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if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.
Jaqueline Larsen coproduction.
Orphanage/AIDS hospice/School in slums of Bangkok, Thailand
© 2008 The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions & Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok
For Literary Reference group, excerpted from Chapter 9 in The Gospel of Father Joe by Greg Barrett (Wiley Books, April 2008, 321 pgs):
In support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its (oddly) controversial promotion of contraception (if, say, condoms "tie God's hands," as the Roman Catholic hierarchy maintains, isn't the rhythm method a premeditated attempt to do the same?) it's important to hear from a Catholic priest who works in the trenches of self-righteous consequences. That is, in the abject poverty where the absence of condoms leads to more than just outsized Catholic-sized families too large for developing world incomes. It also leads to STDs, most notably HIV/AIDS.
Today begins the London Summit on Family Planning co-hosted by the Gates and the UK Department of International Development. In short, the summit's goal is to inject a measure of sanity into the holier-than-thou political-religious debate about whether or not first world money should pay for third world contraception.
A few years ago when I was researching a book on a fiery social revolutionary who lived and worked in the port slums of Bangkok - the infected core of Thailand's sex industry − I asked him about the Catholic church's stubborn stance on contraception. After all, Father Joe Maier is an outspoken Catholic priest famous for refusing to suffer fools. He's a church outcast in that way. Taped to the windows of his Human Development Foundation and Mercy Centre charity were something you don't normally see on public display in Catholic establishments. Or in any religious establishment. Condoms. Many condoms.
So one morning as we lingered over a pot of coffee I asked him about the condoms and Mercy's "passive" (his adjective) promotion of them. They were strung outside of Mercy's offices in various arrays of color and design − a smiley face, a tree, and what appeared to be a flower. The ones we'd just passed were arranged to look like a caterpillar: blue condom, orange condom, green condom, red condom, yellow condom, pink condom, lined up and taped across an office window off Mercy's main breezeway. Rubber bands served as caterpillar antennae, a pencil eraser for an eye. It was a silhouette.
Seeing this art I'd suggested to Father Joe that Mercy's promotion of condoms was something more than passive. It was aggressive. He flinched at first, as if I'd made an accusation, and he then began to step lightly around the issue. It was an odd gait for him.
"No, no, we don't push them and we don't endorse them," he said. "We just put the information out where it needs to be. ... It's there. If it's needed."
Hoping he'd relax if he knew I was on his side I told him what I (an indigenous Southern Baptist, no less) thought about the subject: Condoms should be slung by the fistful into Bangkok's slum streets, like candy in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. All the better if it were done with the explicit consent of clergy - priests, pastors, abbots, imams, whomever.
At the time Father Joe and Mercy were caring for some fifty orphans infected with HIV/AIDS in utero, a number that fluctuated depending on the children just arriving at the orphanage and those who were newly dearly departed. Father Joe had told me earlier that morning that he could count six Mercy teenagers whom he thought were determined to work in Thailand's sex industry. Some had friends and relatives already in it who flaunted the latest iPod, Blackberry, et cetera. Others had gambling- or drug-addicted relatives who needed money or family members sick and dying who needed the same. Whatever the reason, they were headed for an industry that promised fast cash.
"Massage places and karaoke bars, whatever else they call themselves. That's what they'll do, and that's just an effing fact," he'd said during our predawn interview and walk in Bangkok's Lumpini Park (think Central Park, only smaller, lusher, nicer). It had been a few minutes past six and we'd just passed a group of girls (or boys - it's often difficult to know) in tiny shorts and halter tops heading home from work. Back at the Mercy Centre I told him that during my twenty-one-hour pilgrimage from Washington to Chicago to Tokyo to Bangkok, United Airlines had broadcast a video discouraging passengers from having sex ... with children. "I am a child, not a tourist attraction," the film's young Asian girl had implored. The World Vision International video had been shown only on the trip's final leg.
In my opinion, I told him, whether or not to promote the use of condoms in Thailand − or anywhere else − seemed like a nonissue to me. He didn't immediately respond, so I did what I thought one was supposed to do when a priest sat quietly in front of you. I confessed. In two or three long breaths, I told of how I knew from my own hormonally charged youth and two glorious summers spent as a beach lifeguard that if a condom isn't in the pocket or wallet at three pints and a few minutes past midnight it doesn't rank as a priority. And I'd come from the privileged stock that all of behavioral science calls low-risk: two-parent home, devoted mom and dad, mandatory Sunday school and church attendance with boilerplate warnings about something worse than AIDS. Eternal damnation. I'd been risking my inheritance of the hereafter. At the precise moment when matters of gratification needed deciding, this meticulously planted fear had dissolved right along with my self-discipline. For me, every time. In my moderate Baptist church straddling the Virginia-Tennessee state line the best ministers had spit more than Old Testament fire and brimstone. They preached New Testament forgiveness. Said God had an infinite supply. Convinced me of it. So despite the distractions of a pretty girl and all the blood drained from my brain, I always recalled that lesson. At the line of scrimmage at a quarter past midnight, it had been the only dog-eared lesson of my church upbringing.
Finishing, I waited for a knowing nod or absolution or something. Instead, Father Joe shifted in his chair, placed a hot mug of bitter slum blend on the table and leaned forward, elbows on knees with a finger pointing.
"That thing on?"
He was looking at my voice recorder. It was.
"On strictly moral issues," he began, "there can be no give-and-take. I'm with the Church on that. Murder is murder, and killing is wrong. I'm against abortion too. I should be clear on that. These things are wrong ... just wrong. Now maybe it's a case where the mother's health is at risk or maybe you had to kill an intruder or kill to protect your children or whatever. But you feel bad afterward. That's different. These were choices forced on you. ... But does the sun come up in the morning and go down at night? Yes, yes, of course. Some things do not need debating."
He paused, staring at the silver recorder with its glaring red "on" light.
"Now," he continued, taking a deep breath. "Is it wrong to use a condom?"
The old Catholic popes and the newest old one too - Pope Benedict XVI, a conservative theologian steeped more in biblical curriculum than third world slums − had maintained a ban on contraception that predated latex prophylactics and HIV pandemics. The Holy See has forever considered the seed of man holy. To divorce it from propagation by any method other than the careful navigation of menstrual cycles is the same as tying God's (omnipotent?) hands. The pill, the diaphragm, the condom − these are cheating. Thus sayeth Rome. Liberal Catholics had hoped that Vatican II, which culminated in 1965 with Good Pope John's nudge of the church to loosen up, would end its ban on birth control. Instead, Pope Paul VI, a son of Italian nobility who'd taken a solemn oath against the heresy of Modernism, reaffirmed it with an encyclical titled Humanae Vitae. He described the "conjugal act" as the ordination of man's highest calling − fatherhood. He declared that all men must be called back to the norms of natural law. "Each and every act of marriage must remain open to the transmission of life," Pope Paul VI concluded.
This interpretation of "natural moral law" was God's indisputable will, he'd written in that controversial encyclical. His immediate successors, John Paul I and II, carried out his wishes like marching orders to the end of one century and the beginning of the next. Meanwhile, HIV burned through much of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and hospices like Mercy's became expert at marrying last rites to the realities of AIDS and poverty.
Father Joe scooted several inches closer to my recorder. He spoke slowly, enunciating each syllable so that every word registered.
"Condoms are what I call a doubtful moral issue. Go ahead, write it down. This is a doubtful moral issue. It's not murder, it's not abortion. Doubtful. Moral. Issue."
He stopped and waited until I wrote it.
"Now, for me to tell people they must follow my religion and my religious beliefs on a doubtful moral issue that can put lives in danger − does put lives in danger − well, that is the height of arrogance."
He paused, determined to maintain a cool demeanor and damp down the worst of his prolific cursing.
"The height of arrogance, isn't it?" he continued, starting to nod his head more vigorously, grinding his teeth, squinting. I could see the pot begin to simmer. "Little Joey Maier from the slums of Longview, Washington, is going to tell these fervent Buddhists of Thailand that they cannot, will not, shall not use condoms? Who am I? The Spirit speaks to them as well as He speaks to me. No more, no less, no better, no worse."
One week earlier, three of the six teenagers whom he feared would eventually work in strip bars and massage parlors had run away from one of Mercy's four orphanages. They were back the same day, but for how long? Like all the kids, they hungered for independence and material gain-- for whatever satisfaction and comfort our hip culture attaches to smart phones and 4G. It doesn't matter how many Saturday Masses the kids of Mercy attend or how many different ways Father Joe tells the parable of mustard seeds falling on gravel and ground, some kids are going to find the shortcut. Thailand's tourist economy and black market depend on it.
"So what do you do?" he asked rhetorically. "Do you just pretend that all will be fine and they'll always listen and that they ultimately will make good choices? No. No! You bring a bunch of sex workers in here and let them talk to the girls, let them tell the girls about every detail of the business. These are the facts − listen up girlies. Maybe they talk some sense into them."
He thought about that.
"Probably not."
He started to stand but sat back down like he'd been pushed. Then he began tapping the table with one finger, hard, like he was punching a number into his phone.
"But at least the girls will have been told that this is the way it is and this is the reality of it and this is what you have to do if you're going to survive this shit, and this is how you protect your twat if you want to live, and these are the rules, and this is how it is, this is the game you're getting into."
All of this had come out in a single gust. He stood to refill his lungs, and when he did his cool resolve fell like a costume backstage. If he had stepped lightly before he stomped now.
"Use a condom? You asked me whether or not we should tell those girls to use condoms?"
Well, not exactly. I started to correct him but thought better of it.
"We damn well better tell them to use condoms! Not only that, we better tell them the whys and the hows and the whens. ... What a sin! What an effing Catholic sin to look the other way, to pretend this shit ain't gonna happen if we don't say so."
He'd been attempting to curb his coarsest language, but restraint was now in that costume heap on the floor. His tone turned mocking− high-pitched and holier than thou. "'Noooo, I don't want them to be sex workers. I don't approve, so I'm not going to tell them anything,"' he said, shaking his head and a figurative finger at Rome. "What a fookin' - fookin' -Catholic sin!"
He sat down, deflated, and fell silent. I scribbled that exact description in my notebook, then looked up, expecting more. He had leaned forward to rest his head in his hands, his fingers pressed into his temples as if his head were about to explode.
