View allAll Photos Tagged certainty
Art on the wall by Olli Piippo.
"Olli Piippo's work is characterized by figurative elements that support a narrative, even if the pieces are mainly based on the experience evoked by the abstract expression. He bases his work on images that are both personal and found, true and generated by the imagination and memory. These are mixed together in the paintings, which play organically with representational and non-representational elements."
- Erich Fromm
Tonight I ventured up to my favorite pond, this time to capture wildlife, there seems to be a large flock of Cockatoos in this area and what a noise they like to make, I managed to snap this shot as they flew overhead, I must have been arching backwards at about 45 degrees to get it. I had to use the Speedlite 430 EXII to add enough fill light for them to show up.
Well shit. Insomnia sucks. I went to bed at 11 last night and laid in bed until 12 dwelling on random nonsense as one does when one can't sleep. I finally got up and threw on Dragon's crown a goofy side scrolling sword an sorcery beat-em-up to kill time. I realized then that it was 1:30 and I still wasn't tired but forced myself to go back to bed. Last I saw the clock it was 2:something. Ugh. I go through these every so often where I can't sleep.
I had a doctor's appointment early in the morning. A follow up on something that turned out to be nothing. I might have to pee in a cup just for certainty sake. I'll have to make an appointment with my regular doctor just to make sure. Isobel had swimming and so we both went and I jumped in the pool and relaxed in the sauna for 10 minutes. With my torn up lungs I can't handle the sauna all that much but I do like a nice long heating. I'd kind of like to do a sauna shoot one day but don't know of one that might let me. Will be interesting to find out if I can. Also not sure how well the camera will survive in there.
We again just laid around the rest of the day. Isobel's not seemed keen on going out much these days. She was worried about bugs a lot since coming back from Manitoba. We did go down to the pool for a half hour after I napped a bunch to make up for bad sleeping last night. She wanted to practice underwater somersaults that we were trying out in the Ladner pool earlier.
Brandi's out for the evening going to a work dinner event. We'll be picking her up from that later. Picture today is from my Netrunner cards. It's one of my geeky obsessions. I loved the original game that came out back in university and the new one is pretty damn great. I keep thinking I should get some people together and we could just use my whack of cards to start a bi-monthly Running group. It's a very interesting game where one players is a mega corporation and building protections to try and further their evil agendas. One player is the netrunner who is trying to hack into the corporations servers to steal the agendas. It's a pretty heavy game and lots of weird terminology and timing but there's an interesting economic game, bluffing game to it that I quite enjoy.
Food intake:
Breakfast: Skipped, bad Jon
Lunch: Half a Chicken sandwich, 2 1/2 breadsticks, 5 gummy candies
Snack: 1 cup of Butter Toffee Peanuts.
Dinner: Half a Little Ceaser's Pepperoni pizza.
Glasses of water drunk: 4
Two fingers of Rumchata before bed.
Exercise:
Three pool lengths and about 10 more minutes of random swimming stuff
Wake time: 7:00 AM
Bed time: 11:00, sleep after 11:20.
This past week it was almost impossible not to consider the end of the world which was to happen on
12-21. We began saying things like, this is the last time you will have to go to school forever, the last time we will get the mail for all enternity, the last chance you will have to bathe the dog for all time and so on. It made us laugh of course but each of these activties seemed to have more significance just by noting it as the last. Driving to dance class yesterday Rosie said. So, do you think the world will really end tomorrow Mom? Well, some people think it will but I have a feeling that we will still be here, I answered. I guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow right kiddo? Rosie said, I'm supposed to go on my field trip tomorrow. (that darn school, why did they have to plan a field trip for that day) Oh that's right, you're going to adventure zone, that's a fun place... But, if the world ends you would probably want to be near your family, right darling? She shook her head and said with certainty, If the world ends tomorrow, I'm going to be at adventure zone. I admired her determination, the last field trip, as good a place as any to spend the end of the world. Just then the last sunset started looking very special and so I pulled the car over to capture it. Later we arrived at the dance school. Enjoy your last dance class I said to my last child as Rosie went inside.
View on black
ODC ~ at a glimpse
Sometimes I limit my creativity, especially when it comes to writing. I often leave ideas unexplored because I settle with the certainty that they will never turn out the way I expect.
However every once in a while I will pick up an idea that I've tossed aside and look at it with fresh eyes. I will explore it in a way that I may have once otherwise thought impossible.
Just as a Phoenix rises from the ashes, so too does this photograph represent my ability to pickup an idea from the "ashes" and give it a chance to grow even if I never thought was possible.
Follow me on:
many thanks All for support !
Mount of Scauri (LT)
According to the thesis of scholars almost unanimously [1], the town's name has its origin from Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, princeps senatus, Roman Consul in 115 BC, the ancient port of Pirae owner (the name of the place previously) of a sumptuous seaside villa. A "possessio scauriana" spoken of in the Liber Pontificalis of 432 AD, by which Pope Sixtus III built the Liberian Basilica in Rome thanks to donations from a site in possession "territurio Gazitano" [2]. Consider that all the literary references, between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries., On the assumption of the name taken from the Console born not by historians, but by local canonical [3]. The later scholars (Jotham Johnson, Angelo De Santis, G. Tommasino, F. Coarelli, GM De Rossi, to name a few) reflect that view, citing the previous references. Possible that the town of Ausone "Pirae", along with that of Minturnae, was part of the Pentapolis Aurunca, although there are doubts about the precise location of the anti-Roman cities of the federation. Some one supposes that "Pirae" was nothing more than a castrum, a military outpost and commercial Minturnae same. Beyond the certainty of the location, the existence of Pirae is attested, in any case, four stones can still be seen today at the Museum of Minturnae. In fact, they cite four slaves of the gens Pirana (or Peirana). It should be remembered, then, the huge dolium, container used for storing wine or oil, fished in the 80s off Ventotene and guarded, still, in the Archaeological Museum of the island: its manufacture was the work of freedmen gens of the Pirani. Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia of the century. A.D. gives the already ruined ("oppidum fuit"), localizzandola between Formiae and Minturnae.
In the absence of direct evidence, the connection with the consul M. Aemilius Scaurus is supported by other evidence, including the correspondence between the history of the house and the era in which he lived the political (II-I century BC), the coincidence between the name and the cognomen of the console, the use of adjectives immemorial "scauriana" and "scauritano." It must be stressed, however, that the cognomen "Scaurus" and the adjective "scaurianus" you could bind at least three other noble: the Umbrici, the Aureli, the Terenzi, and that the term "scauritano," as reported by the scholar Castrichino, term is of medieval origin, which could refer to a people or citizenship. Also noteworthy is the "boundary stone" found in Castelforte (and now secure Minturnae) that mentions a Metellus. The family of Cecili amounted to Minturnae and Cecilia Metella was the wife of M. Aemilius Scaurus. To consider the term "Scaurus," you might, therefore, suppose a bond with the Umbrici Scauri, rich producers of the famous garum in Campania (swimming pools for fish farming were present in Monte d'Oro) [4].
Garum, villa Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, Pompeii; G (ari) F (los) SCAM (bri) SCAURI
Consider also that even the term "Scaurus" attracted to metal debris derived from the processing of metals (in this case, we have some news of metalworking in the area of the Roman Minturnae) [5]. According to another theory isolated [6], the origin of the name of Scauri would be connected with the Greek etymology: The name derives from "eskhara," which means burning brazier (relatively mild climate of the town or perhaps small dunes sand of the beach - basking in the sun - became hot). There is another Scauri in Pantelleria, but in this case the name of the place is attributed etymology of Greek origin (eskarion = port, berthing - scaro). The name of two towns would share so greek influences - Byzantine (Byzantine Duchy of Gaeta in our case) and relationships "conflicting" and trade with the Saracens.
A very recent case, two researchers Romans, wants the place to come from the early Middle Ages "scaula" (boat). The lexical form of Byzantine origin, would grow in its place thanks to his being a natural port on the Tyrrhenian Sea (see Salvatore Cardillo - Maximum Miranda, "Scauri them Scauli and the invention of the villa of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus," 2013). The recent historical essay suggests how the tradition that the name of Scauri be traced back to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Roman senator and consul, is likely to be a pure invention. In fact, the hypothesis that happen over the centuries in favor of the derivation of the name from the Roman senator and consul, lack of timely documentary evidence. The first that associates Scauri the "gens Aemilia" is Francesco Maria Pratilli known forger. From the shape scaula-ae, would form the male Scauli rhotacism that would lead to the name of the place. Interesting news was brought to light by the two scholars, that Pontius Pilate would be born in those places, news handed down by the Dominican theologian Thomas Elysium. It is theorized that the very territory of Scauri was the place near the Garigliano, from which the Saracens settled (around all'881) before heading into the terrible and devastating incursions inland (Montecassino itself was put to iron and fire in 883). The settlement buckwheat on the Garigliano was vanquished only around 915, after a long siege and a pitched battle. Recent excavations have unfortunately led to positive results. However, we continue to assume that it could be just the place Scauri pirate settlement. Conjecture rather striking: it would - together with the Saracen stronghold of Fraxinetum, today's La Garde-Freinet, the Gulf of Saint Tropez - the only witness to a settlement "sedentary", even if only for a few decades, the pirates Saracens in Europe [7] [8].
Overview of the natural park of the Golden Mount, Scauri from upstream Petrella - Natural Park of Monti Auruncis.
Monuments and places of interest [edit | edit source]
The ancient town of Pirae, Ausone source, you can see, today, a stretch of the boundary polygon (the megalithic walls) with the city gate (VII-VI century BC). This settlement was already in ruins at the time of Pliny the Elder (first century AD). Some scholars have theorized that it was Pirae a castrum, a defensive outpost and commercial center of Minturnae. According to J. Johnson, however, has not demonstrated that there is, in Minturnae, a gens earlier than the "Pirani".
Another theory says that instead Pirae (or Castrum Pirae) was born from a group ausonico that broke off from the original mountain Campovivo (Spigno Saturnia), colonized the place under the current Monte D'Oro. Pirae then became important maritime village, along with Sinuessa and Minturnae, and was devoted to seafaring and commercial activities, staying in frequent contact with sailors from the East (Phoenicians), Etruria, from the Sicilian coast and the Magna Grecia, reaching its peak in the late sixth century BC, when it was consolidated in a real polis linked to the city of Pentapolis Aurunca for ethnic affinity and ultimate reason of life and independence in the face of any piracy Greek sailors and invasions Etruscan and Samnite historical age. Pirae, as mentioned related to the Pentapolis Aurunca (obstinate enemy of Rome), had to cease to be independent around 314 BC, when Rome secured the final domain of all Latium. Then became a Roman colony, the town acquitted the important function of junction of nerve and commercial locations. The colony declined rapidly until it was completely abandoned, especially after the devastation suffered by the Lombards in 558 AD (common destiny in Lazio to all coastal locations, crushed inside by the barbarian invasions and the coast from Saracen raids). [9]
In Republican and Imperial periods in Pirae some seaside villas were built, one of which belonged, according to experts, the consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (162-90 or 89 BC) and of which there are still some ruins that are visible in the old neighborhood.
From the year 830, are several quotes of locations in the Codex diplomaticus Cajetanus. For example, in an act of the 993 shows the Church of St. Peter the Apostle, located in "port scauritano."
Later he was a production center, but still subject to raids. For defensive purposes arose the Square Tower (the Golden Mount) and that of Mills (in the old district), respectively, were erected in the sixteenth and fourteenth century to defend the coast. On 21 July 1552 the turkish corsair Dragut landed on the shore of Scauri and dragged into slavery 200 people in the surrounding areas.
All the archaeological evidence mentioned (except the Square Tower) are enclosed on private property, but fall in the Protected Area of Gianola-Mount Scauri, which is part of the Regional Park of Riviera di Ulisse. The Square Tower was built on the Golden Mount, converting a factory medieval, circular in shape. Recently acquired by the City of Minto, was restored to favor the creation of a bird observatory.
Religious Architecture [edit | edit source]
Pope Pius IX in 1850 crossed the Via Appia, after the exile to Gaeta. In the Ducal Chapel of Caracciolo Carafa family, from that moment, spread Marian devotion, culminating in the Patronal Feast of the Nativity of Mary (September 8). In 1931 the ducal chapel was elevated to the dignity and parish dedicated to St. Mary. Immaculate, on the initiative of the first parish priest of the town, Don Antonio Pecorino (1878-1950).
In 1954, on the occasion of the centenary of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, was built a statue of the Virgin by the sculptor Joseph Obletter South Tyrol, blessed at the Vatican by Pope Pius XII in 2003 and crowned by Archbishop Pierluigi Mazzoni, Archbishop of Gaeta. [10]
As a result of further development of the town, another parish was established in 1958, dedicated to the Virgin and Martyr Albina, to which he was entitled, in the past, a church, mentioned in the Codex diplomaticus Cajetanus since 981 and in a bull of Pope Adrian IV of 1158.
Cinema [edit | edit source]
To point out two characteristic places at the Monte d'Oro: the Blue Grotto and the Beach of Pebbles, which fall in the area of Riviera di Ulisse Regional Park. The Beach of Pebbles is immortalized in the movie "For the grace received," starring Nino Manfredi (winner of the Cannes Film Festival in 1971), and in the drama "The Count of Monte Cristo" in 1998, starring Gérard Depardieu and Ornella Muti. Other scenes of the film were shot in a beautiful villa in Via del Golfo, in the area of "Scauri old." Yet at the Golden Mount dancing ballerinas in "Zibaldone" (2008), a film directed by and starring Umberto Del Prete.
Economics [edit | edit source]
The mill, the brick factories, beach tourism [edit | edit source]
Since ancient Scauri based its economy on agriculture, fishing and tourism. With the advent of the industrial age, factories were built of bricks, ceramics and paper mill, mentioned by the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his book The biography of Hackert, 1811.
Sign on the Appian Way at 150 km in the village of Minto Scauri recalling that there arose the mill mentioned in the biography of Goethe, Hackert
Supplier of the Kingdom of Naples, the mill Scauri family Merola, produced fine sheets for copperplate printing press and the real. The remains of the outer wall of the factory are still visible on the Appia, near the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception.
Later, towards the end of the nineteenth century, two plants were built of bricks: Sieci and Head. Both factories were inheritors of an ancient activity: that of working with clay, already practiced by the "Gens Pirana." The former complex "Sieci" is now an example of industrial archeology, with its typical Hoffmann kiln. The Town of Minto, the property owner, has pledged to transform the old furnace into a cultural center. In 1996 he was presented with a large project and ristutturazione Ersilia by the recovery of the Russian, who was presented with a very important conference and exhibition in Minto. Up to now this project is still the largest organic and feasible proposal, not only for the recovery of the entire area, but also for the recovery of tourism and economic Scauri and surroundings.
