one of them has a part of his head shaved by his mother, which often makes them cry. It symbolizes the end of their freedom and of the bond with their mother. At the end of the ritual, the warrior can select any girl to marry. The olghesher ceremony promote them to senior elderhood thanks to which they have the power to bless and curse, and become protective leaders of the next new age-set.
During one of the ceremonies, maasai girls accompany their lover to the ceremonial dance. Pearl neacklaces and headbands follow the rhythm. This is the sole moment when girls can choose freely 3 lovers among the warriors.Traditionally, as long as the father was alive, no son has final control over his cattle nor over his choice in marriage. At marriage, the bride is allocated a herd of cattle, from which all her sons will build up herds of their own. In any case, women are raised to accept her submission to her future husband.
© Eric Lafforgue
Participants enjoy some relaxing yoga with instructor Anna at the Dowd YMCA's Taylor Swift: Reputation Party.
Further enhancing the Cadillac Motor Car Company's reputation for engineering leadership, the introduction of the innovative new eight-cylinder Model 51 marked Cadillac's first application of the V8 in standard production, mass-produced vehicle. Since that debut, the V8 engine has continued to remain as Cadillac's standard powerplant since, for an ‘unbroken span of more than 65 years'.
Cadillac chose to replace its outdated four-cylinder Model 30 with the 1915 V-8 Type 51. The model 30 had been running for four years and it was considered by some to be outdated, though it had an outstanding reputation for both durability and reliability. In 1914 sales for Cadillac plummeted, possibly due to other luxury makers were running with sixes. The Model 51 V8 was introduced by Cadillac founder Henry M. Leyland and featured an amazing 70 hp and a water-cooled V8 engine.
As the Edwardian Era was coming to a close, the elegance and innocence of that time was manufactured into the 'Landaulette' model. The stylish transformable coupe made the Model 51 a legend as it featured sophistication and style. Cadillac advertised the Model 51 as 'The Penalty of Leadership' in an ad campaign that wowed consumers. The Model 51 was produced in significant numbers and became a Cadillac trademark for decades.
For years Leyland had been experimenting with a variety of engine types, and as a result of all of his hard research, he came to the conclusion that V8 would be much more popular than a six. The compact nature of the v-type design also appealed to Leyland and in some instance the long crankshaft that characterized the inline sixes had a tendency to ‘whip at high rpm'. At the time, most luxury models had moved on to much more powerful six-cylinder engines, but Cadillac continued to sport its mundane four cylinder engine. The Model 51 was then debuted by the luxury department, powered by eight cylinders that wowed the public.
The V8 was a strange and unique design for those days, and many people hadn't even seen such an engine. Two French manufacturers had developed V8's more than a decade previously and had utilized them to power racing machines. In America, as early as 1906 Howard Marmon had demonstrated an air-cooled V8. In 1910 the French firm of DeDion had marketed a production V8. The Cadillac Model 51 offered the first commercially available V8 engine in 1914.
The Model 30 was the original vehicle that included an all-new Delco system and an electric start. No more were drivers concerned with jamming a thumb or breaking a limb when cranking their cars. Unfortunately, though the Model 51 was impressive, but it paled deeply when placed alongside the 1912 Cadillac Model 30. This top-of-the-line Cadillac was the most expensive vehicle that GM produced, and at 1921, the Model 51 was priced at $5,190.
During the 1915 model year alone, Cadillac produced more than 13,000 units of the Model 51, which was a very impressive number for the first year on the market. The Cadillac Roadster, the four-passenger Cadillac Salon, the five-passenger touring car, and the Cadillac Seven-Passenger vehicle were all priced at $1,975, while the Cadillac Coupe was priced at $2,500, the Sedan for five-passengers at $2,800, the standard Cadillac Limousine was priced at $3,450 and the top-line vehicle, the formal 'Berlin Limousine' was sold at $3,600.
[Text taken from Conceptcarz.com]
www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z16349/Cadillac-Model-51.aspx
This Lego miniland-scale 1915 Cadillac Type 51 Tourer has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 88th Build Challenge, - "Let's go Break Some records", - for vehicles that set the bar (high or low) for any number of vehicles statistics or records. Or for a vehicle which achieves a notable first. In the case of the Cadillac Type 51 - this model was the first production car V8 engine.
Vintage postcard. Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996).
American actor Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) has often played unconventional parts, particularly in biopics and period films. His role in the blockbuster Titanic (1998) cemented DiCaprio's reputation as a teen heartthrob. He became one of the biggest movie stars thanks to his films with the directors Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Quentin Tarantino. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for The Revenant (2015) as well as two other Golden Globes for The Aviator (2004) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, in 1974. He is the only child of Irmelin (née Indenbirken), a legal secretary, and George DiCaprio, an underground comix writer, publisher, and distributor of comic books. His parents separated when he was a year old. When his older stepbrother earned $50,000 for a television commercial, DiCaprio, fascinated with this, decided to become an actor. At age 14, he began his career by appearing in television commercials such as for Matchbox cars by Mattel, which he considered his first role. In 1989, he played the role of Glen in two episodes of the television show The New Lassie. Leo played recurring roles in various television series, such as the sitcom Parenthood (1990-1991) based on the successful comedy film of the same name. He made his film debut as the stepson of an evil landlord in the low-budget horror direct-to-video film Critters 3 (Kristine Peterson, 1991). He was handpicked by Robert De Niro out of 400 young actors to play the lead role in the biographical coming-of-age drama This Boy's Life (Michael Caton-Jones, 1993) with De Niro as his stepfather, and Ellen Barkin as his mother. In 1993, DiCaprio co-starred as the intellectually disabled brother of Johnny Depp's character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Lasse Hallström, 1993), a comic-tragic odyssey of a dysfunctional Iowa family. The film became a critical success, earning DiCaprio a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe. His next films were the Western film The Quick and the Dead (Sam Raimi, 1995) with Sharon Stone, the biopic The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert, 1995) in which he played a teenage Jim Carroll as a drug-addicted high school basketball player and writer, and the erotic drama Total Eclipse (Agnieszka Holland, 1995), a fictionalised account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis). In 1996, DiCaprio appeared opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, an abridged modernisation of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name. The project grossed $147 million worldwide and earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. DiCaprio then achieved international fame as a star in the epic romance Titanic (James Cameron, 1997), opposite Kate Winslet. Against expectations, Titanic went on to become the highest-grossing film to that point, eventually grossing more than $2.1 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. DiCaprio turned into a superstar, resulting in intense adoration among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-Mania"
Leonardo DiCaprio played a self-mocking role in a small appearance in Woody Allen's caustic satire of the fame industry, Celebrity (1998). That year, he also starred in the dual roles of the villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in The Man in the Iron Mask (Randall Wallace, 1998). The film received mixed to negative response, but became a box office success, grossing $180 million internationally. DiCaprio was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for both incarnations the following year. Leonardo starred in two successful features in 2002. The first was the biographical crime drama Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002), based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday committed check fraud to make millions in the 1960s. The film received favourable reviews and was an international success, becoming DiCaprio's highest-grossing release since Titanic with a total of $351 million worldwide. The second was the historical drama Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002) with Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis. It marked his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. Gangs of New York earned a total of $193 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews. DiCaprio played Howard Hughes in The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004), which DiCaprio also co-produced. In 2005, he was named the commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts. DiCaprio was a mercenary in the political thriller Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick, 2006). He received acclaim for his role opposite Jack Nicholson in the crime drama The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006). Budgeted at $90 million, the film grossed $291 million and emerged as DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to date. He reunited with Kate Winslet in the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008). DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions—a production company that has produced some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg (2008–2010)—and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness.
Leonardo DiCaprio continued to collaborate with Martin Scorsese in the psychological thriller film Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010), based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film was a commercial success, grossing $294 million worldwide. DiCaprio starred in the science fiction thriller Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010), in which he enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. DiCaprio earned $50 million from the film, becoming his highest payday yet. He was an executive producer for George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, an adaptation of Beau Willimon's play Farragut North (George Clooney, 2011) with Ryan Gosling. In 2012, DiCaprio starred as a plantation owner, Calvin Candie, in Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western, Django Unchained (2012). DiCaprio's next role was as the millionaire Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (2013), an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name. That year he also starred in the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013), based on the life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who was arrested in the late 1990s for securities fraud and money laundering. The film earned him a Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Picture. DiCaprio was an executive producer on Virunga (Orlando von Einsiedel, 2014), a British documentary film about four people fighting to protect the world's last mountain gorillas from war and poaching. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 2015, DiCaprio produced and played fur trapper Hugh Glass in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's survival drama The Revenant. Built on a budget of $135 million, the well-received film earned $533 million worldwide. The film earned him numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a SAG and a Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor. For the next three years, DiCaprio narrated documentaries and served as a producer for films. DiCaprio returned to acting following a break of four years in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), opposite Brad Pitt. He received nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor. The film earned a total of $374 million against its $90-million budget. DiCaprio's personal life is the subject of widespread media attention. He rarely gives interviews and is reluctant to discuss his private life. Among his former girlfriends are Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, Israeli model Bar Refaeli, and German model Toni Garrn.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Bohn was a Detroit-based manufacturer of metals and alloys with a reputation for union-bashing. In the 1940s they invested heavily in a long series of adverts that looked forward to a future utopia where human ingenuity would triumph over the constraints of space, time and gravity, grandly presented in full page and full colour streamlined visions. The presiding genius behind the campaign was local illustrator, Arthur Radebaugh (1906-74) who described a world where monorails, flying cars and torpedo-shaped ocean liners battled the elements to conquer time and space. It was an ingenious effort to combine the after-imagery of the Streamline era with the galactic vision of Astounding Science Fiction to project forward into an imagined future of unlimited connectivity. Vast aviation hubs, multi-level cities, high speed trains, towering cruise ships and driverless cars have all, to some degree come to pass - only the monorail has stubbornly failed to catch on. Later attention turned to more prosaic consumer products (lawnmowers, telephones, motorcycles, kitchen storage). It seems that Radebaugh himself already inhabited the future he was busy imagining for the rest of us. He would travel the nation in a 1959 Ford Econoline van that he had customised into a mobile studio complete with futuristic styling. As for Bohn, post-War optimism decayed into anti-Communist paranoia, shelling out for ads that would tear the mask of peace from the hard vicious face of Communism.
This is the only known example that bears the Radebaugh signature.
Miley Cyrus
The American pop queen everyone loves to hate, Miley Cyrus lived up to her reputation as she brought her Bangerz tour to London on the first stop of its rescheduled European leg in support of Cyrus’ fourth post-Hannah Montana studio album of the same name.
Cyrus burst onto the cross-shaped stage with a mouthful of expletives, starting the show as she meant to go on: to try and push the boundaries beyond where they should be in the name of entertainment. The music that accompanied the show was primarily from Bangerz with a couple of hits from previous records thrown in amongst a couple of covers, including a cover of Sheffield rockers Arctic Monkeys’ Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? for the home country crowd.
She laid it on thick from her opening gambit of entering the arena by tearing down a tongue-shaped slide protruding from an image of her own face to returning to the stage in an outfit made up of faux-American currency with a golden marijuana-leaf necklace on top of a gold car whilst simulating masturbation. Madonna did it more elegantly twenty years ago dear.
There were brief moments where we thought she might redeem herself, explaining the dangers of smoking cigarettes for instance. But she turned it around quite skilfully, resulting in the most bizarre anti-smoking campaign you’ll ever hear, proclaiming that cigarettes led to a crease on her 21-year-old face and, as delicious as cigarettes might be, to instead smoke weed: "Weed never killed anybody!".
Crowd participation was achieved by way of Cyrus requesting members of the audience, particularly same sex couples, to engage in over the top kissing in order to appear on the large screen behind her. In the words of her 2009 hit and set-closer Party in the U.S.A., this was definitely not a Nashville party. She later re-engaged the crowd by asking them if it was okay if she spit water all over them citing American audience approval of the same treatment during the U.S. leg of the tour.
Cyrus even managed to squeeze the c-word into Dolly Parton classic Jolene while visiting the back of the vast O2 Arena on a b-stage before returning to the main stage to close the main set riding around on a big weiner.
I know, I know, it’s my own fault. To be fair to Miley, I knew what I was letting myself in for. I was just secretly hoping she’d surprise me and make me revaluate my perception of her music. I really think this girl has a powerful voice and potential to be a great singer-songwriter and musician. But tonight demonstrates that controversy sells.
The highlight of the evening for me came before Miley Cyrus even graced the stage by way of support act Sky Ferreira whose mixture of strong, growling vocals over heavy guitars seemed to confuse the Cyrusites around me but who proved herself a strong talent.
The town of Towitta was surveyed in 1876 on a former Travelling Stock Route with a good water supply from a spring and the nearby hills. It was proclaimed in 1876 but some farmers took up their land from 1868 as the Hundred of Jellico was declared in 1851 although surveying of land did not begin on the Murray Flats part of this Hundred until the late 1860s. Many of those who took up land here were Wends or Sorbs including Matthes Schippan. Towitta had a few houses, a creek, a church, a cemetery, a Post Office and a school. The school opened in 1880 and finally closed in 1957. The state school began operations in the Wesleyan Church until a school room was built in 1894. When it opened the school had around 27 pupils. A new state school and teacher’s residence was built in the town in 1922. Like all small villages it had a Post Office from 1876 until the 1970s. Despite the German and Wendish background of many settlers the only church built in Towitta was the Wesleyan Methodist Church built in 1874. It closed in 1897 and was purchased by the Congregational Church who used it until 1963 when it permanently closed. As there was no Lutheran cemetery in town the local Wendish and Lutheran settlers used the town cemetery for burials. The earliest burials here occurred in 1885. Some names in the Towitta cemetery are: Harris, Baker, Mullighan, Henke, Kalesch, Mattschoss, Schrapel, Wohlgemuth etc. By 1902 around the time of the Towitta murder the town had a population of 75 people with about 15 dwellings. The greatest population from the censuses for Towitta was in 1911 when it had a population of 186 people in the village and district.
Most people had not heard of Towitta until 1 January 1902 when a famous and puzzling murder took place there. Mary Schippan, 24 years of age (born 1877), was charged with the murder of her sister Bertha Schippan who was 14 years old. On the night of the murder the Schippan parents, Matthes and Johanne Schippan (neé Dohnt of Eden Valley), were away visiting relatives in Eden Valley. They had purchased their Towitta property in 1881 having had a lease before that. On the night of the murder Mary said she was awoken in the night by a man in their bedroom and the screams of her sister Bertha. But she managed to escape. Her two brothers sleeping away from the house in an outbuilding were called for help and came to Mary’s assistance. The three siblings, without going back into the family home, then walked to a neighbour’s house for help but could find no one to assist. When they returned to their own home they called out for Bertha but there was no answer. Fearing the worst the three then walked to the nearest constable for help a local farmer named Lambert. When constable Lambert returned with the three siblings they found the battered body of sister Bertha with her throat slashed five times. The Schippan parents returned from Eden Valley the next day and a short inquest was held in the Schippan home before Bertha was quickly buried. The murder was a gruesome one and Bertha’s body was quickly buried the next morning by the Schippan family in the Sedan cemetery. It was later exhumed twice for further investigations. For the first time in SA the Advertiser newspapers used a motor vehicle for their on the spot reporter to gather information which was relayed to Adelaide from the telegraph station in Angaston. The murder story was reported nationally and made headlines for months. In a second inquest Mary’s illicit sexual relationship with Gustav Nitschke was revealed by him thus destroying the reputation of Mary Schippan and shifting the blame to her. Mary was then convicted by the Coroner of murdering her sister to prevent Bertha from revealing the relationship with Nitschke to her father Matthes. Mary was sent to Adelaide Gaol to await a formal trial. Her trial opened in March 1902 in front of Chief Justice Sir Samuel Way and Sir Josiah Symon. After a trial of six days the jury took just two hours to deliver a verdict of “not guilty”. Mary was released, Gustav Nitschke was discredited and the family returned to Towitta.
Thirty policemen were assigned to the case to find answers about the murder but the evidence was lost in dust and heat and time. There were tales of the illicit romance of Mary and Gustav and the Wendish community only partially sympathised with and supported Mary Schippan and her family. The Court heard that Mary was having an illicit romantic affair with Gustav Nitschke and that her younger sister Bertha had found out. This was circumstantial evidence only. Were Bertha to have told her father he would have been furious and there would have been repercussions for Mary. This evidence upset the Nitschke family who then claimed that Mary’s father had committed the murder. They claimed he could have ridden down from Eden Valley in the dark and committed the murder and returned back to Eden Valley before dawn. Nitschke senior actually had an alibi as he was in Adelaide on the knight of the murder and so he was removed from suspicion but he was well known and was treated with suspicion by the public. He soon moved interstate and changed his name to Gus Nicholls. But in the Court trial of 1902 the lack of any evidence against Mary’s and her clear love for her sister led to her eventually acquittal. No other suspect was found. The head of Bertha Schippan was removed from her body when it was exhumed and it was examined in Adelaide but to no avail. It was later reburied with poor Bertha in Sedan cemetery. The summation of Justice Josiah Symon heavily criticised the acts and behaviour of the Coroner who was under the influence of the police when he was at Towitta. Symon also criticised the police for not examine in detail the report of unknown foot prints at the Schippan farm gate. Here are some major points from Justice Josiah Symon’s summation:
•Mary had no motive to murder her sister and she was subject to cruel, unjust and relentless persecution. He was referring not only to the police and coroner but also the media. This has overtones of what happened to Lindy Chamberlain 80 years later.
•It was not creditable for Mary to murder her sister with whom she was sharing a bed and there was no proof.
•When Mary saw Bertha’s bodies she burst into tears but it was reported that she was unemotional.
•Mary was under police surveillance from Jan 2 and they sought to find evidence to convict her not prove her innocence.
•We had furniture, bed cloths, and bedding saturated in blood. Why did Mary have almost no blood on her?
•The Coroner gave evidence based on assumption only. No one could tell the age of the blood stains.
•Why did the Crown drag Nitschke into the court to destroy the reputation of Mary? Only to try and give Mary a motive.
•The police did not look after the evidence and bundled it all together so that no piece of evidence could be free from blood stains.
•The police covered up the set of foot prints going up the lane to the Schippan cottage. Why? Did they cover them because they trembled for their (prosecution) case?
•Five days after the murder they bought a blacktracker when he could find nothing and do nothing.
•When Mary went to her brothers and woke them she asked then to put out their light as she thought she had been followed. They cowered there in fright. Later they returned with pitchforks as they feared a man might still be in the house.
•Despite clams Mary did not wash her hair the next morning at the neighbour’s house only her face and hands. She was not trying to remove blood from her hair.
•Mary’s blouse had only a few tiny specs of blood on it and she wore her stockings all evening and when with the local constable.
•There were some blood stains on Mary’s skirt but she had killed a sheep a few days before. Were the stains human blood or other mammalia?
•There were one hair from Mary’s head on the towel near the body but how did it get there? The towel had been used for a week by the entire family for washing hands etc.
•When Bertha’s body was exhumed 13 days after burial one of Mary’s hairs was found on the hands of Bertha. Is that reliable?
•The Coroner argued the wound was inflicted by a right handed person on Bertha but Mary is left handed.
•The police never found a knife only those used for killing sheep and another household knife which did not fit the murder.
But the rumours persisted and the reputation of the family was destroyed despite them trying to keep to themselves in Towitta. In 1908 they left Towitta for a property at Lights Pass near Nuriootpa. Previous to this they had built a new cottage on their property which still stands today but it is not the original thatched cottage where the murder took place. That was demolished. Matthes Schippan died in 1911 and was buried in the Strait Gate Lutheran Church at Lights Pass under the name of Martin Schippan. Mary and her mother left Lights Pass in 1917. Mary went to a convalescent home in Adelaide because of her tuberculosis. Johannes moved in with her son August at Mount Mary. Mary never married and lived the life of a recluse with her mother most of her life. As she approached death she was moved from Adelaide to her mother and brother at Mount Mary. She died of tuberculosis at the early age of 41 years at Mount Mary and was buried in St Peter’s Lutheran cemetery at Bower in 1919. Her mother Johannes later moved to Eudunda and died there in 1923. She was buried in the Eudunda general cemetery.
Devil's Pulpit
A strange rock with a sinister reputation lurks within the crimson waters of this Scottish glen.
Blood-red water courses through Finnich Glen, a majestic sliver of Scotland, and surges around a strange rock with a sinister reputation.
The name “the Devil’s Pulpit” originally referred to the mushroom-shaped rock that sometimes pokes above the rushing stream. Some say the rock is where the Devil stood to address his followers, the crimson current swirling at his feet. Others say Druids held secret meetings there, hidden from sight within the shadows of the gorge’s looming walls. Still more tell tales of witches using the rock as an execution block.
However, over time, many people began referring to all of Finnich Gorge as “the Devil’s Pulpit.” It’s still a fitting name, as the red water certainly gives the whole place an eerie, almost sinister aura, though its color actually isn’t the work of the Devil at all. It’s merely a result of the underlying red sandstone.
But this doesn’t make the gorge feel any less otherwordly. Climbing down the slippery steps—of course referred to at the Devil’s Steps—and entering this realm of verdant moss-covered rocks and ruby-toned water reveals an enchanting world, where thin beams of sunlight shine spotlights the gurgling stream.
The gorge also had a small role in the series Outlander as the site of Liar’s Spring.
What craziness is this, a day in that London on a weekday? Well, working one day last weekend, and another next weekend, meant I took a day in Lieu.
So there.
And top of my list of places to visit was St Magnus. This would be the fifth time I have tried to get inside, and the first since I wrote to the church asking whether they would be open a particular Saturday, and then any Saturday. Letters which were ignored
So, I walked out of Monument Station, down the hill there was St Magnus: would it be open?
It was, and inside it was a box, nay a treasure chest of delights.
--------------------------------------------------------------
St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge is a Church of England church and parish within the City of London. The church, which is located in Lower Thames Street near The Monument to the Great Fire of London,[1] is part of the Diocese of London and under the pastoral care of the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Fulham.[2] It is a Grade I listed building.[3] The rector uses the title "Cardinal Rector". [4]
St Magnus lies on the original alignment of London Bridge between the City and Southwark. The ancient parish was united with that of St Margaret, New Fish Street, in 1670 and with that of St Michael, Crooked Lane, in 1831.[5] The three united parishes retained separate vestries and churchwardens.[6] Parish clerks continue to be appointed for each of the three parishes.[7]
St Magnus is the guild church of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, and the ward church of the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without. It is also twinned with the Church of the Resurrection in New York City.[8]
Its prominent location and beauty has prompted many mentions in literature.[9] In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens notes how, as Nancy heads for her secret meeting with Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie on London Bridge, "the tower of old Saint Saviour's Church, and the spire of Saint Magnus, so long the giant-warders of the ancient bridge, were visible in the gloom". The church's spiritual and architectural importance is celebrated in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, who adds in a footnote that "the interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest among Wren's interiors".[10] One biographer of Eliot notes that at first he enjoyed St Magnus aesthetically for its "splendour"; later he appreciated its "utility" when he came there as a sinner.
The church is dedicated to St Magnus the Martyr, earl of Orkney, who died on 16 April in or around 1116 (the precise year is unknown).[12] He was executed on the island of Egilsay having been captured during a power struggle with his cousin, a political rival.[13] Magnus had a reputation for piety and gentleness and was canonised in 1135. St. Ronald, the son of Magnus's sister Gunhild Erlendsdotter, became Earl of Orkney in 1136 and in 1137 initiated the construction of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.[14] The story of St. Magnus has been retold in the 20th century in the chamber opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1976)[15] by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, based on George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus (1973).
he identity of the St Magnus referred to in the church's dedication was only confirmed by the Bishop of London in 1926.[16] Following this decision a patronal festival service was held on 16 April 1926.[17] In the 13th century the patronage was attributed to one of the several saints by the name of Magnus who share a feast day on 19 August, probably St Magnus of Anagni (bishop and martyr, who was slain in the persecution of the Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3rd century).[18] However, by the early 18th century it was suggested that the church was either "dedicated to the memory of St Magnus or Magnes, who suffer'd under the Emperor Aurelian in 276 [see St Mammes of Caesarea, feast day 17 August], or else to a person of that name, who was the famous Apostle or Bishop of the Orcades."[19] For the next century historians followed the suggestion that the church was dedicated to the Roman saint of Cæsarea.[20] The famous Danish archaeologist Professor Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–85) promoted the attribution to St Magnus of Orkney during his visit to the British Isles in 1846-7, when he was formulating the concept of the 'Viking Age',[21] and a history of London written in 1901 concluded that "the Danes, on their second invasion ... added at least two churches with Danish names, Olaf and Magnus".[22] A guide to the City Churches published in 1917 reverted to the view that St Magnus was dedicated to a martyr of the third century,[23] but the discovery of St Magnus of Orkney's relics in 1919 renewed interest in a Scandinavian patron and this connection was encouraged by the Rector who arrived in 1921
A metropolitan bishop of London attended the Council of Arles in 314, which indicates that there must have been a Christian community in Londinium by this date, and it has been suggested that a large aisled building excavated in 1993 near Tower Hill can be compared with the 4th-century Cathedral of St Tecla in Milan.[25] However, there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that any of the mediaeval churches in the City of London had a Roman foundation.[26] A grant from William I in 1067 to Westminster Abbey, which refers to the stone church of St Magnus near the bridge ("lapidee eccle sci magni prope pontem"), is generally accepted to be 12th century forgery,[27] and it is possible that a charter of confirmation in 1108-16 might also be a later fabrication.[28] Nonetheless, these manuscripts may preserve valid evidence of a date of foundation in the 11th century.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the area of the bridgehead was not occupied from the early 5th century until the early 10th century. Environmental evidence indicates that the area was waste ground during this period, colonised by elder and nettles. Following Alfred's decision to reoccupy the walled area of London in 886, new harbours were established at Queenhithe and Billingsgate. A bridge was in place by the early 11th century, a factor which would have encouraged the occupation of the bridgehead by craftsmen and traders.[30] A lane connecting Botolph's Wharf and Billingsgate to the rebuilt bridge may have developed by the mid-11th century. The waterfront at this time was a hive of activity, with the construction of embankments sloping down from the riverside wall to the river. Thames Street appeared in the second half of the 11th century immediately behind (north of) the old Roman riverside wall and in 1931 a piling from this was discovered during the excavation of the foundations of a nearby building. It now stands at the base of the church tower.[31] St Magnus was built to the south of Thames Street to serve the growing population of the bridgehead area[32] and was certainly in existence by 1128-33.[33]
The small ancient parish[34] extended about 110 yards along the waterfront either side of the old bridge, from 'Stepheneslane' (later Churchehawlane or Church Yard Alley) and 'Oystergate' (later called Water Lane or Gully Hole) on the West side to 'Retheresgate' (a southern extension of Pudding Lane) on the East side, and was centred on the crossroads formed by Fish Street Hill (originally Bridge Street, then New Fish Street) and Thames Street.[35] The mediaeval parish also included Drinkwater's Wharf (named after the owner, Thomas Drinkwater), which was located immediately West of the bridge, and Fish Wharf, which was to the South of the church. The latter was of considerable importance as the fishmongers had their shops on the wharf. The tenement was devised by Andrew Hunte to the Rector and Churchwardens in 1446.[36] The ancient parish was situated in the South East part of Bridge Ward, which had evolved in the 11th century between the embankments to either side of the bridge.[37]
In 1182 the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of Bermondsey agreed that the advowson of St Magnus should be divided equally between them. Later in the 1180s, on their presentation, the Archdeacon of London inducted his nephew as parson.
Between the late Saxon period and 1209 there was a series of wooden bridges across the Thames, but in that year a stone bridge was completed.[39] The work was overseen by Peter de Colechurch, a priest and head of the Fraternity of the Brethren of London Bridge. The Church had from early times encouraged the building of bridges and this activity was so important it was perceived to be an act of piety - a commitment to God which should be supported by the giving of alms. London’s citizens made gifts of land and money "to God and the Bridge".[40] The Bridge House Estates became part of the City's jurisdiction in 1282.
Until 1831 the bridge was aligned with Fish Street Hill, so the main entrance into the City from the south passed the West door of St Magnus on the north bank of the river.[41] The bridge included a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket[42] for the use of pilgrims journeying to Canterbury Cathedral to visit his tomb.[43] The chapel and about two thirds of the bridge were in the parish of St Magnus. After some years of rivalry a dispute arose between the church and the chapel over the offerings given to the chapel by the pilgrims. The matter was resolved by the brethren of the chapel making an annual contribution to St Magnus.[44] At the Reformation the chapel was turned into a house and later a warehouse, the latter being demolished in 1757-58.
The church grew in importance. On 21 November 1234 a grant of land was made to the parson of St Magnus for the enlargement of the church.[45] The London eyre of 1244 recorded that in 1238 "A thief named William of Ewelme of the county of Buckingham fled to the church of St. Magnus the Martyr, London, and there acknowledged the theft and abjured the realm. He had no chattels."[46] Another entry recorded that "The City answers saying that the church of ... St. Magnus the Martyr ... which [is] situated on the king's highway ... ought to belong to the king and be in his gift".[47] The church presumably jutted into the road running to the bridge, as it did in later times.[48] In 1276 it was recorded that "the church of St. Magnus the Martyr is worth £15 yearly and Master Geoffrey de la Wade now holds it by the grant of the prior of Bermundeseie and the abbot of Westminster to whom King Henry conferred the advowson by his charter.
In 1274 "came King Edward and his wife [Eleanor] from the Holy Land and were crowned at Westminster on the Sunday next after the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady [15 August], being the Feast of Saint Magnus [19 August]; and the Conduit in Chepe ran all the day with red wine and white wine to drink, for all such as wished."[50] Stow records that "in the year 1293, for victory obtained by Edward I against the Scots, every citizen, according to their several trade, made their several show, but especially the fishmongers" whose solemn procession including a knight "representing St Magnus, because it was upon St Magnus' day".
An important religious guild, the Confraternity de Salve Regina, was in existence by 1343, having been founded by the "better sort of the Parish of St Magnus" to sing the anthem 'Salve Regina' every evening.[51] The Guild certificates of 1389 record that the Confraternity of Salve Regina and the guild of St Thomas the Martyr in the chapel on the bridge, whose members belonged to St Magnus parish, had determined to become one, to have the anthem of St Thomas after the Salve Regina and to devote their united resources to restoring and enlarging the church of St Magnus.[52] An Act of Parliament of 1437[53] provided that all incorporated fraternities and companies should register their charters and have their ordinances approved by the civic authorities.[54] Fear of enquiry into their privileges may have led established fraternities to seek a firm foundation for their rights. The letters patent of the fraternity of St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr of Salve Regina in St Magnus dated 26 May 1448 mention that the fraternity had petitioned for a charter on the grounds that the society was not duly founded.
In the mid-14th century the Pope was the Patron of the living and appointed five rectors to the benefice.[56]
Henry Yevele, the master mason whose work included the rebuilding of Westminster Hall and the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral, was a parishioner and rebuilt the chapel on London Bridge between 1384 and 1397. He served as a warden of London Bridge and was buried at St Magnus on his death in 1400. His monument was extant in John Stow's time, but was probably destroyed by the fire of 1666.[57]
Yevele, as the King’s Mason, was overseen by Geoffrey Chaucer in his capacity as the Clerk of the King's Works. In The General Prologue of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales the five guildsmen "were clothed alle in o lyveree Of a solempne and a greet fraternitee"[58] and may be thought of as belonging to the guild in the parish of St Magnus, or one like it.[59] Chaucer's family home was near to the bridge in Thames Street.
n 1417 a dispute arose concerning who should take the place of honour amongst the rectors in the City churches at the Whit Monday procession, a place that had been claimed from time to time by the rectors of St Peter Cornhill, St Magnus the Martyr and St Nicholas Cole Abbey. The Mayor and Aldermen decided that the Rector of St Peter Cornhill should take precedence.[61]
St Magnus Corner at the north end of London Bridge was an important meeting place in mediaeval London, where notices were exhibited, proclamations read out and wrongdoers punished.[62] As it was conveniently close to the River Thames, the church was chosen by the Bishop between the 15th and 17th centuries as a convenient venue for general meetings of the clergy in his diocese.[63] Dr John Young, Bishop of Callipolis (rector of St Magnus 1514-15) pronounced judgement on 16 December 1514 (with the Bishop of London and in the presence of Thomas More, then under-sheriff of London) in the heresy case concerning Richard Hunne.[64]
In pictures from the mid-16th century the old church looks very similar to the present-day St Giles without Cripplegate in the Barbican.[65] According to the martyrologist John Foxe, a woman was imprisoned in the 'cage' on London Bridge in April 1555 and told to "cool herself there" for refusing to pray at St Magnus for the recently deceased Pope Julius III.[66]
Simon Lowe, a Member of Parliament and Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company during the reign of Queen Mary and one of the jurors who acquitted Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in 1554, was a parishioner.[67] He was a mourner at the funeral of Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester from 1554 to 1558 and Rector of St Magnus from 1537 to 1558, who was interred in the church on 30 November 1558 with much solemnity. In accordance with the Catholic church's desire to restore ecclesiastical pageantry in England, the funeral was a splendid affair, ending in a magnificent dinner.