"You see," he concluded, looking up but speaking so quietly the recorder barely picked up his voice, "if I ignored it, I'd be an accomplice in their deaths. Wouldn't I? I would've killed them."
He sighed.
"So ... what was your question?"
For more information on Father Joe's work and chairty visit the Mercy Centre website or its USA tax-deductible equivalent here
Berlin boasts two zoological gardens, a consequence of decades of political and administrative division of the city. The older one, called Zoo Berlin, founded in 1844, is situated in what is now called the "City West". It is the most species-rich zoo worldwide. The other one, called Tierpark Berlin ("Animal Park"), was established on the long abandoned premises of Friedrichsfelde Manor Park in the eastern borough of Lichtenberg, in 1954. Covering 160 ha, it is the largest landcape zoo in Europe.
Auf einer Fläche von 60.000 m² hat nun die einzigartige Tierwelt des Himalaya Einzug gehalten. Dabei begegnen den Bergsteiger*innen nicht nur bekannte Gebirgsbewohner wie Rote Pandas, Schneeleoparden und Bartgeier, sondern auch weniger bekannte Arten wie Goldtakin, Goral, Manul und Satyrtragopan. Nach einer Bauzeit von gut einem Jahr verwandelte sich der 60 Meter hohe Trümmerberg in eine asiatische Gebirgslandschaft mit zahlreichen neuen Aussichtpunkten. Rund 100 Individuen aus 22 verschiedenen – größtenteils in der Natur bedrohten - Tierarten haben in Berlins Hochgebirge ihr neues Zuhause gefunden. (Tierpark Berlin)
Auf einer Fläche von 60.000 m² hat nun die einzigartige Tierwelt des Himalaya Einzug gehalten. Dabei begegnen den Bergsteiger*innen nicht nur bekannte Gebirgsbewohner wie Rote Pandas, Schneeleoparden und Bartgeier, sondern auch weniger bekannte Arten wie Goldtakin, Goral, Manul und Satyrtragopan. Nach einer Bauzeit von gut einem Jahr verwandelte sich der 60 Meter hohe Trümmerberg in eine asiatische Gebirgslandschaft mit zahlreichen neuen Aussichtpunkten. Rund 100 Individuen aus 22 verschiedenen – größtenteils in der Natur bedrohten - Tierarten haben in Berlins Hochgebirge ihr neues Zuhause gefunden. (Quelle: Tierpark Berlin)
The unique animal world of the Himalayas has now found its way into an area of 60,000 m². Climbers will not only encounter well-known mountain dwellers such as red pandas, snow leopards and bearded vultures, but also lesser-known species such as takin, goral, Pallas'scat and satyr tragopan. After a construction period of just over a year, the 60-metre-high mountain of rubble was transformed into an Asian mountain landscape with numerous new vantage points. Around 100 individuals from 22 different animal species - most of them endangered in the wild - have found their new home in Berlin's high mountains. (Source: Tierpark Berlin)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhesus_macaque
The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), is one of the best-known species of Old World monkeys. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and its tolerance of a broad range of habitats. Native to South, Central and Southeast Asia, troops of Macaca mulatta inhabit a great variety of habitats from grasslands to arid and forested areas, but also close to human settlements
Characteristics
The rhesus macaque is brown or grey in color and has a pink face, which is bereft of fur. Its tail is of medium length and averages between 20.7 and 22.9 cm (8.1 and 9.0 in). Adult males measure approximately 53 cm (21 in) on average and weigh about 7.7 kg (17 lb). Females are smaller, averaging 47 cm (19 in) in length and 5.3 kg (12 lb) in weight. Rhesus macaques have on average 50 vertebrae. Their intermembral index (ratio of arm length to leg length) is 89%. They have dorsal scapulae and a wide rib cage.
The rhesus macaque has 32 teeth with a dental formula of 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3 and bilophodont molars. The upper molars have four cusps: paracone, metacone, protocone and hypocone. The lower molars also have four cusps: metaconid, protoconid, hypoconid and entoconid.
Distribution and habitat
Rhesus macaques are native to northern India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Afghanistan, Vietnam, southern China, and some neighboring areas. They have the widest geographic ranges of any nonhuman primate, occupying a great diversity of altitudes throughout Central, South and Southeast Asia. Inhabiting arid, open areas, rhesus macaques may be found in grasslands, woodlands and in mountainous regions up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in elevation. They are regular swimmers. Babies as young as a few days old can swim, and adults are known to swim over a half mile between islands, but are often found drowned in small groups where their drinking waters lie. Rhesus macaques are noted for their tendency to move from rural to urban areas, coming to rely on handouts or refuse from humans.[3]
The southern and the northern distributional limits for rhesus and bonnet macaques, respectively, currently run parallel to each other in the western part of India, are separated by a large gap in the center, and converge on the eastern coast of the peninsula to form a distribution overlap zone. This overlap region is characterized by the presence of mixed-species troops, with pure troops of both species sometimes occurring even in close proximity to one another. The range extension of rhesus macaque – a natural process in some areas and a direct consequence of introduction by humans in other regions – poses grave implications for the endemic and declining populations of bonnet macaques in southern India.[4]
Distribution of subspecies and populations
The name "rhesus" is reminiscent of the Greek mythological king Rhesus. However, the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Audebert, who applied the name to the species, stated: "it has no meaning".[5]
According to Zimmermann’s first description of 1780, the rhesus macaque is distributed in eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, as far east as the Brahmaputra Valley in peninsular India, Nepal and northern Pakistan. Today, this is known as the Indian rhesus macaque M. m. mulatta, which includes the morphologically similar M. rhesus villosus described by True in 1894 from Kashmir and M. m. mcmahoni described by Pocock in 1932 from Kootai, Pakistan. Several Chinese subspecies of rhesus macaques have been described between 1867 and 1917. The molecular differences identified among populations, however, are alone not consistent enough to conclusively define any subspecies.[6]
The Chinese subspecies can be divided in:
M. m. mulatta is found in western and central China, in the south of Yunnan and southwest of Guangxi;[7]
M. m. lasiota (Gray, 1868), the west Chinese rhesus macaque, is distributed in the west of Sichuan, northwest of Yunnan, and southeast of Qinghai;[7] it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis (Swinhoe, 1867), if not with M. m. mulatta.[6]
M. m. tcheliensis (Milne-Edwards, 1870), the north Chinese rhesus macaque, lives in the north of Henan, south of Shanxi and near Beijing. Some consider it as the most endangered subspecies.[8] Others consider it possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[6]
M. m. vestita (Milne-Edwards, 1892), the Tibetan rhesus macaque, lives in the southeast of Tibet, northwest of Yunnan (Deqing), and perhaps including Yushu;[7] it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[6]
M. m. littoralis (Elliot, 1909), the south Chinese rhesus macaque, lives in Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, northwest of Guangdong, north of Guangxi, northeast of Yunnan, east of Sichuan and south of Shaanxi;[7] it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[6]
M. m. brevicaudus, also referred to as Pithecus brevicaudus (Elliot, 1913), lives on the Hainan Island and Wanshan Islands in Guangdong, and the islands near Hong Kong;[7] it may be synonymous with M. m. mulatta.[6]
M. m. siamica (Kloss, 1917), the Indochinese rhesus macaque, is distributed in Myanmar, in the north of Thailand and Vietnam, in Laos and in the Chinese provinces of Anhui, northwest Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, central and eastern Sichuan, and western and south-central Yunnan; possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[6]
Feral colonies in the United States[edit]
Main article: feral rhesus macaque
Around the spring of 1938, a colony of rhesus macaques called "the Nazuri's" was released in around Silver Springs in Florida by a tour boat operator known locally as "Colonel Tooey" to enhance his "Jungle Cruise". A traditional story that the monkeys were released for scenery enhancement in the Tarzan movies that were filmed at that location is false, as the only Tarzan movie filmed in the area, 1939's Tarzan Finds a Son! does not contain rhesus macaques.[9] In addition, various colonies of rhesus and other monkey species are speculated to be the result of zoos and wildlife parks destroyed in hurricanes, most notably Hurricane Andrew.[10]
A notable colony of rhesus macaques on Morgan Island, one of the Sea Islands in the South Carolina Lowcountry, was imported in the 1970s for use in local labs and are by all accounts thriving.[11]
Ecology and behavior
Although they are infamous as urban pests, which are quick to steal not only food, but also household items, it is not certain if the pair of jeans draped over the wall on the right is their handiwork.
Rhesus macaques are diurnal animals, and both arboreal and terrestrial. They are quadrupedal and, when on the ground, they walk digitigrade and plantigrade. They are mostly herbivorous, feeding on mainly fruit, but also eating seeds, roots, buds, bark, and cereals. They are estimated to consume around 99 different plant species in 46 families. During the monsoon season, they get much of their water from ripe and succulent fruit. Macaques living far from water sources lick dewdrops from leaves and drink rainwater accumulated in tree hollows.[12] They have also been observed eating termites, grasshoppers, ants and beetles.[13] When food is abundant, they are distributed in patches and forage throughout the day in their home ranges. They drink water when foraging and gather around streams and rivers.[14] Rhesus macaques have specialized pouch-like cheeks, allowing them to temporarily hoard their food.
In psychological research, rhesus macaques have demonstrated a variety of complex cognitive abilities, including the ability to make same-different judgments, understand simple rules, and monitor their own mental states.[15] [16] They have even been shown to demonstrate self-agency,[17] an important type of self-awareness.