Persons linked to Scauri [edit | edit source]
Dig is a tourist and commercial recovering the glories of the Roman who had consecrated as a recreation center of the patricians. The confirmation comes from the finding, on the coastal strip, to the ruins of Roman villas. During the Republican period, the consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus chose to attend to his business and to enjoy a few days of relaxation. The signs of these "holidays Tyrrhenian" of the famous politician are now in the megalithic walls, where there are the ruins of his villa residential. Then began the tradition of tourism Scauri. Among the distinguished guests of the town in Lazio, the educator Maria Montessori, the explorer Umberto Nobile, singers, Francesco De Gregori and Anna Tatangelo actor-director Nino Manfredi and the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla.
Today it is one of the most popular seaside resorts of South pontine. During the high season record 60-70 000 admissions into private accommodation in hotels and campsites. The pride and joy of the town of southern Lazio are the long beach, about 4 km away and the subject of a recent work of nourishment, and the Waterfront.
Site specific installation at Brookfield Place. "Intrude" by Amanda Parer. Great puffy bunny art in contrast with the linear certainty of Calatrava.
I've seen these two lovely ladies in the neighborhood a few times, and I couldn't help but smile when I saw that body language today in their moment in the sun... There is a certainty when you have known another person for a very long time, the connection in a conversation is so much deeper that it shows even from the outside...
14th Street and 8th Avenue
New York
March 2011.
© Sion Fullana
All rights reserved
P • 62
•Tիe ր¡мր cիгიդւcles•
03 • 28 • 2011
Wolfgang Ward.
That was almost my kids name if she came out sporting a tiny pimp penis. I made the decision with the mother at the time not to find out the sex of the baby until it was born. But I was almost in complete 100% certainty that it was a boy. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I already had a girl so figured some Holy figure in the sky would naturally bestow my life with a boy as a type of equalizing balancing effect.
As a matter of fact, we were so certain there was a penis attached to a baby inside her womb that we didn’t even have a girl’s name picked out. Fuck it.
Wolfgang it was. Swear to fucking god. I loved it to death. I was picturing him in little league games and when he got a ground rule double with me howling “AAAAA OOOOO” like a fucking werewolf crazy middle age proud father with him rounding 1st base.
Visions of him in high school with all the girls who like him drawing little wolf faces on the desks with their number two pencils ran around my head too. I mean after all, who the fuck else would be known as “the wolf”?
Deliberation was even underway for the middle name of “Oscar”. Why? To form the initials “WOW” of course! This was given some heavy heavy consideration. Heavy man. HEAVY.
But all was not meant to be as my youngest child came out a girl. And THANK GOD. Because between you and I, this pimp was not meant to be a father to any boy. Mostly because I hate little boys. They fuck shit up and generally just lead a path of massive evil destruction. I’m assuming this also applied to me before my cock blossomed into its wonderful manhood that it is today. So under that assumption, I would have hated myself till this puberbetic transformation occurred. I was probably a little cocksucker like the rest of these future semen shooters I see running around bothering my little girls today.
I love my little girls. And I love being a father to girls. I get to be called Daddy when they are adults and have that reassurance that society deems it sweet and cute no matter how old they are. If you are a good daddy to a daughter, you’re like gold dude. Boys get all distant and manly and all that macho bullshit. But my little girls will always have that little tiny bit of unsullied togetherness that disregards both age and passing years.
€Θnάịм Tђú ૭$
What is that? I’ve signed my blogs and writings with this little abstract phrase since I started the pimp chronicles on part 1. At first glance it is just a collection of ANSII weird characters that when googled or searched doesn’t mean anything. If you take remove all the bullshit, iit can be looked at as "cronaím thú”. This translates to "I miss you” in Irish. “g$” is just as it looks, G- Money, which is a nickname I have for my daughter Gia who is pictured here. And alas my pseudo riddled penname signature actually can be transformed into “I miss you Gia”.
And miss her I did. For reasons I won’t get into, my daughter was removed from my life last summer. But as of a few weeks ago, she is back in my life. And this time for good.
It’s funny, I didn’t even know how much I missed her until I saw her. I couldn’t be happier. The biggest fattest fucking black hole void in my life has been jettisoned into a final state of omission.
Hello Gia and GOODBYE €Θnάịм Tђú ૭$ ! Your sister and I missed you so much. And we love you that much more.
The photo at hand? Taken on my visit with Gia in Fresno last week. G-money turns 4 in a few weeks. I’m hoping for a little birthday bash at my place to celebrate big girlhood and welcome her back into my life.
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. - Vincent Van Gogh
Cannot say with any certainty that I like this picture! If I had treated it like a lot of landscapes, the viewer wouldn't have seen the detail under the wooden bridge. There are limits to dramatic black water and skies, in this instance, the 'drama' would have added nothing to this view....!
The trail opens, not upward but outward. A pause to take in how far the land stretches before the next step is taken. Not the summit yet, just the quiet certainty of moving in the right direction.
A fantastic modern oddity, I'm not sure I've ever seen one before other than on the TV. It's certainty a very unusual car for Renault to have made.
Scientific Name: Lycogala epidendrum
Common Name: Wolf's Milk Slime
Certainty: positive (notes)
Location: Appalachians; Smokies; CabinCove
Date: 20051014
One of several diverse life-stages of this beautiful and unusual slime mold.
Now, there may be some of you out there who will proclaim, with a great deal of certainty, that this is not truly an infrared photo. To a degree, you are right, to the same degree, however, you are wrong.
You see, I made a filter for my lens out of a series of photographic gels. These gels, when layered correctly, are quite dark. When sufficient light is available, such as in bright daylight, it is possible to see through all the different gels. You see, the gels actually filter out most of the other colors of visible light except for those on the far end of the red spectrum. You see, we are capable of seeing just a bit of infrared as the infrared range overlaps with visible light's red range. Eliminating all other light ranges, permits the very small range of infrared visible to us to stand out. And that, my friends, is this picture. Now, it's not night vision, I just want to clear that up. And it's not a thermal image where you can see heat emanating from a warm body. Rather, this is the infrared light being scattered across a brightly-lit area.
The lighter the surface of the object in infrared, the more infrared light that is being scattered off of it. The darker the object, the more infrared that is simply absorbed. So, when you look at the previous photo and then at this photo, perhaps you can see what is more reflective of infrared light and what is more likely to absorb it.
Water is so private..
I'd want to cling to this cold, wet certainty and be forgotten.
I just pray the nightly sky to let my mind rise fearless of the light.
Well, it's time to say goodbye to summer, after a rather cool, wet August in my part of Britain. Hopefully there will be more sunshine to come and maybe even an "Indian Summer".
Although the butterflies are now past their peek, there will still be many dragonflies around in the coming months, and I look forward to the arrival of migrant birds, as well as better views of our resident birds, on completion of their moult. Plenty of photo opportunities to come :)
I've been adding more and more older images to my Lightroom catalogue, and in the process discovering some older photographs I'd forgotten. This is one of them.
It is difficult to identify this wasp mimic with 100% certainty, but I believe it is Syrphus vitripennis. The flower is Fennel.
Thank you for your comments, favs and invites. All are truly appreciated. Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead :)
BTW, when I view any of my photographs using the "View all sizes", every size photograph is displayed sharper than the one displayed in my Photostream, or in Lightbox. Has anyone else noticed this? It frustrates me :(
Courage is saying yes
to the next bow, the next birth,
to new love
in the wake of loss
inside waves of grief,
in the certainty
of continuous imperfection,
and endless possibilities of failure.
Courage is saying yes,
still yes~ when we wake up
in the morning
alone and tired:
our bodies worn
and minds torn down
by everything in life
not being
what we thought.
Because all that is wanted, finally
is to purely love what’s here,
knowing soon it will be gone.
And all that is needed finally
is your open
ear pressed
with attentive curiosity,
eavesdropping at the door
of your heart, and then this:
the simple courage
to hear what’s said.
~Jesua Wight
“Certain experiences are not otherwise attainable than by exploring regions of experience whose very existence is destroyed by the materialist philosophy which denies access to them . . . Poetry, God knows, does not deal in certainties so much as in the glimpses of that country seen at certain moments by that eternal exile Psyche.”
-Kathleen Raine
Bored? Read about group therapy disasters on a bus tour!
Very pleased to have been asked to show some of my photos in this art magazine. Gracias Octavio.
Cividade de Terroso was an ancient city of the Castro culture in North-western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, situated near the present bed of the Ave river, in the suburbs of present-day Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal.
Located in the heart of the Castro region, the cividade played a leading role in the early urbanization of the region in the early 1st millennium BC, as one of the oldest, largest and impregnable castro settlements. It was important in coastal trading as it was part of well-established maritime trade routes with the Mediterranean. Celtic and later Carthaginian influence are well-known, it was eventually destroyed after the Roman conquest in 138 BC. The city's name in antiquity is not known with certainty but it was known during the Middle Ages as Civitas Teroso (The City of Terroso). it was built at the summit of Cividade Hill, in the suburban area of Terroso, less than 5 km from the coast, near the eastern edge of modern Póvoa de Varzim.
Beyond the main citadel, three of Cividade de Terroso's outposts are known: Castro de Laundos (the citadel's surveillance post), Castro de Navais (away from the citadel, a fountain remains to this day), and Castro de Argivai (a Castro culture farmhouse in the coastal plain). Cividade de Terroso is located just 6,3 km from Cividade de Bagunte both in the North bank of the Ave river.
The settlement of Cividade de Terroso was founded during the Bronze Age, between 800 and 900 BC, as a result of the displacement of the people inhabiting the fertile plain of Beiriz and Várzea in Póvoa de Varzim. This data is supported by the discovery of egg-shaped cesspits, excavated in 1981 by Armando Coelho, where he collected fragments of four vases of the earlier period prior to the settlement of the Cividade. As such, it is part of the oldest Castro culture settlements, such as the ones from Santa Luzia or Roriz.
The city prospered due to its strong defensive walls and its location near the ocean, which facilitated trade with the maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, mainly during the Carthaginian rule in South-eastern Iberian Peninsula.
Aqualata mines are the probable source of several Castro culture jewels, including the Treasure of Villa Mendo (replica pictured) and Laundos Earrings.
Trade eventually attracted Roman attention during the Punic Wars and the Romans had learned of the wealth of the Castro region in gold and tin. Viriathus led the troops of the Lusitanian confederation, which included several tribes, hindered northward growth of the Roman Republic at the Douro river, but his murder in 138 BC opened the way for the Roman legions. The citadel and the Castro culture perished at the end of the Lusitanian War. Some of Viriatus fighters may have sought refuge in the North. These with Grovii and Callacian tribes and following Celtic ways, with their women, wanted revenge from the death of Viriatus. They attacked the Roman settlements in Lusitania, gaining momentum with the support of other tribes along the way, reaching the south of the Peninsula, near modern Andalusia. Endangering Roman rule in large stretches of Hispania.
Roman conquest
Decimus Junius Brutus was sent to the Roman province of Hispania Ulterior to deal with it and led a campaign in order to annex the Castro region (of the Callaeci tribes) for Rome, which led to the complete destruction of the city, just after the death of Viriathus. Strabo wrote, probably describing this period: "until they were stopped by the Romans, who humiliated them and reduced most of their cities to mere villages" (Strabo, III.3.5). These cities included Abobriga, Lambriaca and Cinania. Lambriaca allied with Rome, but rebelled following regional pressure as they were perceived as traitors in the region. It led the rebellion but after months of siege, it asked for mercy as the siege left the city without provision of supplies. All the coast was occupied by the Celts. In Conventus Bracarensis, where the Romans would establish the Augustan citadel of Bracara, there were also the Grovii and the Heleni of Greek origin. The Grovii dwelt in the coast near the rivers "Avo" (the Ave river), Celadus, Nebis, Minius and the Oblivion. The Laeros and the Ulla rivers where in the North reach of this people. The notable citadel of Abobriga or Avobriga, was probably located near the mouth of the Ave river, as its name suggests. According to Pomponius Mela, it was located near Lambriaca, in the lands of the Grovii. A hint which could help to identify Celtic Lambriaca is that it had two areas with cliffs and very easy access from the other two sides.
The important city of Cinania was rich, its inhabitants had several Luxury goods, but kept their independence due to the city's strong defensive walls, and despise for Rome. Brutus wished to conquer it before leaving Iberia and not leave that conquest for other officials. He planned a siege. The Romans used catapults to destroy the city's walls and invade the citadel, but the inhabitants resisted the attempted Roman assaults, causing Roman casualties. The Romans had to withdraw. The Cinanians used a tunnel, used for mining, for a surprise assault on the Roman camp destroying the catapults. Nonetheless, Appian mentioned two battles led by Brutus, in which women fought alongside the men, both ended in Roman victory. Archaeological data in Cividade de Terroso and tribesmen's Last stand behavior, which included their children in one of those battles, highlight the barbarity of the conquest.
Roman mercy is recorded by the establishment of Brutus's peaceful settlements. Sometime later, the Cividade was rebuilt and became heavily Romanized, which started the cividade's last urban stage. Upon return, Brutus gained an honorific Callaecus on the fifth day before the Ides, the festival of Vesta in the month of Junius. A celebrated milestone refers that Brutus victories extended to the ocean. Brutus is also referred by Plutarch as "the Brutus who triumphed over Lusitania" and as the invader of Lusitania.
Citadel exodus
The region was incorporated in the Roman Empire and totally pacified during the rule of Caesar Augustus. In the coastal plain, a Roman villa that was known as Villa Euracini was created, hence it was a property of a family known as the Euracini. The family was joined by Castro people who returned to the coastal plain. An early fish factory and salt evaporation ponds were built near the new villa, and a later one with a cetariæ and a housing complex, with one of those buildings dating to the 1st century. The Romans built roads, including Via Veteris, a necropolis and exploited the famed local mines, that became known as Aqualata. From the 1st century onward, and during the imperial period, the slow abandonment of Cividade Hill started.
In the Memórias Paroquiais (Parish Memories) of 1758, the director António Fernandes da Loba with other clergymen from the parish of Terroso, wrote: This parish is all surrounded by farming fields, and in one area, almost in the middle of it, there is a higher hill, that is about a third of the farming fields of this parish and the ancient say that this was the City of Moors Hill, because it is known as Cividade Hill.