Lowe was included in a return of recusants in the Diocese of Rochester in 1577,[69] but was buried at St Magnus on 6 February 1578.[70] Stow refers to his monument in the church. His eldest son, Timothy (died 1617), was knighted in 1603. His second son, Alderman Sir Thomas Lowe (1550–1623), was Master of the Haberdashers' Company on several occasions, Sheriff of London in 1595/96, Lord Mayor in 1604/05 and a Member of Parliament for London.[71] His youngest son, Blessed John Lowe (1553–1586), having originally been a Protestant minister, converted to Roman Catholicism, studied for the priesthood at Douay and Rome and returned to London as a missionary priest.[72] His absence had already been noted; a list of 1581 of "such persons of the Diocese of London as have any children ... beyond the seas" records "John Low son to Margaret Low of the Bridge, absent without licence four years". Having gained 500 converts to Catholicism between 1583 and 1586, he was arrested whilst walking with his mother near London Bridge, committed to The Clink and executed at Tyburn on 8 October 1586.[73] He was beatified in 1987 as one of the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales.
Sir William Garrard, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman, Sheriff of London in 1553/53, Lord Mayor in 1555/56 and a Member of Parliament was born in the parish and buried at St Magnus in 1571.[74] Sir William Romney, merchant, philanthropist, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman for Bridge Within and Sheriff of London in 1603/04[75] was married at St Magnus in 1582. Ben Jonson is believed to have been married at St Magnus in 1594.[76]
The patronage of St Magnus, having previously been in the Abbots and Convents of Westminster and Bermondsey (who presented alternatively), fell to the Crown on the suppression of the monasteries. In 1553, Queen Mary, by letters patent, granted it to the Bishop of London and his successors.[77]
The church had a series of distinguished rectors in the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century, including Myles Coverdale (Rector 1564-66), John Young (Rector 1566-92), Theophilus Aylmer (Rector 1592-1625), (Archdeacon of London and son of John Aylmer), and Cornelius Burges (Rector 1626-41). Coverdale was buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, but when that church was pulled down in 1840 his remains were removed to St Magnus.[78]
On 5 November 1562 the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken, in two parts all the altar stones in the church.[79] Coverdale, an anti-vestiarian, was Rector at the peak of the vestments controversy. In March 1566 Archbishop Parker caused great consternation among many clergy by his edicts prescribing what was to be worn and by his summoning the London clergy to Lambeth to require their compliance. Coverdale excused himself from attending.[80] Stow records that a non-conforming Scot who normally preached at St Magnus twice a day precipitated a fight on Palm Sunday 1566 at Little All Hallows in Thames Street with his preaching against vestments.[81] Coverdale's resignation from St Magnus in summer 1566 may have been associated with these events. Separatist congregations started to emerge after 1566 and the first such, who called themselves 'Puritans' or 'Unspottyd Lambs of the Lord', was discovered close to St Magnus at Plumbers' Hall in Thames Street on 19 June 1567.
St Magnus narrowly escaped destruction in 1633. A later edition of Stow's Survey records that "On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; water then being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over."[83] Susannah Chambers "by her last will & testament bearing date 28th December 1640 gave the sum of Twenty-two shillings and Sixpence Yearly for a Sermon to be preached on the 12th day of February in every Year within the Church of Saint Magnus in commemoration of God's merciful preservation of the said Church of Saint Magnus from Ruin, by the late and terrible Fire on London Bridge. Likewise Annually to the Poor the sum of 17/6."[84] The tradition of a "Fire Sermon" was revived on 12 February 2004, when the first preacher was the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.
Parliamentarian rule and the more Protestant ethos of the 1640s led to the removal or destruction of "superstitious" and "idolatrous" images and fittings. Glass painters such as Baptista Sutton, who had previously installed "Laudian innovations", found new employment by repairing and replacing these to meet increasingly strict Protestant standards. In January 1642 Sutton replaced 93 feet of glass at St Magnus and in June 1644 he was called back to take down the "painted imagery glass" and replace it.[86] In June 1641 "rail riots" broke out at a number of churches. This was a time of high tension following the trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford and rumours of army and popish plots were rife. The Protestation Oath, with its pledge to defend the true religion "against all Popery and popish innovation", triggered demands from parishioners for the removal of the rails as popish innovations which the Protestation had bound them to reform. The minister arranged a meeting between those for and against the pulling down of the rails, but was unsuccessful in reaching a compromise and it was feared that they would be demolished by force.[87] However, in 1663 the parish resumed Laudian practice and re-erected rails around its communion table.[88]
Joseph Caryl was incumbent from 1645 until his ejection in 1662. In 1663 he was reportedly living near London Bridge and preaching to an Independent congregation that met at various places in the City.[89]
During the Great Plague of 1665, the City authorities ordered fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed. Daniel Defoe's semi-fictictional, but highly realistic, work A Journal of the Plague Year records that one of these was "just by St Magnus Church"
Despite its escape in 1633, the church was one of the first buildings to be destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.[91] St Magnus stood less than 300 yards from the bakehouse of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane where the fire started. Farriner, a former churchwarden of St Magnus, was buried in the middle aisle of the church on 11 December 1670, perhaps within a temporary structure erected for holding services.[92]
The parish engaged the master mason George Dowdeswell to start the work of rebuilding in 1668. The work was carried forward between 1671 and 1687 under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, the body of the church being substantially complete by 1676.[93] At a cost of £9,579 19s 10d St Magnus was one of Wren's most expensive churches.[94] The church of St Margaret New Fish Street was not rebuilt after the fire and its parish was united to that of St Magnus.
The chancels of many of Wren’s city churches had chequered marble floors and the chancel of St Magnus is an example,[95] the parish agreeing after some debate to place the communion table on a marble ascent with steps[96] and to commission altar rails of Sussex wrought iron. The nave and aisles are paved with freestone flags. A steeple, closely modelled on one built between 1614 and 1624 by François d'Aguilon and Pieter Huyssens for the church of St Carolus Borromeus in Antwerp, was added between 1703 and 1706.[97] London's skyline was transformed by Wren's tall steeples and that of St Magnus is considered to be one his finest.[98]
The large clock projecting from the tower was a well-known landmark in the city as it hung over the roadway of Old London Bridge.[99] It was presented to the church in 1709 by Sir Charles Duncombe[100] (Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within and, in 1708/09, Lord Mayor of London). Tradition says "that it was erected in consequence of a vow made by the donor, who, in the earlier part of his life, had once to wait a considerable time in a cart upon London Bridge, without being able to learn the hour, when he made a promise, that if he ever became successful in the world, he would give to that Church a public clock ... that all passengers might see the time of day."[101] The maker was Langley Bradley, a clockmaker in Fenchurch Street, who had worked for Wren on many other projects, including the clock for the new St Paul's Cathedral. The sword rest in the church, designed to hold the Lord Mayor's sword and mace when he attended divine service "in state", dates from 1708.
Duncombe and his benefactions to St Magnus feature prominently in Daniel Defoe's The True-Born Englishman, a biting satire on critics of William III that went through several editions from 1700 (the year in which Duncombe was elected Sheriff).
Shortly before his death in 1711, Duncombe commissioned an organ for the church, the first to have a swell-box, by Abraham Jordan (father and son).[103] The Spectator announced that "Whereas Mr Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have, with their own hands, joinery excepted, made and erected a very large organ in St Magnus' Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of four sets of keys, one of which is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling notes, which never was in any organ before; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next [14 February 1712], the performance by Mr John Robinson. The above-said Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers, that he will attend every day next week at the said Church, to accommodate all those gentlemen who shall have a curiosity to hear it".[104]
The organ case, which remains in its original state, is looked upon as one of the finest existing examples of the Grinling Gibbons's school of wood carving.[105] The first organist of St Magnus was John Robinson (1682–1762), who served in that role for fifty years and in addition as organist of Westminster Abbey from 1727. Other organists have included the blind organist George Warne (1792–1868, organist 1820-26 until his appointment to the Temple Church), James Coward (1824–80, organist 1868-80 who was also organist to the Crystal Palace and renowned for his powers of improvisation) and George Frederick Smith FRCO (1856–1918, organist 1880-1918 and Professor of Music at the Guildhall School of Music).[106] The organ has been restored several times - in 1760, 1782, 1804, 1855, 1861, 1879, 1891, 1924, 1949 after wartime damage and 1997 - since it was first built.[107] Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was one of several patrons of the organ appeal in the mid-1990s[108] and John Scott gave an inaugural recital on 20 May 1998 following the completion of that restoration.[109] The instrument has an Historic Organ Certificate and full details are recorded in the National Pipe Organ Register.[110]
The hymn tune "St Magnus", usually sung at Ascensiontide to the text "The head that once was crowned with thorns", was written by Jeremiah Clarke in 1701 and named for the church.
Canaletto drew St Magnus and old London Bridge as they appeared in the late 1740s.[112] Between 1756 and 1762, under the London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756 (c. 40), the Corporation of London demolished the buildings on London Bridge to widen the roadway, ease traffic congestion and improve safety for pedestrians.[113] The churchwardens’ accounts of St Magnus list many payments to those injured on the Bridge and record that in 1752 a man was crushed to death between two carts.[114] After the House of Commons had resolved upon the alteration of London Bridge, the Rev Robert Gibson, Rector of St Magnus, applied to the House for relief; stating that 48l. 6s. 2d. per annum, part of his salary of 170l. per annum, was assessed upon houses on London Bridge; which he should utterly lose by their removal unless a clause in the bill about to be passed should provide a remedy.[115] Accordingly, Sections 18 and 19 of 1756 Act provided that the relevant amounts of tithe and poor rate should be a charge on the Bridge House Estates.[116]
A serious fire broke out on 18 April 1760 in an oil shop at the south east corner of the church, which consumed most of the church roof and did considerable damage to the fabric. The fire burnt warehouses to the south of the church and a number of houses on the northern end of London Bridge.
As part of the bridge improvements, overseen by the architect Sir Robert Taylor, a new pedestrian walkway was built along the eastern side of the bridge. With the other buildings gone St Magnus blocked the new walkway.[117] As a consequence it was necessary in 1762 to 1763 to remove the vestry rooms at the West end of the church and open up the side arches of the tower so that people could pass underneath the tower.[118] The tower’s lower storey thus became an external porch. Internally a lobby was created at the West end under the organ gallery and a screen with fine octagonal glazing inserted. A new Vestry was built to the South of the church.[119] The Act also provided that the land taken from the church for the widening was "to be considered ... as part of the cemetery of the said church ... but if the pavement thereof be broken up on account of the burying of any persons, the same shall be ... made good ... by the churchwardens"
Soldiers were stationed in the Vestry House of St Magnus during the Gordon Riots in June 1780.[121]
By 1782 the noise level from the activities of Billingsgate Fish Market had become unbearable and the large windows on the north side of the church were blocked up leaving only circular windows high up in the wall.[122] At some point between the 1760s and 1814 the present clerestory was constructed with its oval windows and fluted and coffered plasterwork.[123] J. M. W. Turner painted the church in the mid-1790s.[124]
The rector of St Magnus between 1792 and 1808, following the death of Robert Gibson on 28 July 1791,[125] was Thomas Rennell FRS. Rennell was President of Sion College in 1806/07. There is a monument to Thomas Leigh (Rector 1808-48 and President of Sion College 1829/30,[126] at St Peter's Church, Goldhanger in Essex.[127] Richard Hazard (1761–1837) was connected with the church as sexton, parish clerk and ward beadle for nearly 50 years[128] and served as Master of the Parish Clerks' Company in 1831/32.[129]
In 1825 the church was "repaired and beautified at a very considerable expense. During the reparation the east window, which had been closed, was restored, and the interior of the fabric conformed to the state in which it was left by its great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. The magnificent organ ... was taken down and rebuilt by Mr Parsons, and re-opened, with the church, on the 12th February, 1826".[130] Unfortunately, as a contemporary writer records, "On the night of the 31st of July, 1827, [the church's] safety was threatened by the great fire which consumed the adjacent warehouses, and it is perhaps owing to the strenuous and praiseworthy exertions of the firemen, that the structure exists at present. ... divine service was suspended and not resumed until the 20th January 1828. In the interval the church received such tasteful and elegant decorations, that it may now compete with any church in the metropolis.
In 1823 royal assent was given to ‘An Act for the Rebuilding of London Bridge’ and in 1825 John Garratt, Lord Mayor and Alderman of the Ward of Bridge Within, laid the first stone of the new London Bridge.[132] In 1831 Sir John Rennie’s new bridge was opened further upstream and the old bridge demolished. St Magnus ceased to be the gateway to London as it had been for over 600 years. Peter de Colechurch[133] had been buried in the crypt of the chapel on the bridge and his bones were unceremoniously dumped in the River Thames.[134] In 1921 two stones from Old London Bridge were discovered across the road from the church. They now stand in the churchyard.
Wren's church of St Michael Crooked Lane was demolished, the final service on Sunday 20 March 1831 having to be abandoned due to the effects of the building work. The Rector of St Michael preached a sermon the following Sunday at St Magnus lamenting the demolition of his church with its monuments and "the disturbance of the worship of his parishioners on the preceeding Sabbath".[135] The parish of St Michael Crooked Lane was united to that of St Magnus, which itself lost a burial ground in Church Yard Alley to the approach road for the new bridge.[136] However, in substitution it had restored to it the land taken for the widening of the old bridge in 1762 and was also given part of the approach lands to the east of the old bridge.[137] In 1838 the Committee for the London Bridge Approaches reported to Common Council that new burial grounds had been provided for the parishes of St Michael, Crooked Lane and St Magnus, London Bridge.
Depictions of St Magnus after the building of the new bridge, seen behind Fresh Wharf and the new London Bridge Wharf, include paintings by W. Fenoulhet in 1841 and by Charles Ginner in 1913.[139] This prospect was affected in 1924 by the building of Adelaide House to a design by John James Burnet,[140] The Times commenting that "the new ‘architectural Matterhorn’ ... conceals all but the tip of the church spire".[141] There was, however, an excellent view of the church for a few years between the demolition of Adelaide Buildings and the erection of its replacement.[142] Adelaide House is now listed.[143] Regis House, on the site of the abandoned King William Street terminus of the City & South London Railway (subsequently the Northern Line),[144] and the Steam Packet Inn, on the corner of Lower Thames Street and Fish Street Hill,[145] were developed in 1931.
By the early 1960s traffic congestion had become a problem[147] and Lower Thames Street was widened over the next decade[148] to form part of a significant new east-west transport artery (the A3211).[149] The setting of the church was further affected by the construction of a new London Bridge between 1967 and 1973.[150] The New Fresh Wharf warehouse to the east of the church, built in 1939, was demolished in 1973-4 following the collapse of commercial traffic in the Pool of London[151] and, after an archaeological excavation,[152] St Magnus House was constructed on the site in 1978 to a design by R. Seifert & Partners.[153] This development now allows a clear view of the church from the east side.[154] The site to the south east of The Monument (between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane), formerly predominantly occupied by fish merchants,[155] was redeveloped as Centurion House and Gartmore (now Providian) House at the time of the closure of old Billingsgate Market in January 1982.[156] A comprehensive redevelopment of Centurion House began in October 2011 with completion planned in 2013.[157] Regis House, to the south west of The Monument, was redeveloped by Land Securities PLC in 1998.[158]
The vista from The Monument south to the River Thames, over the roof of St Magnus, is protected under the City of London Unitary Development Plan,[159] although the South bank of the river is now dominated by The Shard. Since 2004 the City of London Corporation has been exploring ways of enhancing the Riverside Walk to the south of St Magnus.[160] Work on a new staircase to connect London Bridge to the Riverside Walk is due to commence in March 2013.[161] The story of St Magnus's relationship with London Bridge and an interview with the rector featured in the television programme The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank, first broadcast on BBC Four on 14 June 2012.[162] The City Corporation's 'Fenchurch and Monument Area Enhancement Strategy' of August 2012 recommended ways of reconnecting St Magnus and the riverside to the area north of Lower Thames Street.
A lectureship at St Michael Crooked Lane, which was transferred to St Magnus in 1831, was endowed by the wills of Thomas and Susannah Townsend in 1789 and 1812 respectively.[164] The Revd Henry Robert Huckin, Headmaster of Repton School from 1874 to 1882, was appointed Townsend Lecturer at St Magnus in 1871.[165]
St Magnus narrowly escaped damage from a major fire in Lower Thames Street in October 1849.
During the second half of the 19th century the rectors were Alexander McCaul, DD (1799–1863, Rector 1850-63), who coined the term 'Judaeo Christian' in a letter dated 17 October 1821,[167] and his son Alexander Israel McCaul (1835–1899, curate 1859-63, rector 1863-99). The Revd Alexander McCaul Sr[168] was a Christian missionary to the Polish Jews, who (having declined an offer to become the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem)[169] was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King's College, London in 1841. His daughter, Elizabeth Finn (1825–1921), a noted linguist, founded the Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association (now known as Elizabeth Finn Care).[170]
In 1890 it was reported that the Bishop of London was to hold an inquiry as to the desirability of uniting the benefices of St George Botolph Lane and St Magnus. The expectation was a fusion of the two livings, the demolition of St George’s and the pensioning of "William Gladstone’s favourite Canon", Malcolm MacColl. Although services ceased there, St George’s was not demolished until 1904. The parish was then merged with St Mary at Hill rather than St Magnus.[171]
The patronage of the living was acquired in the late 19th century by Sir Henry Peek Bt. DL MP, Senior Partner of Peek Brothers & Co of 20 Eastcheap, the country's largest firm of wholesale tea brokers and dealers, and Chairman of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. Peek was a generous philanthropist who was instrumental in saving both Wimbledon Common and Burnham Beeches from development. His grandson, Sir Wilfred Peek Bt. DSO JP, presented a cousin, Richard Peek, as rector in 1904. Peek, an ardent Freemason, held the office of Grand Chaplain of England. The Times recorded that his memorial service in July 1920 "was of a semi-Masonic character, Mr Peek having been a prominent Freemason".[172] In June 1895 Peek had saved the life of a young French girl who jumped overboard from a ferry midway between Dinard and St Malo in Brittany and was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the Gold Medal 1st Class of the Sociâetâe Nationale de Sauvetage de France.[173]
In November 1898 a memorial service was held at St Magnus for Sir Stuart Knill Bt. (1824–1898), head of the firm of John Knill and Co, wharfingers, and formerly Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.[174] This was the first such service for a Roman Catholic taken in an Anglican church.[175] Sir Stuart's son, Sir John Knill Bt. (1856-1934), also served as Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within, Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.
Until 1922 the annual Fish Harvest Festival was celebrated at St Magnus.[176] The service moved in 1923 to St Dunstan in the East[177] and then to St Mary at Hill, but St Magnus retained close links with the local fish merchants until the closure of old Billingsgate Market. St Magnus, in the 1950s, was "buried in the stink of Billingsgate fish-market, against which incense was a welcome antidote".
A report in 1920 proposed the demolition of nineteen City churches, including St Magnus.[179] A general outcry from members of the public and parishioners alike prevented the execution of this plan.[180] The members of the City Livery Club passed a resolution that they regarded "with horror and indignation the proposed demolition of 19 City churches" and pledged the Club to do everything in its power to prevent such a catastrophe.[181] T. S. Eliot wrote that the threatened churches gave "to the business quarter of London a beauty which its hideous banks and commercial houses have not quite defaced. ... the least precious redeems some vulgar street ... The loss of these towers, to meet the eye down a grimy lane, and of these empty naves, to receive the solitary visitor at noon from the dust and tumult of Lombard Street, will be irreparable and unforgotten."[182] The London County Council published a report concluding that St Magnus was "one of the most beautiful of all Wren's works" and "certainly one of the churches which should not be demolished without specially good reasons and after very full consideration."[183] Due to the uncertainty about the church's future, the patron decided to defer action to fill the vacancy in the benefice and a curate-in-charge temporarily took responsibility for the parish.[184] However, on 23 April 1921 it was announced that the Revd Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton would be the new Rector. The Times concluded that the appointment, with the Bishop’s approval, meant that the proposed demolition would not be carried out.[185] Fr Fynes-Clinton was inducted on 31 May 1921.[186]
The rectory, built by Robert Smirke in 1833-5, was at 39 King William Street.[187] A decision was taken in 1909 to sell the property, the intention being to purchase a new rectory in the suburbs, but the sale fell through and at the time of the 1910 Land Tax Valuations the building was being let out to a number of tenants. The rectory was sold by the diocese on 30 May 1921 for £8,000 to Ridgways Limited, which owned the adjoining premises.[188] The Vestry House adjoining the south west of the church, replacing the one built in the 1760s, may also have been by Smirke. Part of the burial ground of St Michael Crooked Lane, located between Fish Street Hill and King William Street, survived as an open space until 1987 when it was compulsorily purchased to facilitate the extension of the Docklands Light Railway into the City.[189] The bodies were reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.
The interior of the church was restored by Martin Travers in 1924, in a neo-baroque style,[191] reflecting the Anglo-Catholic character of the congregation[192] following the appointment of Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton as Rector.[193] Fr Fynes, as he was often known, served as Rector of St Magnus from 31 May 1921 until his death on 4 December 1959 and substantially beautified the interior of the church.[194]
Fynes-Clinton held very strong Anglo-Catholic views, and proceeded to make St Magnus as much like a baroque Roman Catholic church as possible. However, "he was such a loveable character with an old-world courtesy which was irresistible, that it was difficult for anyone to be unpleasant to him, however much they might disapprove of his views".[195] He generally said the Roman Mass in Latin; and in personality was "grave, grand, well-connected and holy, with a laconic sense of humour".[196] To a Protestant who had come to see Coverdale's monument he is reported to have said "We have just had a service in the language out of which he translated the Bible".[197] The use of Latin in services was not, however, without grammatical danger. A response from his parishioners of "Ora pro nobis" after "Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli" in the Litany of the Saints would elicit a pause and the correction "No, Orate pro nobis."
In 1922 Fynes-Clinton refounded the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.[198] The Fraternity's badge[199] is shown in the stained glass window at the east end of the north wall of the church above the reredos of the Lady Chapel altar. He also erected a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and arranged pilgrimages to the Norfolk shrine, where he was one of the founding Guardians.[200] In 1928 the journal of the Catholic League reported that St Magnus had presented a votive candle to the Shrine at Walsingham "in token of our common Devotion and the mutual sympathy and prayers that are we hope a growing bond between the peaceful country shrine and the church in the heart of the hurrying City, from the Altar of which the Pilgrimages regularly start".[201]
Fynes-Clinton was General Secretary of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union and its successor, the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, from 1906 to 1920 and served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Eastern Churches Committee from 1920 to around 1924. A Solemn Requiem was celebrated at St Magnus in September 1921 for the late King Peter of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
At the midday service on 1 March 1922, J.A. Kensit, leader of the Protestant Truth Society, got up and protested against the form of worship.[202] The proposed changes to the church in 1924 led to a hearing in the Consistory Court of the Chancellor of the Diocese of London and an appeal to the Court of Arches.[203] Judgement was given by the latter Court in October 1924. The advowson was purchased in 1931, without the knowledge of the Rector and Parochial Church Council, by the evangelical Sir Charles King-Harman.[204] A number of such cases, including the purchase of the advowsons of Clapham and Hampstead Parish Churches by Sir Charles, led to the passage of the Benefices (Purchase of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1933.[205] This allowed the parishioners of St Magnus to purchase the advowson from Sir Charles King-Harman for £1,300 in 1934 and transfer it to the Patronage Board.
St Magnus was one of the churches that held special services before the opening of the second Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923.[207] Fynes-Clinton[208] was the first incumbent to hold lunchtime services for City workers.[209] Pathé News filmed the Palm Sunday procession at St Magnus in 1935.[210] In The Towers of Trebizond, the novel by Rose Macauley published in 1956, Fr Chantry-Pigg's church is described as being several feet higher than St Mary’s Bourne Street and some inches above even St Magnus the Martyr.[211]
In July 1937 Fr Fynes-Clinton, with two members of his congregation, travelled to Kirkwall to be present at the 800th anniversary celebrations of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. During their stay they visited Egilsay and were shown the spot where St Magnus had been slain. Later Fr Fynes-Clinton was present at a service held at the roofless church of St Magnus on Egilsay, where he suggested to his host Mr Fryer, the minister of the Cathedral, that the congregations of Kirkwall and London should unite to erect a permanent stone memorial on the traditional site where Earl Magnus had been murdered. In 1938 a cairn was built of local stone on Egilsay. It stands 12 feet high and is 6 feet broad at its base. The memorial was dedicated on 7 September 1938 and a bronze inscription on the monument reads "erected by the Rector and Congregation of St Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge and the Minister and Congregation of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall to commemorate the traditional spot where Earl Magnus was slain, AD circa 1116 and to commemorate the Octocentenary of St Magnus Cathedral 1937"
A bomb which fell on London Bridge in 1940 during the Blitz of World War II blew out all the windows and damaged the plasterwork and the roof of the north aisle.[213] However, the church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950[214] and repaired in 1951, being re-opened for worship in June of that year by the Bishop of London, William Wand.[215] The architect was Laurence King.[216] Restoration and redecoration work has subsequently been carried out several times, including after a fire in the early hours of 4 November 1995.[217] Cleaning of the exterior stonework was completed in 2010.
Some minor changes were made to the parish boundary in 1954, including the transfer to St Magnus of an area between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane. The site of St Leonard Eastcheap, a church that was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, is therefore now in the parish of St Magnus despite being united to St Edmund the King.
Fr Fynes-Clinton marked the 50th anniversary of his priesthood in May 1952 with High Mass at St Magnus and lunch at Fishmongers' Hall.[218] On 20 September 1956 a solemn Mass was sung in St Magnus to commence the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the Holy House at Walsingham in 1931. In the evening of that day a reception was held in the large chamber of Caxton Hall, when between three and four hundred guests assembled.[219]
Fr Fynes-Clinton was succeeded as rector in 1960 by Fr Colin Gill,[220] who remained as incumbent until his death in 1983.[221] Fr Gill was also closely connected with Walsingham and served as a Guardian between 1953 and 1983, including nine years as Master of the College of Guardians.[222] He celebrated the Mass at the first National Pilgrimage in 1959[223] and presided over the Jubilee celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shrine in 1981, having been present at the Holy House's opening.[224] A number of the congregation of St Stephen's Lewisham moved to St Magnus around 1960, following temporary changes in the form of worship there.
In 1994 the Templeman Commission proposed a radical restructuring of the churches in the City Deanery. St Magnus was identified as one of the 12 churches that would remain as either a parish or an 'active' church.[226] However, the proposals were dropped following a public outcry and the consecration of a new Bishop of London.
The parish priest since 2003 has been Fr Philip Warner, who was previously priest-in-charge of St Mary's Church, Belgrade (Diocese in Europe) and Apokrisiarios for the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Since January 2004 there has been an annual Blessing of the Thames, with the congregations of St Magnus and Southwark Cathedral meeting in the middle of London Bridge.[227] On Sunday 3 July 2011, in anticipation of the feast of the translation of St Thomas Becket (7 July), a procession from St Magnus brought a relic of the saint to the middle of the bridge.[228]
David Pearson specially composed two new pieces, a communion anthem A Mhànais mo rùin (O Magnus of my love) and a hymn to St Magnus Nobilis, humilis, for performance at the church on the feast of St Magnus the Martyr, 16 April 2012.[229] St Magnus's organist, John Eady, has won composition competitions for new choral works at St Paul's Cathedral (a setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus first performed on 27 May 2012) and at Lincoln Cathedral (a setting of the Matin responsory for Advent first performed on 30 November 2013).[230]
In addition to liturgical music of a high standard, St Magnus is the venue for a wide range of musical events. The Clemens non Papa Consort, founded in 2005, performs in collaboration with the production team Concert Bites as the church's resident ensemble.[231] The church is used by The Esterhazy Singers for rehearsals and some concerts.[232] The band Mishaped Pearls performed at the church on 17 December 2011.[233] St Magnus featured in the television programme Jools Holland: London Calling, first broadcast on BBC2 on 9 June 2012.[234] The Platinum Consort made a promotional film at St Magnus for the release of their debut album In the Dark on 2 July 2012.[235]
The Friends of the City Churches had their office in the Vestry House of St Magnus until 2013.
Martin Travers modified the high altar reredos, adding paintings of Moses and Aaron and the Ten Commandments between the existing Corinthian columns and reconstructing the upper storey. Above the reredos Travers added a painted and gilded rood.[237] In the centre of the reredos there is a carved gilded pelican (an early Christian symbol of self-sacrifice) and a roundel with Baroque-style angels. The glazed east window, which can be seen in an early photograph of the church, appears to have been filled in at this time. A new altar with console tables was installed and the communion rails moved outwards to extend the size of the sanctuary. Two old door frames were used to construct side chapels and placed at an angle across the north-east and south-east corners of the church. One, the Lady Chapel, was dedicated to the Rector's parents in 1925 and the other was dedicated to Christ the King. Originally, a baroque aumbry was used for Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, but later a tabernacle was installed on the Lady Chapel altar and the aumbry was used to house a relic of the True Cross.
The interior was made to look more European by the removal of the old box pews and the installation of new pews with cut-down ends. Two new columns were inserted in the nave to make the lines regular. The Wren-period pulpit by the joiner William Grey[238] was opened up and provided with a soundboard and crucifix. Travers also designed the statue of St Magnus of Orkney, which stands in the south aisle, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.[239]
On the north wall there is a Russian Orthodox icon, painted in 1908. The modern stations of the cross in honey-coloured Japanese oak are the work of Robert Randall and Ashley Sands.[240] One of the windows in the north wall dates from 1671 and came from Plumbers' Hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane, which was demolished in 1863 to make way for Cannon Street Railway Station.[241] A fireplace from the Hall was re-erected in the Vestry House. The other windows on the north side are by Alfred Wilkinson and date from 1952 to 1960. These show the arms of the Plumbers’, Fishmongers’ and Coopers’ Companies together with those of William Wand when Bishop of London and Geoffrey Fisher when Archbishop of Canterbury and (as noted above) the badge of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.
The stained glass windows in the south wall, which are by Lawrence Lee and date from 1949 to 1955, represent lost churches associated with the parish: St Magnus and his ruined church of Egilsay, St Margaret of Antioch with her lost church in New Fish Street (where the Monument to the Great Fire now stands), St Michael with his lost church of Crooked Lane (demolished to make way for the present King William Street) and St Thomas Becket with his chapel on Old London Bridge.[242]
The church possesses a fine model of Old London Bridge. One of the tiny figures on the bridge appears out of place in the mediaeval setting, wearing a policeman's uniform. This is a representation of the model-maker, David T. Aggett, who is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and was formerly in the police service.[243]
The Mischiefs by Fire Act 1708 and the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774 placed a requirement on every parish to keep equipment to fight fires. The church owns two historic fire engines that belonged to the parish of St Michael, Crooked Lane.[244] One of these is in storage at the Museum of London. The whereabouts of the other, which was misappropriated and sold at auction in 2003, is currently unknown.
In 1896 many bodies were disinterred from the crypt and reburied at the St Magnus's plot at Brookwood Cemetery, which remains the church's burial ground.
Prior to the Great Fire of 1666 the old tower had a ring of five bells, a small saints bell and a clock bell.[246] 47 cwt of bell metal was recovered[247] which suggests that the tenor was 13 or 14 cwt. The metal was used to cast three new bells, by William Eldridge of Chertsey in 1672,[248] with a further saints bell cast that year by Hodson.[249] In the absence of a tower, the tenor and saints bell were hung in a free standing timber structure, whilst the others remained unhung.[250]
A new tower was completed in 1704 and it is likely that these bells were transferred to it. However, the tenor became cracked in 1713 and it was decided to replace the bells with a new ring of eight.[251] The new bells, with a tenor of 21 cwt, were cast by Richard Phelps of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Between 1714 and 1718 (the exact date of which is unknown), the ring was increased to ten with the addition of two trebles given by two former ringing Societies, the Eastern Youths and the British Scholars.[252] The first peal was rung on 15 February 1724 of Grandsire Caters by the Society of College Youths. The second bell had to be recast in 1748 by Robert Catlin, and the tenor was recast in 1831 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel,[253] just in time to ring for the opening of the new London Bridge. In 1843, the treble was said to be "worn out" and so was scrapped, together with the saints bell, while a new treble was cast by Thomas Mears.[254] A new clock bell was erected in the spire in 1846, provided by B R & J Moore, who had earlier purchased it from Thomas Mears.[255] This bell can still be seen in the tower from the street.