Group structure
Like other macaques, rhesus troops comprise a mixture of 20–200 males and females.[18] Females may outnumber the males by a ratio of 4:1. Males and females both have separate hierarchies. Females have highly stable matrilineal hierarchies in which a female’s rank is dependent on the rank of her mother. In addition, a single group may have multiple matrilineal lines existing in a hierarchy, and a female outranks any unrelated females that rank lower than her mother.[19] Rhesus macaques are unusual in that the youngest females tend to outrank their older sisters.[20] This is likely because young females are more fit and fertile. Mothers seem to prevent the older daughters from forming coalitions against her. The youngest daughter is the most dependent on the mother, and would have nothing to gain from helping her siblings in overthrowing their mother. Since each daughter had a high rank in her early years, rebelling against her mother is discouraged.[21] Juvenile male macaques also exist in matrilineal lines, but once they reach four to five years of age, they are driven out of their natal groups by the dominant male. Thus, adult males gain dominance by age and experience.[14]
In the group, macaques position themselves based on rank. The "central male subgroup" contains the two or three oldest and most dominant males which are codominant, along with females, their infants and juveniles. This subgroup occupies the center of the group and determines the movements, foraging and other routines.[14] The females of this subgroup are also the most dominant of the entire group. The farther to the periphery a subgroup is, the less dominant it is. Subgroups on the periphery of the central group are run by one dominant male which ranks lower than the central males, and maintains order in the group and communicates messages between the central and peripheral males. A subgroup of subordinate, often subadult males occupy the very edge of the groups and have the responsibility of communicating with other macaque groups and making alarm calls.[22]
Communication
Rhesus macaques interact using a variety of facial expressive, vocalizations and body postures, and gestures. Perhaps the most common facial expression the macaque makes is the "silent bared teeth" face.[23] This is made between individuals of different social ranks with the lower ranking one giving the expression to its superior. A less dominant individual will also make a "fear grimace" accompanied by a scream to appease or redirect aggression.[24] Another submissive behavior is the "present rump", where an individual raises its tail and exposes its genitals to the dominant one.[23] A dominant individual will threaten another individual standing quadrupedally making a silent "open mouth stare" accompanied by the tail sticking straight.[25] During movements, macaques will make "coos" and "grunts". These are also made during affiliative interactions and approaches before grooming.[26] When they find rare food of high quality, macaques will emit "warbles," "harmonic arches", or "chirps." When in threatening situations, macaques will emit a single loud, high-pitched sound called a "shrill bark".[27] "Screeches," "screams", "squeaks", "pant-threats", "growls", and "barks" are used during aggressive interactions.[27] Infants "gecker" to attract their mother's attention.[28]
Reproduction
Adult male macaques try to maximize their reproductive success by entering into consort pairs with females, both in and outside the breeding period. Females prefer to mate with males that will increase the survival of their young. Thus, a consort male provides resources for his female and protects her from predators. Larger, more dominant males are more likely to provide for the females. The breeding period can last up to 11 days, and a female usually mates with four males during that time. Male rhesus macaques have not been observed to fight for access to sexually receptive females, although they suffer more wounds during the mating season.[29] Female macaques first breed when they are four years old, and reach menopause at around 25 years of age.[30] When mating, a male rhesus monkey usually ejaculates less than 15 seconds after sexual penetration.[31] Male macaques generally play no role in raising the young, but do have peaceful relationships with the offspring of their consort pairs.[14]
Mothers with one or more immature daughters in addition to their infants are in contact with their infants less than those with no older immature daughters, because the mothers may pass the parenting responsibilities to her daughters. High-ranking mothers with older immature daughters also reject their infants significantly more than those without older daughters, and tend to begin mating earlier in the mating season than expected based on their dates of parturition the preceding birth season.[32] Infants farther from the center of the groups are more vulnerable to infanticide from outside groups.[14] Some mothers abuse their infants, which is believed to be the result of controlling parenting styles.[33]
In science
The rhesus macaque is well known to science. Due to its relatively easy upkeep in captivity, wide availability and closeness to humans anatomically and physiologically, it has been used extensively in medical and biological research on human and animal health-related topics. It has given its name to the rhesus factor, one of the elements of a person's blood group, by the discoverers of the factor, Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener. The rhesus macaque was also used in the well-known experiments on maternal deprivation carried out in the 1950s by controversial comparative psychologist Harry Harlow. Other medical breakthroughs facilitated by the use of the rhesus macaque include:
development of the rabies, smallpox, and polio vaccines
creation of drugs to manage HIV/AIDS
understanding of the female reproductive cycle and development of the embryo and the propagation of embryonic stem cells.[34]
The U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and NASA launched rhesus macaques into outer space during the 1950s and 1960s, and the Soviet/Russian space program launched them into space as recently as 1997 on the Bion missions. One of these primates ("Able"), which was launched on a suborbital spaceflight in 1959, was one of the two first living beings (along with "Miss Baker" on the same mission) to travel in space and return alive.[citation needed]
On October 25, 1994, the rhesus macaque became the first cloned primate with the birth of Tetra. January 2001 saw the birth of ANDi, the first transgenic primate; ANDi carries foreign genes originally from a jellyfish.[citation needed]
Though most studies of the rhesus macaque are from various locations in northern India, some knowledge of the natural behavior of the species comes from studies carried out on a colony established by the Caribbean Primate Research Center of the University of Puerto Rico on the island of Cayo Santiago, off Puerto Rico.[citation needed] There are no predators on the island, and humans are not permitted to land except as part of the research programmes. The colony is provisioned to some extent, but about half of its food comes from natural foraging.
Rhesus macaques, like many macaques, carry the Herpes B virus. This virus does not typically harm the monkey but is very dangerous to humans in the rare event that it jumps species, for example in the 1997 death of Yerkes National Primate Research Center researcher Elizabeth Griffin.[35][36][37]
Sequencing the genome
Genomic information
NCBI genome ID 215
Ploidy diploid
Genome size 3,097.37 Mb
Number of chromosomes 21 pairs
Year of completion 2007
Work on the genome of the rhesus macaque was completed in 2007, making the species the second nonhuman primate to have its genome sequenced.[38] Humans and macaques apparently share about 93% of their DNA sequence and shared a common ancestor roughly 25 million years ago.[39] The rhesus macaque has 21 pairs of chromosomes.[40]
Comparison of rhesus macaques, chimpanzees and humans revealed the structure of ancestral primate genomes, positive selection pressure and lineage-specific expansions and contractions of gene families.
"The goal is to reconstruct the history of every gene in the human genome," said Evan Eichler, University of Washington, Seattle. DNA from different branches of the primate tree will allow us "to trace back the evolutionary changes that occurred at various time points, leading from the common ancestors of the primate clade to Homo sapiens," said Bruce Lahn, University of Chicago.[41]
After the human and chimpanzee genomes were sequenced and compared, it was usually impossible to tell whether differences were the result of the human or chimpanzee gene changing from the common ancestor. After the rhesus macaque genome was sequenced, three genes could be compared. If two genes were the same, they are presumed to be the original gene.[42]
The chimpanzee and human genome diverged 6 million years ago. They have 98% identity and many conserved regulatory regions. Comparing the macaque and human genomes, which diverged 25 million years ago and had 93% identity, further identified evolutionary pressure and gene function.
Like the chimpanzee, changes were on the level of gene rearrangements rather than single mutations. There were frequent insertions, deletions, changes in the order and number of genes, and segmental duplications near gaps, centromeres and telomeres. So macaque, chimpanzee, and human chromosomes are mosaics of each other.
Surprisingly, some normal gene sequences in healthy macaques and chimpanzees cause profound disease in humans. For example, the normal sequence of phenylalanine hydroxylase in macaques and chimpanzees is the mutated sequence responsible for phenylketonuria in humans. So humans must have been under evolutionary pressure to adopt a different mechanism.
Some gene families are conserved or under evolutionary pressure and expansion in all three primate species, while some are under expansion uniquely in human, chimpanzee or macaque.
For example, cholesterol pathways are conserved in all three species (and other primate species). In all three species, immune response genes are under positive selection, and genes of T cell-mediated immunity, signal transduction, cell adhesion, and membrane proteins generally. Genes for keratin, which produce hair shafts, were rapidly evolving in all three species, possibly because of climate change or mate selection. The X chromosome has three times more rearrangements than other chromosomes. The macaque gained 1,358 genes by duplication.
Triangulation of human, chimpanzee and macaque sequences showed expansion of gene families in each species.
The PKFP gene, important in sugar (fructose) metabolism, is expanded in macaques, possibly because of their high-fruit diet. So are genes for the olfactory receptor, cytochrome P450 (which degrades toxins), and CCL3L1-CCL4 (associated in humans with HIV susceptibility).
Immune genes are expanded in macaques, relative to all four great ape species. The macaque genome has 33 major histocompatibility genes, three times that of human. This has clinical significance because the macaque is used as an experimental model of the human immune system.
In humans, the preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene family is expanded. It is actively expressed in cancers, but normally is testis-specific, possibly involved in spermatogenesis. The PRAME family has 26 members on human chromosome 1. In the macaque, it has eight, and has been very simple and stable for millions of years. The PRAME family arose in translocations in the common mouse-primate ancestor 85 million years ago, and is expanded on mouse chromosome 4.
DNA microarrays are used in macaque research. For example, Michael Katze of University of Washington, Seattle, infected macaques with 1918 and modern influenzas. The DNA microarray showed the macaque genomic response to human influenza on a cellular level in each tissue. Both viruses stimulated innate immune system inflammation, but the 1918 flu stimulated stronger and more persistent inflammation, causing extensive tissue damage, and it did not stimulate the interferon-1 pathway. The DNA response showed a transition from innate to adaptive immune response over seven days.[43][44]
The full sequence and annotation of the Macaque genome is available on the Ensembl genome browser.
I have been trying to get inside Temple Church for some years now. Lat time was in January when the warden assured me it would be open on Saturday, only to find after travelling up from Dover that the door was locked, despite the sign on the door saying it was due to be open.
Anyway, all good things come to those that wait.
-----------------------------------------------------
The Temple Church was consecrated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 10 February 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The whole Temple community had moved from an earlier site in High Holborn, considered by the 1160s to be too confined. The church was the chapel serving the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, and from them it took its name. The Templars – as the knights were popularly known – were soldier monks.
After the success of the First Crusade, the order was founded in Jerusalem in a building on the site of King Solomon’s temple. Their mission was to protect pilgrims travelling to and from the Holy Land, but in order to do this they needed men and money. For more details of the Templars and this early history of the Church, see The Round Church, 1185.
The London Temple was the Templars’ headquarters in Great Britain. The Templars’ churches were always built to a circular design to remind them of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, a round, domed building raised over the site of the sepulchre where Jesus was buried. At first, the Templars were liked and respected. St Bernard of Clairvaux became their patron and they gained many privileges from popes and much support from kings.