The Lieutenant Veiga Leal in the News of Póvoa de Varzim on May 24 of 1758 wrote: "From the hill known as Cividade, one can see several hints of houses, that the people say formed a city, cars with bricks from the ruins of that one arrive in this town."
Cividade was later rarely cited by other authors. In the early 20th century, Rocha Peixoto encouraged his friend António dos Santos Graça to subsidize archaeology works.
Outside the acropolis, modern archaeological surveys revealed more buildings.
In 1906, excavations began on June 5 with 25 manual workers and continued until October, interrupted due to bad weather;[3] they recommenced in May 1907, finishing in that same year. The materials discovered were taken to museums in the city of Porto.
After the death of Rocha Peixoto, in 1909, some rocks of the citadel had been used to pave some streets in Póvoa de Varzim, notably Rua Santos Minho Street and Rua das Hortas. Occasionally, groups of scouts of the Portuguese Youth and others in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, made diggings in search for archaeology pieces. This was seen as archaeological vandalism but continued even after the Cividade was listed as a property of Public Interest in 1961.
In 1980, Póvoa de Varzim City Hall invited Armando Coelho to pursue further archaeology works; these took place during the summer of that year. Result were used for Coelho's project A Cultura Castreja do Norte de Portugal. Archaeological surveys led by the same archaeologist resumed in 1981, leading to the discovery of a grave and tombstones, which helped to comprehend the funerary rituals; housing, yards and walls were also surveyed, which where the main focus for the 1982 archaeological surveys along with the recovery of Decumanus street (East-west). Archaeology works resumed in 1989 and 1991. The city hall purchased the acropolis area and constructed a small archaeological museum in its entrance.
In 2005, groups of Portuguese and Spanish (Galician) archaeologists had started to study the hypothesis of this cividade and six others to be classified as World Heritage sites of UNESCO. The Rede de Castros do Noroeste, the Northwestern Castro Network, was established in 2015 grouping the most important sites in Northern Portugal including Cividade de Terroso but also Cividade de Bagunte, Citânia de Sanfins, Citânia de Briteiros, Citânia de Santa Lúzia and a few other sites.
Defensive system
The most typical characteristic of the castros is its defensive system. The inhabitants had chosen to start living in the hill as a way of protection against attacks and lootings by rival tribes. The Cividade was erected at 152 metres height (about 500 feet), allowing an excellent position to monitor the entire region. One of the sides, the north, was blocked by São Félix Hill, where a smaller castro was built, the Castro de Laundos from the 2nd century B.C., that served as a surveillance post.
The migrations of Turduli and Celtici proceeding from the South of the Iberian Peninsula heading North are referred by Strabo and were the reason for the improvement of the defensive systems of the castros around 500 BC.
Cividade de Terroso is one of the most heavily defensive Castro culture citadels, given that the acropolis was surrounded by three rings of walls. These walls were built at different stages, due to the growth of the town.
The walls had great blocks without mortar and were adapted to the hill's topography. The areas of easier access (South, East and West) possessed high, wide and resistant walls; while the ones in land with steep slopes were protected mainly by strengthening the local features.
That can easily be visible with the discovered structures in the East that present a strong defensive system that reaches 5.30 metres (17 feet 5 inches) wide. While in the Northeast, the wall was constructed using natural granite that only was crowned by a wall of rocks.
The entrance that interrupted the wall was paved with flagstone with about 1.70 metres (5 feet 7 inches) of width. The defensive perimeter seems to include a ditch of about 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches) of depth and width in base of the hill, as it was detected while a house was being built in the north of the hill (Wikipedia).
Gib deinem Kind Flügel um zu fliegen und Wurzeln um zu wachsen, aber vor allen Dingen die Gewißheit, daß du dein Kind immer lieben und für es da sein wirst, egal was kommt.
Give your child wings to fly and roots to grow, but above all the certainty, that you will always love it and be there for it, no matter what.
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
-- Vaclav Havel
[Good large]
Follow me on:
many thanks All for support !
Mount of Scauri (LT)
According to the thesis of scholars almost unanimously [1], the town's name has its origin from Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, princeps senatus, Roman Consul in 115 BC, the ancient port of Pirae owner (the name of the place previously) of a sumptuous seaside villa. A "possessio scauriana" spoken of in the Liber Pontificalis of 432 AD, by which Pope Sixtus III built the Liberian Basilica in Rome thanks to donations from a site in possession "territurio Gazitano" [2]. Consider that all the literary references, between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries., On the assumption of the name taken from the Console born not by historians, but by local canonical [3]. The later scholars (Jotham Johnson, Angelo De Santis, G. Tommasino, F. Coarelli, GM De Rossi, to name a few) reflect that view, citing the previous references. Possible that the town of Ausone "Pirae", along with that of Minturnae, was part of the Pentapolis Aurunca, although there are doubts about the precise location of the anti-Roman cities of the federation. Some one supposes that "Pirae" was nothing more than a castrum, a military outpost and commercial Minturnae same. Beyond the certainty of the location, the existence of Pirae is attested, in any case, four stones can still be seen today at the Museum of Minturnae. In fact, they cite four slaves of the gens Pirana (or Peirana). It should be remembered, then, the huge dolium, container used for storing wine or oil, fished in the 80s off Ventotene and guarded, still, in the Archaeological Museum of the island: its manufacture was the work of freedmen gens of the Pirani. Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia of the century. A.D. gives the already ruined ("oppidum fuit"), localizzandola between Formiae and Minturnae.
In the absence of direct evidence, the connection with the consul M. Aemilius Scaurus is supported by other evidence, including the correspondence between the history of the house and the era in which he lived the political (II-I century BC), the coincidence between the name and the cognomen of the console, the use of adjectives immemorial "scauriana" and "scauritano." It must be stressed, however, that the cognomen "Scaurus" and the adjective "scaurianus" you could bind at least three other noble: the Umbrici, the Aureli, the Terenzi, and that the term "scauritano," as reported by the scholar Castrichino, term is of medieval origin, which could refer to a people or citizenship. Also noteworthy is the "boundary stone" found in Castelforte (and now secure Minturnae) that mentions a Metellus. The family of Cecili amounted to Minturnae and Cecilia Metella was the wife of M. Aemilius Scaurus. To consider the term "Scaurus," you might, therefore, suppose a bond with the Umbrici Scauri, rich producers of the famous garum in Campania (swimming pools for fish farming were present in Monte d'Oro) [4].
Garum, villa Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, Pompeii; G (ari) F (los) SCAM (bri) SCAURI
Consider also that even the term "Scaurus" attracted to metal debris derived from the processing of metals (in this case, we have some news of metalworking in the area of the Roman Minturnae) [5]. According to another theory isolated [6], the origin of the name of Scauri would be connected with the Greek etymology: The name derives from "eskhara," which means burning brazier (relatively mild climate of the town or perhaps small dunes sand of the beach - basking in the sun - became hot). There is another Scauri in Pantelleria, but in this case the name of the place is attributed etymology of Greek origin (eskarion = port, berthing - scaro). The name of two towns would share so greek influences - Byzantine (Byzantine Duchy of Gaeta in our case) and relationships "conflicting" and trade with the Saracens.
A very recent case, two researchers Romans, wants the place to come from the early Middle Ages "scaula" (boat). The lexical form of Byzantine origin, would grow in its place thanks to his being a natural port on the Tyrrhenian Sea (see Salvatore Cardillo - Maximum Miranda, "Scauri them Scauli and the invention of the villa of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus," 2013). The recent historical essay suggests how the tradition that the name of Scauri be traced back to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Roman senator and consul, is likely to be a pure invention. In fact, the hypothesis that happen over the centuries in favor of the derivation of the name from the Roman senator and consul, lack of timely documentary evidence. The first that associates Scauri the "gens Aemilia" is Francesco Maria Pratilli known forger. From the shape scaula-ae, would form the male Scauli rhotacism that would lead to the name of the place. Interesting news was brought to light by the two scholars, that Pontius Pilate would be born in those places, news handed down by the Dominican theologian Thomas Elysium. It is theorized that the very territory of Scauri was the place near the Garigliano, from which the Saracens settled (around all'881) before heading into the terrible and devastating incursions inland (Montecassino itself was put to iron and fire in 883). The settlement buckwheat on the Garigliano was vanquished only around 915, after a long siege and a pitched battle. Recent excavations have unfortunately led to positive results. However, we continue to assume that it could be just the place Scauri pirate settlement. Conjecture rather striking: it would - together with the Saracen stronghold of Fraxinetum, today's La Garde-Freinet, the Gulf of Saint Tropez - the only witness to a settlement "sedentary", even if only for a few decades, the pirates Saracens in Europe [7] [8].
Overview of the natural park of the Golden Mount, Scauri from upstream Petrella - Natural Park of Monti Auruncis.
Monuments and places of interest [edit | edit source]
The ancient town of Pirae, Ausone source, you can see, today, a stretch of the boundary polygon (the megalithic walls) with the city gate (VII-VI century BC). This settlement was already in ruins at the time of Pliny the Elder (first century AD). Some scholars have theorized that it was Pirae a castrum, a defensive outpost and commercial center of Minturnae. According to J. Johnson, however, has not demonstrated that there is, in Minturnae, a gens earlier than the "Pirani".
Another theory says that instead Pirae (or Castrum Pirae) was born from a group ausonico that broke off from the original mountain Campovivo (Spigno Saturnia), colonized the place under the current Monte D'Oro. Pirae then became important maritime village, along with Sinuessa and Minturnae, and was devoted to seafaring and commercial activities, staying in frequent contact with sailors from the East (Phoenicians), Etruria, from the Sicilian coast and the Magna Grecia, reaching its peak in the late sixth century BC, when it was consolidated in a real polis linked to the city of Pentapolis Aurunca for ethnic affinity and ultimate reason of life and independence in the face of any piracy Greek sailors and invasions Etruscan and Samnite historical age. Pirae, as mentioned related to the Pentapolis Aurunca (obstinate enemy of Rome), had to cease to be independent around 314 BC, when Rome secured the final domain of all Latium. Then became a Roman colony, the town acquitted the important function of junction of nerve and commercial locations. The colony declined rapidly until it was completely abandoned, especially after the devastation suffered by the Lombards in 558 AD (common destiny in Lazio to all coastal locations, crushed inside by the barbarian invasions and the coast from Saracen raids). [9]
In Republican and Imperial periods in Pirae some seaside villas were built, one of which belonged, according to experts, the consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (162-90 or 89 BC) and of which there are still some ruins that are visible in the old neighborhood.
From the year 830, are several quotes of locations in the Codex diplomaticus Cajetanus. For example, in an act of the 993 shows the Church of St. Peter the Apostle, located in "port scauritano."
Later he was a production center, but still subject to raids. For defensive purposes arose the Square Tower (the Golden Mount) and that of Mills (in the old district), respectively, were erected in the sixteenth and fourteenth century to defend the coast. On 21 July 1552 the turkish corsair Dragut landed on the shore of Scauri and dragged into slavery 200 people in the surrounding areas.
All the archaeological evidence mentioned (except the Square Tower) are enclosed on private property, but fall in the Protected Area of Gianola-Mount Scauri, which is part of the Regional Park of Riviera di Ulisse. The Square Tower was built on the Golden Mount, converting a factory medieval, circular in shape. Recently acquired by the City of Minto, was restored to favor the creation of a bird observatory.
Religious Architecture [edit | edit source]
Pope Pius IX in 1850 crossed the Via Appia, after the exile to Gaeta. In the Ducal Chapel of Caracciolo Carafa family, from that moment, spread Marian devotion, culminating in the Patronal Feast of the Nativity of Mary (September 8). In 1931 the ducal chapel was elevated to the dignity and parish dedicated to St. Mary. Immaculate, on the initiative of the first parish priest of the town, Don Antonio Pecorino (1878-1950).
In 1954, on the occasion of the centenary of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, was built a statue of the Virgin by the sculptor Joseph Obletter South Tyrol, blessed at the Vatican by Pope Pius XII in 2003 and crowned by Archbishop Pierluigi Mazzoni, Archbishop of Gaeta. [10]
As a result of further development of the town, another parish was established in 1958, dedicated to the Virgin and Martyr Albina, to which he was entitled, in the past, a church, mentioned in the Codex diplomaticus Cajetanus since 981 and in a bull of Pope Adrian IV of 1158.
Cinema [edit | edit source]
To point out two characteristic places at the Monte d'Oro: the Blue Grotto and the Beach of Pebbles, which fall in the area of Riviera di Ulisse Regional Park. The Beach of Pebbles is immortalized in the movie "For the grace received," starring Nino Manfredi (winner of the Cannes Film Festival in 1971), and in the drama "The Count of Monte Cristo" in 1998, starring Gérard Depardieu and Ornella Muti. Other scenes of the film were shot in a beautiful villa in Via del Golfo, in the area of "Scauri old." Yet at the Golden Mount dancing ballerinas in "Zibaldone" (2008), a film directed by and starring Umberto Del Prete.
Economics [edit | edit source]
The mill, the brick factories, beach tourism [edit | edit source]
Since ancient Scauri based its economy on agriculture, fishing and tourism. With the advent of the industrial age, factories were built of bricks, ceramics and paper mill, mentioned by the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his book The biography of Hackert, 1811.
Sign on the Appian Way at 150 km in the village of Minto Scauri recalling that there arose the mill mentioned in the biography of Goethe, Hackert
Supplier of the Kingdom of Naples, the mill Scauri family Merola, produced fine sheets for copperplate printing press and the real. The remains of the outer wall of the factory are still visible on the Appia, near the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception.
Later, towards the end of the nineteenth century, two plants were built of bricks: Sieci and Head. Both factories were inheritors of an ancient activity: that of working with clay, already practiced by the "Gens Pirana." The former complex "Sieci" is now an example of industrial archeology, with its typical Hoffmann kiln. The Town of Minto, the property owner, has pledged to transform the old furnace into a cultural center. In 1996 he was presented with a large project and ristutturazione Ersilia by the recovery of the Russian, who was presented with a very important conference and exhibition in Minto. Up to now this project is still the largest organic and feasible proposal, not only for the recovery of the entire area, but also for the recovery of tourism and economic Scauri and surroundings.