The 10 bells were removed for safe keeping in 1940 and stored in the churchyard. They were taken to Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1951 whereupon it was discovered that four of them were cracked. After a long period of indecision, fuelled by lack of funds and interest, the bells were finally sold for scrap in 1976. The metal was used to cast many of the Bells of Congress that were then hung in the Old Post Office Tower in Washington, D.C.
A fund was set up on 19 September 2005, led by Dickon Love, a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths, with a view to installing a new ring of 12 bells in the tower in a new frame. This was the first of three new rings of bells he has installed in the City of London (the others being at St Dunstan-in-the-West and St James Garlickhythe). The money was raised and the bells were cast during 2008/9 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The tenor weighed 26cwt 3qtr 9 lbs (1360 kg) and the new bells were designed to be in the same key as the former ring of ten. They were consecrated by the Bishop of London on 3 March 2009 in the presence of the Lord Mayor[256] and the ringing dedicated on 26 October 2009 by the Archdeacon of London.[257] The bells are named (in order smallest to largest) Michael, Margaret, Thomas of Canterbury, Mary, Cedd, Edward the Confessor, Dunstan, John the Baptist, Erkenwald, Paul, Mellitus and Magnus.[258] The bells project is recorded by an inscription in the vestibule of the church.
The first peal on the twelve was rung on 29 November 2009 of Cambridge Surprise Maximus.[260] Notable other recent peals include a peal of Stedman Cinques on 16 April 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to the Plumbers' Company,[261] a peal of Cambridge Surprise Royal on 28 June 2011 when the Fishmongers' Company gave a dinner for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at their hall on the occasion of his 90th birthday[262] and a peal of Avon Delight Maximus on 24 July 2011 in solidarity with the people of Norway following the tragic massacre on Utoeya Island and in Oslo.[263] On the latter occasion the flag of the Orkney Islands was flown at half mast. In 2012 peals were rung during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June and during each of the three Olympic/Paralympic marathons, on 5 and 12 August and 9 September.
The BBC television programme, Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells, broadcast on 14 December 2011, included an interview at St Magnus with the Tower Keeper, Dickon Love,[264] who was captain of the band that rang the "Royal Jubilee Bells" during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.[265] Prior to this, he taught John Barrowman to handle a bell at St Magnus for the BBC coverage.
The bells are currently rung every Sunday around 12:15 (following the service) by the Guild of St Magnus.
Every other June, newly elected wardens of the Fishmongers' Company, accompanied by the Court, proceed on foot from Fishmongers' Hall[267] to St Magnus for an election service.[268] St Magnus is also the Guild Church of The Plumbers' Company. Two former rectors have served as master of the company,[269] which holds all its services at the church.[270] On 12 April 2011 a service was held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of the company's Royal Charter at which the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres KCVO, gave the sermon and blessed the original Royal Charter. For many years the Cloker Service was held at St Magnus, attended by the Coopers' Company and Grocers' Company, at which the clerk of the Coopers' Company read the will of Henry Cloker dated 10 March 1573.[271]
St Magnus is also the ward church for the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without, which elects one of the city's aldermen. Between 1550 and 1978 there were separate aldermen for Bridge Within and Bridge Without, the former ward being north of the river and the latter representing the City's area of control in Southwark. The Bridge Ward Club was founded in 1930 to "promote social activities and discussion of topics of local and general interest and also to exchange Ward and parochial information" and holds its annual carol service at St Magnus.
Participants enjoy some relaxing yoga with instructor Anna at the Dowd YMCA's Taylor Swift: Reputation Party.
I am starting to develop a reputation around here for my ill thought out exploits, and so I considered hard before posting my adventures associated with shooting this tranquil looking scene.
I've been wanting to get to the ocean with my two 8X ND filters and shoot some really real long exposures, and since a fellow flickr friend Jason came down this week to the bay area I thought this would be a great opportunity to show him one of my favorite beaches along the north bay. When we arrived, the sun was just beginning to set and so I quickly headed towards the south end of the cove while Jason stayed in the mid section of the beach.
There was a lot of spray coming off the waves, and there was one storm cell just a little off throwing some moisture our way. This combination proved to be bad for shooting long exposures. At length I decided to take shelter behind this rock and try my hand at getting something, which as you can see worked well.
But the stacks at the south end were calling to me, so I climbed the hillside and found my way down to a small hidden portion of beach surrounded by cliffs. I planted my tripod into the sand and found the spray to be three times as bad. To top it off, sneaker waves would happen every now and then, causing me to take my camera up mid shot, to protect it from the oncoming surge. By the time I gave up, I was soaked. I decided to walk along the cliff strewn shoreline… bad idea… the waves caught me waist deep several times and I wondered aloud about my sanity in so choosing this rout as I held all my camera equipment over my head as the waves were bashing along the cliffs directly to my right.
The hot bath I took at home two hours later didn't even warm me. I'm still kind of feeling chilled.
INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE
Volvo has long had a reputation for cars that are at the apex of safety innovation. For decades though, this safety was wrapped up in a brick. Enough so, that you’d be forgiven for thinking that Volvos could never have been sexy. If there is one car though, that can dispel that myth on its own, it would be the P1800 Coupe of 1961.
The shape could easily be forgiven as a classic Italian GT, and indeed, Swede Pelle Petterson, designer of the P1800 was mentored by Pietro Frua of Ghia.
Marketed as a touring car rather than a sports car, the P1800 became widely known when driven by British actor Roger Moore in the television series The Saint, which aired from 1962 to 1969.
The engine was the B18 (B for the Swedish word for gasoline: Bensin; 18 for 1800 cc displacement) with dual SU carburettors, producing 100 hp (75 kW). In 1963 production was moved to Volvo's Lundby Plant in Gothenburg and the car's name was changed to 1800S (S standing for Sverige, or in English : Sweden). The engine was improved with an additional 8 hp (6 kW). In 1966 the four-cylinder engine was updated to 115 bhp (86 kW). Top speed was 175 km/h (109 mph). In 1969 the B18 engine was replaced with the 2-litre B20B variant of the B20 giving 118 bhp (88 kW), though it kept the designation 1800S.
Dutch collectors card in the 'Filmsterren: een portret' Series by Edico-Service, no. D5 024 60-11, 1995. Photo: Collection La Cinémathèque française. Michel Piccoli in Dillinger é morto (Marco Ferreri, 1968).
On 12 May 2020, Michel Piccoli, one of the most original and versatile French actors of the last half-century, has died aged 94. He appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to a gangster to Pope in more than 200 films and TV films. Among the directors he worked with are Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Luis Buñuel, and Alfred Hitchcock.
Michel Piccoli was born Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli in Paris in 1925 to a musical family. His French mother Marcelle was a pianist and his Italian father Henri Piccoli was a violinist, who worked in the cinema. At boarding school, the introverted teenager Michel developed a profound love for the stage. He later studied drama under Andrée Bauer-Thérond and then trained as an actor at the René Simon drama school in Paris. In 1945, he began his stage career with the Renaud-Barrault theatre company at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris. He made his film debut in Sortilèges (Christian-Jaque, 1945), but his first proper film role was in Le Point du jour/The Mark of the Day (Louis Daquin, 1949). He subsequently lent his talents to Jean Renoir in French Cancan (1954) starring Jean Gabin, and René Clair in Les Grandes Manoeuvres/The great manoeuvres (1955) with Gérard Philipe. It took six more years to become ‘box office’ as a film actor with the gangster film Le Doulos/The Finger Man (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. He then had his international breakthrough with his leading role opposite Brigitte Bardot in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mépris/Contempt (1963). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Like Hollywood's Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper, Piccoli was possessed of that rare gift of being able to adapt himself to virtually any kind of material without altering his essential screen persona. And like those aforementioned actors, Piccoli's talents suited the prerequisites of a wide variety of directors” He worked with some of the best international film auteurs: Agnès Varda at Les Créatures/The Creatures (1966) opposite Catherine Deneuve, Alain Resnais at La Guerre est finie/The War Is Over (1966), Jacques Demy at Les Demoiselles de Rochefort/The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and Alfred Hitchcock (Topaz, 1969).
Michel Piccoli starred in four of the best-known films of French director Claude Sautet, Les starting with Choses de la vie/The Little Things in Life (1969) with Romy Schneider. Invariably he was cast as a symbol of bourgeois respectability whose quest for personal fulfilment appears destined to end in failure. James Travers at French Film Guide: “Sautet did more to humanise Piccoli than perhaps any other filmmaker, particularly when the actor was cast alongside Romy Schneider (in Les Choses de la vie and Max et les Ferrailleurs), the actress who became one of Piccoli's dearest friends.” A darker, more disturbing Piccoli can be seen in the films he made for Luis Buñuel, in particular Le Journal d'une femme de chamber/ The Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), Belle de jour/Beauty of the Day (1967) and Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie/The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Piccoli was one of the most visible faces in the European cinema, with films like Les Noces rouges/Wedding in Blood (Claude Chabrol, 1973), Themroc (Claude Faraldo, 1973), La Grande bouffe/The Big Feast (Marco Ferreri, 1973), Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980), and Salto nel vuoto/A Leap in the Dark (Marco Bellocchio, 1980), for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. In 1982, he won the Silver Bear at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival for his chilling role in Une étrange affaire/Strange Affair (Pierre Granmier-Deferre, 1981). Both as an actor and as a producer Piccoli supported such young filmmakers as Bertrand Tavernier (Des enfants gates/Spoiled Children, 1977), Jacques Doillon (La Fille prodigue/The Prodigal Daughter, 1981) and Leos Carax (Mauvais sang/Bad Blood, 1986). In 1976, Piccoli recorded his remarkable career on the page when he co-wrote a semi-autobiography, Dialogue Egoistes. He has been married three times, first to actress Éléonore Hirt (1954-?), then for eleven years to the singer Juliette Gréco (1966-1977) and finally, from 1980 on to writer and actress Ludivine Clerc. He has one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia.
In the 1980s, Michel Piccoli resumed his stage career, starring in Peter Brook's acclaimed Paris productions of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (1981, 1983) and Patrice Chéreau's staging of Marivaux's La Fausse Suivante (1985). He continued to star in films, such as in Milou en mai/Milou in May (Louis Malle, 1990) for which he was nominated for the César. In 1991, Piccoli again won international acclaim for his portrayal of an artist suffering from a creative block in La belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991) with Emmanuelle Béart. Piccoli turned his hand to film directing, starting with a segment for the Amnesty International film Contre l'oubli (1991). His first feature was Alors viola/So There (1997), followed by La Plage noire/The Black Beach (2001) with Dominique Blanc, and C'est pas tout à fait la vie dont j'avais rêvé (2005). Not surprisingly, he was chosen to impersonate Mr. Cinema in Agnès Varda Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma/The One Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema (1995). He subsequently continued to do steady work in pictures of varying quality, with highlights being the psychological thriller Généalogies d'une Crime (Raul Ruiz, 1997) with Piccoli as a doctor caught up in a murder mystery, and Je rentre à la maison/ I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira, 2001) with Catherine Deneuve. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Europe Theatre Prize. In 2002, he supported Lionel Jospin's presidential campaign. Piccoli is vocally opposed to the Front National. In 2012, he won the David di Donatello (the Italian Oscar) for his role as the pope in the comedy-drama Habemus Papam/ We Have a Pope (Nanni Moretti, 2012). Since then he made again several films. James Travers at French Film Guide: “There is something utterly seductive about Piccoli's screen portrayals, which comes from the actor's irresistible personal charm and his ability to project, very subtly, the inner neuroses, desires and venality of his characters. No wonder he is so well-loved by critics and audiences, and so eagerly sought after by filmmakers. Indefatigable, talented and generous, Piccoli deserves his reputation as one of the finest actors of his generation.” Michel Piccoli passed away on 12 May 2020 in Saint-Philbert-sur-Risle, France. He was 94.
Sources: James Travers (French Film Guide), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Stan Shaw – Master Cutler.
Stan is one of the few remaining “Little Mesters” who created the legendary reputation of Sheffield cutlery.
Stan has been making pocket knives, by hand for over 70 years and his craftsman-made knives are sought after by collectors worldwide.
Like the Rolls-Royce of penknives, all his products are made from his own patterns and designs. The only machine in his workshop is a grinder – every component is cut, shaped and buffed by hand.
The handles are crafted from everything from stag horns and aged ivory, to abalone pearl from the pacific
Stan vacated his upstairs workshop some years ago when the stairs became a struggle because of his bad hip, the result of a childhood injury and the Kelham Island Museum offered him space to continue his craft and all his tools and equipment were transferred to the museum
Although he is well over 90 years old, Stan still works two days a week, to make his way through his four year waiting list of orders.
Recently Stan was awarded the BEM, for Services to Industry
Kelham Island Museum
Participants enjoy some relaxing yoga with instructor Anna at the Dowd YMCA's Taylor Swift: Reputation Party.
Franciscan Way, Ipswich
A view from the old churchyard of St Nicholas's church. That's St Francis Tower behind, by Vine & Vine, 1966. Part of the Greyfriars complex, it had a bad reputation for drugs by the 1980s, and was sold off by the Borough Council, emptied, stripped, reclad and refitted, and is now rebadged as Ipswich One, sought after privately owned apartments.
St Nicholas's church was declared redundant in 1975. It was vested in the care of the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, and went through a long period of neglect before being controversially bought back by the diocese for a pound for use as a resource and conference centre. There's a nice little restaurant attached, open to all.
I thought it would last my time -
The sense that, beyond the town,
There would always be fields and farms,
Where the village louts could climb
Such trees as were not cut down;
I knew there'd be false alarms
In the papers about old streets
And split level shopping, but some
Have always been left so far;
And when the old part retreats
As the bleak high-risers come
We can always escape in the car.
Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about;
Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:
The tides will be clean beyond.
- But what do I feel now? Doubt?
Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -
More houses, more parking allowed,
More caravan sites, more pay.
On the Business Page, a score
Of spectacled grins approve
Some takeover bid that entails
Five per cent profit (and ten
Per cent more in the estuaries): move
Your works to the unspoilt dales
(Grey area grants)! And when
You try to get near the sea
In summer . . .
It seems, just now,
To be happening so very fast;
Despite all the land left free
For the first time I feel somehow
That it isn't going to last,
That before I snuff it, the whole
Boiling will be bricked in
Except for the tourist parts -
First slum of Europe: a role
It won't be hard to win,
With a cast of crooks and tarts.
And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There'll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.
Most things are never meant.
This won't be, most likely; but greed
And garbage are too thick-strewn
To be swept up now, or invent
Excuses that make them all needs.
I just think it will happen, soon.
Philip Larkin, Going, Going, 1972
the other day, i was talking to my friends who told me they dont understand photography, and i was trying to explain to them the importance of it, but they just didnt understand. so i'll ask you(: why do you think photography is important? why do we have it? whats the point? for me.. photography is a way to express myself and it is important because there is always a meaning behind a photo and a story to tell..
.
.
THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PIGEONS AND THE MYTHS SURROUNDING THEIR BAD REPUTATION
The Feral pigeon (Columba livia) gets a really bad name thanks to a whole bunch of popular misconceptions. Labelled as sky rats, flying ashtrays, rats with wings, there is even a name for extreme fear of them, peristerophobia. Some say they spread communicable disease to humans, a myth banded by pest control companies making money out of extermination, and although they can naturally carry some disease like tuberculosis (just like many other bird species), being able to breed up to six times per year and being so commonly seen has lead to the belief that they cause damage and drive other species away (again, no scientific evidence supports this). Seen as a plague by mankind, who is... er... the biggest plague on the planet after all and more likely to infect pigeons with his own germs!
Being common these days seems to make some animals less appealing than others, and yet the pigeon is culturally and historically significant and utterly beautiful in terms of plumage. When was the last time you took the time to spend a few moments in the company of these gorgeous, fascinating birds, or talked to one.... Well do so soon, your life will be all the better for such interactions.
In world terms, Pigeons represent peace and good, symbolizing Prosperity and fertility, luck, fortune, peace and harmony, love and devotion and beauty and piety. It is believed that the Pigeon totem as your animal spirit guide will enter a good persons life after a period of suffering or hurt, restoring faith and the good in their world. It will symbolize Love and kindness, sacrifice and devotion, calmness and tranquility. Their presence in dreams can have significant meaning if the dream is of catching one, killing one, a pigeon falling in the sky, finding a dead pigeon etc. Pablo Ruiz Picasso's 1949 lithograph on paper 'La Colombe', shows a white dove on a black background, widely considered a sign of peace. It was used to illustrate a poster at the 1949 Paris Peace Congress, and is now house in the Tate Gallery, London. The Lithograph went on to become a renowned international iconographic image referred to as 'The dove of peace'. The dove was in fact a Milanese pigeon which had been gifted to Picasso by friend and fellow artist Henri Émile Benoît Matisse.
They are a wild ancestor of domestic world pigeons. A common sight in UK gardens, and traditionally seen on London postcards of Piccadilly circus until the feeding of pigeons was banned around the year 2000, they can weigh up to 370g (8-13oz) with a wingspan of 34cms. There are approximately 550,000 breeding pairs in the UK, and they are protected by The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and happily on the Green status for conservation
With a name taken from the Latin word for Dove, there are around 350 recorded types of pigeon, the commonest being the Feral pigeon with an estimated European population of around 15 million. Feral pigeons are also called city doves, city pigeons, or street pigeons. They make up part of the group of columbiformes which includes the now extinct Dodo to which they are closely related. Wild pigeons live in coastal areas, whilst feral pigeons are more urban, and more often than not found in close proximity to mankind. Feral pigeons have a lifespan usually of between three to five years, much longer in captivity. Pigeons have an incredibly close link to mankind
Technically they are: Kingdom:Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class:Aves Order: Columbiformes
Family:Columbidae Genus:Columba Species:C. livia Subspecies:C. l. domestica
In the UK, Pigeons are covered under the "General Licences" and therefore it is illegal to kill them or destroy pigeon nests for any reason other than those listed under the general licences. They can be humanely culled by the land owner or their agent for a variety of reasons (mainly crop protection). At commercial premises where I worked for many years, Pigeons and babies were professionally killed on a regular basis, shot with high powered air rifles and then heads dipped into an acid substance... it was very bloody and extremely unpleasant to witness!
They are possibly the first domesticated animal in history and Charles Robert Darwin was one of the first and most famous pigeon breeder, who recognised their beauty and abilities and place in the natural order of things. On board HMS Beagle, he sailed from Plymouth Sound on 27th December 1831 under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy. Scheduled for a two year voyage, it actually returned on 2nd October 1836. He published his work, 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life', in 1859 and it has long been considered the foundation of evolutionary biology. In the opening of the work, Darwin began with 'fancy pigeons' which were becoming fashionable to own and exhibit in London at the time. By crossbreeding the many different species of fancy pigeon, Darwin showed that, contrary to a commonly held belief that there were two different species which spawned the multitude of domestic pigeons, they actually all came from one wild species: the Rock Dove (Columba livia).
Nathan Mayer Rothschild developed a system of communication faster than those of most governments at that time. It is believed that he used carrier pigeons and semaphore to communicate across the English Channel. Following the Battle of Waterloo he used this system to stunning effect. Through a clever stratagem, and foreknowledge of the outcome at Waterloo, Rothschild made an immense fortune by manipulating the London stock market. In the early 1800s the Rothschild family set up a network of pigeon lofts throughout Europe using homing pigeons to carry information between its financial houses.
This proved to be the fastest and most efficient method of communication at that time, and the speed of the service and the ability to send and receive information ahead of the competition helped the Rothschild family amass a fortune, which still exists today. There are medals from 1870 commemorating the pigeon post in Paris.
Pigeons are highly intelligent, one of the few birds who can actually recognise themselves in a mirror, tests proving that they were capable of identifying themselves over other pigeons in photographs even with a five to seven second delay and they could even recognize humans in photographs as well. Proving that their self cognitive abilities were higher than a three year old child (who struggled with photographic recognition of a two second delay), pigeons were trained to discriminate real-time self-image using mirrors as well as videotaped self-image, and proved that pigeons can recognize video images that reflect their movements as self-image. They proved themselves capable of being able to learn the alphabet in trials. They have been used to predict the weather with hearing far superior to that of humans in the very low frequency range that allows them to detect incoming storms not yet on the radar.
They can assist in message delivery, help in search and rescue missions and even carry wartime messages across enemy lines, dating back to Greek and Roman times, and then forwards to both World Wars by the British Intelligence.
During the first world war, pigeons were dropped from an aeroplane in batches in harnesses with parachutes in order to send and retrieve messages from the resistance. A male pigeon in 1918 named Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre, an honour bestowed on foreign troops by the French Army, after saving 194 US troops who were pinned down by enemy fire. Despite being shot several times, he still managed to deliver the message attached to him. In history pigeons have been recorded as far back as 3000BC and records show that in the 5th Century AD, both Egypt and Syria used them to send and receive messages. Greek poet Anacreon wrote poems of his tame pigeon over 2000 years ago in which he described the bird's role in carrying a love letter to the poet's lover and how the bird drank from his cup and ate from his hand.
Some scholars believe that man's connections with pigeons go as far back as Neolithic man 10,000 years ago. An archaeological discovery of lifelike pigeon images beside the figurines of the Mother goddess, dating from the Bronze Age (2400-1500 BC) in Sumerian Mesopotamia, links to worship also in Crete where the Goddess was depicted with Doves upon her head. Pigeons were also sacrificed to Aphrodite (Venus), the Goddess of love in Greco-Roman culture. The Dove was also the symbol of Demeter (Ceres). Astarte, goddess of fertility and love was often times depicted with a pigeon in ancient Phoenician tradition and Ishtar, mother to the Sumerian people also. Goddesses Aphrodite and Venus from Greek and Roman culture were similarly often depicted with symbolic pigeons. They are highly revered in religions including Hindi where it was believed that pigeons were messengers of deity of death, Yama. Also in Muslim and Sikh traditions as well as Christianity. Some Sikhs will ceremoniously feed pigeons in honour of Guru Gobind Singh, a high priest who was renowned as a friend to pigeons. The Old Testament dove of Noah and the New Testament dove of the Holy Spirit are the ancestors of the dovecote birds of the past and today’s urban pigeons. In China, it is believed that with the coming of Spring, a Sparrow hawk would transform into a pigeon and vice versa, repeating the opposite transformation at the end of the season.
Pigeons have been recorded flying at more than 92mph and the average speed is around 78mph, they can also reach altitudes of 6,000 feet. Contrary to the rumour mill, pigeons are very clean birds and very little evidence exists to show that they can spread disease to humans.
Generally pigeons mate for life and are monogamous, both incubate and care for their young, and they are amazingly social creatures found in large groups. Pigeons have also saved lives on sinking ships by being released to alert nearby people, and some pigeons have received honours and awards for their part in saving lives. They have been trained to save lives at sea by recognising the red and yellow life jackets of victims, and even being able to view the UV spectrum. They can use landmarks to recognise and retrace routes, and use the sun as as a guide and an internal magnetic compass.
During a study in 2016, four pigeons built up a vocabulary of between 26 and 58 written English words, they could identify visual patterns and therefore tell them apart. The birds could even identify words they hadn't seen before.
Researchers at University of California Davis Medical Center put 16 pigeons in a room with magnified biopsies of potential breast cancers. If the pigeons correctly identified them as either benign or malignant, they got a treat, Once trained, their percentages of correctly identifying the biopsies was between 85-99% accurate.
Pigeons have been recorded regularly using the subway in the United states of America, hoping on and off subway cars and seeming to understand the direction of the journey. They also on occasions perform aerial backflips, seemingly just for fun. They see the world with five spectral bands, a kaleidoscope of colour compared to humans triple system of colour perception.
These are magnificent birds that so often fall victim to mankind's prejudice and dislike. Take a look at their ornate, beautiful plumage, the many markings and differences in coloration, and think about their history and the incredible journey they have made through the centuries.
Give them some love, they have certainly earned it!
Paul Williams May 2021
©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)
.
.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Eleven metres, at 10:41am on Tuesday June 4th 2019, on a an overcast and drizzle filled morning off Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road in the grounds of St James's Park. Situated in the City Of Westminster, the Park spans twenty three Hectares and is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London, with a variety of visiting and nesting birds that include Ducks, Canada Geese and Pelicans.
Here we see a beautiful and amazingly friendly Rock Dove (Columba Livia), a relative of the town and feral pigeon, identified by it's ash grey wings with black bands. Interbreeding with Stock and Rock Doves and feral pigeons is commonplace, thus wild rock doves in the purest form are now rare.
.
.
Nikon D850 Focal length: 84mm Shot in 1.2 Crop mode so 70mm Shutter speed: 1/160s Aperture: f/16.0 iso1000 RAW (14 bit uncompressed file) Image size L 6880 x 4584 FX Hand held with Nikkor VR Vibration (Normal) selected . Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking AF Area mode: single Exposure mode: Manual exposure. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. Auto 1 white balance. Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal. Active D-lighting on Automatic. High ISO Noise Reduction: On. Picture control: Auto with Sharpening A+1.00.
Nikkor AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E. Hoya UHC 67mm UV(C) filter. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.
.
.
LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 9.19s
LONGITUDE: W 0d 8m 7.48s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 90.40MB NEF FILE SIZE: 65.4MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 15.20MB
.
.
PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
What craziness is this, a day in that London on a weekday? Well, working one day last weekend, and another next weekend, meant I took a day in Lieu.
So there.
And top of my list of places to visit was St Magnus. This would be the fifth time I have tried to get inside, and the first since I wrote to the church asking whether they would be open a particular Saturday, and then any Saturday. Letters which were ignored
So, I walked out of Monument Station, down the hill there was St Magnus: would it be open?
It was, and inside it was a box, nay a treasure chest of delights.
--------------------------------------------------------------
St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge is a Church of England church and parish within the City of London. The church, which is located in Lower Thames Street near The Monument to the Great Fire of London,[1] is part of the Diocese of London and under the pastoral care of the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Fulham.[2] It is a Grade I listed building.[3] The rector uses the title "Cardinal Rector". [4]
St Magnus lies on the original alignment of London Bridge between the City and Southwark. The ancient parish was united with that of St Margaret, New Fish Street, in 1670 and with that of St Michael, Crooked Lane, in 1831.[5] The three united parishes retained separate vestries and churchwardens.[6] Parish clerks continue to be appointed for each of the three parishes.[7]
St Magnus is the guild church of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, and the ward church of the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without. It is also twinned with the Church of the Resurrection in New York City.[8]
Its prominent location and beauty has prompted many mentions in literature.[9] In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens notes how, as Nancy heads for her secret meeting with Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie on London Bridge, "the tower of old Saint Saviour's Church, and the spire of Saint Magnus, so long the giant-warders of the ancient bridge, were visible in the gloom". The church's spiritual and architectural importance is celebrated in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, who adds in a footnote that "the interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest among Wren's interiors".[10] One biographer of Eliot notes that at first he enjoyed St Magnus aesthetically for its "splendour"; later he appreciated its "utility" when he came there as a sinner.
The church is dedicated to St Magnus the Martyr, earl of Orkney, who died on 16 April in or around 1116 (the precise year is unknown).[12] He was executed on the island of Egilsay having been captured during a power struggle with his cousin, a political rival.[13] Magnus had a reputation for piety and gentleness and was canonised in 1135. St. Ronald, the son of Magnus's sister Gunhild Erlendsdotter, became Earl of Orkney in 1136 and in 1137 initiated the construction of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.[14] The story of St. Magnus has been retold in the 20th century in the chamber opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1976)[15] by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, based on George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus (1973).
he identity of the St Magnus referred to in the church's dedication was only confirmed by the Bishop of London in 1926.[16] Following this decision a patronal festival service was held on 16 April 1926.[17] In the 13th century the patronage was attributed to one of the several saints by the name of Magnus who share a feast day on 19 August, probably St Magnus of Anagni (bishop and martyr, who was slain in the persecution of the Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3rd century).[18] However, by the early 18th century it was suggested that the church was either "dedicated to the memory of St Magnus or Magnes, who suffer'd under the Emperor Aurelian in 276 [see St Mammes of Caesarea, feast day 17 August], or else to a person of that name, who was the famous Apostle or Bishop of the Orcades."[19] For the next century historians followed the suggestion that the church was dedicated to the Roman saint of Cæsarea.[20] The famous Danish archaeologist Professor Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–85) promoted the attribution to St Magnus of Orkney during his visit to the British Isles in 1846-7, when he was formulating the concept of the 'Viking Age',[21] and a history of London written in 1901 concluded that "the Danes, on their second invasion ... added at least two churches with Danish names, Olaf and Magnus".[22] A guide to the City Churches published in 1917 reverted to the view that St Magnus was dedicated to a martyr of the third century,[23] but the discovery of St Magnus of Orkney's relics in 1919 renewed interest in a Scandinavian patron and this connection was encouraged by the Rector who arrived in 1921
A metropolitan bishop of London attended the Council of Arles in 314, which indicates that there must have been a Christian community in Londinium by this date, and it has been suggested that a large aisled building excavated in 1993 near Tower Hill can be compared with the 4th-century Cathedral of St Tecla in Milan.[25] However, there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that any of the mediaeval churches in the City of London had a Roman foundation.[26] A grant from William I in 1067 to Westminster Abbey, which refers to the stone church of St Magnus near the bridge ("lapidee eccle sci magni prope pontem"), is generally accepted to be 12th century forgery,[27] and it is possible that a charter of confirmation in 1108-16 might also be a later fabrication.[28] Nonetheless, these manuscripts may preserve valid evidence of a date of foundation in the 11th century.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the area of the bridgehead was not occupied from the early 5th century until the early 10th century. Environmental evidence indicates that the area was waste ground during this period, colonised by elder and nettles. Following Alfred's decision to reoccupy the walled area of London in 886, new harbours were established at Queenhithe and Billingsgate. A bridge was in place by the early 11th century, a factor which would have encouraged the occupation of the bridgehead by craftsmen and traders.[30] A lane connecting Botolph's Wharf and Billingsgate to the rebuilt bridge may have developed by the mid-11th century. The waterfront at this time was a hive of activity, with the construction of embankments sloping down from the riverside wall to the river. Thames Street appeared in the second half of the 11th century immediately behind (north of) the old Roman riverside wall and in 1931 a piling from this was discovered during the excavation of the foundations of a nearby building. It now stands at the base of the church tower.[31] St Magnus was built to the south of Thames Street to serve the growing population of the bridgehead area[32] and was certainly in existence by 1128-33.[33]
The small ancient parish[34] extended about 110 yards along the waterfront either side of the old bridge, from 'Stepheneslane' (later Churchehawlane or Church Yard Alley) and 'Oystergate' (later called Water Lane or Gully Hole) on the West side to 'Retheresgate' (a southern extension of Pudding Lane) on the East side, and was centred on the crossroads formed by Fish Street Hill (originally Bridge Street, then New Fish Street) and Thames Street.[35] The mediaeval parish also included Drinkwater's Wharf (named after the owner, Thomas Drinkwater), which was located immediately West of the bridge, and Fish Wharf, which was to the South of the church. The latter was of considerable importance as the fishmongers had their shops on the wharf. The tenement was devised by Andrew Hunte to the Rector and Churchwardens in 1446.[36] The ancient parish was situated in the South East part of Bridge Ward, which had evolved in the 11th century between the embankments to either side of the bridge.[37]
In 1182 the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of Bermondsey agreed that the advowson of St Magnus should be divided equally between them. Later in the 1180s, on their presentation, the Archdeacon of London inducted his nephew as parson.
Between the late Saxon period and 1209 there was a series of wooden bridges across the Thames, but in that year a stone bridge was completed.[39] The work was overseen by Peter de Colechurch, a priest and head of the Fraternity of the Brethren of London Bridge. The Church had from early times encouraged the building of bridges and this activity was so important it was perceived to be an act of piety - a commitment to God which should be supported by the giving of alms. London’s citizens made gifts of land and money "to God and the Bridge".[40] The Bridge House Estates became part of the City's jurisdiction in 1282.
Until 1831 the bridge was aligned with Fish Street Hill, so the main entrance into the City from the south passed the West door of St Magnus on the north bank of the river.[41] The bridge included a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket[42] for the use of pilgrims journeying to Canterbury Cathedral to visit his tomb.[43] The chapel and about two thirds of the bridge were in the parish of St Magnus. After some years of rivalry a dispute arose between the church and the chapel over the offerings given to the chapel by the pilgrims. The matter was resolved by the brethren of the chapel making an annual contribution to St Magnus.[44] At the Reformation the chapel was turned into a house and later a warehouse, the latter being demolished in 1757-58.