In England, King Henry II was probably present at the consecration of the church; King Henry III favoured them so much that he wished to be buried in their church. As a consequence of this wish, the choir of the church was pulled down and a far larger one built in its place, the choir which we now see. This was consecrated on Ascension Day 1240 in the presence of the king. However, after Henry died it was discovered that he had altered his will, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
On 10 February 1185 Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, processed into the Round for the church’s consecration. The King was almost certainly present. A grand church for a grand occasion; for the Round had no such quiet austerity as we see in it today. The walls and grotesque heads were painted: the walls most probably with bands and lozenges of colour. The Round was proudly modern: Heraclius entered through the Norman door to find the first free-standing Purbeck columns ever cut; above them curved in two dimensions Gothic arches rising to the drum. A chancel, some two thirds of the present chancel’s length, stretched to the east. There the Patriach’s procession will have come to rest for Mass. And there the altar stayed. What, then, – on that great day or later – was the function of the Round?
Its most important role was played by its shape. Jerusalem lies at the centre of all medieval maps, and was the centre of the crusaders’ world. The most sacred place in this most sacred city was the supposed site of Jesus’ own burial: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here the crusaders inherited a round church. It was the goal of every pilgrim, whose protection was the Templars’ care. This was the building, of all buildings on earth, that must be defended from its enemies.
In every round church that the Templars built throughout Europe they recreated the sanctity of this most holy place. Among the knights who would be buried in the Round was the most powerful man of his generation: William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (died 1219), adviser to King John and regent to Henry III. His sons’ effigies lie around his own. The Marshal himself (who lies recumbent and still) took the Cross as an old man; his sons (drawing their swords) did not. Their figures lie frozen in stone, forever alert in defence of their father’s long-forgotten cause. Such burial was devoutly to be desired; for to be buried in the Round was to be buried ‘in’ Jerusalem.
The Patriarch Heraclius may well have been the most ignorant, licentious and corrupt priest ever to hold his see. Our reports of his character, however, reach us from his enemies. The great Western chronicler of the Crusades, William of Tyre, was for decades Heraclius’ opponent and rival. In 1180 William had (and had been) expected to be appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem. But the king of Jerusalem was swayed by his mother, said to be a mistress of Heraclius – who was duly appointed Patriarch. William himself was honorably reticent in the face of this reverse. His followers were less restrained. ‘Ernoul’ tells (with more indignation, it seems, than accuracy) how his hero William was excommunicated by the new patriarch, went into exile and died at the hands of Heraclius’ own doctor in Rome. William’s narrative was expanded and continued in Old French as L’Estoire d’ Eracles: its story starts with the Emperor Heraclius who recovered the True Cross in 628 – and includes a prophecy that the Cross, secured by one Heraclius, would be lost (as it was) by another.
Can anything redeem our Heraclius’ reputation? Far more was at stake on his visit than at first appears. He was in London as part of a larger mission:- King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was dying. His kingdom was riven by factions and under threat from Saladin. He had drawn up in his will the rules for the succession: if his nephew, due to become the child-king Baldwin V, were to die before the age of ten, a new ruler should be chosen through the arbitration of four potentates: the Pope, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the King of France and Henry II of England. Late in 1184 a deputation headed west from the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Heraclius, the Grand Master of the Templars and the Hospitallers’ Grand Prior. They visited the Pope, Frederick, Philip II Augustus – and finally Henry. The emissaries reached Reading. As credentials they brought the keys of the Tower of David and the Kingdom’s royal standard. According to some English chroniclers, they offered the Kingdom itself to Henry. The incident is hard to analyse. To plead for protection was to offer the power that would make such protection effective. Did that call for the Kingdom itself? The apparent offer of keys and standard may have been misread; for the ambassadors were reworking a performance already presented to Philip of France. (One French chronicler later derides Heraclius: he was offering the keys to any prince he met.) But the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in desperate straits; and behind the pageant may have lain hopes for the subtlest solution of all: to side-step Jerusalem’s factions; and instead to secure one – any one – of Europe’s leaders as king. How strange, to entrust any such delicate mission to the buffoonish Patriarch of myth.
The story offered welcome ammunition to Henry II’s enemies. Gerald of Wales, bitterly opposed to the Angevins, sees here the turning-point in Henry’s reign: the king failed to rise to this one supreme test; from then on his own and his sons’ adventures faced ruin. Gerald inherited the topos from an old story with a quite different cast. His new version gave Heraclius a starring role. The Patriarch confronted Henry, Gerald tells us, at Heraclius’ departure from Dover. Here is the king’s last chance. ‘Though all the men of my land,’ said the king, ‘were one body and spoke with one mouth, they would not dare speak to me as you have done.’ ‘Do by me,’ replied Heraclius, ‘as you did by that blessed man Thomas of Canterbury. I had rather be slain by you than by the Saracen, for you are worse than any Saracen.’ ‘I may not leave my land, for my own sons will surely rise against me in my absence.’ ‘No wonder, for from the devil they come and to the devil they shall go.’
Gerald’s Heraclius was no coward, and no fool. ‘That blessed man Thomas of Canterbury’ had been killed in 1170. The penance of the four knights who killed him was to serve with the Templars for fourteen years. Henry himself promised to pay for two hundred Templar knights for a year; and in 1172 he undertook to take the Cross himself. Thirteen years had passed. Henry was growing old. Such a vow, undischarged, threatened his immortal soul – as both Heraclius and he knew well. Henry must tread carefully. He summoned a Great Council at Clerkenwell. Surrounded by his advisers, he gave Heraclius his answer: ‘for the good of his realm and the salvation of his own soul’ he declared that he must stay in England. He would provide money instead. Heraclius was unimpressed: ‘We seek a man even without money – but not money without a man.’ Virum appetimus qui pecunia indigeat, non pecuniam quae viro.
***
Our church’s consecration was deep within the diplomatic labyrinth at whose centre lay the future of Jerusalem. The Templars had come a long way. The Order was founded in 1118-9 by a knight of Champagne, Hugh of Payns, who led a group of his fellow-knights in vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. At their foundation they were deeply suspect: it was unnatural for one man to be soldier and monk together. A handful of such ambivalent knights had little chance, it might seem, of attracting support. In the twelfth century the significance of their seal was well known: Matthew Paris, monk of St Albans, explained that the two knights on one horse recalled their lack of horses and poor beginnings.
In Champagne and Burgundy lay the Order’s origin and the seed of its success. Over the course of fifty years a star-burst of spiritual energy illumined all of Europe; and its centre lay in a small area of eastern France. Hugh’s town of Payns was near Troyes, the local city of one Robert, who became a Cluniac monk. In 1075 this Robert, already an abbot, left his monastery with a group of hermits to found a new house: at Molesme. The list of those influenced by Robert and his houses reads as a roll-call of Europe’s spiritual leaders. There was Bruno, who lived briefly as a hermit near Molesme before establishing the most ascetic of all houses, La Grande Chartreuse; Bruno had already been master to Odo, who later became Pope Urban II and preached the First Crusade. When Robert moved again, in search of a yet more rigorous life, he took with him Stephen Harding, later Archbishop of Canterbury. They set up their house at Citeaux.
Harding would in time become abbot. The rigour of the house made it few friends among the local nobility. Its future was uncertain. And then arrived as remarkable a monk as any of that remarkable age: Bernard. He spent three years at Citeaux before a local lord, Hugh Count of Champagne, gave him in 1116 an area of inhospitable woodland well to the north, back in the neighbourhood of Payns. It was known as the Valley of Gall. Bernard gave it a new name: Clairvaux, the Valley of Light.
Bernard secured single-handed the Templars’ future. Hugh of Champagne became a Templar; so did Bernard’s own uncle Andrew. The Templars’ constitution, the Rule, shows all the marks of Bernard’s influence; at the Council of Troyes in 1129 he spoke up for the Order; and, most influential support of all, at the repeated request of Hugh of Payns Bernard wrote In Praise of the New Knighthood.
The New Knighthood’s first half is well-known: in a text advising and praising and warning the knights, Bernard speaks as well to their critics. He is under no illusions: Europe was as glad to be rid of these warring knights as the Holy Land (in Bernard’s eyes) was glad to see them; their army could be a force for good – or for lawless violence. In the tract’s second half Bernard turns to the Holy Land and to Jerusalem itself. Here was his sharpest spur to the pilgrims’ understanding and to the Templars’ own.
Bernard reads Jerusalem itself like a book. In the tradition of Cassian’s fourfold reading of scripture, dominant throughout the Middle Ages, Bernard saw beneath the appearance of the city’s famous sites a far more important spiritual meaning. The land itself invited such a reading:- Bethlehem, ‘house of bread’, was the town where the living bread was first manifest. The ox and ass ate their food at the manger; we must discern there, by contrast, our spiritual food, and not chomp vainly at the Word’s ‘literal’ nourishment. Next, Nazareth, meaning ‘flower’: Bernard reminds us of those who were misled by the odour of flowers into missing the fruit.
And so to Jerusalem itself:- To descend from the Order’s headquarters on the Temple Mount across the Valley of Josaphat and up the Mount of Olives opposite, – this was itself an allegory for the dread of God’s judgement and our joy at receiving his mercy. The House of Martha, Mary and Lazarus offers a moral: the virtue of obedience and the fruits of penance. And above all: in the Holy Sepulchre itself the knight should be raised up to thoughts of Christ’s death and of the freedom from death that it had won for his people: ‘The death of Christ is the death of my death.’ Bernard draws on Paul’s famous account of baptism, and finds in the pilgrims’ weariness the process of their necessary ‘dying’: ‘For we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, so we shall be also in the likeness of the resurrection. How sweet it is for pilgrims after the great weariness of a long journey, after so many dangers of land and sea, there to rest at last where they know their Lord has rested!’
***
The Temple Church is now famous as a backwater, a welcome place of calm. The tides of history have shifted; their currents have dug deep channels far from our own Round Church. It was not always so. The effigies of the Marshal and his sons bear telling witness to the Temple’s role in the court’s and nation’s life. In the 16th century the chronicler Stow described the Templars’ seal. The story of their poverty was by then forgotten or incredible. Stow saw rather an emblem of Charity: a knight on horseback takes a fellow Christian out of danger. Perhaps there had always been romance in that picture of knights sharing a horse. The Order’s Rule, after all, allowed each knight three horses and a squire.