Persons linked to Scauri [edit | edit source]
Dig is a tourist and commercial recovering the glories of the Roman who had consecrated as a recreation center of the patricians. The confirmation comes from the finding, on the coastal strip, to the ruins of Roman villas. During the Republican period, the consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus chose to attend to his business and to enjoy a few days of relaxation. The signs of these "holidays Tyrrhenian" of the famous politician are now in the megalithic walls, where there are the ruins of his villa residential. Then began the tradition of tourism Scauri. Among the distinguished guests of the town in Lazio, the educator Maria Montessori, the explorer Umberto Nobile, singers, Francesco De Gregori and Anna Tatangelo actor-director Nino Manfredi and the then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla.
Today it is one of the most popular seaside resorts of South pontine. During the high season record 60-70 000 admissions into private accommodation in hotels and campsites. The pride and joy of the town of southern Lazio are the long beach, about 4 km away and the subject of a recent work of nourishment, and the Waterfront.
Though neither of us was aware of the other before we met, there was a kind of mindless certainty bumming blithely along beneath our ignorance that ensured we would come together. Like two solitary birds flying the great prairies by celestial reckoning, all of these years and lifetimes we have been moving toward one another."
— Robert James Waller (The Bridges of Madison County)
My most faved quote for as long as I can remember, 9 years ago when I met the hubby. *wink*
~~~
Weeeeh those are our wedding bands. I took the shot during our last engagement sessions. *giggly*
~~~
How's your weekend?
Hmmm, quite a bummer for mine, coz I work tomorrow on a Sunday and when everyone's enjoying a public holiday on the Monday, I am still reporting in. Sigh.
But cheering up myself because it's pay back on the week after HAHAHA
I get 4 days straight holiday next weekend this time! WEEEEEEEEEEEH!!!
So, Life is always FAIR huh? *grin*
Enjoy your holidays people!!! =)
The afternoon sky gave no clue as to what would the evening would bring as the weather had been fairly obscure all day long. With fairly heavy cloud waiting in the wings there was little certainty of a sunset, but once the sun dropped below the horizon, intense red light illuminated the high cloud… and what a light show! Thanks for looking. Mk
It remains for me only one certainty: Turn, turn, turn ... I learn every day and the more time passes, the more I want to shoot.
"And yet we knew, for a certainty, that when first emissaries of Earth went walking among the planets, Earth's other sons would be dreaming not about such expeditions but about a piece of bread."
— Stanisław Lem (His Master's Voice)
ツ ツ ツ
* Sony Alpha a77 DSLR with Sony 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 SAM lens
My work is for sale via Getty Images and at Redbubble and 500px
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal
©Todos los derechos reservados. El uso sin permiso es ilegal - ©Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Die Verwendung ohne Genehmigung ist illegal - جميع الحقوق محفوظة. استخدم من دون إذن هو غير قانوني© - ©保留所有权利。未经批准的使用是非法的 - ©Tous droits réservés. L'utilisation sans permission est illégal - © Όλα τα δικαιώματα διατηρούνται. Χρησιμοποιήστε χωρίς άδεια είναι παράνομη - ©Tutti i diritti riservati. Usare senza autorizzazione è illegale - ©すべての権利を保有。許可なしに使用することは違法です - ©Todos os direitos reservados. Use sem autorização é ilegal - ©Toate drepturile rezervate. Folosirea fără permisiunea este ilegală - ©Все права защищены. Использование без разрешения является незаконным - ©Tüm hakları saklıdır. İzinsiz kullanın yasadışı
©2013- Tom Raven - Toute reproduction, même partielle INTERDITE
Last Friday (22 June) started off wet and cloudy but finished up dry and clear by the end of my working hours. The chance to shoot Milky Way photos was almost a certainty, but the late hour of moonset would mean not starting until at least an hour after midnight. Moonset was due at 2:00 am, my “Phases of the Moon” app told me. I’d need some time to get in position and set up once I arrived, so I budgeted 30 minutes for that. It would take about an hour-and-a-half to drive from home to the headland at Gerroa, a coastal holiday town here in New South Wales, Australia. I’d have to leave no later than midnight, then. Wow, if I could get to bed at 10:00 pm I could grab two hours of sleep before setting off!
Yeah, right! Like a kid on Christmas Eve, there was no way I could sleep when I knew I would be going out a’nightscaping before long. After a few hours of doing anything but sleep, I made the drive and arrived while the moon was still low in the west, as planned. Apart from a few patches of cloud that wafted across at various times, the sky was clear, and the slight wind that was blowing kept the air clean and relatively dry for this time of year.
Apart from this and some other single-frame photos, I ended up coming home with six panoramic images and a 300+ shot time-lapse sequence. I arrived back a touch after 6:30 am and crawled into bed shortly afterwards. It was at this point that I wondered if I’d stayed out just a little too long. This single-frame photo was shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 13.0-second exposure @ ISO 6400.
Sunset trip
Down Lake Shore Drive
Whipped cream clouds
Pumpkin pie sky
Shadow casting mountains
A reminder of the certainty of mortality
Yet projecting an image that is a reminder of being alive
A moment preserved in the amber of dusk
Life should be love
But it should also be lust
Doubt is the moment between belief and disbelief, reality and fiction, certainty and uncertainty. Doubt is a paradox. It makes us suspect, fear and distrust. It destroys us, slowly, surely from the inside out. Once you have entered into the territory of doubt, it is very hard to escape.
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” - William Shakespeare
Copyright © 2012 Amy Morris. All Rights Reserved.
Although, no one knows with certainty, it is believed that the wild ponies of Chincoteague have lived on Assateague for 400 years. They may have been descendants from horses released by early settlers, or horses that survived some of the many shipwrecks of the 16th and 17th centuries. They are now a main attraction for people visiting the barrier islands. Despite a limited diet and water supply they have managed to thrive. With thick manes, round bellies, and short stocky legs, they live their lives on the beaches and salt marshes of Assateague. I have yet to encounter them along the beach but it’s on my bucket list. #WildHorses
My 1982 G.I. Joe collection restored.
Artist unknown.
G.I. Joe 1983 "To The Rescue" was originally commissioned by Thermos for their 1982 lunch box set. This poster was later available to G.I. Joe Fan Club members in 1983 for the cost of $1.99 plus 8 Flag points.
There was this card and candy shop on our neighborhood's main street. The owners attracted patrons with lottery tickets, greetings cards, and holiday of the month decorations and boxed candy. It was the final hope for those seeking last minute gifts, party supplies, and seasonal novelties. The old 1920s storefront predated the sidewalks. The streets that had since been been raised four feet, in the late '50s to accommodate modern utilities. A black, cast-iron fence and railing flanked both sides of the treacherous, hunter green, concrete steps that were crammed into the narrow trench from the sidewalk to the entrance. The railing was the only guard that kept one from the certainty of broken bones that awaited anyone who fell or slipped, below. The brass framed glass door took all of my seven year old body weight to open. My efforts were rewarded with the sound of chimes. As if the metal on metal creaking hinges itself wasn’t enough to alert the owner that someone had just entered. You were greeted by an invisible wall of dense, overly warm air, air that smelled like aging lead paint, linoleum and plastic doormats. There was never any air movement, even when the door opened in the dead of winter. An effect of the store being half way below street level. The interior looked like an old hardware store. I can recall at least three different floorings simultaneously covering various areas in the place. A well worn, dark gray painted creaky hardwood disappeared beneath mismatched linoleum patterns. Just past the register and one row back there was an aisle with toys.
One day in 1982, a display case with eight or nine military figures grabbed my attention. These weren't the typical green cast plastic army men that came in the plastic sleeve. This collection was fully painted. The figures had a cache of removable/interchangeable gear. More importantly these new figures weren’t entombed in cast green plastic stances. These figures could be posed into action. My mom must have noticed me at full attention to what was behind that glass. She leaned in and reminded me that I had one week's allowance coming.
I grew up in an exclusively blue collar neighborhood on the Atlantic coast of South Brooklyn. Much to the approval of the families who live here, it remains an underdeveloped, hidden throw back to an earlier time. To this day, the quaint coastal hamlet is an estuary of city workers and union tradesmen, home makers, nurses and teachers. Dad's spent what little free time they had teaching their kids how to swing a baseball bat, how to shingle a roof or how to fix an engine. Like any working class stronghold, most proudly served their country. In the troubled times of the late sixties and early seventies none of the men in my community waited for draft notices. Most chose to earn their uniforms on Parris Island. All wanted to do their part and live up to the momentous reputation that their fathers stamped on the sands of Normandy and Iwo Jima only a generation before. Some never came home. Those who made it back found a country they barely recognized. Those men weren’t welcomed home by a parade in The Canyon of Heroes like their fathers were. By 1979 the words nationalism and patriotism desperately hung by a thread. Then the pendulum began to swing in other other direction. The nineteen eighties began a time of renewed pride for our wounded country.
When a reinvented military toy brand with a long established house hold name hit shelves in 1982, it was received by a nation still struggling to come to terms with its recent past. The move was a big gamble on the part of Hasbro. War toys were far from the peak of popularity. Fortunately, the smaller scaled toy line was embraced by parents and children alike. The new four inch figures were welcomed for their affordability as well as their revitalizing, flag waving spirit. For us kids the blitz of commercials, comic books, coloring books, folded toy inserts, file cards, the animated cartoon a year later, and the endless merchandising in everything from Lite Brite and Shrinky Dinks, to Ben Cooper Halloween Costumes, was plenty to keep us riveted to the new adventures of The Real American Hero.
To this day I can't tell you why I chose Breaker that day, but I can tell you that thirty five years later the bearded communications officer, and his blond and raven haired doppelgängers are who I consider the "coolest" Joes. I did not have access to a comic shop in South Brooklyn until the late 80s but Toys R Us began carrying the three pack second printings of the titular comic. Those random, valueless reprints that I brought home are favorites in my collection. The introductory issues explained everything that I needed to know about the new characters.
Marvel's run expanded the universe beyond the limitations of the small, card-back dossiers. The news print provided our heroes and villains a world to live in. In those pages I explored the Arashikage Ninja Clan in Japan, Cobra Island out in The Gulf, Springfield in Middle America, Silent Castle in "Trans-Carpathia", the Florida Everglades, and The Pitt, located right across the Verrazano. Fort Wadsworth. GI Joe operated in my own back yard! The comics books strengthened character relationships with a pulp fiction style of drama. I adore my vintage issues and keep the entire run in trade paperback as well.
Like Masters of the Universe I was entrenched with G.I. Joe long before the animated cells graced the screen. The exciting box illustrations and serious high stakes characters portrayed on the file cards will always be what the toy line is to me. For hours my brother and I would pour over the tiny thumbnails of new figures teased on the back of the new cards. GI Joe wasn’t the first to include inserts in the toys' boxes but nothing held our attention like those little pack in catalogs displaying the new toy. They are some of my most treasured pieces of my vintage collection.
One day in 1983 I ran the ten city blocks home from school. My mom said there would be a cartoon. I sat in front up the old television set with my Mobile Strike Force Team logo ironed on tee-shirt, Army green brass latched buckle belt, red white and blue wrist bands, matching head band, dog tags, whistle, and marksman pins. I held my membership card in my hands. Written in child’s penmanship I had filled in the name on the white card with a blue marker, "SnAke EyeS." The the cartoon opened with a defining phrase and a song. I'll be singing that jingle on my death bed. The phrase became so ingrained in our culture that I can confidently assume anyone reading this already knows it. You’re singing the song right now too aren't you? I am too.
G.I. Joe had endeared itself to us more than any other toy line. The toys, the characters that they represented, the cartoon, the comics and the file cards hit on all points. I can recall countless adventures in our driveway sized back yard or on the living room floor of our tiny inner city home. The many Christmases and birthdays of pent up anticipation for the new Joe items. It was an emotion was so strong that years later I would have these reoccurring dreams. Dreams replicating that rush of excitement that my young self would experience when I turned into that isle in Toys R Us and found freshly stocked pegs and shelves of new Joes. As adult collectors I know many of us pursue the hobby especially for that sensation. I can't express to you how disappointing it was to wake up and realize that it was only a dream. Until one day, it wasn't.
Twenty five years later in 2007, I was in my local Toys R Us. The store of my childhood. I wasn't collecting then but would always venture down the action figure aisles, for old times sake. That day something magical happened. As I turned into one of the action figure isles I froze. My hands began shaking. Staring back at me was a 1982 GI Joe Stalker card with silver foil edging and a figure in the bubble. It wasn't the exact same toy but it was the Stalker that I new at the age of seven. What the HELL was this?! Was it real? And Stalker wasn't alone. I ran to grab a cart. But that's a story for another album.
The tireless dedication of Hasbro’s 1980's R&D team is legendary. If any of them should end up reading this, your work made lot a of children very happy. I know. I was there. I was one of them. Even today I still spend indefensible amounts of income trying to recapture that nostalgic feeling. I one of thousands who do. Thank you for the memories and the amazing childhood. To all of you, and for any who have forgotten the decade defining phrase, YO JOE!
We do not possess the means to go through the long run, and still we can forecast with a large degree of certainty that we will see more key cybersecurity incidents in 2016 and 2017.
The world’s cybersecurity functionality is not ready to progress in line with the increasing v...
First 1000 businesses who contacts honestechs.com will receive a business mobile app and the development fee will be waived. Contact us today.
#electronics #technology #tech #electronic #device #gadget #gadgets #instatech #instagood #geek #techie #nerd #techy #photooftheday #computers #laptops #hack #screen
If there are a few places upon earth in which you can feel Holy Spirit still exists, one is certainty Lalibela in Ethiopia.
No luxury, no silver and gold…
That’s how it should be…
Καλή Ανάσταση !
In the case of forest cover change, the studies refer to the period 1980–2000 and are based on national statistics, remote sensing, and to a limited degree expert opinion. In the case of land cover change resulting from degradation in drylands (desertification), the period is unspecified but inferred to be within the last half-century, and the major study was entirely based on expert opinion, with associated low certainty.