The church grew in importance. On 21 November 1234 a grant of land was made to the parson of St Magnus for the enlargement of the church.[45] The London eyre of 1244 recorded that in 1238 "A thief named William of Ewelme of the county of Buckingham fled to the church of St. Magnus the Martyr, London, and there acknowledged the theft and abjured the realm. He had no chattels."[46] Another entry recorded that "The City answers saying that the church of ... St. Magnus the Martyr ... which [is] situated on the king's highway ... ought to belong to the king and be in his gift".[47] The church presumably jutted into the road running to the bridge, as it did in later times.[48] In 1276 it was recorded that "the church of St. Magnus the Martyr is worth £15 yearly and Master Geoffrey de la Wade now holds it by the grant of the prior of Bermundeseie and the abbot of Westminster to whom King Henry conferred the advowson by his charter.
In 1274 "came King Edward and his wife [Eleanor] from the Holy Land and were crowned at Westminster on the Sunday next after the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady [15 August], being the Feast of Saint Magnus [19 August]; and the Conduit in Chepe ran all the day with red wine and white wine to drink, for all such as wished."[50] Stow records that "in the year 1293, for victory obtained by Edward I against the Scots, every citizen, according to their several trade, made their several show, but especially the fishmongers" whose solemn procession including a knight "representing St Magnus, because it was upon St Magnus' day".
An important religious guild, the Confraternity de Salve Regina, was in existence by 1343, having been founded by the "better sort of the Parish of St Magnus" to sing the anthem 'Salve Regina' every evening.[51] The Guild certificates of 1389 record that the Confraternity of Salve Regina and the guild of St Thomas the Martyr in the chapel on the bridge, whose members belonged to St Magnus parish, had determined to become one, to have the anthem of St Thomas after the Salve Regina and to devote their united resources to restoring and enlarging the church of St Magnus.[52] An Act of Parliament of 1437[53] provided that all incorporated fraternities and companies should register their charters and have their ordinances approved by the civic authorities.[54] Fear of enquiry into their privileges may have led established fraternities to seek a firm foundation for their rights. The letters patent of the fraternity of St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr of Salve Regina in St Magnus dated 26 May 1448 mention that the fraternity had petitioned for a charter on the grounds that the society was not duly founded.
In the mid-14th century the Pope was the Patron of the living and appointed five rectors to the benefice.[56]
Henry Yevele, the master mason whose work included the rebuilding of Westminster Hall and the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral, was a parishioner and rebuilt the chapel on London Bridge between 1384 and 1397. He served as a warden of London Bridge and was buried at St Magnus on his death in 1400. His monument was extant in John Stow's time, but was probably destroyed by the fire of 1666.[57]
Yevele, as the King’s Mason, was overseen by Geoffrey Chaucer in his capacity as the Clerk of the King's Works. In The General Prologue of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales the five guildsmen "were clothed alle in o lyveree Of a solempne and a greet fraternitee"[58] and may be thought of as belonging to the guild in the parish of St Magnus, or one like it.[59] Chaucer's family home was near to the bridge in Thames Street.
n 1417 a dispute arose concerning who should take the place of honour amongst the rectors in the City churches at the Whit Monday procession, a place that had been claimed from time to time by the rectors of St Peter Cornhill, St Magnus the Martyr and St Nicholas Cole Abbey. The Mayor and Aldermen decided that the Rector of St Peter Cornhill should take precedence.[61]
St Magnus Corner at the north end of London Bridge was an important meeting place in mediaeval London, where notices were exhibited, proclamations read out and wrongdoers punished.[62] As it was conveniently close to the River Thames, the church was chosen by the Bishop between the 15th and 17th centuries as a convenient venue for general meetings of the clergy in his diocese.[63] Dr John Young, Bishop of Callipolis (rector of St Magnus 1514-15) pronounced judgement on 16 December 1514 (with the Bishop of London and in the presence of Thomas More, then under-sheriff of London) in the heresy case concerning Richard Hunne.[64]
In pictures from the mid-16th century the old church looks very similar to the present-day St Giles without Cripplegate in the Barbican.[65] According to the martyrologist John Foxe, a woman was imprisoned in the 'cage' on London Bridge in April 1555 and told to "cool herself there" for refusing to pray at St Magnus for the recently deceased Pope Julius III.[66]
Simon Lowe, a Member of Parliament and Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company during the reign of Queen Mary and one of the jurors who acquitted Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in 1554, was a parishioner.[67] He was a mourner at the funeral of Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester from 1554 to 1558 and Rector of St Magnus from 1537 to 1558, who was interred in the church on 30 November 1558 with much solemnity. In accordance with the Catholic church's desire to restore ecclesiastical pageantry in England, the funeral was a splendid affair, ending in a magnificent dinner.
Lowe was included in a return of recusants in the Diocese of Rochester in 1577,[69] but was buried at St Magnus on 6 February 1578.[70] Stow refers to his monument in the church. His eldest son, Timothy (died 1617), was knighted in 1603. His second son, Alderman Sir Thomas Lowe (1550–1623), was Master of the Haberdashers' Company on several occasions, Sheriff of London in 1595/96, Lord Mayor in 1604/05 and a Member of Parliament for London.[71] His youngest son, Blessed John Lowe (1553–1586), having originally been a Protestant minister, converted to Roman Catholicism, studied for the priesthood at Douay and Rome and returned to London as a missionary priest.[72] His absence had already been noted; a list of 1581 of "such persons of the Diocese of London as have any children ... beyond the seas" records "John Low son to Margaret Low of the Bridge, absent without licence four years". Having gained 500 converts to Catholicism between 1583 and 1586, he was arrested whilst walking with his mother near London Bridge, committed to The Clink and executed at Tyburn on 8 October 1586.[73] He was beatified in 1987 as one of the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales.
Sir William Garrard, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman, Sheriff of London in 1553/53, Lord Mayor in 1555/56 and a Member of Parliament was born in the parish and buried at St Magnus in 1571.[74] Sir William Romney, merchant, philanthropist, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman for Bridge Within and Sheriff of London in 1603/04[75] was married at St Magnus in 1582. Ben Jonson is believed to have been married at St Magnus in 1594.[76]
The patronage of St Magnus, having previously been in the Abbots and Convents of Westminster and Bermondsey (who presented alternatively), fell to the Crown on the suppression of the monasteries. In 1553, Queen Mary, by letters patent, granted it to the Bishop of London and his successors.[77]
The church had a series of distinguished rectors in the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century, including Myles Coverdale (Rector 1564-66), John Young (Rector 1566-92), Theophilus Aylmer (Rector 1592-1625), (Archdeacon of London and son of John Aylmer), and Cornelius Burges (Rector 1626-41). Coverdale was buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, but when that church was pulled down in 1840 his remains were removed to St Magnus.[78]
On 5 November 1562 the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken, in two parts all the altar stones in the church.[79] Coverdale, an anti-vestiarian, was Rector at the peak of the vestments controversy. In March 1566 Archbishop Parker caused great consternation among many clergy by his edicts prescribing what was to be worn and by his summoning the London clergy to Lambeth to require their compliance. Coverdale excused himself from attending.[80] Stow records that a non-conforming Scot who normally preached at St Magnus twice a day precipitated a fight on Palm Sunday 1566 at Little All Hallows in Thames Street with his preaching against vestments.[81] Coverdale's resignation from St Magnus in summer 1566 may have been associated with these events. Separatist congregations started to emerge after 1566 and the first such, who called themselves 'Puritans' or 'Unspottyd Lambs of the Lord', was discovered close to St Magnus at Plumbers' Hall in Thames Street on 19 June 1567.
St Magnus narrowly escaped destruction in 1633. A later edition of Stow's Survey records that "On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; water then being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over."[83] Susannah Chambers "by her last will & testament bearing date 28th December 1640 gave the sum of Twenty-two shillings and Sixpence Yearly for a Sermon to be preached on the 12th day of February in every Year within the Church of Saint Magnus in commemoration of God's merciful preservation of the said Church of Saint Magnus from Ruin, by the late and terrible Fire on London Bridge. Likewise Annually to the Poor the sum of 17/6."[84] The tradition of a "Fire Sermon" was revived on 12 February 2004, when the first preacher was the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.
Parliamentarian rule and the more Protestant ethos of the 1640s led to the removal or destruction of "superstitious" and "idolatrous" images and fittings. Glass painters such as Baptista Sutton, who had previously installed "Laudian innovations", found new employment by repairing and replacing these to meet increasingly strict Protestant standards. In January 1642 Sutton replaced 93 feet of glass at St Magnus and in June 1644 he was called back to take down the "painted imagery glass" and replace it.[86] In June 1641 "rail riots" broke out at a number of churches. This was a time of high tension following the trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford and rumours of army and popish plots were rife. The Protestation Oath, with its pledge to defend the true religion "against all Popery and popish innovation", triggered demands from parishioners for the removal of the rails as popish innovations which the Protestation had bound them to reform. The minister arranged a meeting between those for and against the pulling down of the rails, but was unsuccessful in reaching a compromise and it was feared that they would be demolished by force.[87] However, in 1663 the parish resumed Laudian practice and re-erected rails around its communion table.[88]
Joseph Caryl was incumbent from 1645 until his ejection in 1662. In 1663 he was reportedly living near London Bridge and preaching to an Independent congregation that met at various places in the City.[89]
During the Great Plague of 1665, the City authorities ordered fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed. Daniel Defoe's semi-fictictional, but highly realistic, work A Journal of the Plague Year records that one of these was "just by St Magnus Church"
Despite its escape in 1633, the church was one of the first buildings to be destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.[91] St Magnus stood less than 300 yards from the bakehouse of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane where the fire started. Farriner, a former churchwarden of St Magnus, was buried in the middle aisle of the church on 11 December 1670, perhaps within a temporary structure erected for holding services.[92]
The parish engaged the master mason George Dowdeswell to start the work of rebuilding in 1668. The work was carried forward between 1671 and 1687 under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, the body of the church being substantially complete by 1676.[93] At a cost of £9,579 19s 10d St Magnus was one of Wren's most expensive churches.[94] The church of St Margaret New Fish Street was not rebuilt after the fire and its parish was united to that of St Magnus.
The chancels of many of Wren’s city churches had chequered marble floors and the chancel of St Magnus is an example,[95] the parish agreeing after some debate to place the communion table on a marble ascent with steps[96] and to commission altar rails of Sussex wrought iron. The nave and aisles are paved with freestone flags. A steeple, closely modelled on one built between 1614 and 1624 by François d'Aguilon and Pieter Huyssens for the church of St Carolus Borromeus in Antwerp, was added between 1703 and 1706.[97] London's skyline was transformed by Wren's tall steeples and that of St Magnus is considered to be one his finest.[98]
The large clock projecting from the tower was a well-known landmark in the city as it hung over the roadway of Old London Bridge.[99] It was presented to the church in 1709 by Sir Charles Duncombe[100] (Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within and, in 1708/09, Lord Mayor of London). Tradition says "that it was erected in consequence of a vow made by the donor, who, in the earlier part of his life, had once to wait a considerable time in a cart upon London Bridge, without being able to learn the hour, when he made a promise, that if he ever became successful in the world, he would give to that Church a public clock ... that all passengers might see the time of day."[101] The maker was Langley Bradley, a clockmaker in Fenchurch Street, who had worked for Wren on many other projects, including the clock for the new St Paul's Cathedral. The sword rest in the church, designed to hold the Lord Mayor's sword and mace when he attended divine service "in state", dates from 1708.
Duncombe and his benefactions to St Magnus feature prominently in Daniel Defoe's The True-Born Englishman, a biting satire on critics of William III that went through several editions from 1700 (the year in which Duncombe was elected Sheriff).
Shortly before his death in 1711, Duncombe commissioned an organ for the church, the first to have a swell-box, by Abraham Jordan (father and son).[103] The Spectator announced that "Whereas Mr Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have, with their own hands, joinery excepted, made and erected a very large organ in St Magnus' Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of four sets of keys, one of which is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling notes, which never was in any organ before; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next [14 February 1712], the performance by Mr John Robinson. The above-said Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers, that he will attend every day next week at the said Church, to accommodate all those gentlemen who shall have a curiosity to hear it".[104]
The organ case, which remains in its original state, is looked upon as one of the finest existing examples of the Grinling Gibbons's school of wood carving.[105] The first organist of St Magnus was John Robinson (1682–1762), who served in that role for fifty years and in addition as organist of Westminster Abbey from 1727. Other organists have included the blind organist George Warne (1792–1868, organist 1820-26 until his appointment to the Temple Church), James Coward (1824–80, organist 1868-80 who was also organist to the Crystal Palace and renowned for his powers of improvisation) and George Frederick Smith FRCO (1856–1918, organist 1880-1918 and Professor of Music at the Guildhall School of Music).[106] The organ has been restored several times - in 1760, 1782, 1804, 1855, 1861, 1879, 1891, 1924, 1949 after wartime damage and 1997 - since it was first built.[107] Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was one of several patrons of the organ appeal in the mid-1990s[108] and John Scott gave an inaugural recital on 20 May 1998 following the completion of that restoration.[109] The instrument has an Historic Organ Certificate and full details are recorded in the National Pipe Organ Register.[110]
The hymn tune "St Magnus", usually sung at Ascensiontide to the text "The head that once was crowned with thorns", was written by Jeremiah Clarke in 1701 and named for the church.
Canaletto drew St Magnus and old London Bridge as they appeared in the late 1740s.[112] Between 1756 and 1762, under the London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756 (c. 40), the Corporation of London demolished the buildings on London Bridge to widen the roadway, ease traffic congestion and improve safety for pedestrians.[113] The churchwardens’ accounts of St Magnus list many payments to those injured on the Bridge and record that in 1752 a man was crushed to death between two carts.[114] After the House of Commons had resolved upon the alteration of London Bridge, the Rev Robert Gibson, Rector of St Magnus, applied to the House for relief; stating that 48l. 6s. 2d. per annum, part of his salary of 170l. per annum, was assessed upon houses on London Bridge; which he should utterly lose by their removal unless a clause in the bill about to be passed should provide a remedy.[115] Accordingly, Sections 18 and 19 of 1756 Act provided that the relevant amounts of tithe and poor rate should be a charge on the Bridge House Estates.[116]
A serious fire broke out on 18 April 1760 in an oil shop at the south east corner of the church, which consumed most of the church roof and did considerable damage to the fabric. The fire burnt warehouses to the south of the church and a number of houses on the northern end of London Bridge.
As part of the bridge improvements, overseen by the architect Sir Robert Taylor, a new pedestrian walkway was built along the eastern side of the bridge. With the other buildings gone St Magnus blocked the new walkway.[117] As a consequence it was necessary in 1762 to 1763 to remove the vestry rooms at the West end of the church and open up the side arches of the tower so that people could pass underneath the tower.[118] The tower’s lower storey thus became an external porch. Internally a lobby was created at the West end under the organ gallery and a screen with fine octagonal glazing inserted. A new Vestry was built to the South of the church.[119] The Act also provided that the land taken from the church for the widening was "to be considered ... as part of the cemetery of the said church ... but if the pavement thereof be broken up on account of the burying of any persons, the same shall be ... made good ... by the churchwardens"
Soldiers were stationed in the Vestry House of St Magnus during the Gordon Riots in June 1780.[121]
By 1782 the noise level from the activities of Billingsgate Fish Market had become unbearable and the large windows on the north side of the church were blocked up leaving only circular windows high up in the wall.[122] At some point between the 1760s and 1814 the present clerestory was constructed with its oval windows and fluted and coffered plasterwork.[123] J. M. W. Turner painted the church in the mid-1790s.[124]
The rector of St Magnus between 1792 and 1808, following the death of Robert Gibson on 28 July 1791,[125] was Thomas Rennell FRS. Rennell was President of Sion College in 1806/07. There is a monument to Thomas Leigh (Rector 1808-48 and President of Sion College 1829/30,[126] at St Peter's Church, Goldhanger in Essex.[127] Richard Hazard (1761–1837) was connected with the church as sexton, parish clerk and ward beadle for nearly 50 years[128] and served as Master of the Parish Clerks' Company in 1831/32.[129]
In 1825 the church was "repaired and beautified at a very considerable expense. During the reparation the east window, which had been closed, was restored, and the interior of the fabric conformed to the state in which it was left by its great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. The magnificent organ ... was taken down and rebuilt by Mr Parsons, and re-opened, with the church, on the 12th February, 1826".[130] Unfortunately, as a contemporary writer records, "On the night of the 31st of July, 1827, [the church's] safety was threatened by the great fire which consumed the adjacent warehouses, and it is perhaps owing to the strenuous and praiseworthy exertions of the firemen, that the structure exists at present. ... divine service was suspended and not resumed until the 20th January 1828. In the interval the church received such tasteful and elegant decorations, that it may now compete with any church in the metropolis.
In 1823 royal assent was given to ‘An Act for the Rebuilding of London Bridge’ and in 1825 John Garratt, Lord Mayor and Alderman of the Ward of Bridge Within, laid the first stone of the new London Bridge.[132] In 1831 Sir John Rennie’s new bridge was opened further upstream and the old bridge demolished. St Magnus ceased to be the gateway to London as it had been for over 600 years. Peter de Colechurch[133] had been buried in the crypt of the chapel on the bridge and his bones were unceremoniously dumped in the River Thames.[134] In 1921 two stones from Old London Bridge were discovered across the road from the church. They now stand in the churchyard.
Wren's church of St Michael Crooked Lane was demolished, the final service on Sunday 20 March 1831 having to be abandoned due to the effects of the building work. The Rector of St Michael preached a sermon the following Sunday at St Magnus lamenting the demolition of his church with its monuments and "the disturbance of the worship of his parishioners on the preceeding Sabbath".[135] The parish of St Michael Crooked Lane was united to that of St Magnus, which itself lost a burial ground in Church Yard Alley to the approach road for the new bridge.[136] However, in substitution it had restored to it the land taken for the widening of the old bridge in 1762 and was also given part of the approach lands to the east of the old bridge.[137] In 1838 the Committee for the London Bridge Approaches reported to Common Council that new burial grounds had been provided for the parishes of St Michael, Crooked Lane and St Magnus, London Bridge.
Depictions of St Magnus after the building of the new bridge, seen behind Fresh Wharf and the new London Bridge Wharf, include paintings by W. Fenoulhet in 1841 and by Charles Ginner in 1913.[139] This prospect was affected in 1924 by the building of Adelaide House to a design by John James Burnet,[140] The Times commenting that "the new ‘architectural Matterhorn’ ... conceals all but the tip of the church spire".[141] There was, however, an excellent view of the church for a few years between the demolition of Adelaide Buildings and the erection of its replacement.[142] Adelaide House is now listed.[143] Regis House, on the site of the abandoned King William Street terminus of the City & South London Railway (subsequently the Northern Line),[144] and the Steam Packet Inn, on the corner of Lower Thames Street and Fish Street Hill,[145] were developed in 1931.
By the early 1960s traffic congestion had become a problem[147] and Lower Thames Street was widened over the next decade[148] to form part of a significant new east-west transport artery (the A3211).[149] The setting of the church was further affected by the construction of a new London Bridge between 1967 and 1973.[150] The New Fresh Wharf warehouse to the east of the church, built in 1939, was demolished in 1973-4 following the collapse of commercial traffic in the Pool of London[151] and, after an archaeological excavation,[152] St Magnus House was constructed on the site in 1978 to a design by R. Seifert & Partners.[153] This development now allows a clear view of the church from the east side.[154] The site to the south east of The Monument (between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane), formerly predominantly occupied by fish merchants,[155] was redeveloped as Centurion House and Gartmore (now Providian) House at the time of the closure of old Billingsgate Market in January 1982.[156] A comprehensive redevelopment of Centurion House began in October 2011 with completion planned in 2013.[157] Regis House, to the south west of The Monument, was redeveloped by Land Securities PLC in 1998.[158]
The vista from The Monument south to the River Thames, over the roof of St Magnus, is protected under the City of London Unitary Development Plan,[159] although the South bank of the river is now dominated by The Shard. Since 2004 the City of London Corporation has been exploring ways of enhancing the Riverside Walk to the south of St Magnus.[160] Work on a new staircase to connect London Bridge to the Riverside Walk is due to commence in March 2013.[161] The story of St Magnus's relationship with London Bridge and an interview with the rector featured in the television programme The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank, first broadcast on BBC Four on 14 June 2012.[162] The City Corporation's 'Fenchurch and Monument Area Enhancement Strategy' of August 2012 recommended ways of reconnecting St Magnus and the riverside to the area north of Lower Thames Street.
A lectureship at St Michael Crooked Lane, which was transferred to St Magnus in 1831, was endowed by the wills of Thomas and Susannah Townsend in 1789 and 1812 respectively.[164] The Revd Henry Robert Huckin, Headmaster of Repton School from 1874 to 1882, was appointed Townsend Lecturer at St Magnus in 1871.[165]
St Magnus narrowly escaped damage from a major fire in Lower Thames Street in October 1849.
During the second half of the 19th century the rectors were Alexander McCaul, DD (1799–1863, Rector 1850-63), who coined the term 'Judaeo Christian' in a letter dated 17 October 1821,[167] and his son Alexander Israel McCaul (1835–1899, curate 1859-63, rector 1863-99). The Revd Alexander McCaul Sr[168] was a Christian missionary to the Polish Jews, who (having declined an offer to become the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem)[169] was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King's College, London in 1841. His daughter, Elizabeth Finn (1825–1921), a noted linguist, founded the Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association (now known as Elizabeth Finn Care).[170]
In 1890 it was reported that the Bishop of London was to hold an inquiry as to the desirability of uniting the benefices of St George Botolph Lane and St Magnus. The expectation was a fusion of the two livings, the demolition of St George’s and the pensioning of "William Gladstone’s favourite Canon", Malcolm MacColl. Although services ceased there, St George’s was not demolished until 1904. The parish was then merged with St Mary at Hill rather than St Magnus.[171]
The patronage of the living was acquired in the late 19th century by Sir Henry Peek Bt. DL MP, Senior Partner of Peek Brothers & Co of 20 Eastcheap, the country's largest firm of wholesale tea brokers and dealers, and Chairman of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. Peek was a generous philanthropist who was instrumental in saving both Wimbledon Common and Burnham Beeches from development. His grandson, Sir Wilfred Peek Bt. DSO JP, presented a cousin, Richard Peek, as rector in 1904. Peek, an ardent Freemason, held the office of Grand Chaplain of England. The Times recorded that his memorial service in July 1920 "was of a semi-Masonic character, Mr Peek having been a prominent Freemason".[172] In June 1895 Peek had saved the life of a young French girl who jumped overboard from a ferry midway between Dinard and St Malo in Brittany and was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the Gold Medal 1st Class of the Sociâetâe Nationale de Sauvetage de France.[173]
In November 1898 a memorial service was held at St Magnus for Sir Stuart Knill Bt. (1824–1898), head of the firm of John Knill and Co, wharfingers, and formerly Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.[174] This was the first such service for a Roman Catholic taken in an Anglican church.[175] Sir Stuart's son, Sir John Knill Bt. (1856-1934), also served as Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within, Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.
Until 1922 the annual Fish Harvest Festival was celebrated at St Magnus.[176] The service moved in 1923 to St Dunstan in the East[177] and then to St Mary at Hill, but St Magnus retained close links with the local fish merchants until the closure of old Billingsgate Market. St Magnus, in the 1950s, was "buried in the stink of Billingsgate fish-market, against which incense was a welcome antidote".
A report in 1920 proposed the demolition of nineteen City churches, including St Magnus.[179] A general outcry from members of the public and parishioners alike prevented the execution of this plan.[180] The members of the City Livery Club passed a resolution that they regarded "with horror and indignation the proposed demolition of 19 City churches" and pledged the Club to do everything in its power to prevent such a catastrophe.[181] T. S. Eliot wrote that the threatened churches gave "to the business quarter of London a beauty which its hideous banks and commercial houses have not quite defaced. ... the least precious redeems some vulgar street ... The loss of these towers, to meet the eye down a grimy lane, and of these empty naves, to receive the solitary visitor at noon from the dust and tumult of Lombard Street, will be irreparable and unforgotten."[182] The London County Council published a report concluding that St Magnus was "one of the most beautiful of all Wren's works" and "certainly one of the churches which should not be demolished without specially good reasons and after very full consideration."[183] Due to the uncertainty about the church's future, the patron decided to defer action to fill the vacancy in the benefice and a curate-in-charge temporarily took responsibility for the parish.[184] However, on 23 April 1921 it was announced that the Revd Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton would be the new Rector. The Times concluded that the appointment, with the Bishop’s approval, meant that the proposed demolition would not be carried out.[185] Fr Fynes-Clinton was inducted on 31 May 1921.[186]
The rectory, built by Robert Smirke in 1833-5, was at 39 King William Street.[187] A decision was taken in 1909 to sell the property, the intention being to purchase a new rectory in the suburbs, but the sale fell through and at the time of the 1910 Land Tax Valuations the building was being let out to a number of tenants. The rectory was sold by the diocese on 30 May 1921 for £8,000 to Ridgways Limited, which owned the adjoining premises.[188] The Vestry House adjoining the south west of the church, replacing the one built in the 1760s, may also have been by Smirke. Part of the burial ground of St Michael Crooked Lane, located between Fish Street Hill and King William Street, survived as an open space until 1987 when it was compulsorily purchased to facilitate the extension of the Docklands Light Railway into the City.[189] The bodies were reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.
The interior of the church was restored by Martin Travers in 1924, in a neo-baroque style,[191] reflecting the Anglo-Catholic character of the congregation[192] following the appointment of Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton as Rector.[193] Fr Fynes, as he was often known, served as Rector of St Magnus from 31 May 1921 until his death on 4 December 1959 and substantially beautified the interior of the church.[194]
Fynes-Clinton held very strong Anglo-Catholic views, and proceeded to make St Magnus as much like a baroque Roman Catholic church as possible. However, "he was such a loveable character with an old-world courtesy which was irresistible, that it was difficult for anyone to be unpleasant to him, however much they might disapprove of his views".[195] He generally said the Roman Mass in Latin; and in personality was "grave, grand, well-connected and holy, with a laconic sense of humour".[196] To a Protestant who had come to see Coverdale's monument he is reported to have said "We have just had a service in the language out of which he translated the Bible".[197] The use of Latin in services was not, however, without grammatical danger. A response from his parishioners of "Ora pro nobis" after "Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli" in the Litany of the Saints would elicit a pause and the correction "No, Orate pro nobis."
In 1922 Fynes-Clinton refounded the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.[198] The Fraternity's badge[199] is shown in the stained glass window at the east end of the north wall of the church above the reredos of the Lady Chapel altar. He also erected a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and arranged pilgrimages to the Norfolk shrine, where he was one of the founding Guardians.[200] In 1928 the journal of the Catholic League reported that St Magnus had presented a votive candle to the Shrine at Walsingham "in token of our common Devotion and the mutual sympathy and prayers that are we hope a growing bond between the peaceful country shrine and the church in the heart of the hurrying City, from the Altar of which the Pilgrimages regularly start".[201]
Fynes-Clinton was General Secretary of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union and its successor, the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, from 1906 to 1920 and served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Eastern Churches Committee from 1920 to around 1924. A Solemn Requiem was celebrated at St Magnus in September 1921 for the late King Peter of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
At the midday service on 1 March 1922, J.A. Kensit, leader of the Protestant Truth Society, got up and protested against the form of worship.[202] The proposed changes to the church in 1924 led to a hearing in the Consistory Court of the Chancellor of the Diocese of London and an appeal to the Court of Arches.[203] Judgement was given by the latter Court in October 1924. The advowson was purchased in 1931, without the knowledge of the Rector and Parochial Church Council, by the evangelical Sir Charles King-Harman.[204] A number of such cases, including the purchase of the advowsons of Clapham and Hampstead Parish Churches by Sir Charles, led to the passage of the Benefices (Purchase of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1933.[205] This allowed the parishioners of St Magnus to purchase the advowson from Sir Charles King-Harman for £1,300 in 1934 and transfer it to the Patronage Board.
St Magnus was one of the churches that held special services before the opening of the second Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923.[207] Fynes-Clinton[208] was the first incumbent to hold lunchtime services for City workers.[209] Pathé News filmed the Palm Sunday procession at St Magnus in 1935.[210] In The Towers of Trebizond, the novel by Rose Macauley published in 1956, Fr Chantry-Pigg's church is described as being several feet higher than St Mary’s Bourne Street and some inches above even St Magnus the Martyr.[211]
In July 1937 Fr Fynes-Clinton, with two members of his congregation, travelled to Kirkwall to be present at the 800th anniversary celebrations of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. During their stay they visited Egilsay and were shown the spot where St Magnus had been slain. Later Fr Fynes-Clinton was present at a service held at the roofless church of St Magnus on Egilsay, where he suggested to his host Mr Fryer, the minister of the Cathedral, that the congregations of Kirkwall and London should unite to erect a permanent stone memorial on the traditional site where Earl Magnus had been murdered. In 1938 a cairn was built of local stone on Egilsay. It stands 12 feet high and is 6 feet broad at its base. The memorial was dedicated on 7 September 1938 and a bronze inscription on the monument reads "erected by the Rector and Congregation of St Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge and the Minister and Congregation of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall to commemorate the traditional spot where Earl Magnus was slain, AD circa 1116 and to commemorate the Octocentenary of St Magnus Cathedral 1937"
A bomb which fell on London Bridge in 1940 during the Blitz of World War II blew out all the windows and damaged the plasterwork and the roof of the north aisle.[213] However, the church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950[214] and repaired in 1951, being re-opened for worship in June of that year by the Bishop of London, William Wand.[215] The architect was Laurence King.[216] Restoration and redecoration work has subsequently been carried out several times, including after a fire in the early hours of 4 November 1995.[217] Cleaning of the exterior stonework was completed in 2010.
Some minor changes were made to the parish boundary in 1954, including the transfer to St Magnus of an area between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane. The site of St Leonard Eastcheap, a church that was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, is therefore now in the parish of St Magnus despite being united to St Edmund the King.
Fr Fynes-Clinton marked the 50th anniversary of his priesthood in May 1952 with High Mass at St Magnus and lunch at Fishmongers' Hall.[218] On 20 September 1956 a solemn Mass was sung in St Magnus to commence the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the Holy House at Walsingham in 1931. In the evening of that day a reception was held in the large chamber of Caxton Hall, when between three and four hundred guests assembled.[219]
Fr Fynes-Clinton was succeeded as rector in 1960 by Fr Colin Gill,[220] who remained as incumbent until his death in 1983.[221] Fr Gill was also closely connected with Walsingham and served as a Guardian between 1953 and 1983, including nine years as Master of the College of Guardians.[222] He celebrated the Mass at the first National Pilgrimage in 1959[223] and presided over the Jubilee celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shrine in 1981, having been present at the Holy House's opening.[224] A number of the congregation of St Stephen's Lewisham moved to St Magnus around 1960, following temporary changes in the form of worship there.
In 1994 the Templeman Commission proposed a radical restructuring of the churches in the City Deanery. St Magnus was identified as one of the 12 churches that would remain as either a parish or an 'active' church.[226] However, the proposals were dropped following a public outcry and the consecration of a new Bishop of London.
The parish priest since 2003 has been Fr Philip Warner, who was previously priest-in-charge of St Mary's Church, Belgrade (Diocese in Europe) and Apokrisiarios for the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Since January 2004 there has been an annual Blessing of the Thames, with the congregations of St Magnus and Southwark Cathedral meeting in the middle of London Bridge.[227] On Sunday 3 July 2011, in anticipation of the feast of the translation of St Thomas Becket (7 July), a procession from St Magnus brought a relic of the saint to the middle of the bridge.[228]
David Pearson specially composed two new pieces, a communion anthem A Mhànais mo rùin (O Magnus of my love) and a hymn to St Magnus Nobilis, humilis, for performance at the church on the feast of St Magnus the Martyr, 16 April 2012.[229] St Magnus's organist, John Eady, has won composition competitions for new choral works at St Paul's Cathedral (a setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus first performed on 27 May 2012) and at Lincoln Cathedral (a setting of the Matin responsory for Advent first performed on 30 November 2013).[230]
In addition to liturgical music of a high standard, St Magnus is the venue for a wide range of musical events. The Clemens non Papa Consort, founded in 2005, performs in collaboration with the production team Concert Bites as the church's resident ensemble.[231] The church is used by The Esterhazy Singers for rehearsals and some concerts.[232] The band Mishaped Pearls performed at the church on 17 December 2011.[233] St Magnus featured in the television programme Jools Holland: London Calling, first broadcast on BBC2 on 9 June 2012.[234] The Platinum Consort made a promotional film at St Magnus for the release of their debut album In the Dark on 2 July 2012.[235]
The Friends of the City Churches had their office in the Vestry House of St Magnus until 2013.