The effigies testify as well to a rich ‘reading’ of Jerusalem. The New Knighthood is double-edged: all that Bernard writes in praise of Jerusalem frees the faithful from the need to travel there: it is the spiritual sense of the city that matters – a sense as readily grasped at home. To find ‘Jerusalem’, as Bernard would have it, the faithful should rather come to Clairvaux, and not just on pilgrimage. So resolute a reading was hard to sustain. Bernard might detach Jerusalem from the benefits its contemplation could bring; but those around him sooner attached Jerusalem’s blessings to such places as fostered its contemplation.
Our effigies seem to us frozen in stone, their figures forever poised to fight battles that ended 700 years ago. But these knights’ eyes are open. They are all portrayed in their early thirties, the age at which Christ died and at which the dead will rise on his return. The effigies are not memorials of what has long since been and gone; they speak of what is yet to come, of these once and future knights who are poised to hear Christ’s summons and to spring again to war.
By 1145 the Templars themselves wore white robes with red crosses. White was linked with more than purity. In the Book of Revelation the martyrs of Christ, clad in white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7.14), are those who will be called to life at the ‘first resurrection’. For a millennium they will reign with Christ; at its end Satan will lead all the nations of the earth against ‘the beloved city’ (Rev 20.9). The final battle will be in Jerusalem. Our knights have good reason to draw their swords. For buried in ‘Jerusalem’, in Jerusalem they shall rise to join the Templars in the martyrs’ white and red. Here in the Temple, in our replica of the Sepulchre itself, the knights are waiting for their call to life, to arms and to the last, climactic defence of their most sacred place on earth.
Little more than fifty years after the consecration of the chancel, the Templars fell on evil times. The Holy Land was recaptured by the Saracens and so their work came to an end. The wealth they had accumulated made them the target of envious enemies, and in 1307, at the instigation of Philip IV King of France, the Order was abolished by the Pope. The papal decree was obeyed in England and King Edward II took control of the London Temple.
Eventually he gave it to the Order of St John – the Knights Hospitaller – who had always worked with the Templars. At the time, the lawyers were looking for a home in London in order to attend the royal courts in Westminster. So the Temple was rented to two colleges of lawyers, who came to be identified as the Inner and Middle Temples. The two colleges shared the use of the church. In this way, the Temple Church became the “college chapel” of those two societies and continues to be maintained by them to the present day.
It was King Henry VIII who brought about the next change in the church. In 1540 he abolished the Hospitallers and confiscated their property. The Temple again belonged to the Crown. It was then for Henry to provide a priest for the church, to whom he gave the title ‘Master of the Temple’.
‘Be of good comfort,’ said Hooker: ‘we have to do with a merciful God, rather to make the best of that little which we hold well; and not with a captious sophister who gathers the worst out of every thing in which we err.’
Richard Hooker was appointed Master of the Temple in 1585. England was in alarm. The threat from Catholic Europe had revived: there had been rebellion against the Queen and Settlement in 1569; in 1570 the Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her subjects free from their allegiance; Mary Queen of Scots was linked with ever further conspiracy against her cousin; and the danger of Spanish invasion was growing.
England’s radical reformers were convinced: England’s only hope of spiritual and political safety lay in the example of Calvin’s godly state, Geneva. The ‘head and neck’ of English Calvinism were Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers. Since 1581 Travers had been the Reader (lecturer) of the Temple. In 1584 the Privy Council ordered the Inner Temple to continue his stipend ‘for his public labours and pains taken against the common adversaries, impugners of the state and the authorities under her Majesty’s gracious government.’ Hooker and Travers were to be colleagues. Their differences soon became clear. To recover the purity of the primitive church, Travers would be rid of all that intervened and would forge the English church anew. Hooker was steeped in classical and medieval thought; saw the roots of his own (and Travers’) understanding in Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas and Calvin himself; and acknowledged –even valued – the differences to which such a rich tradition could give rise: ‘Be it that Peter has one interpretation, and Apollos has another; that Paul is of this mind, and Barnabas of that. If this offend you, the fault is yours.’ As then, so now: ‘Carry peaceable minds, and you may have comfort by this variety.’ When Hooker carefully and bravely explored the possibility that individual Catholics could be saved, the scene was set for the most famous public debated of the day. ‘Surely I must confess unto you,’ said Hooker: ‘if it be an error to think that God may be merciful to save men, even when they err, my greatest comfort is my error. Were it not for the love I bear unto this “error”, I would neither wish to speak nor to live.’
We hear of Hooker’s preaching at the Temple: ‘his voice was low, stature little, gesture none at all, standing stone still in the pulpit, as if the posture of his body were the emblem of his mind, immovable in his opinions. Where his eye was left fixed at the beginning, it was found fixed at the end of the sermon. …The doctrine he delivered had nothing but itself to garnish it.’ Travers, by contrast, was a natural orator, and he was himself a distinguished thinker; he later became the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Hooker held his ground and deepened his reasoning. It was to disclose and offer the comfort of faith that he spoke: ‘Have the sons of God a father careless whether they sink or swim?’ The Temple sermons that survive stress the simple conditions of salvation: ‘Infidelity, extreme despair, hatred of God and all godliness, obduration in sin – cannot stand where there is the least spark of faith, hope, love or sanctity; even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be where heat in the first degree is found.’
The debate was brought to an end by Archbishop Whitgift: In March 1586 Travers was forbidden to preach. In 1591 Hooker resigned, and was appointed vicar of Bishopsbourne in Kent. Here he developed his thought in his masterpiece, Ecclesiastical Polity, the foundational – and still, perhaps, the most important – exploration of doctrine in the history of the Anglican church. Hooker elaborated a theory of law based on the ‘absolute’ fundamental of natural law: this is the expression of God’s supreme reason and governs all civil and ecclesiastical polity. ‘Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.’ Hooker’s influence has pervaded English thought ever since. He was admired by Laud and by the puritan Baxter, extolled by the Restoration bishops, and brought once more to prominence by Keble and the Oxford Movement; he has now been rediscovered (in a recent monograph by Richard Atkinson) within the modern evangelical church. His reach has extended far beyond theologians. Ecclesiastical Polity was the starting-point for Clarendon’s History and seminal for Locke’s philosophy; its self-critical balance touched Andrew Marvell; and Samuel Pepys read it at the recommendation of a friend who declared it ‘the best book, and the only one that made him a Christian.’
THE BATTLE OF THE PULPIT
In 1585 the Master of the Temple, Richard Alvey, died. His deputy – the Reader, Walter Travers – expected to be promoted, but Queen Elizabeth I and her advisers regarded his views as too Calvinist, and Travers was passed over.
Instead a new Master, Richard Hooker, was appointed from Exeter College, Oxford. On Hooker’s arrival, a unique situation arose. Each Sunday morning he would preach his sermon; each Sunday afternoon Travers would contradict him. People came to call it the Battle of the Pulpit, saying mischievously that Canterbury was preached in the morning and Geneva in the afternoon. There was a lasting result of all this: Hooker published his teaching as Ecclesiastical Polity and came to be recognised as the founding father of Anglican theology.
By the end of the 16th century, the two Inns of Court had erected many fine buildings at the Temple, yet their position as tenants was not a secure one. In order to protect what they had built up from any future whims of the Crown, they petitioned King James I for a more satisfactory arrangement. On 13 August 1608 the King granted the two Inns a Royal Charter giving them use of the Temple in perpetuity.
One condition of this was that the Inns must maintain the church. The Temple and the church are still governed by that charter. In gratitude, the Inns gave King James a fine gold cup. Some years later, in the Civil war, his son Charles I needed funds to keep his army in the field. The cup was sold in Holland and has never been traced.
In February 1683, the treasurers of the two Societies of the Temple commissioned an organ from each of the two leading organ builders of the time, Bernhard Smith (1630-1708) and Renatus Harris (1652-1708). The organs were to be installed in the halls of the Middle and Inner Temple, to enable them to be played and judged. Smith was annoyed to discover that Harris was also invited to compete for the contract; he was under the impression that the job had already been offered to him. Smith petitioned the treasurers and won permission to erect his instrument in the church instead of in one of the halls. It was set on a screen which divided the round from the quire. This advantage was short-lived as Harris sought and obtained approval to place his organ at the opposite end of the church, to the south side of the communion table. It is thought that both organs were completed by May 1684.
Harris and Smith engaged the finest organists to show off their respective instruments and were put to great expense as the competition intensified and each instrument became more.
In 1841 the church was again restored, by Smirke and Burton, the walls and ceiling being decorated in the high Victorian Gothic style. The object of this was to bring the church back to its original appearance, for it would have been brightly decorated like this when first built. Nothing of the work remains, however, for it was destroyed by fire bombs exactly a century after its completion. After the Victorian restoration, a choir of men and boys was introduced for the first time. The first organist and choirmaster was Dr Edward John Hopkins who remained in this post for over 50 years, 1843-96, establishing the Temple Church choir as one of the finest in London, a city of fine choirs. This tradition of high-quality music was maintained by Hopkins’ well-known successor, Henry Walford Davies, who stayed until 1923.
In 1923 Dr GT Thalben-Ball was appointed organist and choirmaster. This musician, later world- renowned, was to serve the church even longer than his predecessor, John Hopkins, retiring in 1982 after 59 years in office. One reason for his fame was the record made in 1927 of Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer by Thalben-Ball and the boy soloist Ernest Lough. The recording became world-famous and brought visitors to the church from all parts of the globe.
In 1941 on the night of 10 May, when Nazi air raids on London were at their height, the church was badly damaged by incendiary bombs. The roof of the round church burned first and the wind soon spread the blaze to the nave and choir. The organ was completely destroyed, together with all the wood in the church. Restoration took a long time to complete. The choir, containing a new organ given by Lord Glentannar, was the first area of the church to be rededicated in March 1954. By a stroke of good fortune the architects, Walter and Emil Godfrey, were able to use the reredos designed by Wren for his 17th-century restoration. Removed by Smirke and Burton in 1841, it had spent over a century in the Bowes Museum, County Durham, and was now re-installed in its original position. The round church was rededicated in November 1958.