For any form of publication, please include the link to this page:
This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: Philippe Rekacewicz, Emmanuelle Bournay, UNEP/GRID-Arendal
The Fool’s Cap Map of the World Frank Jacobs on September 14, 2010, 12:22 AM Jestersmall This rather sinister image is one of the biggest mysteries in the history of western cartography. Most often referred to simply as the Fool’s Cap Map of the World, it is unknown why, when, where and by whom it was made. The only thing that can be said about it with some certainty is that it dates from ca. 1580-1590. But sources even differ as to the type of projection used, some referring to it as ptolemaic (i.e. equidistant conic), others claiming it owes more to the techniques of Mercator and/or Ortelius (and being an enthusiast rather than a specialist, I’m not one to call this). The map shows the world ‘dressed up’ in the traditional garb of a court jester: the double-peaked, bell-tipped cap (1) and the jester’s staff (2). The face is hidden (or replaced) by the map, giving the whole image an ominous, threatening quality that feels anachronistically modern. ViewMore FromTagsCommentsShareSendFavoriteTwitterFacebook The archetype of the Fool, presented here in his incarnation as the court jester, is a first indicator of the map’s deeper meaning. In previous ages, the Fool was a court figure allowed to mock majesty and to speak truth to power. These were rare and useful correctives to the corrupting absolutism of the monarchies of the day. But criticism of this sort was only possible if it was de-fanged by the grotesque appearance of the Fool - preferably a hunchbacked, slightly loopy-headed dwarf, i.e. someone not to be taken too seriously. All of this would have been common and current knowledge to the people viewing this map, in the late 16th century. The uncomfortable truth told by this map is that the world is a sombre, irrational and dangerous place, and that life on it is nasty, brutish and short. The world is, quite literally, a foolish place. This is underlined by the mottoes of biblical and classical origin, dotted across the map. The legend in the left panel reads: “Democritus of Abdera laughed at [the world], Heraclitus of Ephesus wept over it, Epichtonius Cosmopolites portrayed it” (3). Over the cap is the Latin version of the Greek dictum, “Know thyself" (4). Across the cap’s brow, the inscription translates as “O head, worthy of a dose of hellebore” (5). The Latin quote just above the map is from Pliny the Elder (6): “For in the whole universe the earth is nothing els e and this is the substance of our glory, this is its habitation, here it is that we fill positions of power and covet wealth, and throw mankind into an uproar, and launch wars, even civil ones.” The reason for so much trouble and strife is explained in the quote below the map, from Ecclesiastes: “The number of fools is infinite” (7). Another quote from that most depressing of Bible books, on the jester’s staff to the right, intones: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (8). Inscribed on the badges adorning the shoulder belt are a few sayings in line with this cheerful message: “Oh, the worries of the world; oh, how much triviality is there in the world” (9), “Everyone is without sense” (10), and “All things are vanity: every man living” (11). For some researchers, the sum of these messages, as well as their presentation in a cartographic setting, point to a little-known Christian sect called the Family of Love. This clandestine group is said to have numbered the Flemish cartographer Ortelius in its ranks. If this map is anything to go by, the Family of Love must have espoused a rather harsh and pessimistic view of the world, and of humanity’s place in it. But much remains conjecture, as indicated also by the last piece of this cartographic puzzle - the name written in its top left corner: Orontius Fineus. This name (the Latinised version of the French name Oronce Finé) is associated with a map dated 1531, purportedly showing an ice-free, river-rich Antarctica. Why would the name of this cartographer crop up on a map made decades later? Could he have been the mapmaker (12)? Or is he the one being made fun of? Many thanks to J.B. Post for alerting me to this map. Many versions to be found online, this high-resolution image found here at Coin des cartes anciennes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (1) the donkey’s ears referring to the supposed stupidity of the ass. Inscribed on them is the quote Auriculas asini quis non habet, meaning “Who doesn't have donkey's ears?" This witticism is ascribed to Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, a Roman stoic philosopher from the 1st century AD. (2) a parody of the royal staff, a symbol of authority. (3) Democritus Abderites deridebat, Heraclites Ephesius deflebat, Epichthonius Cosmopolitus deformabat. Epichtonius Cosmopolites seems to refer to the maker of the map, but actually means something like ‘Everyman’. (4) Nosce te ipsum, in Greek: gnothi seauton. According to Pausanias, an inscription on Apollinic temple at Delphi. (5) O caput elleboro dignum. Hellebore is a family of mostly poisonous plants, some of which have been used medicinally since Antiquity. It is reputed to induce madness. (6) Hic est mundi punctus et materia gloriae nostrae, hic sedes, hic honores gerimus, hic exercemus imperia, hic opes cupimus, hic tumultuatur humanum genus, hic instauramus bella, etiam civica. From Book 2, Chapter 72 of the Naturalis Historia (‘Natural History’) by Caius Plinius Secundus. (7) Stultorum infinitus est numerus (Ecc. 1:15). (8) Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas (Ecc. 1:2). (9) O curas hominum, O quantum est in rebus inane, the opening quote of Aulus Persius Flaccus’ Satires. (10) Stultus factus est omnis homo (Jer. 10:14). (11) Universa vanitas omnis homo (Psalm 39:6). (12) Not likely; his dates are 1494-1555. Or could the map predate its estimate by about 30 years? subscribe Subscribe (RSS) Previous Post 479 - Gangs of LA Next Post 481 - Strange Lapps and Their Magical Drumming Maps Add a Comment Discuss J. B. Post on September 14, 2010, 8:10 AM This image always makes me think of thos photos of the astronauts with the Moon's surface reflected offf the faceplates. Patrick Chevallier Patrick Chevallier on September 17, 2010, 3:33 PM How weird! Makes me think of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues..."
...went live yesterday but i've run out of gas & don't really care. it's something off a plate that has grown rather too small to hold much. the expected catharsis more like a mere bodily function. there's a sequel in the works but that's more to fill time, of which there is a lot. thanks for bearing with me as i worked on it.
p.s. it's NOT a Best Book of 2014 - Amazon apparently does that just to give you a little thrill.
(if you want a free copy, just flickrmail me an address)
With the rain falling harder, it was a bit of a route march to Holborn and my next church, the stunning St Sepulchre, which was also open.
-----------------------------------------------------
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Holborn), is an Anglican church in the City of London. It is located on Holborn Viaduct, almost opposite the Old Bailey. In medieval times it stood just outside ("without") the now-demolished old city wall, near the Newgate. It has been a living of St John's College, Oxford, since 1622.
The original Saxon church on the site was dedicated to St Edmund the King and Martyr. During the Crusades in the 12th century the church was renamed St Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre, in reference to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The name eventually became contracted to St Sepulchre.
The church is today the largest parish church in the City. It was completely rebuilt in the 15th century but was gutted by the Great Fire of London in 1666,[1] which left only the outer walls, the tower and the porch standing[2] -. Modified in the 18th century, the church underwent extensive restoration in 1878. It narrowly avoided destruction in the Second World War, although the 18th-century watch-house in its churchyard (erected to deter grave-robbers) was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt.
The interior of the church is a wide, roomy space with a coffered ceiling[3] installed in 1834. The Vicars' old residence has recently been renovated into a modern living quarter.
During the reign of Mary I in 1555, St Sepulchre's vicar, John Rogers, was burned as a heretic.
St Sepulchre is named in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons as the "bells of Old Bailey". Traditionally, the great bell would be rung to mark the execution of a prisoner at the nearby gallows at Newgate. The clerk of St Sepulchre's was also responsible for ringing a handbell outside the condemned man's cell in Newgate Prison to inform him of his impending execution. This handbell, known as the Execution Bell, now resides in a glass case to the south of the nave.
The church has been the official musicians' church for many years and is associated with many famous musicians. Its north aisle (formerly a chapel dedicated to Stephen Harding) is dedicated as the Musicians' Chapel, with four windows commemorating John Ireland, the singer Dame Nellie Melba, Walter Carroll and the conductor Sir Henry Wood respectively.[4] Wood, who "at the age of fourteen, learned to play the organ" at this church [1] and later became its organist, also has his ashes buried in this church.
The south aisle of the church holds the regimental chapel of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), and its gardens are a memorial garden to that regiment.[5] The west end of the north aisle has various memorials connected with the City of London Rifles (the 6th Battalion London Regiment). The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Sepulchre-without-Newgate
The Early History of St. Sepulchre's—Its Destruction in 1666—The Exterior and Interior—The Early Popularity of the Church—Interments here—Roger Ascham, the Author of the "Schoolmaster"—Captain John Smith, and his Romantic Adventures—Saved by an Indian Girl— St. Sepulchre's Churchyard—Accommodation for a Murderess—The Martyr Rogers—An Odd Circumstance—Good Company for the Dead—A Leap from the Tower—A Warning Bell and a Last Admonition—Nosegays for the Condemned—The Route to the Gallows-tree— The Deeds of the Charitable—The "Saracen's Head"—Description by Dickens—Giltspur Street—Giltspur Street Compter—A Disreputable Condition—Pie Corner—Hosier Lane—A Spurious Relic—The Conduit on Snow Hill—A Ladies' Charity School—Turnagain Lane—Poor Betty!—A Schoolmistress Censured—Skinner Street—Unpropitious Fortune—William Godwin—An Original Married Life.
Many interesting associations—Principally, however, connected with the annals of crime and the execution of the laws of England—belong to the Church of St. Sepulchre, or St. 'Pulchre. This sacred edifice—anciently known as St. Sepulchre's in the Bailey, or by Chamberlain Gate (now Newgate)—stands at the eastern end of the slight acclivity of Snow Hill, and between Smithfield and the Old Bailey. The genuine materials for its early history are scanty enough. It was probably founded about the commencement of the twelfth century, but of the exact date and circumstances of its origin there is no record whatever. Its name is derived from the Holy Sepulchre of our Saviour at Jerusalem, to the memory of which it was first dedicated.
The earliest authentic notice of the church, according to Maitland, is of the year 1178, at which date it was given by Roger, Bishop of Sarum, to the Prior and Canons of St. Bartholomew. These held the right of advowson until the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII., and from that time until 1610 it remained in the hands of the Crown. James I., however, then granted "the rectory and its appurtenances, with the advowson of the vicarage," to Francis Phillips and others. The next stage in its history is that the rectory was purchased by the parishioners, to be held in fee-farm of the Crown, and the advowson was obtained by the President and Fellows of St. John the Baptist College, at Oxford.
The church was rebuilt about the middle of the fifteenth century, when one of the Popham family, who had been Chancellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King's Household, with distinguished liberality erected a handsome chapel on the south side of the choir, and the very beautiful porch still remaining at the south-west corner of the building. "His image," Stow says, "fair graven in stone, was fixed over the said porch."
The dreadful fire of 1666 almost destroyed St. Sepulchre's, but the parishioners set energetically to work, and it was "rebuilt and beautified both within and without." The general reparation was under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, and nothing but the walls of the old building, and these not entirely, were suffered to remain. The work was done rapidly, and the whole was completed within four years.
"The tower," says Mr. Godwin, "retained its original aspect, and the body of the church, after its restoration, presented a series of windows between buttresses, with pointed heads filled with tracery, crowned by a string-course and battlements. In this form it remained till the year 1790, when it appears the whole fabric was found to be in a state of great decay, and it was resolved to repair it throughout. Accordingly the walls of the church were cased with Portland stone, and all the windows were taken out and replaced by others with plain semi-circular heads, as now seen—certainly agreeing but badly with the tower and porch of the building, but according with the then prevailing spirit of economy. The battlements, too, were taken down, and a plain stone parapet was substituted, so that at this time (with the exception of the roof, which was wagon-headed, and presented on the outside an unsightly swell, visible above the parapet) the church assumed its present appearance." The ungainly roof was removed, and an entirely new one erected, about 1836.
At each corner of the tower—"one of the most ancient," says the author of "Londinium Redivivum," "in the outline of the circuit of London" —there are spires, and on the spires there are weathercocks. These have been made use of by Howell to point a moral: "Unreasonable people," says he, "are as hard to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's tower, which never look all four upon one point of the heavens." Nothing can be said with certainty as to the date of the tower, but it is not without the bounds of probability that it formed part of the original building. The belfry is reached by a small winding staircase in the south-west angle, and a similar staircase in an opposite angle leads to the summit. The spires at the corners, and some of the tower windows, have very recently undergone several alterations, which have added much to the picturesqueness and beauty of the church.
The chief entrance to St. Sepulchre's is by a porch of singular beauty, projecting from the south side of the tower, at the western end of the church. The groining of the ceiling of this porch, it has been pointed out, takes an almost unique form; the ribs are carved in bold relief, and the bosses at the intersections represent angels' heads, shields, roses, &c., in great variety.
Coming now to the interior of the church, we find it divided into three aisles, by two ranges of Tuscan columns. The aisles are of unequal widths, that in the centre being the widest, that to the south the narrowest. Semi-circular arches connect the columns on either side, springing directly from their capitals, without the interposition of an entablature, and support a large dental cornice, extending round the church. The ceiling of the middle aisle is divided into seven compartments, by horizontal bands, the middle compartment being formed into a small dome.
The aisles have groined ceilings, ornamented at the angles with doves, &c., and beneath every division of the groining are small windows, to admit light to the galleries. Over each of the aisles there is a gallery, very clumsily introduced, which dates from the time when the church was built by Wren, and extends the whole length, excepting at the chancel. The front of the gallery, which is of oak, is described by Mr. Godwin as carved into scrolls, branches, &c., in the centre panel, on either side, with the initials "C. R.," enriched with carvings of laurel, which have, however, he says, "but little merit."
At the east end of the church there are three semicircular-headed windows. Beneath the centre one is a large Corinthian altar-piece of oak, displaying columns, entablatures, &c., elaborately carved and gilded.
The length of the church, exclusive of the ambulatory, is said to be 126 feet, the breadth 68 feet, and the height of the tower 140 feet.
A singularly ugly sounding-board, extending over the preacher, used to stand at the back of the pulpit, at the east end of the church. It was in the shape of a large parabolic reflector, about twelve feet in diameter, and was composed of ribs of mahogany.
At the west end of the church there is a large organ, said to be the oldest and one of the finest in London. It was built in 1677, and has been greatly enlarged. Its reed-stops (hautboy, clarinet, &c.) are supposed to be unrivalled. In Newcourt's time the church was taken notice of as "remarkable for possessing an exceedingly fine organ, and the playing is thought so beautiful, that large congregations are attracted, though some of the parishioners object to the mode of performing divine service."
On the north side of the church, Mr. Godwin mentions, is a large apartment known as "St. Stephen's Chapel." This building evidently formed a somewhat important part of the old church, and was probably appropriated to the votaries of the saint whose name it bears.
Between the exterior and the interior of the church there is little harmony. "For example," says Mr. Godwin, "the columns which form the south aisle face, in some instances, the centre of the large windows which occur in the external wall of the church, and in others the centre of the piers, indifferently." This discordance may likely enough have arisen from the fact that when the church was rebuilt, or rather restored, after the Great Fire, the works were done without much attention from Sir Christopher Wren.