Martin Travers modified the high altar reredos, adding paintings of Moses and Aaron and the Ten Commandments between the existing Corinthian columns and reconstructing the upper storey. Above the reredos Travers added a painted and gilded rood.[237] In the centre of the reredos there is a carved gilded pelican (an early Christian symbol of self-sacrifice) and a roundel with Baroque-style angels. The glazed east window, which can be seen in an early photograph of the church, appears to have been filled in at this time. A new altar with console tables was installed and the communion rails moved outwards to extend the size of the sanctuary. Two old door frames were used to construct side chapels and placed at an angle across the north-east and south-east corners of the church. One, the Lady Chapel, was dedicated to the Rector's parents in 1925 and the other was dedicated to Christ the King. Originally, a baroque aumbry was used for Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, but later a tabernacle was installed on the Lady Chapel altar and the aumbry was used to house a relic of the True Cross.
The interior was made to look more European by the removal of the old box pews and the installation of new pews with cut-down ends. Two new columns were inserted in the nave to make the lines regular. The Wren-period pulpit by the joiner William Grey[238] was opened up and provided with a soundboard and crucifix. Travers also designed the statue of St Magnus of Orkney, which stands in the south aisle, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.[239]
On the north wall there is a Russian Orthodox icon, painted in 1908. The modern stations of the cross in honey-coloured Japanese oak are the work of Robert Randall and Ashley Sands.[240] One of the windows in the north wall dates from 1671 and came from Plumbers' Hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane, which was demolished in 1863 to make way for Cannon Street Railway Station.[241] A fireplace from the Hall was re-erected in the Vestry House. The other windows on the north side are by Alfred Wilkinson and date from 1952 to 1960. These show the arms of the Plumbers’, Fishmongers’ and Coopers’ Companies together with those of William Wand when Bishop of London and Geoffrey Fisher when Archbishop of Canterbury and (as noted above) the badge of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.
The stained glass windows in the south wall, which are by Lawrence Lee and date from 1949 to 1955, represent lost churches associated with the parish: St Magnus and his ruined church of Egilsay, St Margaret of Antioch with her lost church in New Fish Street (where the Monument to the Great Fire now stands), St Michael with his lost church of Crooked Lane (demolished to make way for the present King William Street) and St Thomas Becket with his chapel on Old London Bridge.[242]
The church possesses a fine model of Old London Bridge. One of the tiny figures on the bridge appears out of place in the mediaeval setting, wearing a policeman's uniform. This is a representation of the model-maker, David T. Aggett, who is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and was formerly in the police service.[243]
The Mischiefs by Fire Act 1708 and the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774 placed a requirement on every parish to keep equipment to fight fires. The church owns two historic fire engines that belonged to the parish of St Michael, Crooked Lane.[244] One of these is in storage at the Museum of London. The whereabouts of the other, which was misappropriated and sold at auction in 2003, is currently unknown.
In 1896 many bodies were disinterred from the crypt and reburied at the St Magnus's plot at Brookwood Cemetery, which remains the church's burial ground.
Prior to the Great Fire of 1666 the old tower had a ring of five bells, a small saints bell and a clock bell.[246] 47 cwt of bell metal was recovered[247] which suggests that the tenor was 13 or 14 cwt. The metal was used to cast three new bells, by William Eldridge of Chertsey in 1672,[248] with a further saints bell cast that year by Hodson.[249] In the absence of a tower, the tenor and saints bell were hung in a free standing timber structure, whilst the others remained unhung.[250]
A new tower was completed in 1704 and it is likely that these bells were transferred to it. However, the tenor became cracked in 1713 and it was decided to replace the bells with a new ring of eight.[251] The new bells, with a tenor of 21 cwt, were cast by Richard Phelps of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Between 1714 and 1718 (the exact date of which is unknown), the ring was increased to ten with the addition of two trebles given by two former ringing Societies, the Eastern Youths and the British Scholars.[252] The first peal was rung on 15 February 1724 of Grandsire Caters by the Society of College Youths. The second bell had to be recast in 1748 by Robert Catlin, and the tenor was recast in 1831 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel,[253] just in time to ring for the opening of the new London Bridge. In 1843, the treble was said to be "worn out" and so was scrapped, together with the saints bell, while a new treble was cast by Thomas Mears.[254] A new clock bell was erected in the spire in 1846, provided by B R & J Moore, who had earlier purchased it from Thomas Mears.[255] This bell can still be seen in the tower from the street.
The 10 bells were removed for safe keeping in 1940 and stored in the churchyard. They were taken to Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1951 whereupon it was discovered that four of them were cracked. After a long period of indecision, fuelled by lack of funds and interest, the bells were finally sold for scrap in 1976. The metal was used to cast many of the Bells of Congress that were then hung in the Old Post Office Tower in Washington, D.C.
A fund was set up on 19 September 2005, led by Dickon Love, a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths, with a view to installing a new ring of 12 bells in the tower in a new frame. This was the first of three new rings of bells he has installed in the City of London (the others being at St Dunstan-in-the-West and St James Garlickhythe). The money was raised and the bells were cast during 2008/9 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The tenor weighed 26cwt 3qtr 9 lbs (1360 kg) and the new bells were designed to be in the same key as the former ring of ten. They were consecrated by the Bishop of London on 3 March 2009 in the presence of the Lord Mayor[256] and the ringing dedicated on 26 October 2009 by the Archdeacon of London.[257] The bells are named (in order smallest to largest) Michael, Margaret, Thomas of Canterbury, Mary, Cedd, Edward the Confessor, Dunstan, John the Baptist, Erkenwald, Paul, Mellitus and Magnus.[258] The bells project is recorded by an inscription in the vestibule of the church.
The first peal on the twelve was rung on 29 November 2009 of Cambridge Surprise Maximus.[260] Notable other recent peals include a peal of Stedman Cinques on 16 April 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to the Plumbers' Company,[261] a peal of Cambridge Surprise Royal on 28 June 2011 when the Fishmongers' Company gave a dinner for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at their hall on the occasion of his 90th birthday[262] and a peal of Avon Delight Maximus on 24 July 2011 in solidarity with the people of Norway following the tragic massacre on Utoeya Island and in Oslo.[263] On the latter occasion the flag of the Orkney Islands was flown at half mast. In 2012 peals were rung during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June and during each of the three Olympic/Paralympic marathons, on 5 and 12 August and 9 September.
The BBC television programme, Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells, broadcast on 14 December 2011, included an interview at St Magnus with the Tower Keeper, Dickon Love,[264] who was captain of the band that rang the "Royal Jubilee Bells" during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.[265] Prior to this, he taught John Barrowman to handle a bell at St Magnus for the BBC coverage.
The bells are currently rung every Sunday around 12:15 (following the service) by the Guild of St Magnus.
Every other June, newly elected wardens of the Fishmongers' Company, accompanied by the Court, proceed on foot from Fishmongers' Hall[267] to St Magnus for an election service.[268] St Magnus is also the Guild Church of The Plumbers' Company. Two former rectors have served as master of the company,[269] which holds all its services at the church.[270] On 12 April 2011 a service was held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of the company's Royal Charter at which the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres KCVO, gave the sermon and blessed the original Royal Charter. For many years the Cloker Service was held at St Magnus, attended by the Coopers' Company and Grocers' Company, at which the clerk of the Coopers' Company read the will of Henry Cloker dated 10 March 1573.[271]
St Magnus is also the ward church for the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without, which elects one of the city's aldermen. Between 1550 and 1978 there were separate aldermen for Bridge Within and Bridge Without, the former ward being north of the river and the latter representing the City's area of control in Southwark. The Bridge Ward Club was founded in 1930 to "promote social activities and discussion of topics of local and general interest and also to exchange Ward and parochial information" and holds its annual carol service at St Magnus.
My Portarit Study of Taylor Swift's album cover 'Reputation' , it was a good practise ! Watch the process on
Youtube : youtu.be/1y6Vl2nVrts
On Friday 6 January 1905 the Kapunda Herald reported the following description of St Matthew’s Church from its inception to the addition of an organ chamber and new pipe organ.
ST MATTHEW’S CHURCH, HAMILTON
The Hamilton Anglican Church has the reputation of being one of the prettiest and most artistically decorated places of worship in the state. The church, the entire cost which was borne by Mr H Dutton, of Anlaby Estate, was built in 1896. The foundation stone was laid on September 9 of that year, by Mr H Dutton, and the consecration was performed on December 2 by Bishop Harmer. As the illustration shows, the building is of Gothic design, and presents a neat and attractive appearance, reflecting great credit on the skill of the architect (Mr Naish) and the work of the contractors (Messrs E James & Co, of Kapunda). The dimensions of the building are—Nave, 21 ft x 18 ft, and the chancel 12 ft x 9 ft, the vestry 8 ft x 7 ft and the height from floor to ceiling about 20 ft. The windows are glazed with cathedral glass, and the comfortable porch in the same manner. The chancel windows are of stained glass and give a representation of biblical characters.
A marble tablet on the south wall bears the following inscription : —"To the glory of God and in loving memory of Helen Elizabeth Dutton. and Ethel Da Silva Dutton, the wife and daughter of Henry Dutton, of Anlaby and Frederick Hansbrow [Hansborough] Dutton, his uncle. This church was built and consecrated on December 2, 1896.”
It was further beautified in 1902 and 1903, consisting among other things of a reredos and chancel screen of English oak, new altar rails, and symbolic scriptural paintings. The original building was recently enlarged by the addition of an organ chamber on the northern side, and on Sunday, December 11, the new pipe organ was dedicated by the rector (Rev G Griffiths), Mr H Dutton officiating at the instrument. The new organ is a fine instrument. It comprises two manuals, with a compass from CC. to A. 58 notes, while the swell manual overhangs the great 2 in. The pedal clavier is made to the pattern and scale adopted by the Royal College of Organists, London, and the compass ranges from CCC. to F. 30 notes. The action from keys to sound-boards of great and swell is mechanical, but that of the draw stops and pedal is on the tubular pneumatic system. The key console is placed some distance from the organ, and is reversed so that the organist faces the choir. The woodwork of the organ is English oak, and the pipes of the best spotted metal. The organ was designed for the church by Mr Fred Taylor, at the instance of Mr Dutton, who presented it to the church.
*At the time of the church’s jubilee celebrations the Kapunda Herald of 5 December 1946 reported the following -
The beautiful Church of St Matthew’s, Hamilton, celebrated the jubilee of its consecration on Sunday last with Festal Evensong at 3 o'clock. The Church was fully occupied by past and present worshippers, and visitors from the surrounding towns and the city. Many were unable to find seating accommodation in the Church, and these were provided with chairs just outside the building and were able to hear the service through an amplifier.
The service was conducted by the Rector (Rev T O Scrutton), the preacher being the Bishop of Adelaide. Nine members of St, Peter's Cathedral Choir led the singing, and contributed the anthem "Thou Visitest the Earth and Blesseth It." Canon Finnis, organist at the Cathedral, presided at the organ.
His Lordship began his remarks by extending good wishes and greetings from the mother Cathedral Church, of which, he said, they were a part: also part of a great company.
Referring to St Matthew's Church, he said it was, in a large part, a memorial to the late Mr Henry Dutton, who had had it built. Not only had Mr Dutton spent his wealth in adorning the Church, but he had spent his time there worshipping and serving God as organist, lay reader and warden. The remainder of the Bishop's remarks were addressed, as he put it, to "country" folk—people on the land.
Following the service, those present were entertained at a High Tea in the Parish Hall by members of the Hamilton congregation, and the spread was indeed a lavish one. The hall was decorated with beautiful flowers, and two sittings were necessary to accommodate those present. A beautiful birthday cake, with 50 candles, was provided: Miss Walpole lit the candles.
After the Rector had thanked the Bishop, Canon Finnis and the Cathedral choristers for coming from Adelaide to assist in their jubilee, the Bishop congratulated the Hamilton people on the way the jubilee had been celebrated.
A very pleasing incident then took place. Mrs E Dutton, of Anlaby, paid a warm tribute to Miss Walpole's long and faithful association with St Matthew's Church, and on behalf of the Dutton family asked her to accept the silver teapot which her late father-in-law (Squire Dutton) always used for his morning tea. In making the presentation, Mrs Dutton said she was sure Miss Walpole would realize that the gift came as much from the late Squire as from the present members of the family. Miss Walpole was too overcome to reply, and Mr Scrutton thanked the Dutton Family on her behalf. Miss Walpole then cut the birthday cake, and at the call of Mrs Dutton, three hearty cheers were given for her, and also three for the city visitors.
St Matthew's Church was built by the late Mr Henry Dutton, of Anlaby, as a memorial to his uncle (Mr F H Dutton), his wife and daughter, and is recognised as one of the most beautiful churches, not only in this State, but in the Commonwealth. The beauty and magnificence of its interior are beyond description—they have to be seen to be fully appreciated. The foundation stone was laid on September 9, 1896, by Mr Henry Dutton; the builder was Mr Evan James, and the contract price was £380. The Church was consecrated by Bishop Harmer on December 2, 1896. The nave, chancel and vestry were erected first. Mr Dutton made additions from time to time to the building and its furnishings. The beautiful reredos and screen were dedicated by Bishop Harmer on November 8, 1902. The reredos, designed in the style of late 15th century, is divided into five panels or niches, the centre panel holding the cross. On either side are panels with figures representing the four Evangelists, two on either side, and on the outside panels are the figures of St Helena and St Ethelreda. The eastern window, depicting the Crucifixion, was made by Powell, of London, and is a special memorial to the late Mrs H Dutton.
Four windows in the sanctuary depict the four Archangels, and those in the nave represent St Ambrose, St Augustine, St Gregory and St Jerome. All are outstandingly beautiful windows, the work of Percy Bacon & Bros, of London.
The chancel is adorned with beautiful carved oak panelling. The brass altar rails, massive lectern and the beautiful silver alms dish were dedicated on August 30, 1903. A pipe organ was dedicated on December 11, 1904, and the organ chamber was added at that time. On April 16, 1905, the communion vessels of gold-plated sterling silver were dedicated, and about the same time the handsome hanging lamps in the nave, made by Bacon Bros, were installed.
In 1906 the tower was built. The windows (by Bacon) depicting St Peter and St Paul, were added at that time.
The present magnificent three-manual pipe organ was dedicated on October 25, 1914, but unfortunately, the Squire was destined not to play it, or to hear it played, as he passed away in August of that year.
The above short description will give some idea of the beauty of this truly beautiful Church.
.At sunset, Algiers takes on a different look: the bartenders serve their first glasses, the waiters start to set up cutlery for dinner, the youngsters make their last calls to their friends to decide which nightclub to spend the evening in. Algiers has always had a sulphurous reputation of intense nightlife..Insecurity? all the clubs are safe and cool, if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle and keep quiet, the Algerians who are cool and warm especially towards foreigners, as he said Fellag with us it is every day the carnival if you grasp the meaning of it. For people who know how to live and above all, take life on the right side? Tourists can know the real life of Algiers, to live with the locals. A tourist who travels without frequenting local life only travels to stay in his hotel room.LUXURY ROOM: Sea view, king size bed (200x200) or 2 beds (160x200)54 m2. Very spacious room with a splendid view on the bay d?Alger, entirely renovated in 2011 with air conditioning. Dressing room, safe, bathroom with bathtub, bidet and hairdryer, separate WC, sitting area with desk and flat-screen TV (satellite channels), broadband cable Internet, large balcony. The hotel EL Aurassi includes 414 rooms entirely renovated and refurbished in 2011...Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر, al-Jazā’er; Algerian Arabic pronunciation: دزاير Dzayer, Berber: Dzayer tamaneɣt, French: Alger) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. In 2011, the city's population was estimated to be around 3,500,000. An estimate puts the population of the larger metropolitan city to be around 5,000,000. Algiers is located on the Mediterranean Sea and in the north-central portion of Algeria.
Sometimes nicknamed El-Behdja (البهجة) or alternatively Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 122 metres (400 ft) above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle. The city name is derived (via French Alger and Catalan Alger from the Arabic name الجزائر al-Jazā’ir, which translates as "The Islands", referring to the four islands which used to lie off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-Jazā’ir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name جزائر بني مزغانة Jaza'ir Bani Mazghana, "The Islands of the Sons of Mazghana", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi. A Phoenician commercial outpost called Ikosim which later developed into a small Roman town called Icosium existed on what is now the marine quarter of the city. The rue de la Marine follows the lines of what used to be a Roman street. Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by Emperor Vespasian. The bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century. The present-day city was founded in 944 by Bologhine ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber Zirid–Sanhaja dynasty. He had earlier (935) built his own house and a Sanhaja center at Ashir, just south of Algiers. Although his Zirid dynasty was overthrown by Roger II of Sicily in 1148, the Zirids had already lost control of Algiers to their cousins the Hammadids in 1014.[6] The city was wrested from the Hammadids by the Almohads in 1159, and in the 13th century came under the dominion of the Ziyanid sultans of Tlemcen. Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a large measure of independence under amirs of its own due to Oran being the chief seaport of the Ziyanids.
As early as 1302 the islet of Peñón in front of Algiers harbour had been occupied by Spaniards. Thereafter, a considerable amount of trade began to flow between Algiers and Spain. However, Algiers continued to be of comparatively little importance until after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, many of whom sought asylum in the city. In 1510, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, the Spaniards fortified the islet of Peñon and imposed a levy intended to suppress corsair activity.,
Abraham Duquesne delivering Christian captives in Algiers after the bombing in 1683.
In 1516, the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the corsair brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa to expel the Spaniards. Aruj came to Algiers, ordered the assassination of Selim, and seized the town and ousted the Spanish in the Capture of Algiers (1516). Hayreddin, succeeding Aruj after the latter was killed in battle against the Spaniards in the Fall of Tlemcen (1517), was the founder of the pashaluk, which subsequently became the beylik, of Algeria. Barbarossa lost Algiers in 1524 but regained it with the Capture of Algiers (1529), and then formally invited the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to accept sovereignty over the territory and to annex Algiers to the Ottoman Empire..Hayreddin Barbarossa (Arabic: Khayr ad-Din Barbarus خير الدين بربروس), (Latin: Ariadenus Barbarussa), or Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha (Turkish: Barbaros Hayreddin (Hayrettin) Paşa or Hızır Hayreddin (Hayrettin) Paşa; also Hızır Reis before being promoted to the rank of Pasha and becoming the Kapudan Pasha), born Khizr or Khidr (Turkish: Hızır; c. 1478 – 4 July 1546), was an Ottoman admiral of the fleet who was born on the island of Lesbos and died in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century, from the Battle of Preveza in 1538 until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571..Hayreddin (Arabic: Khayr ad-Din خيرالدين, which literally means "goodness" or "best of the religion" of Islam) was an honorary name given to him by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He became known as "Barbarossa" ("Redbeard" in Italian) in Europe, a name he inherited from his elder brother Oruç Reis after he was killed in a battle with the Spanish in Algeria. Oruç was also known as "Baba Oruç", which sounded like "Barbarossa" (Italian for "Redbeard") to the Europeans, and since Oruç did have a red beard, the nickname stuck. In a process of linguistic reborrowing, the nickname then stuck back to Hayreddin's native Turkish name, in the form Barbaros.Khizr was born in 1466[1] or around 1478[citation needed] in the village Palaiokipos on the Ottoman island of Midilli (Lesbos) (now Greece), the son of Yakup Ağa, a converted Turk sipahi[2] of Albanian origin. from Giannitsa (Greece), and an Orthodox Christian, Greek woman from Mytilene (Lesbos).His mother was a widow of a Greek Orthodox priest. His parents were married and had two daughters and four sons: Ishak, Oruç, Khizr and Ilyas. Yakup took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos in 1462 from the Genoese Gattilusio dynasty (who held the hereditary title of Lord of Lesbos between 1355 and 1462) and as a reward, was granted the fief of the Bonova village in the island. He became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products. The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the daughters. At first Oruç helped with the boat, while Khizr helped with pottery.All four brothers became seamen, engaged in marine affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to become involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas. Later, obtaining his own ship, Khizr also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St. John) who were based in the island of Rhodes (until 1522). Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Khizr operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki. Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business.Oruç was a very successful seaman. He also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from a trading expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon, with his younger brother Ilyas, they were attacked by the Knights of St. John. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and Oruç was wounded. Their father's boat was captured, and Oruç was taken as a prisoner and detained in the Knights' castle at Bodrum for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Khizr went to Bodrum and managed to help Oruç escape.Oruç later went to Antalya, where he was given 18 galleys by the Şehzade Korkut, an Ottoman prince and governor of the city, and charged with fighting against the Knights of St. John, who were inflicting serious damage on Ottoman shipping and trade. In the following years, when Korkut became governor of Manisa, he gave Oruç a larger fleet of 24 galleys at the port of İzmir and ordered him to participate in the Ottoman naval expedition to Apulia in Italy, where Oruç bombarded several coastal castles and captured two ships. On his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. Reaching Mytilene with these captured vessels, Oruç learned that Korkut, who was the brother of the new Ottoman sultan Selim I, had fled to Egypt in order to avoid being killed because of succession disputes – a common practice at that time. Fearing trouble due to his well-known association with the exiled Ottoman prince, Oruç sailed to Egypt, where he met Korkut in Cairo and managed to get an audience with the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri, who gave him another ship and appointed him with the task of raiding the coasts of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean that were controlled by Christians. After passing the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and frequently operated along the coasts of Liguria and Sicily.In 1503, Oruç managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. Khizr joined Oruç at Djerba. In 1504, the brothers contacted Abu Abdullah Mohammed Hamis, Sultan of Tunisia from the Beni Hafs dynasty, and asked permission to use the strategically located port of La Goulette for their operations. They were granted this right with the condition of leaving one-third of their gains to the sultan. Oruç, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, who were on their way from Spain to Naples. In 1505, they raided the coasts of Calabria. These accomplishments increased their fame, and they were joined by several other well-known Muslim corsairs, including Kurtoğlu (known in the West as Curtogoli). In 1508, they raided the coasts of Liguria, particularly Diano Marina.
Western depiction of Hayreddin Barbarossa
In 1509, Ishak also left Mytilene and joined his brothers at La Goulette. The fame of Oruç increased when, between 1504 and 1510, he transported Muslim Mudéjars from Christian Spain to North Africa. His efforts of helping the Muslims of Spain in need and transporting them to safer lands earned him the honorific name Baba Oruç (Father Oruç), which eventually – due the similarity in sound – evolved in Spain, France and Italy into Barbarossa (meaning "Redbeard" in Italian).
In 1510, the three brothers raided Cape Passero in Sicily and repulsed a Spanish attack on Bougie, Oran and Algiers. In August 1511, they raided the areas around Reggio Calabria in southern Italy. In August 1512, the exiled ruler of Bougie invited the brothers to drive out the Spaniards, and during the battle, Oruç lost his left arm. This incident earned him the nickname Gümüş Kol ("Silver Arm" in Turkish), in reference to the silver prosthetic device that he used in place of his missing limb. Later that year, the three brothers raided the coasts of Andalusia in Spain, capturing a galliot of the Lomellini family of Genoa, who owned the Tabarca island in that area. They subsequently landed on Minorca and captured a coastal castle and then headed towards Liguria, where they captured four Genoese galleys near Genoa. The Genoese sent a fleet to liberate their ships, but the brothers captured their flagship as well. After capturing a total of 23 ships in less than a month, the brothers sailed back to La Goulette.
There, they built three more galliots and a gunpowder production facility. In 1513, they captured four English ships on their way to France, raided Valencia, where they captured four more ships, and then headed for Alicante and captured a Spanish galley near Málaga. In 1513 and 1514, the three brothers engaged the Spanish fleet on several other occasions and moved to their new base in Cherchell, east of Algiers. In 1514, with 12 galliots and 1,000 Turks, they destroyed two Spanish fortresses at Bougie, and when the Spanish fleet under the command of Miguel de Gurrea, viceroy of Majorca, arrived for assistance, they headed towards Ceuta and raided that city before capturing Jijel in Algeria, which was under Genoese control. They later captured Mahdiya in Tunisia. Afterwards, they raided the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland, capturing three large ships there. In 1515, they captured several galleons, a galley and three barques at Majorca. Still in 1515, Oruç sent precious gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, who, in return, sent him two galleys and two swords embellished with diamonds. In 1516, joined by Kurtoğlu (Curtogoli), the brothers besieged the Castle of Elba, before heading once more towards Liguria, where they captured 12 ships and damaged 28 others.In 1516, the three brothers succeeded in capturing Jijel and Algiers from the Spaniards but eventually assumed control over the city and surrounding region, forcing the previous ruler, Abu Hamo Musa III of the Beni Ziyad dynasty, to flee.[citation needed] The Spaniards in Algiers sought refuge on the island of Peñón off the Moroccan coast and asked Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, to intervene, but the Spanish fleet failed to force the brothers out of Algiers.After consolidating his power and declaring himself Sultan of Algiers, Oruç sought to enhance his territory inland and took Miliana, Medea and Ténès. He became known for attaching sails to cannons for transport through the deserts of North Africa. In 1517, the brothers raided Capo Limiti and later, the Island of Capo Rizzuto in Calabria. For Oruç, the best protection against Spain was to join the Ottoman Empire, his homeland and Spain's main rival. For this, he had to relinquish his title of Sultan of Algiers to the Ottomans. He did this in 1517 and offered Algiers to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The Sultan accepted Algiers as an Ottoman sanjak ("province"), appointed Oruç as the Governor of Algiers and Chief Sea Governor of the West Mediterranean, and promised to support him with janissaries, galleys and cannons.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayreddin_Barbarossa
Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. In October 1541 in the Algiers expedition, the King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly made up of Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their Pasha, Hassan.
Ornate Ottoman cannon found in Algiers on 8 October 1581 by Ca'fer el-Mu'allim. Length: 385 cm, cal:178 mm, weight: 2910 kg, stone projectile. Seized by France during the invasion of Algiers in 1830. Musée de l'Armée, Paris.
Formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, starting in the 16th century Algiers turned to piracy and ransoming. Due to its location on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, piracy became the primary economic activity. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Iceland.[8] The United States fought two wars (the First and Second Barbary Wars) over Algiers' attacks on shipping.
Among the notable people held for ransom was the future Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes, who was captive in Algiers almost five years, and who wrote two plays set in Algiers of the period. The primary source for knowledge of Algiers of this period, since there are no contemporary local sources, is the Topografía e historia general de Argel (1612, but written earlier), published by Diego de Haedo, but whose authorship is disputed. This work describes in detail the city, the behavior of its inhabitants, and its military defenses, with the unsuccessful hope of facilitating an attack by Spain so as to end the piracy.
A significant number of renegades lived in Algiers at the time, Christians converted voluntarily to Islam, many fleeing the law or other problems at home. Once converted to Islam, they were safe in Algiers. Many occupied positions of authority, such as Samson Rowlie, an Englishman who became Treasurer of Algiers.
The city under Ottoman control was enclosed by a wall on all sides, including along the seafront. In this wall, five gates allowed access to the city, with five roads from each gate dividing the city and meeting in front of the Ketchaoua Mosque. In 1556, a citadel was constructed at the highest point in the wall. A major road running north to south divided the city in two: The upper city (al-Gabal, or 'the mountain') which consisted of about fifty small quarters of Andalusian, Jewish, Moorish and Kabyle communities, and the lower city (al-Wata, or 'the plains') which was the administrative, military and commercial centre of the city, mostly inhabited by Turkish dignitaries and other upper-class families.
In August 1816, the city was bombarded by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth (a descendant of Thomas Pellew, taken in an Algerian slave raid in 1715, assisted by Dutch men-of-war, destroying the corsair fleet harboured in Algiers.
Algiers depot and station grounds of Algerian Railway, 1894
The history of Algiers from 1830 to 1962 is bound to the larger history of Algeria and its relationship to France. On July 4, 1830, under the pretext of an affront to the French consul—whom the dey had hit with a fly-whisk when the consul said the French government was not prepared to pay its large outstanding debts to two Algerian merchants—a French army under General de Bourmont attacked the city in the 1830 invasion of Algiers. The city capitulated the following day. Algiers became the capital of French Algeria.
Many Europeans settled in Algiers, and by the early 20th century they formed a majority of the city's population.
During the 1930s, the architect Le Corbusier drew up plans for a complete redesign of the colonial city. Le Corbusier was highly critical of the urban style of Algiers, describing the European district as "nothing but crumbling walls and devastated nature, the whole a sullied blot". He also criticised the difference in living standards he perceived between the European and African residents of the city, describing a situation in which "the 'civilised' live like rats in holes" whereas "the 'barbarians' live in solitude, in well-being". However, these plans were ultimately ignored by the French administration.Le Corbusier was ignorant of the way cities work, he only made dormitory cities to humiliate nightlife with buildings on pillars that ignore the beauty of a street. in his plan any meeting is only possible by appointment.
During World War II, Algiers was the last city to be seized from the Germans by the Allies during Operation Torch.
In 1962, after a bloody independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 350,000 and 1,500,000) died (mostly Algerians but also French and Pieds-Noirs) during fighting between the French Army and the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale, Algeria gained its independence, with Algiers as its capital. Since then, despite losing its entire pied-noir population, the city has expanded massively. It now has about five million inhabitants, or 10 percent of Algeria's population—and its suburbs now cover most of the surrounding Mitidja plain.
Algiers also played a pivotal role in the Algerian War (1954–1962), particularly during the Battle of Algiers when the 10th Parachute Division of the French Army, starting on January 7, 1957, and on the orders of then French Minister of Justice François Mitterrand (who authorized any means "to eliminate the insurrectionists"[citation needed]), led attacks against the Algerian fighters for independence. Algiers remains marked by this battle, which was characterized by merciless fighting between FLN forces which carried out a guerrilla campaign against the French military and police and pro-French Algerian soldiers, and the French Army which responded with a bloody repression, torture and blanket terrorism against the native population. The demonstrations of May 13 during the crisis of 1958 provoked the fall of the Fourth Republic in France, as well as the return of General de Gaulle to power.
Algeria achieved independence on July 5, 1962. Run by the FLN that had secured independence, Algiers became a member of Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. In October 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Algiers was the site of demonstrations demanding the end of the single party system and the creation of a real democracy baptized the "Spring of Algier". The demonstrators were repressed by the authorities (more than 300 dead), but the movement constituted a turning point in the political history of modern Algeria. In 1989, a new constitution was adopted that put an end to the one-party rule and saw the creation of more than fifty political parties, as well as official freedom of the press.
The city became the theatre of many political demonstrations of all descriptions until 1992. In 1991, a political entity dominated by religious conservatives called the Islamic Salvation Front engaged in a political test of wills with the authorities. In the 1992 elections for the Algerian National Assembly, the Islamists garnered a large amount of support in the first round, helped by a massive abstention from disillusioned Algerian voters by the turn of events. Fearing an eventual win by the Islamists, the army cancelled the election process, setting off a civil war between the State and armed religious conservatives which would last for a decade.
Rai, the folk music that put Algeria on the international map, originated in 1930 in a small Bedouin Shepherds village in the city of Oran. Rai is a musical genre mixed with Spanish, French, African and Arab music that is listened to by the Algerian population. At the beginning its rise, men were the only singers, but later women joined in on the act. Rai songs usually highlight social and economic issues, along with the French colonial policies that had an impact on the rest of the Algerian population. When it comes to male Rai singers, they are referred to as “Cheb,” which translates to youth or “Cheikh for an older singer. Female Rai singers are called either “Chebba” or “Cheikha.”During the 16th century, Oran was divided by Spanish troops, who inhabited the city, into four factions: Jewish, French, Spanish and Arab. Each community was known by their own musical style. The Arabs were known for their unique ‘Al-Andaluz’ style, one that was brought by many Arab migrants from southern Spain in 1492. Another type of music played during this era by the Arabs was ‘Gharbi’, which is traditionally Bedouin. The most famous singers of that era were Cheikha Tetma, Fadila D’zirya and Myriam Fekkai. Melhun poetry, chanted by male Sheikhs accompanied by flute and drums was also popular in the 16th century. Melhun singers such as Cheikh Mohammed Senoussi, Cheikh Madani, and Cheikh Hachemi Bensmir were well known. With the different cultures and various types of musical styles there is no doubt that Oran during was a little paradise for artists.However, the social and cultural structure changed during French colonialism. In Oran by 1920, most Bedouin singers were collaborating with the French, meaning singers were only allowed to sing at traditional Arab events such as weddings. As women were put under a strict social code, there were only a few female singers. Different female outcast groups were the only artists allowed to perform during French colonialism. One of these artists was the famous Cheikha Remitti. By 1930, most musicians began to join Socialist and Marxist revolutionary organizations as a form of rebellion against colonialism. This rebellion was the root of Rai.In the Algier's cabaret, it's the fiesta. Imagine the cramped space, full of people, all coming to celebrate birthdays, and set the mood. The raï is on the rise, tequila shoots are crackling. Some customers have even brought bottles of champagne that they cut for the occasion.