Probably the most notable feature of today’s church is the east window. This was a gift from the Glaziers’ Company in 1954 to replace that destroyed in the war. It was designed by Carl Edwards and illustrates Jesus’ connection with the Temple at Jerusalem. In one panel we see him talking with the learned teachers there, in another driving out the money-changers. The window also depicts some of the personalities associated with Temple Church over the centuries, including Henry II, Henry III and several of the medieval Masters of the Temple.
Tuesday 22 November 2016, saw local Greater Manchester Police officers join HMP Manchester Community Team in a visit to St. Edward’s RC Priamry School in Lees, Oldham as part of the ‘Actions Have Consequences’ campaign.
‘Actions Have Consequences’ workshops inform pupils on how their actions can affect them and their local community and the negative outcomes that could occur if they were to stray off the beaten track.
Subjects include nuisance 999 calls, bullying, anti-social behaviour, stranger danger, internet safety as well as others. Although the workshops carry a serious message, they are structured to be fun, informative and engaging.
The HMP Community Team gave the young people an idea of the harsh reality of prison life and the dangers of knife and gang-related crime.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website.
You should call 101, the new national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
I have been trying to get inside Temple Church for some years now. Lat time was in January when the warden assured me it would be open on Saturday, only to find after travelling up from Dover that the door was locked, despite the sign on the door saying it was due to be open.
Anyway, all good things come to those that wait.
-----------------------------------------------------
The Temple Church was consecrated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 10 February 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The whole Temple community had moved from an earlier site in High Holborn, considered by the 1160s to be too confined. The church was the chapel serving the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, and from them it took its name. The Templars – as the knights were popularly known – were soldier monks.
After the success of the First Crusade, the order was founded in Jerusalem in a building on the site of King Solomon’s temple. Their mission was to protect pilgrims travelling to and from the Holy Land, but in order to do this they needed men and money. For more details of the Templars and this early history of the Church, see The Round Church, 1185.
The London Temple was the Templars’ headquarters in Great Britain. The Templars’ churches were always built to a circular design to remind them of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, a round, domed building raised over the site of the sepulchre where Jesus was buried. At first, the Templars were liked and respected. St Bernard of Clairvaux became their patron and they gained many privileges from popes and much support from kings.
In England, King Henry II was probably present at the consecration of the church; King Henry III favoured them so much that he wished to be buried in their church. As a consequence of this wish, the choir of the church was pulled down and a far larger one built in its place, the choir which we now see. This was consecrated on Ascension Day 1240 in the presence of the king. However, after Henry died it was discovered that he had altered his will, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
On 10 February 1185 Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, processed into the Round for the church’s consecration. The King was almost certainly present. A grand church for a grand occasion; for the Round had no such quiet austerity as we see in it today. The walls and grotesque heads were painted: the walls most probably with bands and lozenges of colour. The Round was proudly modern: Heraclius entered through the Norman door to find the first free-standing Purbeck columns ever cut; above them curved in two dimensions Gothic arches rising to the drum. A chancel, some two thirds of the present chancel’s length, stretched to the east. There the Patriach’s procession will have come to rest for Mass. And there the altar stayed. What, then, – on that great day or later – was the function of the Round?
Its most important role was played by its shape. Jerusalem lies at the centre of all medieval maps, and was the centre of the crusaders’ world. The most sacred place in this most sacred city was the supposed site of Jesus’ own burial: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here the crusaders inherited a round church. It was the goal of every pilgrim, whose protection was the Templars’ care. This was the building, of all buildings on earth, that must be defended from its enemies.
In every round church that the Templars built throughout Europe they recreated the sanctity of this most holy place. Among the knights who would be buried in the Round was the most powerful man of his generation: William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (died 1219), adviser to King John and regent to Henry III. His sons’ effigies lie around his own. The Marshal himself (who lies recumbent and still) took the Cross as an old man; his sons (drawing their swords) did not. Their figures lie frozen in stone, forever alert in defence of their father’s long-forgotten cause. Such burial was devoutly to be desired; for to be buried in the Round was to be buried ‘in’ Jerusalem.
The Patriarch Heraclius may well have been the most ignorant, licentious and corrupt priest ever to hold his see. Our reports of his character, however, reach us from his enemies. The great Western chronicler of the Crusades, William of Tyre, was for decades Heraclius’ opponent and rival. In 1180 William had (and had been) expected to be appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem. But the king of Jerusalem was swayed by his mother, said to be a mistress of Heraclius – who was duly appointed Patriarch. William himself was honorably reticent in the face of this reverse. His followers were less restrained. ‘Ernoul’ tells (with more indignation, it seems, than accuracy) how his hero William was excommunicated by the new patriarch, went into exile and died at the hands of Heraclius’ own doctor in Rome. William’s narrative was expanded and continued in Old French as L’Estoire d’ Eracles: its story starts with the Emperor Heraclius who recovered the True Cross in 628 – and includes a prophecy that the Cross, secured by one Heraclius, would be lost (as it was) by another.
Can anything redeem our Heraclius’ reputation? Far more was at stake on his visit than at first appears. He was in London as part of a larger mission:- King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was dying. His kingdom was riven by factions and under threat from Saladin. He had drawn up in his will the rules for the succession: if his nephew, due to become the child-king Baldwin V, were to die before the age of ten, a new ruler should be chosen through the arbitration of four potentates: the Pope, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the King of France and Henry II of England. Late in 1184 a deputation headed west from the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Heraclius, the Grand Master of the Templars and the Hospitallers’ Grand Prior. They visited the Pope, Frederick, Philip II Augustus – and finally Henry. The emissaries reached Reading. As credentials they brought the keys of the Tower of David and the Kingdom’s royal standard. According to some English chroniclers, they offered the Kingdom itself to Henry. The incident is hard to analyse. To plead for protection was to offer the power that would make such protection effective. Did that call for the Kingdom itself? The apparent offer of keys and standard may have been misread; for the ambassadors were reworking a performance already presented to Philip of France. (One French chronicler later derides Heraclius: he was offering the keys to any prince he met.) But the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in desperate straits; and behind the pageant may have lain hopes for the subtlest solution of all: to side-step Jerusalem’s factions; and instead to secure one – any one – of Europe’s leaders as king. How strange, to entrust any such delicate mission to the buffoonish Patriarch of myth.
The story offered welcome ammunition to Henry II’s enemies. Gerald of Wales, bitterly opposed to the Angevins, sees here the turning-point in Henry’s reign: the king failed to rise to this one supreme test; from then on his own and his sons’ adventures faced ruin. Gerald inherited the topos from an old story with a quite different cast. His new version gave Heraclius a starring role. The Patriarch confronted Henry, Gerald tells us, at Heraclius’ departure from Dover. Here is the king’s last chance. ‘Though all the men of my land,’ said the king, ‘were one body and spoke with one mouth, they would not dare speak to me as you have done.’ ‘Do by me,’ replied Heraclius, ‘as you did by that blessed man Thomas of Canterbury. I had rather be slain by you than by the Saracen, for you are worse than any Saracen.’ ‘I may not leave my land, for my own sons will surely rise against me in my absence.’ ‘No wonder, for from the devil they come and to the devil they shall go.’
Gerald’s Heraclius was no coward, and no fool. ‘That blessed man Thomas of Canterbury’ had been killed in 1170. The penance of the four knights who killed him was to serve with the Templars for fourteen years. Henry himself promised to pay for two hundred Templar knights for a year; and in 1172 he undertook to take the Cross himself. Thirteen years had passed. Henry was growing old. Such a vow, undischarged, threatened his immortal soul – as both Heraclius and he knew well. Henry must tread carefully. He summoned a Great Council at Clerkenwell. Surrounded by his advisers, he gave Heraclius his answer: ‘for the good of his realm and the salvation of his own soul’ he declared that he must stay in England. He would provide money instead. Heraclius was unimpressed: ‘We seek a man even without money – but not money without a man.’ Virum appetimus qui pecunia indigeat, non pecuniam quae viro.
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Our church’s consecration was deep within the diplomatic labyrinth at whose centre lay the future of Jerusalem. The Templars had come a long way. The Order was founded in 1118-9 by a knight of Champagne, Hugh of Payns, who led a group of his fellow-knights in vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. At their foundation they were deeply suspect: it was unnatural for one man to be soldier and monk together. A handful of such ambivalent knights had little chance, it might seem, of attracting support. In the twelfth century the significance of their seal was well known: Matthew Paris, monk of St Albans, explained that the two knights on one horse recalled their lack of horses and poor beginnings.
In Champagne and Burgundy lay the Order’s origin and the seed of its success. Over the course of fifty years a star-burst of spiritual energy illumined all of Europe; and its centre lay in a small area of eastern France. Hugh’s town of Payns was near Troyes, the local city of one Robert, who became a Cluniac monk. In 1075 this Robert, already an abbot, left his monastery with a group of hermits to found a new house: at Molesme. The list of those influenced by Robert and his houses reads as a roll-call of Europe’s spiritual leaders. There was Bruno, who lived briefly as a hermit near Molesme before establishing the most ascetic of all houses, La Grande Chartreuse; Bruno had already been master to Odo, who later became Pope Urban II and preached the First Crusade. When Robert moved again, in search of a yet more rigorous life, he took with him Stephen Harding, later Archbishop of Canterbury. They set up their house at Citeaux.
Harding would in time become abbot. The rigour of the house made it few friends among the local nobility. Its future was uncertain. And then arrived as remarkable a monk as any of that remarkable age: Bernard. He spent three years at Citeaux before a local lord, Hugh Count of Champagne, gave him in 1116 an area of inhospitable woodland well to the north, back in the neighbourhood of Payns. It was known as the Valley of Gall. Bernard gave it a new name: Clairvaux, the Valley of Light.
Bernard secured single-handed the Templars’ future. Hugh of Champagne became a Templar; so did Bernard’s own uncle Andrew. The Templars’ constitution, the Rule, shows all the marks of Bernard’s influence; at the Council of Troyes in 1129 he spoke up for the Order; and, most influential support of all, at the repeated request of Hugh of Payns Bernard wrote In Praise of the New Knighthood.