St. Sepulchre's appears to have enjoyed considerable popularity from the earliest period of its history, if one is to judge from the various sums left by well-disposed persons for the support of certain fraternities founded in the church—namely, those of St. Katherine, St. Michael, St. Anne, and Our Lady—and by others, for the maintenance of chantry priests to celebrate masses at stated intervals for the good of their souls. One of the fraternities just named—that of St. Katherine— originated, according to Stow, in the devotion of some poor persons in the parish, and was in honour of the conception of the Virgin Mary. They met in the church on the day of the Conception, and there had the mass of the day, and offered to the same, and provided a certain chaplain daily to celebrate divine service, and to set up wax lights before the image belonging to the fraternity, on all festival days.
The most famous of all who have been interred in St. Sepulchre's is Roger Ascham, the author of the "Schoolmaster," and the instructor of Queen Elizabeth in Greek and Latin. This learned old worthy was born in 1515, near Northallerton, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge University, and in time rose to be the university orator, being notably zealous in promoting what was then a novelty in England—the study of the Greek language. To divert himself after the fatigue of severe study, he used to devote himself to archery. This drew down upon him the censure of the all-work-and-no-play school; and in defence of himself, Ascham, in 1545, published "Toxophilus," a treatise on his favourite sport. This book is even yet well worthy of perusal, for its enthusiasm, and for its curious descriptions of the personal appearance and manners of the principal persons whom the author had seen and conversed with. Henry VIII. rewarded him with a pension of £10 per annum, a considerable sum in those days. In 1548, Ascham, on the death of William Grindall, who had been his pupil, was appointed instructor in the learned languages to Lady Elizabeth, afterwards the good Queen Bess. At the end of two years he had some dispute with, or took a disgust at, Lady Elizabeth's attendants, resigned his situation, and returned to his college. Soon after this he was employed as secretary to the English ambassador at the court of Charles V. of Germany, and remained abroad till the death of Edward VI. During his absence he had been appointed Latin secretary to King Edward. Strangely enough, though Queen Mary and her ministers were Papists, and Ascham a Protestant, he was retained in his office of Latin secretary, his pension was increased to £20, and he was allowed to retain his fellowship and his situation as university orator. In 1554 he married a lady of good family, by whom he had a considerable fortune, and of whom, in writing to a friend, he gives, as might perhaps be expected, an excellent character. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, in 1558, she not only required his services as Latin secretary, but as her instructor in Greek, and he resided at Court during the remainder of his life. He died in consequence of his endeavours to complete a Latin poem which he intended to present to the queen on the New Year's Day of 1569. He breathed his last two days before 1568 ran out, and was interred, according to his own directions, in the most private manner, in St. Sepulchre's Church, his funeral sermon being preached by Dr. Andrew Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's. He was universally lamented; and even the queen herself not only showed great concern, but was pleased to say that she would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham, which, from that somewhat closehanded sovereign, was truly an expression of high regard.
Ascham, like most men, had his little weaknesses. He had too great a propensity to dice and cock-fighting. Bishop Nicholson would try to convince us that this is an unfounded calumny, but, as it is mentioned by Camden, and other contemporary writers, it seems impossible to deny it. He died, from all accounts, in indifferent circumstances. "Whether," says Dr. Johnson, referring to this, "Ascham was poor by his own fault, or the fault of others, cannot now be decided; but it is certain that many have been rich with less merit. His philological learning would have gained him honour in any country; and among us it may justly call for that reverence which all nations owe to those who first rouse them from ignorance, and kindle among them the light of literature." His most valuable work, "The Schoolmaster," was published by his widow. The nature of this celebrated performance may be gathered from the title: "The Schoolmaster; or a plain and perfite way of teaching children to understand, write, and speak the Latin tongue. … And commodious also for all such as have forgot the Latin tongue, and would by themselves, without a schoolmaster, in short time, and with small pains, recover a sufficient habilitie to understand, write, and speak Latin: by Roger Ascham, ann. 1570. At London, printed by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate," a printer, by the way, already mentioned by us a few chapters back (see page 208), as having printed several noted works of the sixteenth century.
Dr. Johnson remarks that the instruction recommended in "The Schoolmaster" is perhaps the best ever given for the study of languages.
Here also lies buried Captain John Smith, a conspicuous soldier of fortune, whose romantic adventures and daring exploits have rarely been surpassed. He died on the 21st of June, 1631. This valiant captain was born at Willoughby, in the county of Lincoln, and helped by his doings to enliven the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. He had a share in the wars of Hungary in 1602, and in three single combats overcame three Turks, and cut off their heads. For this, and other equally brave deeds, Sigismund, Duke of Transylvania, gave him his picture set in gold, with a pension of three hundred ducats; and allowed him to bear three Turks' heads proper as his shield of arms. He afterwards went to America, where he had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Indians. He escaped from them, however, at last, and resumed his brilliant career by hazarding his life in naval engagements with pirates and Spanish men-of-war. The most important act of his life was the share he had in civilising the natives of New England, and reducing that province to obedience to Great Britain. In connection with his tomb in St. Sepulchre's, he is mentioned by Stow, in his "Survey," as "some time Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England."
Certainly the most interesting events of his chequered career were his capture by the Indians, and the saving of his life by the Indian girl Pocahontas, a story of adventure that charms as often as it is told. Bancroft, the historian of the United States, relates how, during the early settlement of Virginia, Smith left the infant colony on an exploring expedition, and not only ascended the river Chickahominy, but struck into the interior. His companions disobeyed his instructions, and being surprised by the Indians, were put to death. Smith preserved his own life by calmness and self-possession. Displaying a pocket-compass, he amused the savages by an explanation of its power, and increased their admiration of his superior genius by imparting to them some vague conceptions of the form of the earth, and the nature of the planetary system. To the Indians, who retained him as their prisoner, his captivity was a more strange event than anything of which the traditions of their tribes preserved the memory. He was allowed to send a letter to the fort at Jamestown, and the savage wonder was increased, for he seemed by some magic to endow the paper with the gift of intelligence. It was evident that their captive was a being of a high order, and then the question arose, Was his nature beneficent, or was he to be dreaded as a dangerous enemy? Their minds were bewildered, and the decision of his fate was referred to the chief Powhatan, and before Powhatan Smith was brought. "The fears of the feeble aborigines," says Bancroft, "were about to prevail, and his immediate death, already repeatedly threatened and repeatedly delayed, would have been inevitable, but for the timely intercession of Pocahontas, a girl twelve years old, the daughter of Powhatan, whose confiding fondness Smith had easily won, and who firmly clung to his neck, as his head was bowed down to receive the stroke of the tomahawks. His fearlessness, and her entreaties, persuaded the council to spare the agreeable stranger, who could make hatchets for her father, and rattles and strings of beads for herself, the favourite child. The barbarians, whose decision had long been held in suspense by the mysterious awe which Smith had inspired, now resolved to receive him as a friend, and to make him a partner of their councils. They tempted him to join their bands, and lend assistance in an attack upon the white men at Jamestown; and when his decision of character succeeded in changing the current of their thoughts, they dismissed him with mutual promises of friendship and benevolence. Thus the captivity of Smith did itself become a benefit to the colony; for he had not only observed with care the country between the James and the Potomac, and had gained some knowledge of the language and manners of the natives, but he now established a peaceful intercourse between the English and the tribes of Powhatan."
On the monument erected to Smith in St. Sepulchre's Church, the following quaint lines were formerly inscribed:—
"Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings,
Subdued large territories, and done things
Which to the world impossible would seem,
But that the truth is held in more esteem.
Shall I report his former service done,
In honour of his God, and Christendom?
How that he did divide, from pagans three,
Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry?—
For which great service, in that climate done,
Brave Sigismundus, King of Hungarion,
Did give him, as a coat of arms, to wear
These conquered heads, got by his sword and spear.
Or shall I tell of his adventures since
Done in Virginia, that large continent?
How that he subdued kings unto his yoke,
And made those heathens flee, as wind doth smoke;
And made their land, being so large a station,
An habitation for our Christian nation,
Where God is glorified, their wants supplied;
Which else for necessaries, must have died.
But what avails his conquests, now he lies
Interred in earth, a prey to worms and flies?
Oh! may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep,
Until the Keeper, that all souls doth keep,
Return to judgment; and that after thence
With angels he may have his recompense."
Sir Robert Peake, the engraver, also found a last resting-place here. He is known as the master of William Faithorne—the famous English engraver of the seventeenth century—and governor of Basing House for the king during the Civil War under Charles I. He died in 1667. Here also was interred the body of Dr. Bell, grandfather of the originator of a well-known system of education.
"The churchyard of St. Sepulchre's," we learn from Maitland, "at one time extended so far into the street on the south side of the church, as to render the passage-way dangerously narrow. In 1760 the churchyard was, in consequence, levelled, and thrown open to the public. But this led to much inconvenience, and it was re-enclosed in 1802."
Sarah Malcolm, the murderess, was buried in the churchyard of St. Sepulchre's in 1733. This coldhearted and keen-eyed monster in human form has had her story told by us already. The parishioners seem, on this occasion, to have had no such scruples as had been exhibited by their predecessors a hundred and fifty years previous at the burial of Awfield, a traitor. We shall see presently that in those more remote days they were desirous of having at least respectable company for their deceased relatives and friends in the churchyard.
"For a long period," says Mr. Godwin (1838), "the church was surrounded by low mean buildings, by which its general appearance was hidden; but these having been cleared away, and the neighbourhood made considerably more open, St. Sepulchre's now forms a somewhat pleasing object, notwithstanding that the tower and a part of the porch are so entirely dissimilar in style to the remainder of the building." And since Godwin's writing the surroundings of the church have been so improved that perhaps few buildings in the metropolis stand more prominently before the public eye.
In the glorious roll of martyrs who have suffered at the stake for their religious principles, a vicar of St. Sepulchre's, the Reverend John Rogers, occupies a conspicuous place. He was the first who was burned in the reign of the Bloody Mary. This eminent person had at one time been chaplain to the English merchants at Antwerp, and while residing in that city had aided Tindal and Coverdale in their great work of translating the Bible. He married a German lady of good position, by whom he had a large family, and was enabled, by means of her relations, to reside in peace and safety in Germany. It appeared to be his duty, however, to return to England, and there publicly profess and advocate his religious convictions, even at the risk of death. He crossed the sea; he took his place in the pulpit at St. Paul's Cross; he preached a fearless and animated sermon, reminding his astonished audience of the pure and wholesome doctrine which had been promulgated from that pulpit in the days of the good King Edward, and solemnly warning them against the pestilent idolatry and superstition of these new times. It was his last sermon. He was apprehended, tried, condemned, and burned at Smithfield. We described, when speaking of Smithfield, the manner in which he met his fate.
Connected with the martyrdom of Rogers an odd circumstance is quoted in the "Churches of London." It is stated that when the bishops had resolved to put to death Joan Bocher, a friend came to Rogers and earnestly entreated his influence that the poor woman's life might be spared, and other means taken to prevent the spread of her heterodox doctrines. Rogers, however, contended that she should be executed; and his friend then begged him to choose some other kind of death, which should be more agreeable to the gentleness and mercy prescribed in the gospel. "No," replied Rogers, "burning alive is not a cruel death, but easy enough." His friend hearing these words, expressive of so little regard for the sufferings of a fellow-creature, answered him with great vehemence, at the same time striking Rogers' hand, "Well, it may perhaps so happen that you yourself shall have your hands full of this mild burning." There is no record of Rogers among the papers belonging to St. Sepulchre's, but this may easily be accounted for by the fact that at the Great Fire of 1666 nearly all the registers and archives were destroyed.
A noteworthy incident in the history of St. Sepulchre's was connected with the execution, in 1585, of Awfield, for "sparcinge abrood certen lewed, sedicious, and traytorous bookes." "When he was executed," says Fleetwood, the Recorder, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, July 7th of that year, "his body was brought unto St. Pulcher's to be buryed, but the parishioners would not suffer a traytor's corpse to be laid in the earth where their parents, wives, children, kindred, masters, and old neighbours did rest; and so his carcass was returned to the burial-ground near Tyburn, and there I leave it."
Another event in the history of the church is a tale of suicide. On the 10th of April, 1600, a man named William Dorrington threw himself from the roof of the tower, leaving there a prayer for forgiveness.
We come now to speak of the connection of St. Sepulchre's with the neighbouring prison of Newgate. Being the nearest church to the prison, that connection naturally was intimate. Its clock served to give the time to the hangman when there was an execution in the Old Bailey, and many a poor wretch's last moments must it have regulated.
On the right-hand side of the altar a board with a list of charitable donations and gifts used to contain the following item:—"1605. Mr. Robert Dowe gave, for ringing the greatest bell in this church on the day the condemned prisoners are executed, and for other services, for ever, concerning such condemned prisoners, for which services the sexton is paid £16s. 8d.—£50.
It was formerly the practice for the clerk or bellman of St. Sepulchre's to go under Newgate, on the night preceding the execution of a criminal, ring his bell, and repeat the following wholesome advice:—
"All you that in the condemned hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;
Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent.
And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls.
Past twelve o'clock!"
This practice is explained by a passage in Munday's edition of Stow, in which it is told that a Mr. John Dowe, citizen and merchant taylor of London, gave £50 to the parish church of St. Sepulchre's, under the following conditions:—After the several sessions of London, on the night before the execution of such as were condemned to death, the clerk of the church was to go in the night-time, and also early in the morning, to the window of the prison in which they were lying. He was there to ring "certain tolls with a hand-bell" appointed for the purpose, and was afterwards, in a most Christian manner, to put them in mind of their present condition and approaching end, and to exhort them to be prepared, as they ought to be, to die. When they were in the cart, and brought before the walls of the church, the clerk was to stand there ready with the same bell, and, after certain tolls, rehearse a prayer, desiring all the people there present to pray for the unfortunate criminals. The beadle, also, of Merchant Taylors' Hall was allowed an "honest stipend" to see that this ceremony was regularly performed.
The affecting admonition—"affectingly good," Pennant calls it—addressed to the prisoners in Newgate, on the night before execution, ran as follows:—
"You prisoners that are within,
Who, for wickedness and sin,
after many mercies shown you, are now appointed to die to-morrow in the forenoon; give ear and understand that, to-morrow morning, the greatest bell of St. Sepulchre's shall toll for you, in form and manner of a passing-bell, as used to be tolled for those that are at the point of death; to the end that all godly people, hearing that bell, and knowing it is for your going to your deaths, may be stirred up heartily to pray to God to bestow his grace and mercy upon you, whilst you live. I beseech you, for Jesus Christ's sake, to keep this night in watching and prayer, to the salvation of your own souls while there is yet time and place for mercy; as knowing to-morrow you must appear before the judgment-seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this life, and to suffer eternal torments for your sins committed against Him, unless, upon your hearty and unfeigned repentance, you find mercy through the merits, death, and passion of your only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return to Him."