“A spy!?! You want me to trust...to rest my reputation on the word of...a spy?” Sir Caelan Munro’s first reaction to his archer’s suggestion had been a mixture of frustration and disgust. But Tavish had wisely pointed out how little they really knew about the Magic Isles, how perilous an amphibious landing was in a strange land, with magic, and the reality of their situation soon set in.
Their assigned expedition leader, Lord Bajads, knew little of the enemy and also showed no interest in discovering anything about their invasion point, the northernmost beach on the Island of Lost Souls. “We can easily defeat anything these Outlaw scum can bring to the fight!” Bajads declared, even though they only had a total of 59 effective soldiers on the roll. As a minor noble clan, the Munro family owed support for the war, so Caelan led a very small force of 15 well-armed men for the King’s call to arms, but they were assigned to follow Lord Bajads and his retinue, like it or not.
Two days later here were Caelan and Tavish at the Bull’s Head Tavern in Durrough Harbor meeting a “reformed Outlaw” turned spy, who would only use the name, “Mort.”
Tavish had found Mort, how he wouldn’t say. The archer was shrewd and crafty, but he had friends in low places to be sure.
Mort had insisted on a public place. “People with somethin’ to hide meet in secret. We’re just havin’ some ale together.”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Caelan stated coldly, “I wouldn’t be seen with you if we didn’t need this information.”
“And I wouldn’t be seen with ye if I didn’t need the money,” Mort replied gulping his ale. “Speakin’ of which, 30 Draken if you please.”
“I don’t please. Try 10.”
Mort stopped, put down his ale and started to walk. Tavish stopped him. “We need this. How about 15 now, and 15 when we get back if the information is good.”
“Ye mean IF ye get back. I know what yer facin’, remember.”
Caelan reluctantly laid 10 Draken on the table and tapped the map. Mort was about to speak when suddenly three Loreesi burst out of the tavern staggering-drunk. One of them was so far gone he stumbled over the first stool he came to, his helmet clanking across the pier. Caelan frowned, glanced at Tavish, who rolled his eyes. They knew each other so well nothing needed to be said. Once the unruly Loreesi had drifted away, Mort spoke one word.
“Valtyr.”
“And what is Valtyr, some kind of dragon?”
“Not a dragon. A wizard,” Mort said in a sinister tone, “Jens Valtyr. The ice wizard.”
Caelan wasn’t impressed. He frowned, and glanced at a column of Lenfels marching to the dock to load up on small boats waiting to ferrying them out to the ships.
“I have heard of fools who pretend to be wizards who couldn’t conjure up a hairball, let alone something harmful.”
Mort leaned forward, very serious, and stated flatly, “Valtyr can turn a man into a block of ice with his own hands. He can give a dozen men bone-chillin’ shiverin’ with just one spell, so they can’t hold onto their weapons. And then his outlaws move in for the easy kill.”
“And how do you know all this?” Caelan asked accusingly. He then watched as Mort pulled back slowly, disconcerted, and unconsciously rubbed the side of his face.
“I would rather not say,” Mort said, and then Caelan noticed scarring on that side of his face, of a type he had seen before on Garheim soldiers. Frostbite.
Tavish leaned forward and placed 5 more Draken in front of the spy, asking, “How do we defeat him?”
Mort laughed, “That metal armor ye got’s no good to yer, for all the money ye spent on it. Wood. Leather, rubbed with fat. And stay light on yer feet, so’s ye can dance away from the spells.” He swallowed the last of his ale, scooping up the money. “15 more if ye get back. Oh, and if ye get lucky, they say he’s got a fortune in silver in his tower. Not that ye will live to see it.”
As he was about to walk away Tavish asked, “Anything else?”
Before disappearing around the corner Mort snorted, “Dress warm-like.”
Caelan thought a while and turned to his archer. “Believe him?”
Tavish looked grim, “Yes I do. I would not have arranged the meeting if I had any serious doubt.”
More thinking. Finally Sir Caelan told him, “Find me the largest hard-wood shields you can get for our men. Oh, and some leather armor too if it will fit.”
“And some fat,” Tavish added.
“Well I wasn’t going to mention that part…”
.......................
For Lands of Classic-Castle Global Challenge 3 Phase 1 entry
n° 2 of 9
Chassis n° ZHWEB3ZD5FLA03002
RM Sotheby's
Place Vauban
Parijs - Paris
Frankrijk - France
February 2020
Estimated : € 4.500.000 - 5.500.000
Unsold (Highest bid : € 3.950.000)
Looking to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, Lamborghini unveiled the Veneno at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. Perhaps the most outlandish automobile ever produced from a company built on a reputation of creating wildly designed automobiles, the Veneno caused a fanfare when it was unveiled, making Ferrari’s LaFerrari, unveiled that year at Geneva as well, look almost pedestrian in comparison.
The designers at the Centro Stile Lamborghini pushed design to its limits, working to maximise downforce by increase handling stability through fast corners. With form truly following function, each crisp line serves to provide minimal drag and channel air to cool its engine. Carbon fibre plays a crucial role in its construction, with the car’s carbon monocoque visible within the car around its central tunnel and door stills.
Aside from its wild bodywork, the Veneno boasts Lamborghini’s naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V-12 engine tuned to produce 750 bhp. Providing 50 horsepower more than the original Aventador LP700-4, this increase in power was thanks to enlarging air intakes to the engine and modifying the exhaust. Capable of sprinting to 100 km/h from a standstill in 2.9 seconds, top speed is quoted by Lamborghini as being a staggering 355 km/h.
However, with only four Venenos produced (three built for a trio of very fortunate customers and one retained by Lamborghini themselves), it was instantly apparent that the demand was there for further ‘few-off’ Lamborghinis. The following year a roadster version of the Veneno was announced in a setting equally as thrilling as the car itself, onboard the Italian Navy’s aircraft carrier Cavour docked in Abu Dhabi in 2014.
Performance of the Veneno roadster remains identical to that of its closed sibling, despite the roadster being 50 kg heavier due to reinforcement of its chassis. Tipping the scales at just 1,490 kg, this gives the Veneno roadster a power-to-weight ratio of just 1.99 kg per horsepower. A true roadster, no roof was offered, making for a truly exhilarating driving experience. Nine examples were built, with each one being spoken for before the car was unveiled to the public.
Of those nine Veneno roadsters, this example was the second to leave the factory, and it was bought from the first owner by a member of the House of Saud, the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Finished in a Matte Black over an interior trimmed in lime green and black leather, the car also boasts lime-green pinstriping on the exterior, adding a touch of contrast and personality to its fighter-jet-like bodywork. Since departing Sant’Agata, the car has travelled just 450 km from new and remains in virtually as-new condition both inside and out.
Set to be a future classic and undoubtedly one of the most desirable Lamborghinis ever built, it is clear that the Veneno’s design will continue to influence Lamborghini’s regular production cars for years to come. This would be a centrepiece of any collection of 21st-century hypercars.
Soviet-Russian postcard. Lyudmila Gurchenko in Lyubimaya zhenshchina mekhanika Gavrilova/ The Beloved Woman of Mechanic Gavrilov (Pyotr Todorovskiy, Mosfilm 1983).
Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko (born Gurchenkov) (Russian: Людмила Марковна Гурченко, informal – Lucia, 12 November 1935 – 30 March 2011), was a popular Soviet and Russian actress, singer and entertainer. A celebrity after her film debut Carnival Night, she next her downfall because of bad reputation, but after years of modest roles she had her comeback with Siberiade and Station for Two. She became People's Artist of the USSR in 1983, thanks to the succes of films like these.
Title: Beyond the Pale
************************************************************************************
This is the final part of the story Started with Carpe Diem, and continued with Uncanny
Caution, The tale told below is not for the squeamish. It is both dark and disturbing. It is only recorded in these chronicles to serve as a caution tale…..
Remember… You have been Advised.
Follow the innocence, for whom the darkness dealt,
Swishing vibrancy vanished into the cruel abyss so very svelte,
Who dare to enter, without any fear felt?
Unbeknownst what beyond the pale dwelt.
**************************************************************
This recorded incident occurred at the now eastside Walden Oak Social Club. A once respectable west end private club founded almost 150 years ago. But due to the now decrepit neighborhood its reputation and membership has lessened. But it is a beautiful building, and its cheap rent for it’s still lavishly regal ballrooms will always attract upscale events for those too wealthy to know better.
It was late fall, when the evening light fades, rather early that this tale of woe takes place. The year will remain shrouded, as will the known names of the players.
A wedding reception had been going on since late afternoon. Anyone who had noticed the guests ( and they were watched) would have seen by their dress, the manner upon which they carried themselves, and the jewels of the gowned ladies, that this was a gathering of the wealthy privileged.
The girl (Marissa) was clad in the flowing designer gown her mother had bought for her when she entered her daughter in a American Hollywood style Children’s beauty Pageant.
It was a long gown of rich red satin with rhinestone straps and a large shimmering broach. Marissa had promised that if she was allowed to wear it to the reception that she would not soil it. She was to wear it in a Children’s beauty pageant to be held in Surry the next month ( and try to do better than third this time, Marissa, she was lectured) Marissa was also wearing the Swarovski crystal diamond set she would be wearing at that pageant ( her mother had bought it hoping it would give her daughter an added edge).
Marissa had done her best to behave, but as the party grew old, and her mother grew less watchful, she began to join into play with her younger cousin ( Samuel). Sam was quite a rumbustious lad who had been in the bridal party as a ring bearer, although he was a lot older than normal for the role. The pair soon started chasing each other around the spacious ballroom. And then down the hall, and finally out the double front doors and running around the twilight lit building.
At one point Sam chased Marissa to the corner, tagging her and then running back, with Marissa giving chase. He turned the corner, circled the building, outdistancing poor Marissa. He reached the front door, panting, waiting to let Marissa see him before running off. But Marissa did not reappear around the building.
He soon went looking for her, retracing his steps, but no sign of Marissa was to be had. There was nothing for it, he had to tell Marissa’s, mother, a task he did not relish. So after calling one last time, with still no response, he headed inside. Finally he admitted defeat and went inside to tell Marissa’s Mother( he never called her Aunt) that Marissa would not come inside.
***********************************************************************
This tale has been brought to the light of day for two reasons:
Number One:
For the opportunity to have a rant at the type of parents who take a fairly immature child and with heavy makeup and costuming try to make them look and act like young adults, which they are most assuredly not. Then these same parents appear angry when the child does not seem to conform , accept or feel gratitude for their parents actions, especially when she is caught acting like her real age.
Not only can this be emotionally stressful, but as seen in the story about to be told, downright dangerous when they fall victim to those dwelling on the outer fringes of society.
Number Two:
Due to the names and influence of the victim’s relatives, the whole affair was hushed up.
Which in itself is a crime, but not apparently for the wealthy.
A final Caution:
The following is a darkly disturbing sequence of events. Please do not read further unprepared!!!!!
What happened to Marissa was not pleasant…
*************************************************************************
In her words:
Marissa had been running full tilt after Sam when she passed an old alley that had been an old coal and ice delivery path back in the day when those things needed to be brought in. It was now overgrown and deserted. She had already passed thrice as she had been chased by Sam.
This time, as her eyes were on Sam disappearing around the corner, someone moved from the shadows and grabbed her, pulling her struggling. slippery figure back into the shadows of the path. Marissa had disappeared totally without trace. She was dragged squirming up the path, a cold, roughly hard hand pressed over her mouth, stifling any sound she may have produced. Soon they left the path and entered into some old patch of woods.
Inside an old shed he dragged her, where she was grabbed by a second figure, that of an old haggish lady who’s body ordure smelled strongly of old cigars and booze.
The first figure( a man) left her to the simpering woman. Who then ordered the whimpering girl, writhing in her grasp, to shut up, with a wickedly lisping snarl.
The haggish lady took the petrified girls purse and looked through it, eagerly eyeing its contents. Then she looked over at Marissa, smiling wickedly. She dragged herself over, placing her grubby hands upon Marissa and began to pluck off the shiny Jewels she had been wearing. Searching her meticulously afterwards to make sure nothing had been missed.. Placing the purloined, glimmering pieces she found into Marissa’s satin handbag, like trick or treating in reverse.
The witchy lady than loomed over the girl, pinching and prodding the sobbing poor soul, as she prized Marissa’s gown. Slipping the rhinestone straps over Marissa’s shoulders, she carefully pulled off the gown, like a gamekeeper skinning the fancy pelt off some desirable creature he caught in a snare. Then the matching shoes went next. Shivering in her silken slip, Marissa could do nothing, paralyzed by fear. As she watched the hag letting her shiny gown flow through her grimy hands, a chilling thought swept along her body, she wasn’t the first person this ugly hag had stripped valuables from. She wondered what had happened to the others, and who they had been.
The old Hag reached over and pulled over an old ratty bag to her and rummaging through it she pulled out a decrepit old long coat. She made Marissa put it on, now looking like a pauper rather than the princess she had resembled only a ½ hour ago. Then, taking the child’s hands, she roughly tied them in front of her, and attached a short length of rope. Then the girl was gagged mute.
Grabbing the Bag and a few other odds and ends, the hag grabbed the rope and started to drag her captive behind her. They had started down a path when they both heard two people talking, moving along the path. The old lady tied Marissa to a tree. They both watched, soon the beggar who had grabbed Marissa, came down the path, Marissa’s mother in tow. They both went into the shack, passing only a few feet by the pair watching from the darkness. The old hag, leaving her prize tied to a tree, while she squirmed trying to call her mother, than followed the pair inside the shack.
Muffled yelling could be heard, and then all was silent, as Marissa watched in horror. Soon the beggar and the old hag came out, he was holding her mother’s gown, the old hag held her mother’s priceless jewelery. Placing the jewels In Marissa’s silk purse, and stuffing their victims gown into the bag. Grabbing Marissa they hurriedly headed off into the woods.
Eventually they dragged Marissa into the back of an old saloon. She was thrown onto a smelly old couch, and bound hand to foot. The pair went out into another room, the door failed to catch properly had opened a crack. Marissa could see the pair showing the gowns to a rather nicely dressed man. He did not question where shiny articles of clothing came from. She could overhear them haggling over a price as the man examined them, the haggish lady pointing out the desirable attributes of the two expensive satin gowns. He took them off their hands, Coins were exchanged and Marissa overheard him asked what else they had to show em. Cackling the old hag opened Marissa’s purse, spilling its contents, glittery with flickers of colour, onto the table. He picked up the pieces, examining them. Then with a start, Marissa heard the man explain to the pair that they were all cheap trinkets, not worth anything. He offered them a sum for the purses, and pittance for the jewels. They took him at his word, and again, money was given and the loot handed over. Marissa squirmed, wanting to say something, but couldn’t. She knew her Mother’s jewels alone had cost too much, or so her father had mumbled on more than one occasion.
The pair then leaned towards the man and they all began to talk in undertones. Marissa only made out the words scuttlery maid, as the haggish old lady seemed to try to make a selling point over something. With cold fear, Marissa realized the item trying to be sold was her, and a cold sweat broke over her bound figure. The man seemed hesitant at first, but then his eyes lit up, and he whispered something into their eager ears.
They rose, the man shaking hands with the pair, the nicely dressed man took Marissa’s and her mother’s purloined possessions, and left. The two, after talking amongst themselves for a minute or two, came back into the room where Marissa was laying bound, and the man, throwing her easily onto his shoulder, followed the old hag out the back door. Scampering down pair of long back steps, then into a series of dark alleys, they came to the back of an old abandoned apt house. Going inside via a broken door, they went into the celler where they dumped Marissa in a corner, mice, and worse, scurried from view at their appearence. The two fell fast asleep on either side of her. Marissa spent an extremely uncomfortable night. For they were not the only ones there, and as her captors slept, more than one shadowy form crept up and checked Marissa over, it is assumed for any valuables such an obviously upper-class child should posses. Her captors never even budging their slumber during the night.
Marissa eventually did fall asleep, only to be rudely awakened as she was once again hoisted up unto the mans shoulder. She became aware of the klaxon horns of police vehicles, and she was dropped in a hallway as her captors left her behind making good their escape…..
And so… by the mere coincidence of a man hunt for a suspected tavern robber, the police literally stumbled up a totally different scenario.
The constables found Marissa, deserted by her captors. They quickly were able to reunite her with her mother, who was resting in the hospital, on the mend from the blow that had rendered her helplessly unconscious.
No one, as was stated earlier, was ever caught or brought to trial, none of Marissa’s or her Mother’s valuable possessions were ever recovered.
Marissa, having been fitted for a new gown and bought new shiny frills, still performed in the beauty pageant, finishing fifth. It is to be believed that her Mother,ignorantly not understanding why her daughter had not managed to do better, made good on her promise to punish her.
********************************************************************************
This is the true story that inspired the two tale versions we based Mae ( the fortune teller ) on.
(See Album Mae)
Possibly we are wrong for our reasons to bring this story to light.
If so, we do apologize for any upset our opinions may have caused to arise.
*************************************************************************************
Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DISCLAIMER
All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents
The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.
No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.
These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.
As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment and/or educational purposes only, and should never be attempted in real life.
We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.
********************************************************************************
***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents
The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.
No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.
These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.
As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.
We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.
***************************
Participants enjoy an intense arms/abs workout with instructor Holly at the Dowd YMCA's Taylor Swift: Reputation Party.
Central Otago is a fantastic region in the South Island of New Zealand, It provides beautiful landscapes that have helped carve the reputation of one of the most scenic countries.
Enjoy New Zealand's scenery? Check out some more photos here:
Prefer to check an album of it? Click here!
The Postcard
A postally unused postkarte that was published by Ottmar Zieher of Munich. The card has a divided back.
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner, who was born on the 22nd. May 1813, was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works.
Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to the drama.
He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Richard's compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration. He also used leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements.
His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music.
Richard's Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.
Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. Bayreuth is a town on the Red Main river in Bavaria. At its center is the Richard Wagner Museum in the composer's former home, Villa Wahnfried.
The Ring and Parsifal were premiered at the Festspielhaus, and Wagner's most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, run by his descendants.
Richard's thoughts on the relative contributions of music and drama in opera were to change again, and he reintroduced some traditional forms into his last few stage works, including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Until his final years, Wagner's life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors.
His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment – particularly since the late 20th. century, where they express antisemitic sentiments.
The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th. century; his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts and theatre.
Richard Wagner - The Early Years
Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, who lived at No 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions) in the Jewish quarter on the 22nd. May 1813.
He was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine (née Paetz), the daughter of a baker.
Wagner's father Carl died of typhoid fever six months after Richard's birth. Afterwards, his mother Johanna lived with Carl's friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers.
Johanna and her family moved to Geyer's residence in Dresden, and until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father.
Geyer's love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben, Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel.
In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel's school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received piano instruction from his Latin teacher. However Richard struggled to play a proper scale at the keyboard, and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear.
Following Geyer's death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, the boarding school of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, at the expense of Geyer's brother.
At the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct.
During this period, Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright. His first creative effort was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was at school in 1826, the play was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe.
Wagner was determined to set it to music, and persuaded his family to allow him music lessons.
By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner's first lessons in harmony were taken during 1828–1831 with Christian Gottlieb Müller.
In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven's 7th. Symphony and then, in March, the same composer's 9th. Symphony. Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th. Symphony.
Richard was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart's Requiem.
Wagner's early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures date from this period.
In 1829 Richard saw a performance by dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, and she became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In Mein Leben, Wagner wrote:
"When I look back across my entire life
I find no event to place beside this in
the impression it produced on me.
The profoundly human and ecstatic
performance of this incomparable artist
kindled in me an almost demonic fire."
In 1831, Wagner enrolled at Leipzig University, where he became a member of the Saxon student fraternity. He took composition lessons with the Thomaskantor Theodor Weinlig.
Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner's musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons. He arranged for his pupil's Piano Sonata in B-flat major (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as Wagner's Op. 1.
A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833.
He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.
Richard Wagner's Early Career and Marriage (1833–1842)
In 1833, Wagner's brother Albert managed to obtain for him a position as choirmaster at the theatre in Würzburg. In the same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies).
This work, which imitated the style of Weber, went unproduced until half a century later, when it premiered in Munich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.
Having returned to Leipzig in 1834, Wagner held a brief appointment as musical director at the opera house in Magdeburg during which he wrote Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
The work was staged at Magdeburg in 1836, but closed before the second performance. This, together with the financial collapse of the theatre company employing him, left Richard bankrupt.
Wagner had fallen for one of the leading ladies at Magdeburg, the actress Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer, and after the disaster of Das Liebesverbot he followed her to Königsberg, where she helped him to get an engagement at the theatre.
They married in Tragheim Church on the 24th. November 1836, although In May 1837, Minna left Wagner for another man. This was however only the first débâcle of a tempestuous marriage.
In June 1837, Wagner moved to Riga (then part of the Russian Empire), where he became music director of the local opera; having in this capacity engaged Minna's sister Amalie (also a singer) for the theatre, he resumed relations with Minna during 1838.
By 1839, the couple had amassed such large debts that they fled Riga on the run from creditors. In fact, debts plagued Wagner for most of his life.
Initially they took a stormy sea passage to London, from which Wagner drew the inspiration for his opera Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), with a plot based on a sketch by Heinrich Heine.
The Wagners settled in Paris in September 1839 and stayed there until 1842. Wagner made a scant living by writing articles and short novelettes such as A pilgrimage to Beethoven, which sketched his growing concept of "music drama", and An end in Paris, where he depicts his own miseries as a German musician in the French metropolis.
Richard also provided arrangements of operas by other composers, largely on behalf of the Schlesinger publishing house. During this stay he completed his third and fourth operas Rienzi and Der Fliegende Holländer.
Richard Wagner in Dresden (1842–1849)
Wagner had completed Rienzi in 1840. With the strong support of Giacomo Meyerbeer, it was accepted for performance by the Dresden Court Theatre (Hofoper) in the Kingdom of Saxony.
In 1842, Wagner moved to Dresden. His relief at returning to Germany was recorded in his "Autobiographic Sketch" of 1842, where he wrote that, en route from Paris:
"For the first time I saw the Rhine—
with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor
artist, swore eternal fidelity to my
German fatherland."
Rienzi was staged to considerable acclaim on the 20th. October 1842.
Wagner lived in Dresden for the next six years, eventually being appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor. During this period, he staged there Der Fliegende Holländer (2nd. January 1843) and Tannhäuser (19th. October 1845), the first two of his three middle-period operas.
Wagner also mixed with artistic circles in Dresden, including the composer Ferdinand Hiller and the architect Gottfried Semper.
Wagner's involvement in left-wing politics abruptly ended his welcome in Dresden. Wagner was active among socialist German nationalists there, regularly receiving such guests as the conductor and radical editor August Röckel and the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin.
Richard was also influenced by the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Ludwig Feuerbach. Widespread discontent came to a head in 1849, when the unsuccessful May Uprising in Dresden broke out, in which Wagner played a minor supporting role.
A warrant for the arrest of Richard Wagner was issued on the 16th. May 1849, along with warrants for other revolutionaries.
Wagner had to flee, first visiting Paris and then settling in Zürich where he at first took refuge with a friend, Alexander Müller.
Richard Wagner In Exile: Switzerland (1849–1858)
Wagner spent the next twelve years in exile from Germany. He had completed Lohengrin, the last of his middle-period operas, before the Dresden uprising, and now wrote desperately to his friend Franz Liszt to have it staged in his absence. Liszt conducted the premiere in Weimar in August 1850.
Wagner was in grim personal straits, isolated from the German musical world and without any regular income. In 1850, Julie, the wife of his friend Karl Ritter, began to pay him a small pension which she maintained until 1859.
With help from her friend Jessie Laussot, this was to have been augmented to an annual sum of 3,000 thalers per year, but the plan was abandoned when Wagner began an affair with Mme. Laussot.
Wagner even plotted an elopement with her in 1850, which her husband prevented. Meanwhile, Wagner's wife Minna, who had disliked the operas he had written after Rienzi, was falling into a deepening depression. Wagner fell victim to ill-health, according to Ernest Newman "Largely a matter of overwrought nerves", which made it difficult for him to continue writing.
Wagner's primary published output during his first years in Zürich was a set of essays. In "The Artwork of the Future" (1849), he described a vision of opera as Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), in which music, song, dance, poetry, visual arts and stagecraft were unified.
"Judaism in Music" (1850) was the first of Wagner's writings to feature antisemitic views. In this polemic Wagner argued, frequently using traditional antisemitic abuse, that Jews had no connection to the German spirit, and were thus capable of producing only shallow and artificial music.
According to him, they composed music to achieve popularity and, thereby, financial success, as opposed to creating genuine works of art.
In "Opera and Drama" (1851), Wagner described the aesthetics of music drama that he was using to create the Ring cycle. Before leaving Dresden, Wagner had drafted a scenario that eventually became Der Ring des Nibelungen.
He initially wrote the libretto for a single opera, Siegfrieds Tod (Siegfried's Death), in 1848. After arriving in Zürich, he expanded the story with Der junge Siegfried (Young Siegfried), which explored the hero's background.
He completed the text of the cycle by writing the libretti for Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) and Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) and revising the other libretti to conform to his new concept, completing them in 1852.
The concept of opera expressed in "Opera and Drama" and in other essays effectively renounced all the operas he had previously written through Lohengrin. Partly in an attempt to explain his change of views, Wagner published in 1851 the autobiographical "A Communication to My Friends".
This included his first public announcement of what was to become the Ring cycle:
"I shall never write an Opera more. As I have
no wish to invent an arbitrary title for my works,
I will call them Dramas ... I propose to produce
my myth in three complete dramas, preceded
by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel).
At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose,
at some future time, to produce those three
Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of
three days and a fore-evening."
Wagner began composing the music for Das Rheingold between November 1853 and September 1854, following it immediately with Die Walküre (written between June 1854 and March 1856).
He began work on the third Ring drama, which he now called simply Siegfried, probably in September 1856, but by June 1857 he had completed only the first two acts.
He decided to put the work aside in order to concentrate on a new idea: Tristan und Isolde, based on the Arthurian love story Tristan and Iseult.
One source of inspiration for Tristan und Isolde was the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, notably his The World as Will and Representation, to which Wagner had been introduced in 1854 by his poet friend Georg Herwegh.
Wagner later called this the most important event of his life. His personal circumstances certainly made him an easy convert to what he understood to be Schopenhauer's philosophy, a deeply pessimistic view of the human condition. He remained an adherent of Schopenhauer for the rest of his life.
One of Schopenhauer's doctrines was that music held a supreme role in the arts as a direct expression of the world's essence, namely, blind, impulsive will.
This doctrine contradicted Wagner's view, expressed in "Opera and Drama", that the music in opera had to be subservient to the drama. Wagner scholars have argued that Schopenhauer's influence caused Wagner to assign a more commanding role to music in his later operas, including the latter half of the Ring cycle, which he had yet to compose.
Aspects of Schopenhauerian doctrine found their way into Wagner's subsequent libretti.
A second source of inspiration was Wagner's infatuation with the poet-writer Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the silk merchant Otto Wesendonck. Wagner met the Wesendoncks, who were both great admirers of his music, in Zürich in 1852.
From May 1853 onwards Wesendonck made several loans to Wagner to finance his household expenses in Zürich, and in 1857 placed a cottage on his estate at Wagner's disposal, which became known as the Asyl ("asylum" or "place of rest").
During this period, Wagner's growing passion for his patron's wife inspired him to put aside work on the Ring cycle (which was not resumed for the next twelve years) and begin work on Tristan.
While planning the opera, Wagner composed the Wesendonck Lieder, five songs for voice and piano, setting poems by Mathilde. Two of these settings are explicitly subtitled by Wagner as "Studies for Tristan und Isolde".
Among the conducting engagements that Wagner undertook for revenue during this period, he gave several concerts in 1855 with the Philharmonic Society of London, including one before Queen Victoria. The Queen enjoyed his Tannhäuser overture and spoke with Wagner after the concert, writing in her diary that:
"Wagner was short, very quiet, wears
spectacles & has a very finely-developed
forehead, a hooked nose & projecting
chin."
Richard Wagner in Exile: Venice and Paris (1858–1862)
Wagner's uneasy affair with Mathilde collapsed in 1858, when Minna intercepted a letter to Mathilde from him. After the resulting confrontation with Minna, Wagner left Zürich alone, bound for Venice, where he rented an apartment in the Palazzo Giustinian, while Minna returned to Germany.
Wagner's attitude to Minna had changed; the editor of his correspondence with her, John Burk, has said that:
"She was to him an invalid, to be treated
with kindness and consideration, but,
except at a distance, was a menace to
his peace of mind."
Wagner continued his correspondence with Mathilde and his friendship with her husband Otto, who maintained his financial support. In an 1859 letter to Mathilde, Wagner wrote, half-satirically, of Tristan:
"Child! This Tristan is turning into something
terrible. This final act!!!—I fear the opera will
be banned ... only mediocre performances
can save me!
Perfectly good ones will be bound to drive
people mad."
In November 1859, Wagner once again moved to Paris to oversee production of a new revision of Tannhäuser, staged thanks to the efforts of Princess Pauline von Metternich, whose husband was the Austrian ambassador in Paris.
The performances of the Paris Tannhäuser in 1861 were a notable fiasco. This was partly a consequence of the conservative tastes of the Jockey Club, which organised demonstrations in the theatre to protest at the presentation of the ballet feature in act 1 (instead of its traditional location in the second act).
The opportunity was also exploited by those who wanted to use the occasion as a veiled political protest against the pro-Austrian policies of Napoleon III. It was during this visit that Wagner met the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who wrote an appreciative brochure, "Richard Wagner et Tannhäuser à Paris".
The opera was withdrawn after the third performance, and Wagner left Paris soon after. He had sought a reconciliation with Minna during this Paris visit, and although she joined him there, the reunion was not successful, and they again parted from each other when Wagner left.
Richard Wagner's Return and Resurgence (1862–1871)
The political ban that had been placed on Wagner in Germany after he had fled Dresden was fully lifted in 1862. The composer settled in Biebrich, on the Rhine near Wiesbaden.
Here Minna visited him for the last time: they parted irrevocably, though Wagner continued to give financial support to her while she lived in Dresden until her death in 1866.
In Biebrich, Wagner at last began work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, his only mature comedy. Wagner wrote a first draft of the libretto in 1845, and he had resolved to develop it during a visit he had made to Venice with the Wesendoncks in 1860, where he was inspired by Titian's painting The Assumption of the Virgin.
Throughout this period (1862–1864) Wagner sought to have Tristan und Isolde produced in Vienna. Despite many rehearsals, the opera remained unperformed, and gained a reputation as being "impossible" to sing, which added to Wagner's financial problems.
Wagner's fortunes took a dramatic upturn in 1864, when King Ludwig II succeeded to the throne of Bavaria at the age of 18. The young king, an ardent admirer of Wagner's operas, had the composer brought to Munich.
The King, who was homosexual, expressed in his correspondence a passionate personal adoration for the composer, and Wagner in his responses had no scruples about feigning reciprocal feelings.
Ludwig settled Wagner's considerable debts, and proposed to stage Tristan, Die Meistersinger, the Ring, and the other operas Wagner planned.
Wagner also began to dictate his autobiography, Mein Leben, at the King's request. Wagner noted that his rescue by Ludwig coincided with news of the death of his earlier mentor (but later supposed enemy) Giacomo Meyerbeer. Wagner wrote:
"I regretted that this operatic master,
who had done me so much harm,
should not have lived to see this day."
After grave difficulties in rehearsal, Tristan und Isolde premiered at the National Theatre Munich on the 10th. June 1865, the first Wagner opera premiere in almost 15 years. (The premiere had been scheduled for the 15th. May, but was delayed by bailiffs acting for Wagner's creditors, and also because the Isolde, Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld, was hoarse and needed time to recover.)
The conductor of this premiere was Hans von Bülow, whose wife, Cosima, had given birth in April that year to a daughter, named Isolde, a child not of Bülow but of Wagner.
Cosima was 24 years younger than Wagner and was herself illegitimate, the daughter of the Countess Marie d'Agoult, who had left her husband for Franz Liszt.
Liszt initially disapproved of his daughter's involvement with Wagner, though nevertheless, the two men were friends. The indiscreet affair scandalised Munich, and Wagner also fell into disfavour with many leading members of the court, who were suspicious of his influence on the King.
In December 1865, Ludwig was finally forced to ask the composer to leave Munich. He apparently also toyed with the idea of abdicating to follow his hero into exile, but Wagner quickly dissuaded him.
Ludwig installed Wagner at the Villa Tribschen, beside Switzerland's Lake Lucerne. Die Meistersinger was completed at Tribschen in 1867, and premiered in Munich on the 21st. June the following year.