The New Knighthood’s first half is well-known: in a text advising and praising and warning the knights, Bernard speaks as well to their critics. He is under no illusions: Europe was as glad to be rid of these warring knights as the Holy Land (in Bernard’s eyes) was glad to see them; their army could be a force for good – or for lawless violence. In the tract’s second half Bernard turns to the Holy Land and to Jerusalem itself. Here was his sharpest spur to the pilgrims’ understanding and to the Templars’ own.
Bernard reads Jerusalem itself like a book. In the tradition of Cassian’s fourfold reading of scripture, dominant throughout the Middle Ages, Bernard saw beneath the appearance of the city’s famous sites a far more important spiritual meaning. The land itself invited such a reading:- Bethlehem, ‘house of bread’, was the town where the living bread was first manifest. The ox and ass ate their food at the manger; we must discern there, by contrast, our spiritual food, and not chomp vainly at the Word’s ‘literal’ nourishment. Next, Nazareth, meaning ‘flower’: Bernard reminds us of those who were misled by the odour of flowers into missing the fruit.
And so to Jerusalem itself:- To descend from the Order’s headquarters on the Temple Mount across the Valley of Josaphat and up the Mount of Olives opposite, – this was itself an allegory for the dread of God’s judgement and our joy at receiving his mercy. The House of Martha, Mary and Lazarus offers a moral: the virtue of obedience and the fruits of penance. And above all: in the Holy Sepulchre itself the knight should be raised up to thoughts of Christ’s death and of the freedom from death that it had won for his people: ‘The death of Christ is the death of my death.’ Bernard draws on Paul’s famous account of baptism, and finds in the pilgrims’ weariness the process of their necessary ‘dying’: ‘For we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, so we shall be also in the likeness of the resurrection. How sweet it is for pilgrims after the great weariness of a long journey, after so many dangers of land and sea, there to rest at last where they know their Lord has rested!’
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The Temple Church is now famous as a backwater, a welcome place of calm. The tides of history have shifted; their currents have dug deep channels far from our own Round Church. It was not always so. The effigies of the Marshal and his sons bear telling witness to the Temple’s role in the court’s and nation’s life. In the 16th century the chronicler Stow described the Templars’ seal. The story of their poverty was by then forgotten or incredible. Stow saw rather an emblem of Charity: a knight on horseback takes a fellow Christian out of danger. Perhaps there had always been romance in that picture of knights sharing a horse. The Order’s Rule, after all, allowed each knight three horses and a squire.
The effigies testify as well to a rich ‘reading’ of Jerusalem. The New Knighthood is double-edged: all that Bernard writes in praise of Jerusalem frees the faithful from the need to travel there: it is the spiritual sense of the city that matters – a sense as readily grasped at home. To find ‘Jerusalem’, as Bernard would have it, the faithful should rather come to Clairvaux, and not just on pilgrimage. So resolute a reading was hard to sustain. Bernard might detach Jerusalem from the benefits its contemplation could bring; but those around him sooner attached Jerusalem’s blessings to such places as fostered its contemplation.
Our effigies seem to us frozen in stone, their figures forever poised to fight battles that ended 700 years ago. But these knights’ eyes are open. They are all portrayed in their early thirties, the age at which Christ died and at which the dead will rise on his return. The effigies are not memorials of what has long since been and gone; they speak of what is yet to come, of these once and future knights who are poised to hear Christ’s summons and to spring again to war.
By 1145 the Templars themselves wore white robes with red crosses. White was linked with more than purity. In the Book of Revelation the martyrs of Christ, clad in white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7.14), are those who will be called to life at the ‘first resurrection’. For a millennium they will reign with Christ; at its end Satan will lead all the nations of the earth against ‘the beloved city’ (Rev 20.9). The final battle will be in Jerusalem. Our knights have good reason to draw their swords. For buried in ‘Jerusalem’, in Jerusalem they shall rise to join the Templars in the martyrs’ white and red. Here in the Temple, in our replica of the Sepulchre itself, the knights are waiting for their call to life, to arms and to the last, climactic defence of their most sacred place on earth.
Little more than fifty years after the consecration of the chancel, the Templars fell on evil times. The Holy Land was recaptured by the Saracens and so their work came to an end. The wealth they had accumulated made them the target of envious enemies, and in 1307, at the instigation of Philip IV King of France, the Order was abolished by the Pope. The papal decree was obeyed in England and King Edward II took control of the London Temple.
Eventually he gave it to the Order of St John – the Knights Hospitaller – who had always worked with the Templars. At the time, the lawyers were looking for a home in London in order to attend the royal courts in Westminster. So the Temple was rented to two colleges of lawyers, who came to be identified as the Inner and Middle Temples. The two colleges shared the use of the church. In this way, the Temple Church became the “college chapel” of those two societies and continues to be maintained by them to the present day.
It was King Henry VIII who brought about the next change in the church. In 1540 he abolished the Hospitallers and confiscated their property. The Temple again belonged to the Crown. It was then for Henry to provide a priest for the church, to whom he gave the title ‘Master of the Temple’.
‘Be of good comfort,’ said Hooker: ‘we have to do with a merciful God, rather to make the best of that little which we hold well; and not with a captious sophister who gathers the worst out of every thing in which we err.’
Richard Hooker was appointed Master of the Temple in 1585. England was in alarm. The threat from Catholic Europe had revived: there had been rebellion against the Queen and Settlement in 1569; in 1570 the Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her subjects free from their allegiance; Mary Queen of Scots was linked with ever further conspiracy against her cousin; and the danger of Spanish invasion was growing.
England’s radical reformers were convinced: England’s only hope of spiritual and political safety lay in the example of Calvin’s godly state, Geneva. The ‘head and neck’ of English Calvinism were Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers. Since 1581 Travers had been the Reader (lecturer) of the Temple. In 1584 the Privy Council ordered the Inner Temple to continue his stipend ‘for his public labours and pains taken against the common adversaries, impugners of the state and the authorities under her Majesty’s gracious government.’ Hooker and Travers were to be colleagues. Their differences soon became clear. To recover the purity of the primitive church, Travers would be rid of all that intervened and would forge the English church anew. Hooker was steeped in classical and medieval thought; saw the roots of his own (and Travers’) understanding in Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas and Calvin himself; and acknowledged –even valued – the differences to which such a rich tradition could give rise: ‘Be it that Peter has one interpretation, and Apollos has another; that Paul is of this mind, and Barnabas of that. If this offend you, the fault is yours.’ As then, so now: ‘Carry peaceable minds, and you may have comfort by this variety.’ When Hooker carefully and bravely explored the possibility that individual Catholics could be saved, the scene was set for the most famous public debated of the day. ‘Surely I must confess unto you,’ said Hooker: ‘if it be an error to think that God may be merciful to save men, even when they err, my greatest comfort is my error. Were it not for the love I bear unto this “error”, I would neither wish to speak nor to live.’
We hear of Hooker’s preaching at the Temple: ‘his voice was low, stature little, gesture none at all, standing stone still in the pulpit, as if the posture of his body were the emblem of his mind, immovable in his opinions. Where his eye was left fixed at the beginning, it was found fixed at the end of the sermon. …The doctrine he delivered had nothing but itself to garnish it.’ Travers, by contrast, was a natural orator, and he was himself a distinguished thinker; he later became the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Hooker held his ground and deepened his reasoning. It was to disclose and offer the comfort of faith that he spoke: ‘Have the sons of God a father careless whether they sink or swim?’ The Temple sermons that survive stress the simple conditions of salvation: ‘Infidelity, extreme despair, hatred of God and all godliness, obduration in sin – cannot stand where there is the least spark of faith, hope, love or sanctity; even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be where heat in the first degree is found.’
The debate was brought to an end by Archbishop Whitgift: In March 1586 Travers was forbidden to preach. In 1591 Hooker resigned, and was appointed vicar of Bishopsbourne in Kent. Here he developed his thought in his masterpiece, Ecclesiastical Polity, the foundational – and still, perhaps, the most important – exploration of doctrine in the history of the Anglican church. Hooker elaborated a theory of law based on the ‘absolute’ fundamental of natural law: this is the expression of God’s supreme reason and governs all civil and ecclesiastical polity. ‘Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.’ Hooker’s influence has pervaded English thought ever since. He was admired by Laud and by the puritan Baxter, extolled by the Restoration bishops, and brought once more to prominence by Keble and the Oxford Movement; he has now been rediscovered (in a recent monograph by Richard Atkinson) within the modern evangelical church. His reach has extended far beyond theologians. Ecclesiastical Polity was the starting-point for Clarendon’s History and seminal for Locke’s philosophy; its self-critical balance touched Andrew Marvell; and Samuel Pepys read it at the recommendation of a friend who declared it ‘the best book, and the only one that made him a Christian.’
THE BATTLE OF THE PULPIT
In 1585 the Master of the Temple, Richard Alvey, died. His deputy – the Reader, Walter Travers – expected to be promoted, but Queen Elizabeth I and her advisers regarded his views as too Calvinist, and Travers was passed over.
Instead a new Master, Richard Hooker, was appointed from Exeter College, Oxford. On Hooker’s arrival, a unique situation arose. Each Sunday morning he would preach his sermon; each Sunday afternoon Travers would contradict him. People came to call it the Battle of the Pulpit, saying mischievously that Canterbury was preached in the morning and Geneva in the afternoon. There was a lasting result of all this: Hooker published his teaching as Ecclesiastical Polity and came to be recognised as the founding father of Anglican theology.
By the end of the 16th century, the two Inns of Court had erected many fine buildings at the Temple, yet their position as tenants was not a secure one. In order to protect what they had built up from any future whims of the Crown, they petitioned King James I for a more satisfactory arrangement. On 13 August 1608 the King granted the two Inns a Royal Charter giving them use of the Temple in perpetuity.
One condition of this was that the Inns must maintain the church. The Temple and the church are still governed by that charter. In gratitude, the Inns gave King James a fine gold cup. Some years later, in the Civil war, his son Charles I needed funds to keep his army in the field. The cup was sold in Holland and has never been traced.