And the following was the admonition to condemned criminals, as they were passing by St. Sepulchre's Church wall to execution:—" All good people, pray heartily unto God for these poor sinners, who are now going to their death, for whom this great bell doth toll.
"You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears; ask mercy of the Lord, for the salvation of your own souls, through the [merits, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return unto Him.
"Lord have mercy upon you;
Christ have mercy upon you.
Lord have mercy upon you;
Christ have mercy upon you."
The charitable Mr. Dowe, who took such interest in the last moments of the occupants of the condemned cell, was buried in the church of St. Botolph, Aldgate.
Another curious custom observed at St. Sepulchre's was the presentation of a nosegay to every criminal on his way to execution at Tyburn. No doubt the practice had its origin in some kindly feeling for the poor unfortunates who were so soon to bid farewell to all the beauties of earth. One of the last who received a nosegay from the steps of St. Sepulchre's was "Sixteen-string Jack," alias John Rann, who was hanged, in 1774, for robbing the Rev. Dr. Bell of his watch and eighteen pence in money, in Gunnersbury Lane, on the road to Brentford. Sixteen-string Jack wore the flowers in his button-hole as he rode dolefully to the gallows. This was witnessed by John Thomas Smith, who thus describes the scene in his admirable anecdotebook, "Nollekens and his Times:"—" I remember well, when I was in my eighth year, Mr. Nollekens calling at my father's house, in Great Portland Street, and taking us to Oxford Street, to see the notorious Jack Rann, commonly called Sixteenstring Jack, go to Tyburn to be hanged. … The criminal was dressed in a pea-green coat, with an immense nosegay in the button-hole, which had been presented to him at St. Sepulchre's steps; and his nankeen small-clothes, we were told, were tied at each knee with sixteen strings. After he had passed, and Mr. Nollekens was leading me home by the hand, I recollect his stooping down to me and observing, in a low tone of voice, 'Tom, now, my little man, if my father-in-law, Mr. Justice Welch, had been high constable, we could have walked by the side of the cart all the way to Tyburn.'"
When criminals were conveyed from Newgate to Tyburn, the cart passed up Giltspur Street, and through Smithfield, to Cow Lane. Skinner Street had not then been built, and the Crooked Lane which turned down by St. Sepulchre's, as well as Ozier Lane, did not afford sufficient width to admit of the cavalcade passing by either of them, with convenience, to Holborn Hill, or "the Heavy Hill," as it used to be called. The procession seems at no time to have had much of the solemn element about it. "The heroes of the day were often," says a popular writer, "on good terms with the mob, and jokes were exchanged between the men who were going to be hanged and the men who deserved to be."
"On St. Paul's Day," says Mr. Timbs (1868), "service is performed in St. Sepulchre's, in accordance with the will of Mr. Paul Jervis, who, in 1717, devised certain land in trust that a sermon should be preached in the church upon every Paul's Day upon the excellence of the liturgy o the Church of England; the preacher to receive 40s. for such sermon. Various sums are also bequeathed to the curate, the clerk, the treasurer, and masters of the parochial schools. To the poor of the parish he bequeathed 20s. a-piece to ten of the poorest householders within that part of the parish of St. Sepulchre commonly called Smithfield quarter, £4 to the treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and 6s. 8d. yearly to the clerk, who shall attend to receive the same. The residue of the yearly rents and profits is to be distributed unto and amongst such poor people of the parish of St. Sepulchre's, London, who shall attend the service and sermon. At the close of the service the vestry-clerk reads aloud an extract from the will, and then proceeds to the distribution of the money. In the evening the vicar, churchwardens, and common councilmen of the precinct dine together."
In 1749, a Mr. Drinkwater made a praiseworthy bequest. He left the parish of St. Sepulchre £500 to be lent in sums of £25 to industrious young tradesmen. No interest was to be charged, and the money was to be lent for four years.
Next to St. Sepulchre's, on Snow Hill, used to stand the famous old inn of the "Saracen's Head." It was only swept away within the last few years by the ruthless army of City improvers: a view of it in course of demolition was given on page 439. It was one of the oldest of the London inns which bore the "Saracen's Head" for a sign. One of Dick Tarlton's jests makes mention of the "Saracen's Head" without Newgate, and Stow, describing this neighbourhood, speaks particularly of "a fair large inn for receipt of travellers" that "hath to sign the 'Saracen's Head.'" The courtyard had, to the last, many of the characteristics of an old English inn; there were galleries all round leading to the bedrooms, and a spacious gateway through which the dusty mail-coaches used to rumble, the tired passengers creeping forth "thanking their stars in having escaped the highwaymen and the holes and sloughs of the road." Into that courtyard how many have come on their first arrival in London with hearts beating high with hope, some of whom have risen to be aldermen and sit in state as lord mayor, whilst others have gone the way of the idle apprentice and come to a sad end at Tyburn! It was at this inn that Nicholas Nickleby and his uncle waited upon the Yorkshire schoolmaster Squeers, of Dotheboys Hall. Mr. Dickens describes the tavern as it existed in the last days of mail-coaching, when it was a most important place for arrivals and departures in London:—
"Next to the jail, and by consequence near to Smithfield also, and the Compter and the bustle and noise of the City, and just on that particular part of Snow Hill where omnibus horses going eastwards seriously think of falling down on purpose, and where horses in hackney cabriolets going westwards not unfrequently fall by accident, is the coach-yard of the 'Saracen's Head' inn, its portals guarded by two Saracen's heads and shoulders, which it was once the pride and glory of the choice spirits of this metropolis to pull down at night, but which have for some time remained in undisturbed tranquillity, possibly because this species of humour is now confined to St. James's parish, where doorknockers are preferred as being more portable, and bell-wires esteemed as convenient tooth-picks. Whether this be the reason or not, there they are, frowning upon you from each side of the gateway; and the inn itself, garnished with another Saracen's head, frowns upon you from the top of the yard; while from the door of the hind-boot of all the red coaches that are standing therein, there glares a small Saracen's head with a twin expression to the large Saracen's head below, so that the general appearance of the pile is of the Saracenic order."
To explain the use of the Saracen's head as an inn sign various reasons have been given. "When our countrymen," says Selden, "came home from fighting with the Saracens and were beaten by them, they pictured them with huge, big, terrible faces (as you still see the 'Saracen's Head' is), when in truth they were like other men. But this they did to save their own credit." Or the sign may have been adopted by those who had visited the Holy Land either as pilgrims or to fight the Saracens. Others, again, hold that it was first set up in compliment to the mother of Thomas à Becket, who was the daughter of a Saracen. However this may be, it is certain that the use of the sign in former days was very general.
Running past the east end of St. Sepulchre's, from Newgate into West Smithfield, is Giltspur Street, anciently called Knightriders Street. This interesting thoroughfare derives its name from the knights with their gilt spurs having been accustomed to ride this way to the jousts and tournaments which in days of old were held in Smithfield.
In this street was Giltspur Street Compter, a debtors' prison and house of correction appertaining to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex. It stood over against St. Sepulchre's Church, and was removed hither from the east side of Wood Street, Cheapside, in 1791. At the time of its removal it was used as a place of imprisonment for debtors, but the yearly increasing demands upon the contracted space caused that department to be given up, and City debtors were sent to Whitecross Street. The architect was Dance, to whom we are also indebted for the grim pile of Newgate. The Compter was a dirty and appropriately convictlooking edifice. It was pulled down in 1855. Mr. Hepworth Dixon gave an interesting account of this City House of Correction, not long before its demolition, in his "London Prisons" (1850). "Entering," he says, "at the door facing St. Sepulchre's, the visitor suddenly finds himself in a low dark passage, leading into the offices of the gaol, and branching off into other passages, darker, closer, more replete with noxious smells, than even those of Newgate. This is the fitting prelude to what follows. The prison, it must be noticed, is divided into two principal divisions, the House of Correction and the Compter. The front in Giltspur Street, and the side nearest to Newgate Street, is called the Compter. In its wards are placed detenues of various kinds—remands, committals from the police-courts, and generally persons waiting for trial, and consequently still unconvicted. The other department, the House of Correction, occupies the back portion of the premises, abutting on Christ's Hospital. Curious it is to consider how thin a wall divides these widely-separate worlds! And sorrowful it is to think what a difference of destiny awaits the children—destiny inexorable, though often unearned in either case—who, on the one side of it or the other, receive an eleemosynary education! The collegian and the criminal! Who shall say how much mere accident— circumstances over which the child has little power —determines to a life of usefulness or mischief? From the yards of Giltspur Street prison almost the only objects visible, outside of the gaol itself, are the towers of Christ's Hospital; the only sounds audible, the shouts of the scholars at their play. The balls of the hospital boys often fall within the yards of the prison. Whether these sights and sounds ever cause the criminal to pause and reflect upon the courses of his life, we will not say, but the stranger visiting the place will be very apt to think for him. …
"In the department of the prison called the House of Correction, minor offenders within the City of London are imprisoned. No transports are sent hither, nor is any person whose sentence is above three years in length." This able writer then goes on to tell of the many crying evils connected with the institution—the want of air, the over-crowded state of the rooms, the absence of proper cellular accommodation, and the vicious intercourse carried on amongst the prisoners. The entire gaol, when he wrote, only contained thirty-six separate sleeping-rooms. Now by the highest prison calculation—and this, be it noted, proceeds on the assumption that three persons can sleep in small, miserable, unventilated cells, which are built for only one, and are too confined for that, being only about one-half the size of the model cell for one at Pentonville—it was only capable of accommodating 203 prisoners, yet by the returns issued at Michaelmas, 1850, it contained 246!
A large section of the prison used to be devoted to female delinquents, but lately it was almost entirely given up to male offenders.
"The House of Correction, and the Compter portion of the establishment," says Mr. Dixon, "are kept quite distinct, but it would be difficult to award the palm of empire in their respective facilities for demoralisation. We think the Compter rather the worse of the two. You are shown into a room, about the size of an apartment in an ordinary dwelling-house, which will be found crowded with from thirty to forty persons, young and old, and in their ordinary costume; the low thief in his filth and rags, and the member of the swell-mob with his bright buttons, flash finery, and false jewels. Here you notice the boy who has just been guilty of his first offence, and committed for trial, learning with a greedy mind a thousand criminal arts, and listening with the precocious instinct of guilty passions to stories and conversations the most depraved and disgusting. You regard him with a mixture of pity and loathing, for he knows that the eyes of his peers are upon him, and he stares at you with a familiar impudence, and exhibits a devil-may-care countenance, such as is only to be met with in the juvenile offender. Here, too, may be seen the young clerk, taken up on suspicion—perhaps innocent—who avoids you with a shy look of pain and uneasiness: what a hell must this prison be to him! How frightful it is to think of a person really untainted with crime, compelled to herd for ten or twenty days with these abandoned wretches!
"On the other, the House of Correction side of the gaol, similar rooms will be found, full of prisoners communicating with each other, laughing and shouting without hindrance. All this is so little in accordance with existing notions of prison discipline, that one is continually fancying these disgraceful scenes cannot be in the capital of England, and in the year of grace 1850. Very few of the prisoners attend school or receive any instruction; neither is any kind of employment afforded them, except oakum-picking, and the still more disgusting labour of the treadmill. When at work, an officer is in attendance to prevent disorderly conduct; but his presence is of no avail as a protection to the less depraved. Conversation still goes on; and every facility is afforded for making acquaintances, and for mutual contamination."
After having long been branded by intelligent inspectors as a disgrace to the metropolis, Giltspur Street Compter was condemned, closed in 1854, and subsequently taken down.
Nearly opposite what used to be the site of the Compter, and adjoining Cock Lane, is the spot called Pie Corner, near which terminated the Great Fire of 1666. The fire commenced at Pudding Lane, it will be remembered, so it was singularly appropriate that it should terminate at Pie Corner. Under the date of 4th September, 1666, Pepys, in his "Diary," records that "W. Hewer this day went to see how his mother did, and comes home late, telling us how he hath been forced to remove her to Islington, her house in Pye Corner being burned; so that the fire is got so far that way." The figure of a fat naked boy stands over a public house at the corner of the lane; it used to have the following warning inscription attached:— "This boy is in memory put up of the late fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666." According to Stow, Pie Corner derived its name from the sign of a well-frequented hostelry, which anciently stood on the spot. Strype makes honourable mention of Pie Corner, as "noted chiefly for cooks' shops and pigs dressed there during Bartholomew Fair." Our old writers have many references—and not all, by the way, in the best taste—to its cookstalls and dressed pork. Shadwell, for instance, in the Woman Captain (1680) speaks of "meat dressed at Pie Corner by greasy scullions;" and Ben Jonson writes in the Alchemist (1612)—
"I shall put you in mind, sir, at Pie Corner,
Taking your meal of steam in from cooks' stalls."
And in "The Great Boobee" ("Roxburgh Ballads"):
"Next day I through Pie Corner passed;
The roast meat on the stall
Invited me to take a taste;
My money was but small."
But Pie Corner seems to have been noted for more than eatables. A ballad from Tom D'Urfey's "Pills to Purge Melancholy," describing Bartholomew Fair, eleven years before the Fire of London, says:—
"At Pie-Corner end, mark well my good friend,
'Tis a very fine dirty place;
Where there's more arrows and bows. …
Than was handled at Chivy Chase."
We have already given a view of Pie Corner in our chapter on Smithfield, page 361.
Hosier Lane, running from Cow Lane to Smithfield, and almost parallel to Cock Lane, is described by "R. B.," in Strype, as a place not over-well built or inhabited. The houses were all old timber erections. Some of these—those standing at the south corner of the lane—were in the beginning of this century depicted by Mr. J. T. Smith, in his "Ancient Topography of London." He describes them as probably of the reign of James I. The rooms were small, with low, unornamented ceilings; the timber, oak, profusely used; the gables were plain, and the walls lath and plaster. They were taken down in 1809.
In the corner house, in Mr. Smith's time, there was a barber whose name was Catchpole; at least, so it was written over the door. He was rather an odd fellow, and possessed, according to his own account, a famous relic of antiquity. He would gravely show his customers a short-bladed instrument, as the identical dagger with which Walworth killed Wat Tyler.
Hosier Lane, like Pie Corner, used to be a great resort during the time of Bartholomew Fair, "all the houses," it is said in Strype, "generally being made public for tippling."
We return now from our excursion to the north of St. Sepulchre's, and continue our rambles to the west, and before speaking of what is, let us refer to what has been.