At Ludwig's insistence, "special previews" of the first two works of the Ring, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, were performed at Munich in 1869 and 1870. However Wagner retained his dream, first expressed in "A Communication to My Friends", of presenting the first complete cycle at a special festival in a new, dedicated, opera house.
Not everyone was impressed by Wagner's work at the time; on the cover of the 18th. April 1869 edition of L'Éclipse, André Gill suggested that Wagner's music was ear-splitting. He produced a cartoon showing a misshapen figure of a man with a tiny body below a head with prominent nose and chin standing on the lobe of a human ear. The figure is hammering the sharp end of a crochet symbol into the inner part of the ear as blood pours out.
Minna died of a heart attack on the 25th. January 1866 in Dresden. Wagner did not attend the funeral. Following Minna's death Cosima wrote to Hans von Bülow several times asking him to grant her a divorce, but Bülow refused to concede this.
He consented only after she had two more children with Wagner; another daughter, named Eva, after the heroine of Meistersinger, and a son Siegfried, named for the hero of the Ring.
The divorce was finally sanctioned, after delays in the legal process, by a Berlin court on the 18th. July 1870. Richard and Cosima's wedding took place on the 25th. August 1870.
On Christmas Day of that year, Wagner arranged a surprise performance (its premiere) of the Siegfried Idyll for Cosima's birthday. The marriage to Cosima lasted to the end of Wagner's life.
Wagner, settled into his new-found domesticity, turned his energies towards completing the Ring cycle. However he had not abandoned polemics: he republished his 1850 pamphlet "Judaism in Music", originally issued under a pseudonym, under his own name in 1869.
He extended the introduction, and wrote a lengthy additional final section. The publication led to several public protests at early performances of Die Meistersinger in Vienna and Mannheim.
Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1871–1876)
In 1871, Wagner decided to move to Bayreuth, which was to be the location of his new opera house. The town council donated a large plot of land—the "Green Hill"—as a site for the theatre.
The Wagners moved to the town the following year, and the foundation stone for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theatre") was laid.
Wagner initially announced the first Bayreuth Festival, at which for the first time the Ring cycle would be presented complete, for 1873, but since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building was delayed, and the proposed date for the festival was deferred.
To raise funds for the construction, "Wagner societies" were formed in several cities, and Wagner began touring Germany conducting concerts. By the spring of 1873, only a third of the required funds had been raised; further pleas to Ludwig were initially ignored, but early in 1874, with the project on the verge of collapse, the King relented and provided a loan.
The full building programme included the family home, "Wahnfried", into which Wagner, with Cosima and the children, moved from their temporary accommodation on the 18th. April 1874. Wagner was ultimately laid to rest in the Wahnfried garden; in 1977 Cosima's ashes were placed alongside Wagner's body. The grave is shown in the photograph.
The theatre was completed in 1875, and the festival scheduled for the following year. Commenting on the struggle to finish the building, Wagner remarked to Cosima:
"Each stone is red with
my blood and yours".
For the design of the Festspielhaus, Wagner appropriated some of the ideas of his former colleague, Gottfried Semper, which he had previously solicited for a proposed new opera house at Munich.
Wagner was responsible for several theatrical innovations at Bayreuth; these included darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience.
The Festspielhaus finally opened on the 13th. August 1876 with Das Rheingold, at last taking its place as the first evening of the complete Ring cycle. The 1876 Bayreuth Festival therefore saw the premiere of the complete cycle, performed as a sequence as the composer had intended.
The 1876 Festival consisted of three full Ring cycles (under the baton of Hans Richter). At the end, critical reactions ranged between that of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who thought the work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaper Le Figaro, which called the music "The dream of a lunatic".
The disillusioned included Wagner's friend and disciple Friedrich Nietzsche, who, having published his eulogistic essay "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" before the festival as part of his Untimely Meditations, was bitterly disappointed by what he saw as Wagner's pandering to increasingly exclusivist German nationalism; his breach with Wagner began at this time.
The festival firmly established Wagner as an artist of European, and indeed world, importance: attendees included Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, Anton Bruckner, Camille Saint-Saëns and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Wagner was far from satisfied with the Festival; Cosima recorded that months later, his attitude towards the productions was:
"Never again, never again!"
Moreover, the festival finished with a deficit of about 150,000 marks. The expenses of Bayreuth and of Wahnfried meant that Wagner still sought further sources of income by conducting or taking on commissions such as the Centennial March for America, for which he received $5000.
Richard Wagner - The Final Years (1876–1883)
Following the first Bayreuth Festival, Wagner began work on Parsifal, his final opera. The composition took four years, much of which Wagner spent in Italy for health reasons.
From 1876 to 1878 Wagner also embarked on the last of his documented emotional liaisons, this time with Judith Gautier, whom he had met at the 1876 Festival.
Wagner was also much troubled by problems of financing Parsifal, and by the prospect of the work being performed by other theatres than Bayreuth. He was once again assisted by the liberality of King Ludwig, but was still forced by his personal financial situation in 1877 to sell the rights of several of his unpublished works (including the Siegfried Idyll) to the publisher Schott.
Wagner wrote several articles in his later years, often on political topics, and often reactionary in tone, repudiating some of his earlier, more liberal, views.
These include "Religion and Art" (1880) and "Heroism and Christianity" (1881), which were printed in the journal Bayreuther Blätter, published by his supporter Hans von Wolzogen.
Wagner's sudden interest in Christianity at this period, which infuses Parsifal, was contemporary with his increasing alignment with German nationalism, and required on his part, and the part of his associates, "the rewriting of some recent Wagnerian history", so as to represent, for example, the Ring as a work reflecting Christian ideals.
Many of these later articles, including "What is German?" (1878, but based on a draft written in the 1860's), repeated Wagner's antisemitic preoccupations.
Wagner completed Parsifal in January 1882, and a second Bayreuth Festival was held for the new opera, which premiered on the 26th. May.
Wagner was by this time extremely ill, having suffered a series of increasingly severe angina attacks.
During the sixteenth and final performance of Parsifal on the 29th. August, he entered the pit unseen during act 3, took the baton from conductor Hermann Levi, and led the performance to its conclusion.
After the festival, the Wagner family journeyed to Venice for the winter. Wagner died of a heart attack at the age of 69 on the 13th. February 1883 at Ca' Vendramin Calergi, a 16th.-century palazzo on the Grand Canal.
The legend that the attack was prompted by argument with Cosima over Wagner's supposedly amorous interest in the singer Carrie Pringle, who had been a Flower-maiden in Parsifal at Bayreuth, is without credible evidence.
After a funerary gondola bore Wagner's remains across the Grand Canal, his body was taken to Germany where it was buried in the garden of the Villa Wahnfried.
Richard Wagner's Works
Wagner's musical output is listed by the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (WWV) as comprising 113 works, including fragments and projects.
The first complete scholarly edition of his musical works in print was commenced in 1970 under the aegis of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur of Mainz, and is presently (2023) under the editorship of Egon Voss.
It will consist of 21 volumes (57 books) of music and 10 volumes (13 books) of relevant documents and texts.
Richard Wagner's Early Works (to 1842)
Wagner's earliest attempts at opera were often uncompleted. Abandoned works include a pastoral opera based on Goethe's Die Laune des Verliebten (The Infatuated Lover's Caprice), written at the age of 17, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), on which Wagner worked in 1832, and the singspiel Männerlist Größer als Frauenlist (Men are More Cunning than Women, 1837–1838).
Die Feen (The Fairies, 1833) was not performed in the composer's lifetime and Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love, 1836) was withdrawn after its first performance.
Rienzi (1842) was Wagner's first opera to be successfully staged.
The compositional style of these early works was conventional— the relatively more sophisticated Rienzi showing the clear influence of Grand Opera à la Spontini and Meyerbeer — and did not exhibit the innovations that would mark Wagner's place in musical history.
Later in life, Wagner said that he did not consider these works to be part of his oeuvre; and they have been performed only rarely in the last hundred years, although the overture to Rienzi is an occasional concert-hall piece.
Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot, and Rienzi were performed at both Leipzig and Bayreuth in 2013 to mark the composer's bicentenary.
Richard Wagner's Romantic Operas (1843–1851)
Wagner's middle stage output began with Der Fliegende Holländer (1843), followed by Tannhäuser (1845) and Lohengrin (1850).
These three operas are referred to as Wagner's "romantic operas". They reinforced the reputation, among the public in Germany and beyond, that Wagner had begun to establish with Rienzi.
Although distancing himself from the style of these operas from 1849 onwards, he nevertheless reworked both Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser on several occasions.
The three operas are considered to represent a significant developmental stage in Wagner's musical and operatic maturity as regards thematic handling, portrayal of emotions and orchestration.
They are the earliest works included in the Bayreuth canon, the mature operas that Cosima staged at the Bayreuth Festival after Wagner's death in accordance with his wishes.
All three (including the differing versions of Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser) continue to be regularly performed throughout the world, and have been frequently recorded.
They were also the operas by which his fame spread during his lifetime.
Richard Wagner's Music Dramas (1851–1882)
Wagner's late dramas are considered his masterpieces. Der Ring des Nibelungen, commonly referred to as the Ring or "Ring Cycle", is a set of four operas based loosely on figures and elements of Germanic mythology—particularly from the later Norse mythology—notably the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Volsunga Saga, and the Middle High German Nibelungenlied.
Wagner specifically developed the libretti for these operas according to his interpretation of Stabreim, highly alliterative rhyming verse-pairs used in old Germanic poetry.
They were also influenced by Wagner's concepts of ancient Greek drama, in which tetralogies were a component of Athenian festivals, and which he had amply discussed in his essay "Oper und Drama".
The first two components of the Ring cycle were Das Rheingold, which was completed in 1854, and Die Walküre, which was finished in 1856.
In Das Rheingold, with its "relentlessly talky 'realism' and the absence of lyrical 'numbers'", Wagner came very close to the musical ideals of his 1849–1851 essays.
Die Walküre, which contains what is virtually a traditional aria (Siegmund's Winterstürme in the first act), and the quasi-choral appearance of the Valkyries themselves, shows more "operatic" traits, but has been assessed by Barry Millington as:
"The music drama that most satisfactorily
embodies the theoretical principles of
'Oper und Drama'... A thoroughgoing
synthesis of poetry and music is achieved
without any notable sacrifice in musical
expression."
While composing the opera Siegfried, the third part of the Ring cycle, Wagner interrupted work on it, and between 1857 and 1864 wrote the tragic love story Tristan und Isolde and his only mature comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, two works that are also part of the regular operatic canon.
Tristan is often granted a special place in musical history; many see it as the beginning of the move away from conventional harmony and tonality, and consider that it lays the groundwork for the direction of classical music in the 20th. century.
Wagner felt that his musico-dramatical theories were most perfectly realised in this work with its use of "the art of transition" between dramatic elements and the balance achieved between vocal and orchestral lines. Completed in 1859, the work was given its first performance in Munich, conducted by Bülow, in June 1865.
Die Meistersinger was originally conceived by Wagner in 1845 as a sort of comic pendant to Tannhäuser. Like Tristan, it was premiered in Munich under the baton of Bülow, on the 21st. June 1868, and became an immediate success.
Millington describes Meistersinger as:
"A rich, perceptive music drama
widely admired for its warm
humanity."
However its strong German nationalist overtones have led some to cite it as an example of Wagner's reactionary politics and antisemitism.
Completing the Ring
When Wagner returned to writing the music for the last act of Siegfried and for Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), as the final part of the Ring, his style had changed once more to something more recognisable as "operatic" than the aural world of Rheingold and Walküre, though it was still thoroughly stamped with his own originality as a composer and suffused with leitmotifs.
This was in part because the libretti of the four Ring operas had been written in reverse order, so that the book for Götterdämmerung was conceived more "traditionally" than that of Rheingold; still, the self-imposed strictures of the Gesamtkunstwerk had become relaxed.
The differences also result from Wagner's development as a composer during the period in which he wrote Tristan, Meistersinger and the Paris version of Tannhäuser. From act 3 of Siegfried onwards, the Ring becomes more chromatic melodically, more complex harmonically, and more developmental in its treatment of leitmotifs.
Wagner took 26 years from writing the first draft of a libretto in 1848 until he completed Götterdämmerung in 1874.
The Ring takes about 15 hours to perform, and is the only undertaking of such size to be regularly presented on the world's stages.
Parsifal
Wagner's final opera, Parsifal (1882), which was his only work written especially for his Bayreuth Festspielhaus and which is described in the score as a "Bühnenweihfestspiel" ("Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage"), has a storyline suggested by elements of the legend of the Holy Grail.
It also carries elements of Buddhist renunciation suggested by Wagner's readings of Schopenhauer. Wagner described it to Cosima as his "last card".
Parsifal remains controversial because of its treatment of Christianity, its eroticism, and its expression, as perceived by some commentators, of German nationalism and antisemitism.
Despite the composer's own description of the opera to King Ludwig as "this most Christian of works", Ulrike Kienzle has commented that:
"Wagner's turn to Christian mythology,
upon which the imagery and spiritual
contents of Parsifal rest, is idiosyncratic,
and contradicts Christian dogma in
many ways."
Musically, the opera has been held to represent a continuing development of the composer's style, and Millington describes it as:
"A diaphanous score of unearthly
beauty and refinement".
Richard Wagner's Non-Operatic Music
Apart from his operas, Wagner composed relatively few pieces of music. These include a symphony in C major (written at the age of 19), the Faust Overture (the only completed part of an intended symphony on the subject), some concert overtures, and choral and piano pieces.
Richard's most commonly performed work that is not an extract from an opera is the Siegfried Idyll for chamber orchestra, which has several motifs in common with the Ring cycle.
The Wesendonck Lieder are also often performed, either in the original piano version, or with orchestral accompaniment.
More rarely performed are the American Centennial March (1876), and Das Liebesmahl der Apostel (The Love Feast of the Apostles), a piece for male choruses and orchestra composed in 1843 for the city of Dresden.
After completing Parsifal, Wagner expressed his intention to turn to the writing of symphonies, and several sketches dating from the late 1870's and early 1880's have been identified as work towards this end.
The overtures and certain orchestral passages from Wagner's middle and late-stage operas are commonly played as concert pieces. For most of these, Wagner wrote or re-wrote short passages to ensure musical coherence.
The "Bridal Chorus" from Lohengrin is frequently played as the bride's processional wedding march in English-speaking countries.
Richard Wagner's Prose Writings
Wagner was an extremely prolific writer, authoring many books, poems, and articles, as well as voluminous correspondence. His writings covered a wide range of topics, including autobiography, politics, philosophy, and detailed analyses of his own operas.
Wagner planned for a collected edition of his publications as early as 1865; he believed that such a work would help the world to understand his intellectual development and artistic aims.
The first such edition was published between 1871 and 1883, but was doctored to suppress or alter articles that were an embarrassment to him (e.g. those praising Meyerbeer), or by altering dates on some articles to reinforce Wagner's own account of his progress.
Wagner's autobiography Mein Leben was originally published for close friends only in a very small edition (15–18 copies per volume) in four volumes between 1870 and 1880.
The first public edition (with many passages suppressed by Cosima) appeared in 1911; the first attempt at a full edition (in German) appeared in 1963.
There have been modern complete or partial editions of Wagner's writings, including a centennial edition in German edited by Dieter Borchmeyer (which, however, omitted the essay "Das Judenthum in der Musik" and Mein Leben).
The English translations of Wagner's prose in eight volumes by William Ashton Ellis (1892–1899) are still in print, and commonly used, despite their deficiencies.
The first complete historical and critical edition of Wagner's prose works was launched in 2013 at the Institute for Music Research at the University of Würzburg; this will result in at least eight volumes of text and several volumes of commentary, totalling over 5,000 pages.
It was originally anticipated that the Würzburg project will be completed by 2030, although this time frame may need to be extended.
A complete edition of Wagner's correspondence, estimated to amount to between 10,000 and 12,000 items, is under way under the supervision of the University of Würzburg. As of January 2021, 25 volumes have appeared, covering the period up to 1873.
Richard Wagner's Influence on Music
Wagner's later musical style introduced new ideas in harmony, melodic process (leitmotif) and operatic structure.
Notably from Tristan und Isolde onwards, he explored the limits of the traditional tonal system, which gave keys and chords their identity, pointing the way to atonality in the 20th. century.
Some music historians date the beginning of modern classical music to the first notes of Tristan, which include the so-called Tristan chord.
Wagner inspired great devotion. For a long period, many composers were inclined to align themselves with or against Wagner's music. Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf were greatly indebted to him, as were César Franck, Henri Duparc, Ernest Chausson, Jules Massenet, Richard Strauss, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Hans Pfitzner and many others.
Gustav Mahler was devoted to Wagner and his music; at the age of 15, he sought Wagner out on his 1875 visit to Vienna. Mahler became a renowned Wagner conductor, and Richard Taruskin has claimed that:
"Mahler's compositions extend
Wagner's maximalization of the
temporal and the sonorous in
music to the world of the
symphony."
The harmonic revolutions of Claude Debussy and Arnold Schoenberg (both of whose oeuvres contain examples of tonal and atonal modernism) have often been traced back to Tristan and Parsifal.
The Italian form of operatic realism known as verismo owed much to the Wagnerian concept of musical form.
Wagner also made a major contribution to the principles and practice of conducting. His essay "About Conducting" (1869) advanced Hector Berlioz's technique of conducting, and claimed that conducting was a means by which a musical work could be re-interpreted, rather than simply a mechanism for achieving orchestral unison.
He exemplified this approach in his own conducting, which was significantly more flexible than the disciplined approach of Felix Mendelssohn; in Wagner's view this also justified practices that would today be frowned upon, such as the rewriting of scores.
Wilhelm Furtwängler felt that Wagner and Bülow, through their interpretative approach, inspired a whole new generation of conductors (including Furtwängler himself).
Among those claiming inspiration from Wagner's music are the German band Rammstein, Jim Steinman, who wrote songs for Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Celine Dion and others.
Wagner also influenced the electronic composer Klaus Schulze, whose 1975 album Timewind consists of two 30-minute tracks, Bayreuth Return and Wahnfried 1883.
Joey DeMaio of the band Manowar has described Wagner as:
"The father of heavy metal".
The Slovenian group Laibach created the 2009 suite VolksWagner, using material from Wagner's operas.
Phil Spector's Wall of Sound recording technique was, it has been claimed, heavily influenced by Wagner.
Richard Wagner's Influence on Literature, Philosophy and the Visual Arts
Wagner's influence on literature and philosophy is significant. Millington has commented:
"Wagner's protean abundance meant that
he could inspire the use of literary motif in
many a novel employing interior monologue;
the Symbolists saw him as a mystic hierophant;
the Decadents found many a frisson in his work."
Friedrich Nietzsche was a member of Wagner's inner circle during the early 1870's, and his first published work, The Birth of Tragedy, proposed Wagner's music as the Dionysian "rebirth" of European culture in opposition to Apollonian rationalist "decadence".
Nietzsche however broke with Wagner following the first Bayreuth Festival, believing that Wagner's final phase represented a pandering to Christian pieties, and a surrender to the new German Reich.
Nietzsche expressed his displeasure with the later Wagner in "The Case of Wagner" and "Nietzsche Contra Wagner".
The poets Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine worshipped Wagner.
Édouard Dujardin, whose influential novel Les Lauriers Sont Coupés is in the form of an interior monologue inspired by Wagnerian music, founded a journal dedicated to Wagner, La Revue Wagnérienne.
In a list of major cultural figures influenced by Wagner, Bryan Magee includes D. H. Lawrence, Aubrey Beardsley, Romain Rolland, Gérard de Nerval, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Rainer Maria Rilke and several others.
In the 20th century, W. H. Auden once called Wagner:
"Perhaps the greatest
genius that ever lived."
Thomas Mann and Marcel Proust were heavily influenced by him, and discussed Wagner in their novels. He is also discussed in some of the works of James Joyce, as well as W. E. B. Du Bois, who featured Lohengrin in The Souls of Black Folk.
Wagnerian themes inhabit T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which contains lines from Tristan und Isolde and Götterdämmerung, and Verlaine's poem on Parsifal.
Many of Wagner's concepts, including his speculation about dreams, predated their investigation by Sigmund Freud. Wagner had publicly analysed the Oedipus myth before Freud was born in terms of its psychological significance, insisting that incestuous desires are natural and normal, and perceptively exhibiting the relationship between sexuality and anxiety. Georg Groddeck considered the Ring as the first manual of psychoanalysis.
Richard Wagner's Influence on the Cinema
Wagner's concept of the use of leitmotifs and the integrated musical expression which they can enable has influenced many 20th. and 21st. century film scores.
The critic Theodor Adorno has noted that:
"The Wagnerian leitmotif leads directly to
cinema music where the sole function of
the leitmotif is to announce heroes or
situations so as to allow the audience to
orient itself more easily".
Film scores citing Wagnerian themes include Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, which features a version of the Ride of the Valkyries, Trevor Jones's soundtrack to John Boorman's film Excalibur, and the 2011 films A Dangerous Method (dir. David Cronenberg) and Melancholia (dir. Lars von Trier).
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's 1977 film Hitler has a visual style and set design that are strongly inspired by Der Ring des Nibelungen, musical excerpts from which are frequently used in the film's soundtrack.
Richard Wagner's Opponents and Supporters
Not all reaction to Wagner was positive. For a time, German musical life divided into two factions, supporters of Wagner and supporters of Johannes Brahms; the latter, with the support of the powerful critic Eduard Hanslick (of whom Beckmesser in Meistersinger is in part a caricature) championed traditional forms, and led the conservative front against Wagnerian innovations.
They were supported by the conservative leanings of some German music schools, including the conservatories at Leipzig under Ignaz Moscheles and at Cologne under the direction of Ferdinand Hiller.
Another Wagner detractor was the French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan, who wrote to Hiller after attending Wagner's Paris concert on the 25th. January 1860. At this concert Wagner conducted the overtures to Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser, the preludes to Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde, and six other extracts from Tannhäuser and Lohengrin.
Alkan noted:
"I had imagined that I was going
to meet music of an innovative
kind, but was astonished to find
a pale imitation of Berlioz.
I do not like all the music of Berlioz
while appreciating his marvellous
understanding of certain instrumental
effects ... but here he was imitated
and caricatured ... Wagner is not a
musician, he is a disease."
Even those who, like Debussy, opposed Wagner ("this old poisoner") could not deny his influence. Indeed, Debussy was one of many composers, including Tchaikovsky, who felt the need to break with Wagner precisely because his influence was so unmistakable and overwhelming.
"Golliwogg's Cakewalk" from Debussy's Children's Corner piano suite contains a deliberately tongue-in-cheek quotation from the opening bars of Tristan.
Others who proved resistant to Wagner's operas included Gioachino Rossini, who said:
"Wagner has wonderful moments,
and dreadful quarters of an hour."
In the 20th. century Wagner's music was parodied by Paul Hindemith and Hanns Eisler, among others.
Wagner's followers (known as Wagnerians or Wagnerites) have formed many societies dedicated to Wagner's life and work.
Film and Stage Portrayals of Richard Wagner
Wagner has been the subject of many biographical films. The earliest was a silent film made by Carl Froelich in 1913. It featured in the title role the composer Giuseppe Becce, who also wrote the score for the film (as Wagner's music, still in copyright, was not available).
Other film portrayals of Wagner include:
-- Richard Burton in Wagner (1983).
-- Paul Nicholas in Lisztomania (1975)
-- Trevor Howard in Ludwig (1972)
-- Lyndon Brook in Song Without End (1960)
-- Alan Badel in Magic Fire (1955)
Jonathan Harvey's opera Wagner Dream (2007) intertwines the events surrounding Wagner's death with the story of Wagner's uncompleted opera outline Die Sieger (The Victors).
The Bayreuth Festival
Since Wagner's death, the Bayreuth Festival, which has become an annual event, has been successively directed by his widow, his son Siegfried, the latter's widow Winifred Wagner, their two sons Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner, and, presently, two of the composer's great-granddaughters, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner.
Since 1973, the festival has been overseen by the Richard-Wagner-Stiftung (Richard Wagner Foundation), the members of which include some of Wagner's descendants.
Controversies Associated With Richard Wagner
Wagner's operas, writings, politics, beliefs and unorthodox lifestyle made him a controversial figure during his lifetime.
Following his death, debate about his ideas and their interpretation, particularly in Germany during the 20th. century, has continued.
Racism and Antisemitism
A caricature of Wagner by Karl Clic was published in 1873 in the Viennese satirical magazine, Humoristische Blätter. It shows a cartoon figure holding a baton, standing next to a music stand in front of some musicians.
The figure has a large nose and prominent forehead. His sideburns turn into a wispy beard under his chin. The exaggerated features refer to rumours of Wagner's Jewish ancestry.
Wagner's hostile writings on Jews, including Jewishness in Music, correspond to some existing trends of thought in Germany during the 19th century.
Despite his very public views on this topic, throughout his life Wagner had Jewish friends, colleagues and supporters. There have been frequent suggestions that antisemitic stereotypes are represented in Wagner's operas. The characters of Alberich and Mime in the Ring, Sixtus Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger, and Klingsor in Parsifal are sometimes claimed as Jewish representations, though they are not identified as such in the librettos of these operas.
The topic is further complicated by claims, which may have been credited by Wagner, that he himself was of Jewish ancestry, via his supposed father Geyer. However, there is no evidence that Geyer had Jewish ancestors.
Some biographers have noted that Wagner in his final years developed interest in the racialist philosophy of Arthur de Gobineau, notably Gobineau's belief that Western society was doomed because of miscegenation between "superior" and "inferior" races.
According to Robert Gutman, this theme is reflected in the opera Parsifal.
Other biographers however (including Lucy Beckett) believe that this is not true, as the original drafts of the story date back to 1857 and Wagner had completed the libretto for Parsifal by 1877, but he displayed no significant interest in Gobineau until 1880.
Other Interpretations
Wagner's ideas are amenable to socialist interpretations; many of his ideas on art were being formulated at the time of his revolutionary inclinations in the 1840's. Thus, for example, George Bernard Shaw wrote in The Perfect Wagnerite (1883):
"Wagner's picture of Niblunghome under the
reign of Alberic is a poetic vision of unregulated
industrial capitalism as it was made known in
Germany in the middle of the 19th. century by
Engels's book 'The Condition of the Working
Class in England."
Left-wing interpretations of Wagner also inform the writings of Theodor Adorno among other Wagner critics.
Walter Benjamin gave Wagner as an example of "bourgeois false consciousness", alienating art from its social context.
György Lukács contended that the ideas of the early Wagner represented the ideology of the "true socialists" (wahre Sozialisten), a movement referenced in Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" as belonging to the left-wing of German bourgeois radicalism.
Anatoly Lunacharsky said about the later Wagner:
"The circle is complete. The revolutionary
has become a reactionary. The rebellious
petty bourgeois now kisses the slipper of
the Pope, the keeper of order."
The writer Robert Donington has produced a detailed, if controversial, Jungian interpretation of the Ring cycle, described as "an approach to Wagner by way of his symbols", which, for example, sees the character of the goddess Fricka as part of her husband Wotan's "inner femininity".
Millington notes that Jean-Jacques Nattiez has also applied psychoanalytical techniques in an evaluation of Wagner's life and works.
Nazi Appropriation of Richard Wagner's Work
Adolf Hitler was an admirer of Wagner's music, and saw in his operas an embodiment of his own vision of the German nation; in a 1922 speech he claimed that:
"Wagner's works glorify the heroic
Teutonic nature ... Greatness lies in
the heroic."
Hitler visited Bayreuth frequently from 1923 onwards, and attended productions at the theatre.
There continues to be debate about the extent to which Wagner's views might have influenced Nazi thinking. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), who married Wagner's daughter Eva in 1908 but never met Wagner, was the author of the racist book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, approved by the Nazi movement.
Chamberlain met Hitler several times between 1923 and 1927 in Bayreuth, but cannot credibly be regarded as a conduit of Wagner's own views.
The Nazis used those parts of Wagner's thought that were useful for propaganda, and ignored or suppressed the rest.
While Bayreuth presented a useful front for Nazi culture, and Wagner's music was used at many Nazi events, the Nazi hierarchy as a whole did not share Hitler's enthusiasm for Wagner's operas, and resented attending these lengthy epics at Hitler's insistence.
Guido Fackler has researched evidence that indicates that it is possible that Wagner's music was used at the Dachau concentration camp in 1933–1934 to "re-educate" political prisoners by exposure to "national music".
There has been no evidence to support claims, sometimes made, that his music was played at Nazi death camps during the Second World War, and Pamela Potter has noted that Wagner's music was explicitly off-limits in the camps.
Because of the associations of Wagner with antisemitism and Nazism, the performance of his music in the State of Israel has been a source of controversy.
The buses of Scotland
Rennies of Dunfermline
Rennies of Dunfermline was established as a family owned coach operator in 1947. Based in Dunfermline, it soon garnered a reputation as a quality coach operator. One feature of the operator was that it became heavily involved in Ministry of Defence (MOD) work, shuttling naval personal from Rosyth naval dockyard, near Rennies hometown of Dunfermline, to naval bases on the south coast of England. At one point, these services were some of the longest registered services in the country.
With the advent of Deregulation in 1986, Rennies began running services in and around Dunfermline, competing with the major operator Fife Scottish. This soon became a significant part of its business and it was soon gathering up second-hand buses from all over the place. These included amongst several other delights MCW/Scania Metropolitans and it also took a punt on former Strathclyde’s Buses Leyland Atlantean’s with their well documented issues. It also developed as dealer, selling these same buses to other operators.
Sadly, the company ultimately withdrew from local services, finding Fife Scottish too tough a nut to crack. It settled back into a routine of private hires, tours and school services. It maintained a high quality coach fleet and kept a working and friendly relationship with the by now Stagecoach owned Fife Scottish.
In 2008, with the retirement of Jack Rennie the company was sold to Stagecoach. In the run up to the sale there had been signs all was not well with the company. It had been hit hard by Fife Council’s decision to impose an age limit on school buses and indeed Stagecoach had went as far as to loan it some Volvo Olympians, including some acquired from Lothian Buses. Such was the respect between the operators.
Normally when a major group acquired a local firm, it’s buses were quickly repainted in its new owners colours. Commendably, Stagecoach kept Rennies as a stand-alone division within its by now re-named Stagecoach East Scotland, recognising that the Rennies brand was still part of the culture of the kingdom of Fife. It developed a new livery and also went as far as to acquire new coaches to replace the rather eclectic mix it acquired, such as 53724 (WLT784) seen here, which was new to Logan of Dunloy.
Although very much slimmed down and now based within Stagecoach’s Cowdenbeath Depot, Rennies is very much still with us. Although it’s buses are part of Stagecoach and have fleetnumbers, they tend not to be carried.
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 1620. Photo: Warner Bros. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Val Kilmer (1959) is an American actor, known for such blockbusters as Top Gun (1986), Batman Forever (1995) and Heat (1995). His chameleon-like ability to plunge fully and breathlessly into his characters catapulted him to fame in the mid-1980s but his reputation to be a troublesome actor and a series of disappointing films held him back from megastardom.
Val Edward Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, in 1959. He is the son of Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. Val grew up in the San Fernando Valley. His family is a textbook example of mixed blood. He has Scottish, Swedish, Irish, Mongolian, and Cherokee blood in his veins, among others. His parents divorced when he was 9 years old. His first auditions were for commercials at 13 years old. When he was 17 years old, his younger brother Wesley who was an epileptic, drowned in a jacuzzi at age 15. Kilmer learned acting at the famous Juilliard Drama School in New York. He was the youngest student in history to be admitted to Juilliard. In 1983 he played his first television role and a year later he made his film debut with the lead role as blond rock idol Nick Rivers in Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, 1984), a spoof of Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Andrea LeVasseur at AllMovie: "An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity, it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star." He had his big break in the role of Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) starring Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. He gave a believable performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). He had spent close to a year before production dressing in Morrison-like clothes and had spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. Kilmer did his own singing during the concert pieces and a number of his Doors songs were used on the soundtrack, sans dubbing. Two years later, Kilmer played two more American legends, the spirit of Elvis Presley in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), which was written by Quentin Tarantino, and gunslinger Doc Holliday in the Western Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993).
Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from Michael Keaton in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Batman Forever was a success at the box office, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. Although he enjoyed playing Batman his working relationship with director Joel Schumacher was poor. Kilmer openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), and he was succeeded by George Clooney. Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer had clashed earlier with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and later infuriated director John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). However, others consider him a devoted, hard-working professional. Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star in Willow (Ron Howard, 1988), says he has very fond memories of working with Kilmer, stating that Kilmer had a great sense of humor and was very dedicated to the job. In addition to acting, Kilmer is also engaged in writing. In 1981 he wrote the play 'How It All Began', performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Later in the 1980s, he wrote a poetry collection, 'My Eden after burns'. Kilmer also acted on the stage. He played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. In 2004 he played Moses in a musical and in 2005 he starred in London in David Mamet's play 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. His other notable films include Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the disappointing The Saint (Philip Noyce, 1997), and the action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005) with Robert Downey Jr. Another disappointment was the historical epic Alexander (Oliver Stone, 2004) in which he played the father of Alexander, King Philip, opposite Colin Farrell as Alexander. The Disney studios Sci-Fi-action thriller Deja Vu (Tony Scott, 2006) teamed Kilmer and Denzel Washington as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also appeared in Werner Herzog's semi-sequel Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), and Francis Ford Coppola's horror opus Twixt (2011), with Bruce Dern and Elle Fanning. Kilmer is a longtime board member of the New Mexico State Film Commission, which tries to persuade Los Angeles - based filmmakers and studios to film on location in New Mexico. From 1988 to 1996, Val Kilmer was married to British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while filming Willow (Ron Howard, 1988). They have two children: a daughter, Mercedes (1992), and a son, Jack (1995). Kilmer has gone through a battle with throat cancer. A procedure on his trachea has reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath. He underwent chemotherapy and two tracheotomies. In 2020, Kilmer reported that he had been cancer-free for four years and that he uses a feeding tube to feed himself because he can no longer eat. He continues to act in films and upcoming is the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2021) in which Kilmer reprises his role as LT Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski.
Sources: Andrea LeVasseur (AllMovie), Denise P. Meyer (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Ellie attempts to pay homage to the numerous limestone/gritstone crags that have helped to cement the strong tradition and world wide reputation of British rock climbing and mountaineering. These outcrops virtually encircle the city of Sheffield, which ensured that the citys climbers and ramblers would be instrumental in the 1932 Kinder Mass Trespass, along with like-minded people from my home city of Manchester. This celebrated ‘Right to Roam’ protest led directly to the opening up of access to the spectacular English landscape for us all to enjoy, a hard earned right that we now take almost for granted.
David imagined Ellie hauling timber around the forests of India before arriving in the steelyards of Sheffield in 1916, and so gave the crags and boulders the texture and colouring of teak and mahogany.
Why Ellie? David’s father, Albert Elliot Hoodith, though born in British Guyana and raised in Barbados was of Indian origin and was born in 1918, as the war which brought Ellie to England finally came to an end. It was the outbreak of World War II that brought his father, whose schoolboy nickname was Ellie, to England, and so he thought it fitting to pass the name from one hard working Indian to another. He is sure his father would have approved.
Designed by: David Elliot Hoodith
David was born in Manchester in1950 and has now lived in The Peak District for twenty years. He is a self taught artist working with a variety of materials though Ellie is his first experience working on such a scale and in three dimensions. He exhibits his paintings at The Gallery in The Gardens in Buxton and at The New Mills Gallery in his adoptive home town.
Sponsored by: The Star
Auction Price: £8000
Summer 2016, a herd of elephant sculptures descended on Sheffield for the biggest public art event the city has ever seen!
58 elephant sculptures, each uniquely decorated by artists, descended on Sheffield’s parks and open spaces, creating one of the biggest mass participation arts events the city has ever seen. Did you find them all?
The trail of elephants celebrates Sheffield’s creativity with over 75% of artists from the city. Some well-known names include Pete McKee, James Green, Jonathan Wilkinson and Lydia Monks – each of which has put their own creative mark on a 1.6m tall fibreglass elephant sculpture. They are all very difference, take a selfie with your favourite as they will be on display until the end of September.
International artist Mark Alexander, who is currently working with Rembrandt for an exhibition in Berlin, flew to Sheffield especially to paint his elephant and international players from the World Snooker Championship signed SnookHerd, an elephant celebrating the heritage of snooker in Sheffield.
The Arctic Monkeys, famous for their love of their home city, added their signatures to their own personalised sculpture which pays homage to the striking sound wave cover of the band’s 2013 album “AM”.
By supporting the Herd of Sheffield you are investing in the future of Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Every penny raised will go towards our Artfelt programme, which transforms the hospital’s walls and spaces with bright art, helping children recover in an environment tailored to them. The programme also puts on workshops for youngsters to provide distraction during anxious moments – such as before an operation, and to breakup long stays on the wards.
This exciting Wild in Art event brought to you by The Children’s Hospital Charity will:
Unite our city – bringing businesses, communities, artists, individuals and schools together to create a FREE sculpture trail which is accessible to all.
Attract more visitors – both nationally and regionally as well as encouraging thousands of people to become a tourist in their own city.
Invest in the future – with a city wide education programme that can be used for years to come and by funding a life-saving piece of medical equipment at Sheffield Children’s Hospital from the Herd auction at the end of the trail.
Showcase our city – celebrating Sheffield’s heritage and cementing our status as a vibrant and culturally exciting city through this world-class initiative.
The Herd of Sheffield Farewell Weekend was held on 14-16 October and was your chance to say a last goodbye to all 58 large elephant sculptures as they gather in one place for a final send-off at Meadowhall.
This special event gave visitors a chance to see the entire herd in all its glory – from the signed Arctic Monkeys’ ‘AM’ elephant, right through to ‘SnookHerd’, autographed by a host of international snooker players including current world champion Mark Selby.
Please note that the Little Herd elephants will not be on display as they will be returned to their school for pupils to enjoy.
Meadowhall, along with its joint owners, British Land are very proud to be supporting The Children’s Hospital Charity as host sponsors for the Herd of Sheffield Farewell Weekend.
Auction: Hundreds of elephant enthusiasts gathered at the Crucible on 20 October for the Herd of Sheffield Auction, which raised a total of £410,600 for The Children’s Hospital Charity.
Participants enjoy some relaxing yoga with instructor Anna at the Dowd YMCA's Taylor Swift: Reputation Party.
Origins
1938 Talbot-Lago T-150 CSS. Body by Carrosserie Marcel Pourtout, designer Georges Paulin
1937 Talbot Lago T150 SS. Teardrop Coupe bodywork by Figoni & Falaschi
Launched at the 1937 Paris Motor Show, the 13 CV Talbot Minor broadened the range, taking Talbot into four-cylinder territory where the 2323 cc Minor competed with equivalent models from Hotchkiss and Salmson.
The Anglo-French STD (Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq) combine collapsed in 1935. The French Talbot company was acquired and reorganised by Venetian-born engineer Antonio Lago (1893–1960) and after that, the "Talbot-Lago" name was used internationally. On the home market the cars still bore the Talbot badge that they had carried since 1922, which was when, in France, the "Talbot-Darracq" name had given way to "Talbot".
At the same time, the British interests of Talbot were taken over by the Rootes Group and the parallel use of the Talbot brand in France and Britain ended. Talbot-Lago cars sold in Britain were now to be badged as Darracqs.
Reorganisation under Tony Lago
For 1935, the existing range continued in production but from 1936 these were steadily replaced with cars designed by Walter Becchia, featuring transverse leaf sprung independent suspension. These included the 4-cylinder 2323 cc (13CV) Talbot Type T4 "Minor", a surprise introduction at the 1937 Paris Motor Show, and the 6-cylinder 2,696 cc (15CV) Talbot "Cadette-15", along with and the 6-cylinder 2,996 cc or 3,996 cc (17 or 23CV) Talbot "Major" and its long-wheelbase version, the Talbot "Master": these were classified as Touring cars (voitures de tourisme).[1]
There was also in the second half of the 1930s a range of Sporting cars (voitures de sport) which started with the Talbot "Baby-15", mechanically the same as the "Cadette-15" but using a shorter slightly lighter chassis. The Sporting Cars range centred on the 6-cylinder 2,996 cc or 3,996 cc (17 or 23CV) Talbot "Baby" and also included the 3,996 cc (23CV) 23 and sporting Lago-Spéciale and Lago-SS models, respectively with two and three carburettors, and corresponding increases in power and performance.[1] The most frequently specified body for the Lago-SS was built by Figoni et Falaschi and featured a particularly eye-catching aerodynamic form.[2]
Lago was an excellent engineer who developed the existing six-cylinder engine into a high-performance 4-litre one. The sporting six-cylinder models had a great racing history. The bodies—such as of T150 coupé—were made by excellent coachbuilders such as Figoni et Falaschi or Saoutchik.
Talbot-Lago models 1935–1940
Although the proliferation of cars types and model names that followed Lago's acquisition of the business is at first glance bewildering, it actually involved only four standard chassis lengths as follows:
Short Châssis (2,950 mm (116.1 in) wheelbase):
Minor T4 (4 cylinders, 2323 cc)
Junior 11
Baby-15 (6 cylinders, 2696 cc)
Baby 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
T150 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
Baby 4 litres (6 cylinders, 3996 cc)
Lago Spécial (6 cylinders, 3996 cc with twin or triple carbs)
Extra short Châssis (2,650 mm (104.3 in) wheelbase):
Lago SS (6 cylinders, 3996 cc with triple carbs)
Normal Châssis (3,200 mm (126.0 in) wheelbase):
Cadette-15 (6 cylinders, 2696 cc)
Major 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
Major 4 litres (6 cylinders, 3996 cc)
Long (7-seater) Châssis (3,450 mm (135.8 in) wheelbase):
Master 3 litres (6 cylinders, 2996 cc)
Master 4 litres (6 cylinders, 3996 cc)
During the early years of the war the Walter Becchia left Talbot to work for Citroen, but Lago was joined in 1942 by another exceptional engineer, Carlo Machetti, and from then the two of them were working on the twin camshaft 4483 cc six-cylinder unit that would lie at the heart of the 1946 Talbot T26.
After World War II
After the war, the company continued to be known both for successful high-performance racing cars and for large luxurious passenger cars, with extensive sharing of chassis and engine components between the two. Nevertheless, the period was one of economic stagnation and financial stringency. The company had difficulty finding customers, and its finances were stretched.[3]
In 1946, the company began production of a new engine design, based on earlier units but with a new cylinder head featuring a twin overhead camshaft. This engine, designed under the leadership of Carlo Marchetti,[4] was in many respects a new engine. A 4483 cc six-cylinder in-line engine was developed for the Talbot Lago Record (1946–1952) and for the Talbot Grand Sport 26CV (1947–1954). These cars were priced against large luxurious cars from the likes of Delahaye, Delage, Hotchkiss and Salmson. Talbot would remain in the auto-making business for longer than any of these others, and the Talbot name had the further dubious distinction of a resurrection in the early 1980s.[4]
Talbot Lago Record T26
Talbot-Lago T26 "Record" ca. 1948
Main article: Talbot Lago Record
The Talbot Lago Record T26 was a large car with a fiscal horsepower of 26 CV and a claimed actual power output of 170 hp, delivered to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual gear box, with the option at extra cost of a Wilson pre-selector gear box, and supporting a claimed top speed of 170 km/h (105 mph). The car was commonly sold as a stylish four-door sedan, but a two-door cabriolet was also offered. There were also coachbuilt specials with bodywork by traditionalist firms such as Graber.[4]
Talbot Lago Grand Sport T26
1950 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport, coachwork by Jacques Saoutchik, Paris
The T26 Grand Sport (GS) was first displayed in public in October 1947 as a shortened chassis,[5] and only 12 were made during 1948 which was the models's first full year of production.[6] The car was noted for its speed. The engine which produced 170 hp in the Lago Record was adapted to provide 190 bhp (140 kW) or, later, 195 bhp (145 kW) in the GS, and a top speed of around 200 km/h (124 mph) was claimed, depending on the body that was fitted.[4] The car was built for either racing or luxury and benefited directly from Talbot's successful T26C Grand Prix car. As such it was expensive, rare and helped Louis Rosier with his son to win the LeMans 24 Hour race in 1950. The GS replaced the Lago-Record chassis which was named for its remarkable top speed. The GS was one of the world's most powerful production cars at the time. It had several special features from the T26 Grand Prix cars, such as a 4.5-litre inline-6 aluminum cylinder head, a hollowed camshaft, multiport exhaust system and triple carburetors.[7] Chassis details were similar to the Grand Prix cars, but it was longer and wider. It came it two wheelbase lengths -104 and 110 inches (2,800 mm).
Almost all the Talbots sold during the late 1940s came with Talbot bodies, constructed in the manufacturer's extensive workshops. The T26 Grand Sport (GS) was the exception, however, and cars were delivered only as bare chassis, requiring customers to choose bespoke bodywork from a specialist coachbuilder.[6] The GS was a star turn in a dull world and coachbuilders such as Saoutchik, Franay, Oblin, and Figoni et Falaschi competed to trump Talbot's own designers with elaborately elegant bodies.[4]
Talbot Lago Baby
Main article: Talbot Baby
The Talbot Lago Baby (1948–1951) marked the return of a pre-war Talbot model name and was the third model presented by the company during the 1940s. The car was commonly sold as a four-door sedan, but a two-door cabriolet was also offered. Its engine comprised only four cylinders, but the twin overhead camshaft with cylinder valves on both sides of the engine block was again featured:[4] at 2690 cc the engine capacity equated to a fiscal horsepower of 15 CV[3] which was enough to attract the punitive levels of car tax applied by the French government to large cars. The power output was initially 110 bhp (82 kW), which in 1949 was increased to 120 bhp (89 kW).[4] Although the postwar Baby sedan closely resembled the more powerful Record on a brief glance, the Baby's 2,950 mm wheelbase was slightly shorter than the 3130 mm wheelbase of the Record, and the overall length was correspondingly 200 mm shorter, reflecting the shortened 4-cylinder engine block.[4] Additionally the cheaper car sat on a simplified suspension set-up. Baby customers could specify as an option a Wilson pre-selector gear box.[4]
Talbot Lago manufactured three special made seven-seater presidential cars one for the President of France, one for the President of Tunisia and one for the Royal family in Saudi.
Talbot-Lago T26C
1948 Talbot-Lago T26C
The T26C was a single-seater racing car with a box section chassis, an unsupercharged 4.5 litre straight six engine and a four speed Wilson preselector gearbox.[8] Chassis and gearbox were derived from the company's 1930s racing cars and were similar to those used on their post-war road cars.[8]
The T26C made its racing debut in the 1948 Monaco Grand Prix, finishing second in the hands of Louis Chiron.[8] Grand Prix victories were achieved the following year with Louis Rosier winning the 1949 Belgian Grand Prix [9] and Louis Chiron winning the 1949 French Grand Prix.[10] A modified two-seat version won the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans driven by Louis Rosier and Jean-Louis Rosier.[8]
New bodies for 1952
In 1951, as rumours of the company’s financial difficulties intensified, a new Ponton format body appeared for the Talbot Baby and Record.[4] The wheelbases were carried over from the earlier models. Although in many ways strikingly modern, the new car featured a two piece front windscreen in place of the single flat screen of its predecessor, presumably reflecting the difficulties at the time of combining the strength of a windscreen with curved glass at an acceptable price and quality. The new car’s large rear window was itself replaced by a larger three-piece “panoramic” wrap around back window as part of the car’s first face-lift, which took place in time for the 1952 Paris Motor Show.[3] The engine specification of the four-cylinder unit was unchanged as was the claimed performance even though the new body was some 100 kg heavier than the old. A new development with the Ponton-bodied cars body was the availability of the larger six-cylinder unit from the Talbot Record in the top of the line Talbot Baby, which in this form was called the Talbot Baby/6 Luxe, and had the slightly longer wheel-base and overall length enforced by the greater length of the six-cylinder engine.[4]
T14 LS engine / Talbot Lago Sport
Main article: Talbot Lago Sport
1956 Talbot-Lago T14 LS
At the 1954 Salon de L'Automobile de Paris, Talbot-Lago presented their last new engine: the new four-cylinder still had the typical twin laterally mounted camshafts, although it was upgraded to five main bearings. The new 120 PS (88 kW) 2,491 cc engine was called the T14 LS, but it did not have a car to go in until May 1955 when the Talbot-Lago 2500 Coupé T14 LS was finally presented.[11] The first car had all-aluminium bodywork, but later cars used more steel. 54 of these coupés were built, but they proved hard to sell - the stylish bodywork couldn't quite hide the thirties' underpinnings, and the rough engine offered little elasticity nor longevity.[12]
Lacking the resources to engineer the necessary improvements, for 1957 Talbot-Lago had to resort to buying in an engine. They chose the V8 2580 cc made available by BMW, albeit with the bore diameter slightly reduced, to 72.5 mm, which gave rise to a 2476 cc engine displacement, positioning the car (just) within the 14CV car tax band.[13] Reflecting the company's export plans, Talbot now rebranded the car as the "Talbot Lago America" and (finally) came into line with other French automakers by placing the driver on the left side of the car.[13] Unfortunately market response remained lukewarm, however, and only about a dozen of the BMW powered Talbot Lago Americas were produced.[13] It was now, in the early summer of 1958, that Tony Lago decided to accept an offer from Simca president, Henri Pigozzi, for the sale of the Talbot brand to Simca.[13] The sale of the business went ahead in 1959.[14]
With the sale of the business to Simca, the new owners found themselves with a handful of the final Talbot Lago Americas which were awaiting engines.[15] There was now no question of Simca being permitted, or wishing, to produce cars with BMW engines, and the only solution available was to fit the last batch of cars with Simca's own 2351 cc V8.[4] This engine had its roots in 1930s Detroit, and was originally provided by Ford to give the (then) Ford Vedette produced by their French subsidiary a flavor of the driving experience offered by an unstressed US style V8 sedan.[15] It was by no stretch of the imagination an engine for a sports car, and even with a second carburetor produced only 95 bhp (71 kW), as against the 138 bhp (103 kW) of the BMW-engined cars from the previous year's production.[15] Claimed top speed was now 165 km/h (103 mph) in place of the 200 km/h (124 mph) listed the previous year.[15] At the 1959 Paris Motor Show a stand had been booked for what was by now the Simca-Talbot brand, but a late decision was taken not to exhibit a Lago America and the stand was instead given up to a hastily constructed "motorshow special" prototype of which, after the motor show, nothing more would be heard.[15]
Commercial and financial
Sales data by model were kept confidential, possibly in connection with the company’s financial difficulties, but the overall totals for the early 1950s tell a dire story. The Suresnes plant produced 155 cars in 1947, an output which increased by 23 in 1948.[6] 433 cars were produced in 1950, but this then fell to 80 in 1951 and to 34 in 1952. In 1953 it is thought that the company turned out just 13 of the 26CV Record model and 4 of the 15 CV Babys.[3] During the rest of the decade volumes did not recover significantly; no more than 54 of the T14 LS were built in 1955 and 1956.[12]
As the company’s commercial trajectory implies, the years following the end of the war were marked by the slow financial collapse of Anthony Lago’s Talbot company. Other luxury automakers whose glory years had been the 1930s fared no better in the 1940s and 1950s than Talbot, with Delage, Delahaye, Hotchkiss and Bugatti disappearing from the car business while Panhard, nimbly if slightly improbably, reinvented itself as a manufacturer of small fuel efficient cars. Customers with enough money to spend on a luxury car were hard to find, and even among those with sufficient funds, in a country where well into the 1950s the Communists, buoyed by the heroic role played by some of their leaders during the years of Resistance, regularly polled 25% of the vote in national elections, there was little of the “live for today: pay later” spirit that had supported extravagant spending patterns in the 1930s. Government policy supported the austerity by creating a post-war tax regime that savagely penalised owners of cars with engines above two litres in size, and an Economic Plan, the Pons Plan,[6] which bestowed government favour (and allocations of materials still in short supply such as steel) on just five automakers, these being the businesses that became France’s big five automakers in the 1950s and early 60s. For France’s other luxury automakers, meanwhile, including Talbot, the tide had simply gone out.[3]
The money ran out, and Anthony Lago was obliged to seek court protection from his creditors, under a procedure known at that time as a ”Dépôt de bilan”. On 6 March 1951 the court agreed a debt moratorium which permitted a limited restart to production at the company’s Suresnes plant, but the affair provided unwelcome publicity for Talbot’s cash flow problems, and the company now experienced increased difficulty in obtaining credit. Production was also limited by the extent to which it had been necessary to cut the workforce, and by the reputational damage caused by reports of the whole process.[3]
The business staggered on till 1959, but never had the financial strength to support the development and production of its last model, the Talbot-Lago 2500 Coupé T14 LS, launched after a lengthy gestation in May 1955. In 1958 Lago decided to throw in the sponge and put the business up for sale. An offer was received from Henri Pigozzi under the terms of which the remains of the Talbot business would become part of Simca. In order to avoid bankruptcy, Lago agreed to sell the business on the terms proposed by the Simca president-director, a fellow Italian expatriate. Talbot-Lago was transferred to Simca in 1959.[14] Despite the sorry state of the Talbot business during the preceding ten years, commentators suggest that Pigozzi got a good bargain, receiving at Suresnes an industrial site and buildings worth many times the amount paid, along with a brand name that still resonated strongly with anyone old enough to remember the glory days of Talbot.[14]
Tony Lago died in 1960.[14]
Today
Talbot-Lagos have become a top-prized car at various auctions. A Figoni et Falaschi-bodied T150C SS Teardrop Coupe, owned by Brooks Stevens, would sell for US$3,535,000 at Christie's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance auction on Aug 18, 2005,[16] another for US$3,905,000 at the Palm Beach International Concours d'Elegance Gooding & Company auction on January 22, 2006 where it was unanimously voted "Best in Show",[17][18][19] and another for US$4,620,000 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance RM Auctions Sports & Classics of Monterey auction on August 14, 2010.[20][21][22] A T150 C SS with a Pourtout Aerocoupé body, designed by Georges Paulin, sold for US$4,847,000 at the 2008 Bonhams & Butterfields Sale of Exceptional Motorcars and Automobilia at Quail Lodge.[23]
An unrestored 1948 T26 Grand Sport, with coachwork by Oblin and chassis #110106, is a part of the permanent collection of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, PA, USA.[7]
A 1949 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupé by Saoutchik from the Baillon Collection sold for €1.450.000 at the Artcurial auction in February 2015.[24]
Even Talbot-Lagos with factory bodies, rather than custom coachwork, are highly valued; a factory-bodied 1939 T150 C SS selling in 2013 for US$418,000 at the Gooding & Company Scottsdale auction.[25]
THE LAKE LIGHT
This lighthouse, one of the earliest on the Great Lakes, was completed in 1808 as a hexagonal tower 52 feet high, topped by a wooden cage with a fixed whale-oil lantern. In 1832 it was raised to 82 feet and later equipped with a revolving light the mysterious disappearance of its first keeper, J.P. Rademuller, in 1815 and the subsequent discovery nearby of part of a human skeleton enhanced its reputation, as a haunted building.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuttgart
Stuttgart (Swabian: Schduagert) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known locally as the "Stuttgart Cauldron." It lies an hour from the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest. Its urban area has a population of 609,219, making it the sixth largest city in Germany. 2.7 million people live in the city's administrative region and another 5.3 million people in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany. The city and metropolitan area are consistently ranked among the top 20 European metropolitan areas by GDP; Mercer listed Stuttgart as 21st on its 2015 list of cities by quality of living, innovation agency 2thinknow ranked the city 24th globally out of 442 cities and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked the city as a Beta-status world city in their 2014 survey.
Since the 6th millennium BC, the Stuttgart area has been an important agricultural area and has been host to a number of cultures seeking to utilize the rich soil of the Neckar valley. The Roman Empire conquered the area in 83 AD and built a massive castrum near Bad Cannstatt, making it the most important regional centre for several centuries. Stuttgart's roots were truly laid in the 10th century with its founding by Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, as a stud farm for his warhorses. Initially overshadowed by nearby Cannstatt, the town grew steadily and was granted a charter in 1320. The fortunes of Stuttgart turned with those of the House of Württemberg, and they made it the capital of their county, duchy, and kingdom from the 15th century to 1918. Stuttgart prospered despite setbacks in the Thirty Years' War and devastating air raids by the Allies on the city and its automobile production during World War II. However, by 1952, the city had bounced back and it became the major economic, industrial, tourism and publishing centre it is today.
Stuttgart is also a transport junction, and possesses the sixth-largest airport in Germany. Several major companies are headquartered in Stuttgart, including Porsche, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler AG, and Dinkelacker.
Stuttgart is unusual in the scheme of German cities. It is spread across a variety of hills (some of them covered in vineyards), valleys (especially around the Neckar river and the Stuttgart basin) and parks. This often surprises visitors who associate the city with its reputation as the "cradle of the automobile". The city's tourism slogan is "Stuttgart offers more". Under current plans to improve transport links to the international infrastructure (as part of the Stuttgart 21 project), the city unveiled a new logo and slogan in March 2008 describing itself as "Das neue Herz Europas" ("The new Heart of Europe"). For business, it describes itself as "Where business meets the future". In July 2010, Stuttgart unveiled a new city logo, designed to entice more business people to stay in the city and enjoy breaks in the area.
Stuttgart is a city with a high number of immigrants. According to Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Travel Guide to Germany, "In the city of Stuttgart, every third inhabitant is a foreigner." 40% of Stuttgart's residents, and 64% of the population below the age of five, are of immigrant background.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s_Church,_Stuttgart
The Protestant Church of St John (German: Johanneskirche) in Stuttgart was built in the Gothic Revival style from 1864 to 1876 by its chief architect, Christian Friedrich von Leins. It lies on a peninsula of the Feuersee (Fire Lake), while the main entrance and tower marks the beginning of the former Johannesstraße (St. John's Street).
After being nearly destroyed in the Second World War, the main church building was reconstructed, but the Gothic vaults were replaced with modern ones and the tower was intentionally left incomplete to serve as a sort of war memorial.
Volvo has long had a reputation for cars that are at the apex of safety innovation. For decades though, this safety was wrapped up in a brick. Enough so, that you’d be forgiven for thinking that Volvos could never have been sexy. If there is one car though, that can dispel that myth on its own, it would be the P1800 Coupe of 1961.
The shape could easily be forgiven as a classic Italian GT, and indeed, Swede Pelle Petterson, designer of the P1800 was mentored by Pietro Frua of Ghia.
The P1800 had a relatively long life, production ceasing in 1973. Nearing the end of its production cycle, it received a additional body style, the ES, which was configured as a Shooting-Brake (a 2-door wagon). The variant had its origins in two concepts by Coggiola and Frua, though they were each considered to be too futuristic, and in-house designer Jan Wilsgaard’s proposal, known as the Beach Car was put into production.
Though quirky, the P1800 ES lines would be strongly echoed on both the Volvo 480 of 1986 and the C30 of 2006. The featured glass tailgate being particularly prominent.
I wanna be your endgame
I wanna be your first string
I wanna be your A-Team
I wanna be your endgame, endgame
Big reputation, big reputation
Ooh you and me we got big reputations, ah
And you heard about me, ooh
I got some big enemies
Big reputation, big reputation
Ooh you and me would be a big conversation, ah
And I heard about you, ooh
You like the bad ones too
You so dope, don't overdose
I'm so stoked, I need a toast
We do the most
I'm in the Ghost like I'm whippin' a boat
I got a reputation girl, that don't precede me
I'm one call away, whenever you need me
I'm in a G5
Come to the A side
I got a bad boy persona that's what they like
You love it
I love it too 'cause you my type
You hold me down and I protect you with my life
I don't wanna touch you (I don't wanna be)
Just anther ex-love (You don't wanna see)
I don't wanna miss you (I don't wanna miss you)
Like the other girls do
I don't wanna hurt you (I just wanna be)
Drinkin' on a beach with (You all over me)
I know what they all say (I know what they all say)
But I ain't tryna play
I wanna be your endgame
I wanna be your first string
I wanna be your A Team
I wanna be your endgame, endgame
Knew her when I was young
Reconnected when we were little bit older
Both sprung, I got issues and chips on both of my shoulders
Reputation precedes me, in rumors I'm knee deep
The truth is it's easier to ignore it, believe me
Even when we'd argue, we don't do it for long
And you understand the good and bad, end up in the song
For all your beautiful traits, and the way you do it with ease
For all my flaws, paranoia, and insecurities
I've made mistakes, and made some choices that's hard to deny
After the storm, something was born on the fourth of July
I've passed days without fun, this endgame is the one
With four words on the tip of my tongue, I'll never say
I don't wanna touch you (I don't wanna be)
Just anther ex-love (You don't wanna see)
I don't wanna miss you (I don't wanna miss you)
Like the other girls do
I don't wanna hurt you (I just wanna be)
Drinkin' on a beach with (You all over me)
I know what they all say
But I ain't tryna play
I wanna be your endgame
I wanna be your first string
I wanna be your A Team
I wanna be your endgame, endgame
Big reputation, big reputation
Ooh you and me we got big reputations, ahh
And you heard about me, ooh
I got some big enemies
Big reputation, big reputation
Ooh you and me would be a big conversation, ahh
And I heard about you, ooh
You like the bad ones too
I hit you like bang
We tried to forget it, but we just couldn't
And I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
Reputation precedes me, they told you I'm crazy
I swear I don't love the drama, it loves me
And I can't let you go, your hand print's on my soul
It's like your eyes are liquor, it's like your body is gold
You've been calling my bluff on all my usual tricks
So here's the truth from my red lips
I wanna be your endgame
I wanna be your first string
I wanna be your A Team
I wanna be your endgame, endgame
I wanna be your endgame
I wanna be your first string
I wanna be your A Team
I wanna be your endgame, endgame
I don't give a damn about my bad reputation.
More in comments.
SOOC.
done with Ale's camera (Canon EOS 500D)
Philip Jackson CVO DL MA FRBS
Philip Jackson is a renowned sculptor with an outstanding international reputation.
His ability to convey the human condition through skilful use of body language is legendary, producing figures both imposing and operatic in their narrative and presence, which are recognizable worldwide. Powerful and beautifully sculpted, Jackson's meticulously precise posturing of each piece creates an overwhelming sense of drama. Whether with the prestigious, figuratively detailed public monuments and statues for which he is often commissioned, or his hauntingly elegant and theatrically enigmatic gallery sculptures, Philip Jackson's work is truly awe inspiring - it never fails to move people.
Born in Inverness, Jackson now lives and works in West Sussex. He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the Queen's Birthday Honours list 2009.
Highlights of Current Works:
Sculpture of Joan Littlewood, 'The Mother of Modern Theatre', for Theatre Royal Stratford East.
To be unveiled 2015
Sculpture of Sir Simon Milton (1961-2011), Deputy Major of London, leader of Westminster City Council
New works for ArtCatto, Portugal - one man Summer Exhibition
Significant Public Statues and Monuments:
Statue of Mahatma Gandhi for Parliament Square, unveiled March 2015
The Korean War Monument statue, unveiled in London 2014
A figure of Prince Philip, unveiled in Windsor Great Park, 2013
Sculpture of Sir Alex Ferguson, for Manchester United FC. Unveiled October 2012
The Bomber Command Memorial Sculpture, Green Park, London
A group of 7 figures, depicting the crew of a Heavy Bomber. Unveiled June 2012
National Memorial Sculpture to HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother The Mall, London.
Sculpture of Lord Glenconner, Mustique
Peter Osgood statue for Chelsea Football Club
The World Cup Sculpture, The Champions, for West Ham FC, London 2003
Large sculptural head of Sir Alf Ramsay, for Football Association, Wembley
Arch Angel Gabriel sculpture, for South Harting Church
Sculpture of St John the Evangelist, for Portsmouth RC Cathedral
Sir Matt Busby for Manchester United, Unveiled in 1996
Manchester United 'Trinity' sculpture (George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton), Manchester United FC grounds
Relief sculpture for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Bobby Moore sculpture for the Opening of the New Wembley Stadium, London
Large gallery sculpture 'Don Ottavio' installed in the Courthauld Institute of Art, London
Sculpture of Terence Cuneo, The Royal Engineers Barracks, Chatham
Sculpture of the Founders of St Margaret’s Convent, Handsworth
HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee Equestrian Sculpture, Windsor Great Park
Sculpture of King George VI, Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth
The 'In Pensioner' sculpture for The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London
'St Richard' sculpture, entrance of Chichester Cathedral
The Gurkha Memorial, London
The Wallenberg Monument, London
The Wallenberg Monument, unveiled in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Constantine the Great, York Minster
Christ in Judgment, Chichester Cathedral
Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1997
'Sissi', Empress Elisabeth of Austria, unveiled in Geneva
'Jersey Liberation Sculpture', Jersey
'The Young Mozart' sculpture, Mayfair
'The Yomper' The Falklands War Memorial Sculpture, Portsmouth
'The Peace' sculpture, Manchester
www.philipjacksonsculptures.co.uk/
Pashley Manor Gardens, on the border of Sussex and Kent, to see Romantic English landscaping and artistic planting framed by fine old trees, fountains and ponds, with the unusual Tudor/Georgian manor house, which is a private family home, creating a memorable backdrop to the beautiful and dynamic gardens.