Turnagain Lane is not far from this. "Near unto this Seacoal Lane," remarks Stow, "in the turning towards Holborn Conduit, is Turnagain Lane, or rather, as in a record of the 5th of Edward III., Windagain Lane, for that it goeth down west to Fleet Dyke, from whence men must turn again the same way they came, but there it stopped." There used to be a proverb, "He must take him a house in Turnagain Lane."
A conduit formerly stood on Snow Hill, a little below the church. It is described as a building with four equal sides, ornamented with four columns and pediment, surmounted by a pyramid, on which stood a lamb—a rebus on the name of Lamb, from whose conduit in Red Lion Street the water came. There had been a conduit there, however, before Lamb's day, which was towards the close of the sixteenth century.
At No. 37, King Street, Snow Hill, there used to be a ladies' charity school, which was established in 1702, and remained in the parish 145 years. Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale were subscribers to this school, and Johnson drew from it his story of Betty Broom, in "The Idler." The world of domestic service, in Betty's days, seems to have been pretty much as now. Betty was a poor girl, bred in the country at a charity-school, maintained by the contributions of wealthy neighbours. The patronesses visited the school from time to time, to see how the pupils got on, and everything went well, till "at last, the chief of the subscribers having passed a winter in London, came down full of an opinion new and strange to the whole country. She held it little less than criminal to teach poor girls to read and write. They who are born to poverty, she said, are born to ignorance, and will work the harder the less they know. She told her friends that London was in confusion by the insolence of servants; that scarcely a girl could be got for all-work, since education had made such numbers of fine ladies, that nobody would now accept a lower title than that of a waiting-maid, or something that might qualify her to wear laced shoes and long ruffles, and to sit at work in the parlour window. But she was resolved, for her part, to spoil no more girls. Those who were to live by their hands should neither read nor write out of her pocket. The world was bad enough already, and she would have no part in making it worse.
"She was for a long time warmly opposed; but she persevered in her notions, and withdrew her subscription. Few listen, without a desire of conviction, to those who advise them to spare their money. Her example and her arguments gained ground daily; and in less than a year the whole parish was convinced that the nation would be ruined if the children of the poor were taught to read and write." So the school was dissolved, and Betty with the rest was turned adrift into the wide and cold world; and her adventures there any one may read in "The Idler" for himself.
There is an entry in the school minutes of 1763, to the effect that the ladies of the committee censured the schoolmistress for listening to the story of the Cock Lane ghost, and "desired her to keep her belief in the article to herself."
Skinner Street—now one of the names of the past—which ran by the south side of St. Sepulchre's, and formed the connecting link between Newgate Street and Holborn, received its name from Alderman Skinner, through whose exertions, about 1802, it was principally built. The following account of Skinner Street is from the picturesque pen of Mr. William Harvey ("Aleph"), whose long familiarity with the places he describes renders doubly valuable his many contributions to the history of London scenes and people:—"As a building speculation," he says, writing in 1863, "it was a failure. When the buildings were ready for occupation, tall and substantial as they really were, the high rents frightened intending shopkeepers. Tenants were not to be had; and in order to get over the money difficulty, a lottery, sanctioned by Parliament, was commenced. Lotteries were then common tricks of finance, and nobody wondered at the new venture; but even the most desperate fortune-hunters were slow to invest their capital, and the tickets hung sadly on hand. The day for the drawing was postponed several times, and when it came, there was little or no excitement on the subject, and whoever rejoiced in becoming a house-owner on such easy terms, the original projectors and builders were understood to have suffered considerably. The winners found the property in a very unfinished condition. Few of the dwellings were habitable, and as funds were often wanting, a majority of the houses remained empty, and the shops unopened. After two or three years things began to improve; the vast many-storeyed house which then covered the site of Commercial Place was converted into a warehousing depôt; a capital house opposite the 'Saracen's Head' was taken by a hosier of the name of Theobald, who, opening his shop with the determination of selling the best hosiery, and nothing else, was able to convince the citizens that his hose was first-rate, and, desiring only a living profit, succeeded, after thirty years of unwearied industry, in accumulating a large fortune. Theobald was possessed of literary tastes, and at the sale of Sir Walter Scott's manuscripts was a liberal purchaser. He also collected a library of exceedingly choice books, and when aristocratic customers purchased stockings of him, was soon able to interest them in matters of far higher interest…
"The most remarkable shop—but it was on the left-hand side, at a corner house—was that established for the sale of children's books. It boasted an immense extent of window-front, extending from the entrance into Snow Hill, and towards Fleet Market. Many a time have I lingered with loving eyes over those fascinating story-books, so rich in gaily-coloured prints; such careful editions of the marvellous old histories, 'Puss in Boots,' 'Cock Robin,' 'Cinderella,' and the like. Fortunately the front was kept low, so as exactly to suit the capacity of a childish admirer. . . . . But Skinner Street did not prosper much, and never could compete with even the dullest portions of Holborn. I have spoken of some reputable shops; but you know the proverb, 'One swallow will not make a summer,' and it was a declining neighbourhood almost before it could be called new. In 1810 the commercial depôt, which had been erected at a cost of £25,000, and was the chief prize in the lottery, was destroyed by fire, never to be rebuilt—a heavy blow and discouragement to Skinner Street, from which it never rallied. Perhaps the periodical hanging-days exercised an unfavourable influence, collecting, as they frequently did, all the thieves and vagabonds of London. I never sympathised with Pepys or Charles Fox in their passion for public executions, and made it a point to avoid those ghastly sights; but early of a Monday morning, when I had just reached the end of Giltspur Street, a miserable wretch had just been turned off from the platform of the debtors' door, and I was made the unwilling witness of his last struggles. That scene haunted me for months, and I often used to ask myself, 'Who that could help it would live in Skinner Street?' The next unpropitious event in these parts was the unexpected closing of the child's library. What could it mean? Such a well-to-do establishment shut up? Yes, the whole army of shutters looked blankly on the inquirer, and forbade even a single glance at 'Sinbad' or 'Robinson Crusoe.' It would soon be re-opened, we naturally thought; but the shutters never came down again. The whole house was deserted; not even a messenger in bankruptcy, or an ancient Charley, was found to regard the playful double knocks of the neighbouring juveniles. Gradually the glass of all the windows got broken in, a heavy cloud of black dust, solidifying into inches thick, gathered on sills and doors and brickwork, till the whole frontage grew as gloomy as Giant Despair's Castle. Not long after, the adjoining houses shared the same fate, and they remained from year to year without the slightest sign of life—absolute scarecrows, darkening with their uncomfortable shadows the busy streets. Within half a mile, in Stamford Street, Blackfriars, there are (1863) seven houses in a similar predicament— window-glass demolished, doors cracked from top to bottom, spiders' webs hanging from every projecting sill or parapet. What can it mean? The loss in the article of rents alone must be over £1,000 annually. If the real owners are at feud with imaginary owners, surely the property might be rendered valuable, and the proceeds invested. Even the lawyers can derive no profit from such hopeless abandonment. I am told the whole mischief arose out of a Chancery suit. Can it be the famous 'Jarndyce v. Jarndyce' case? And have all the heirs starved each other out? If so, what hinders our lady the Queen from taking possession? Any change would be an improvement, for these dead houses make the streets they cumber as dispiriting and comfortless as graveyards. Busy fancy will sometimes people them, and fill the dreary rooms with strange guests. Do the victims of guilt congregate in these dark dens? Do wretches 'unfriended by the world or the world's law,' seek refuge in these deserted nooks, mourning in the silence of despair over their former lives, and anticipating the future in unappeasable agony? Such things have been—the silence and desolation of these doomed dwellings make them the more suitable for such tenants."
A street is nothing without a mystery, so a mystery let these old tumble-down houses remain, whilst we go on to tell that, in front of No. 58, the sailor Cashman was hung in 1817, as we have already mentioned, for plundering a gunsmith's shop there. William Godwin, the author of "Caleb Williams," kept a bookseller's shop for several years in Skinner Street, at No. 41, and published school-books in the name of Edward Baldwin. On the wall there was a stone carving of Æsop reciting one of his fables to children.
The most noteworthy event of the life of Godwin was his marriage with the celebrated Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of a "Vindication of the Rights of Women," whose congenial mind, in politics and morals, he ardently admired. Godwin's account of the way in which they got on together is worth reading:—"Ours," he writes, "was not an idle happiness, a paradise of selfish and transitory pleasures. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to mention, that influenced by ideas I had long entertained, I engaged an apartment about twenty doors from our house, in the Polygon, Somers Town, which I designed for the purpose of my study and literary occupations. Trifles, however, will be interesting to some readers, when they relate to the last period of the life of such a person as Mary. I will add, therefore, that we were both of us of opinion, that it was possible for two persons to be too uniformly in each other's society. Influenced by that opinion, it was my practice to repair to the apartment I have mentioned as soon as I rose, and frequently not to make my appearance in the Polygon till the hour of dinner. We agreed in condemning the notion, prevalent in many situations in life, that a man and his wife cannot visit in mixed society but in company with each other, and we rather sought occasions of deviating from than of complying with this rule. By this means, though, for the most part, we spent the latter half of each day in one another's society, yet we were in no danger of satiety. We seemed to combine, in a considerable degree, the novelty and lively sensation of a visit with the more delicious and heartfelt pleasure of a domestic life."
This philosophic union, to Godwin's inexpressible affliction, did not last more than eighteen months, at the end of which time Mrs. Godwin died, leaving an only daughter, who in the course of time became the second wife of the poet Shelley, and was the author of the wild and extraordinary tale of "Frankenstein."
High tide is a mathematical certainty
6 hours goes up, 6 hours goes down
-
More high tides on The Guardian
-
Recent dabbling in colored pencil art - I enjoyed my times in the low country between Savannah, GA and St. Augustine, Fl. The marshlands are a dreamy abstract landscape which aren't quite sea and aren't quite land; certainty is gone & imagine takes root. Combined with reflections of sky in the water, our expectations of landscapes have to be discarded for a new horizon experience... As far as style, I love abstract expressionism, but I find that people get most attached to some degree of realism. So these days I enjoy working towards timeless landscapes. When I first attended the Savannah College of Art and Design after high school in
rural Indiana, I was amazed at the low country marshlands there. This landscape wasn’t quite land, wasn’t quite water - it was a puzzle to the eye and blurred both realities. And when the water mirrored the sky, it was just beauty…
CERTAINTY ► Motivational Video ᴴᴰ LINK : youtu.be/6rvqmqw9UM0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE BILLIONAIRE MINDSET - Motivational Video (from the great achievers of the world) This might be the best motivational video for someone going through a breakup! THE MINDSET BEHIND SUCCESS - Motivational Video " The Power Of Belief " Mindset and Success MINDSET FOR SUCCESS - Motivational Video 2016 Mindset the new Psychology of success - Great Video to Motivate YOU CEO Mindset - Top Billionaires - Best Motivational Video 2016 !!! Motivational Video - Immortal El Poder de la Pasión Motivational Video • Alone Motivation For Life - Motivational Videos ( Channel ) UNCOMMON MAN - Motivational Video 2016 FOCUS ON YOU - Motivation For Life - 2016 IMMORTAL ► Motivational Video 2016 ᴴᴰ The Power Of Positive Thinking - Inspirational Video 2016 THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY - Motivational Video 2016 motivational videos for success in life, break up motivation, breakup motivation, study motivation, motivation to study, motivational break up, eric thomas focus, focus motivation, mindset motivation, motivational speech for success in life, motivational speech 2016, break up motivational speech, motivation to study hard, motivational speech after break up, break up motivational video, mindset for success, joel osteen motivational speech, motivational speech break up, motivation after break up, et motivation, success mindset, motivational video, workout motivational speech, motivation heartbroken, fitness motivation speech, workout motivation speech, gym motivation speech, motivation study, heartbroken motivational, discipline motivation, motivational speech, motivational video, motivation kelly rowland, motivational videos for success in life, motivational songs, motivational speech for success in life, motivational speaker, motivational speeches for athletes, motivation music, motivation video, motivation song, motivation workout, motivation to study, motivation for students, motivation ti, motivation 2015, motivation arnold schwarzenegger, motivation and emotion , motivation at work , motivation and inspiration, motivation animation, motivational amv, motivation audio, motivation after break up, motivation athletes, motivation about life, a motivational video, a motivational speech, a motivational song, a motivational video for students, a motivational story, a motivational video never give up, a motivational speech on ending poverty, a motivational movie, a dream motivational, motivation bodybuilding, motivation by kelly rowland, motivation boxing, motivation business, motivation bodybuilding 2015, motivation become a lion, motivation baseball, motivation beat, motivation believe in yourself, motivation best,lil b motivation, motivational songs, lil b motivation instrumental, motivational songs 2014, lil b motivational speech, doe b motivation, motivational music, motivation, lil b motivation remix, b.o.b motivation, motivation compilation, motivation choreography, motivation change, motivation commercial, motivation compilation 2015, motivation clams casino, motivation confidence, motivation ct fletcher, motivation clean, motivation crossfit, c t fletcher motivation, c.ronaldo motivation, c.ronaldo motivational video, warrior motivation c, motivation dream, motivation dubstep, motivation depression, motivation don't give up, motivation don't quit, motivation documentary, motivation darkness, motivation desire, motivation dc young fly, motivation dance, d rose motivational video,d rose motivation, d wade motivation, motivation d, motivation dj mike d, basketball motivation d rose, motivational mr d, motivation entretien d'embauche, motivation d'avant match, motivation d'un coach, motivation eric thomas, motivation excuses, motivation eric thomas how bad do you want it, motivation et, motivation entrepreneur, motivation exercise, motivation education, motivation elliot hulse, motivation epic, motivation eric thomas breathe, e motivational speaker, e t motivational speaker, e thomas motivation, e t motivation, e 60 motivation, e-sports motivation, motivation football, motivation for studying, motivation for school, motivation for working out, motivation fear, motivation for life, motivation fitness, motivation for kids, motivation for teachers, motivational videos f, motivational speech f, motivational music f, motivation f, motivational songs f, motivation gym, motivationgrid, motivation grind, motivation gym music, motivation greg plitt, motivation gym workout, motivation guru, motivation get up, motivation goals, motivation get over depression, vince g motivation, chill rob g motivation, bboy lil g motivation, motivation how bad do you want it, hard work, motivation hard times, motivation hip hop, motivation hour, motivation how great i am, motivation hindi, motivation hunger, motivation heartbroken, motivation hero, triple h motivation, youtu.be/6rvqmqw9UM0