In February 1683, the treasurers of the two Societies of the Temple commissioned an organ from each of the two leading organ builders of the time, Bernhard Smith (1630-1708) and Renatus Harris (1652-1708). The organs were to be installed in the halls of the Middle and Inner Temple, to enable them to be played and judged. Smith was annoyed to discover that Harris was also invited to compete for the contract; he was under the impression that the job had already been offered to him. Smith petitioned the treasurers and won permission to erect his instrument in the church instead of in one of the halls. It was set on a screen which divided the round from the quire. This advantage was short-lived as Harris sought and obtained approval to place his organ at the opposite end of the church, to the south side of the communion table. It is thought that both organs were completed by May 1684.
Harris and Smith engaged the finest organists to show off their respective instruments and were put to great expense as the competition intensified and each instrument became more.
In 1841 the church was again restored, by Smirke and Burton, the walls and ceiling being decorated in the high Victorian Gothic style. The object of this was to bring the church back to its original appearance, for it would have been brightly decorated like this when first built. Nothing of the work remains, however, for it was destroyed by fire bombs exactly a century after its completion. After the Victorian restoration, a choir of men and boys was introduced for the first time. The first organist and choirmaster was Dr Edward John Hopkins who remained in this post for over 50 years, 1843-96, establishing the Temple Church choir as one of the finest in London, a city of fine choirs. This tradition of high-quality music was maintained by Hopkins’ well-known successor, Henry Walford Davies, who stayed until 1923.
In 1923 Dr GT Thalben-Ball was appointed organist and choirmaster. This musician, later world- renowned, was to serve the church even longer than his predecessor, John Hopkins, retiring in 1982 after 59 years in office. One reason for his fame was the record made in 1927 of Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer by Thalben-Ball and the boy soloist Ernest Lough. The recording became world-famous and brought visitors to the church from all parts of the globe.
In 1941 on the night of 10 May, when Nazi air raids on London were at their height, the church was badly damaged by incendiary bombs. The roof of the round church burned first and the wind soon spread the blaze to the nave and choir. The organ was completely destroyed, together with all the wood in the church. Restoration took a long time to complete. The choir, containing a new organ given by Lord Glentannar, was the first area of the church to be rededicated in March 1954. By a stroke of good fortune the architects, Walter and Emil Godfrey, were able to use the reredos designed by Wren for his 17th-century restoration. Removed by Smirke and Burton in 1841, it had spent over a century in the Bowes Museum, County Durham, and was now re-installed in its original position. The round church was rededicated in November 1958.
Probably the most notable feature of today’s church is the east window. This was a gift from the Glaziers’ Company in 1954 to replace that destroyed in the war. It was designed by Carl Edwards and illustrates Jesus’ connection with the Temple at Jerusalem. In one panel we see him talking with the learned teachers there, in another driving out the money-changers. The window also depicts some of the personalities associated with Temple Church over the centuries, including Henry II, Henry III and several of the medieval Masters of the Temple.
Hyderabad (Listeni/ˈhaɪdərəˌbæd/ HY-dər-ə-bad; often /ˈhaɪdrəˌbæd/) is the capital of the southern Indian state of Telangana and de jure capital of Andhra Pradesh. Occupying 625 square kilometres along the banks of the Musi River, it has a population of about 6.8 million and a metropolitan population of about 7.75 million, making it the fourth most populous city and sixth most populous urban agglomeration in India. At an average altitude of 542 metres, much of Hyderabad is situated on hilly terrain around artificial lakes, including Hussain Sagar - predating the city's founding - north of the city centre.
Established in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Hyderabad remained under the rule of the Qutb Shahi dynasty for nearly a century before the Mughals captured the region. In 1724, Mughal viceroy Asif Jah I declared his sovereignty and created his own dynasty, known as the Nizams of Hyderabad. The Nizam's dominions became a princely state during the British Raj, and remained so for 150 years, with the city serving as its capital. The city continued as the capital of Hyderabad State after it was brought into the Indian Union in 1948, and became the capital of Andhra Pradesh after the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. Since 1956, Rashtrapati Nilayam in the city has been the winter office of the President of India. In 2014, the newly formed state of Telangana split from Andhra Pradesh and the city became joint capital of the two states, a transitional arrangement scheduled to end by 2025.
Relics of Qutb Shahi and Nizam rule remain visible today, with the Charminar - commissioned by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah - coming to symbolise Hyderabad. Golconda fort is another major landmark. The influence of Mughlai culture is also evident in the city's distinctive cuisine, which includes Hyderabadi biryani and Hyderabadi haleem. The Qutb Shahis and Nizams established Hyderabad as a cultural hub, attracting men of letters from different parts of the world. Hyderabad emerged as the foremost centre of culture in India with the decline of the Mughal Empire in the mid-19th century, with artists migrating to the city from the rest of the Indian subcontinent. While Hyderabad is losing its cultural pre-eminence, it is today, due to the Telugu film industry, the country's second-largest producer of motion pictures.
Hyderabad was historically known as a pearl and diamond trading centre, and it continues to be known as the City of Pearls. Many of the city's traditional bazaars, including Laad Bazaar, Begum Bazaar and Sultan Bazaar, have remained open for centuries. However, industrialisation throughout the 20th century attracted major Indian manufacturing, research and financial institutions, including Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, the National Geophysical Research Institute and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. Special economic zones dedicated to information technology have encouraged companies from across India and around the world to set up operations and the emergence of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the 1990s led to the area's naming as India's "Genome Valley". With an output of US$74 billion, Hyderabad is the fifth-largest contributor to India's overall gross domestic product.
HISTORY
TOPONYMY
According to John Everett-Heath, the author of Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place Names, Hyderabad means "Haydar's city" or "lion city", from haydar (lion) and ābād (city). It was named to honour the Caliph Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who was also known as Haydar because of his lion-like valour in battles. Andrew Petersen, a scholar of Islamic architecture, says the city was originally called Baghnagar (city of gardens). One popular theory suggests that Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of the city, named it "Bhaganagar" or "Bhāgnagar" after Bhagmati, a local nautch (dancing) girl with whom he had fallen in love. She converted to Islam and adopted the title Hyder Mahal. The city was renamed Hyderabad in her honour. According to another source, the city was named after Haidar, the son of Quli Qutb Shah.
EARLY AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY
Archaeologists excavating near the city have unearthed Iron Age sites that may date from 500 BCE. The region comprising modern Hyderabad and its surroundings was known as Golkonda ("shepherd's hill"), and was ruled by the Chalukya dynasty from 624 CE to 1075 CE. Following the dissolution of the Chalukya empire into four parts in the 11th century, Golkonda came under the control of the Kakatiya dynasty from 1158, whose seat of power was at Warangal, 148 km northeast of modern Hyderabad.
The Kakatiya dynasty was reduced to a vassal of the Khilji dynasty in 1310 after its defeat by Sultan Alauddin Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate. This lasted until 1321, when the Kakatiya dynasty was annexed by Malik Kafur, Allaudin Khilji's general. During this period, Alauddin Khilji took the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which is said to have been mined from the Kollur Mines of Golkonda, to Delhi. Muhammad bin Tughluq succeeded to the Delhi sultanate in 1325, bringing Warangal under the rule of the Tughlaq dynasty until 1347 when Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah, a governor under bin Tughluq, rebelled against Delhi and established the Bahmani Sultanate in the Deccan Plateau, with Gulbarga, 200 km west of Hyderabad, as its capital. The Bahmani kings ruled the region until 1518 and were the first independent Muslim rulers of the Deccan.
Sultan Quli, a governor of Golkonda, revolted against the Bahmani Sultanate and established the Qutb Shahi dynasty in 1518; he rebuilt the mud-fort of Golconda and named the city "Muhammad nagar". The fifth sultan, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, established Hyderabad on the banks of the Musi River in 1591, to avoid the water shortages experienced at Golkonda. During his rule, he had the Charminar and Mecca Masjid built in the city. On 21 September 1687, the Golkonda Sultanate came under the rule of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after a year-long siege of the Golkonda fort. The annexed area was renamed Deccan Suba (Deccan province) and the capital was moved from Golkonda to Aurangabad, about 550 km northwest of Hyderabad.
MODERN HISTORY
In 1713 Farrukhsiyar, the Mughal emperor, appointed Asif Jah I to be Viceroy of the Deccan, with the title Nizam-ul-Mulk (Administrator of the Realm). In 1724, Asif Jah I defeated Mubariz Khan to establish autonomy over the Deccan Suba, named the region Hyderabad Deccan, and started what came to be known as the Asif Jahi dynasty. Subsequent rulers retained the title Nizam ul-Mulk and were referred to as Asif Jahi Nizams, or Nizams of Hyderabad. The death of Asif Jah I in 1748 resulted in a period of political unrest as his sons, backed by opportunistic neighbouring states and colonial foreign forces, contended for the throne. The accession of Asif Jah II, who reigned from 1762 to 1803, ended the instability. In 1768 he signed the treaty of Masulipatnam, surrendering the coastal region to the East India Company in return for a fixed annual rent.
In 1769 Hyderabad city became the formal capital of the Nizams. In response to regular threats from Hyder Ali (Dalwai of Mysore), Baji Rao I (Peshwa of the Maratha Empire), and Basalath Jung (Asif Jah II's elder brother, who was supported by the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau), the Nizam signed a subsidiary alliance with the East India Company in 1798, allowing the British Indian Army to occupy Bolarum (modern Secunderabad) to protect the state's borders, for which the Nizams paid an annual maintenance to the British.
Until 1874 there were no modern industries in Hyderabad. With the introduction of railways in the 1880s, four factories were built to the south and east of Hussain Sagar lake, and during the early 20th century, Hyderabad was transformed into a modern city with the establishment of transport services, underground drainage, running water, electricity, telecommunications, universities, industries, and Begumpet Airport. The Nizams ruled their princely state from Hyderabad during the British Raj.
After India gained independence, the Nizam declared his intention to remain independent rather than become part of the Indian Union. The Hyderabad State Congress, with the support of the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India, began agitating against Nizam VII in 1948. On 17 September that year, the Indian Army took control of Hyderabad State after an invasion codenamed Operation Polo. With the defeat of his forces, Nizam VII capitulated to the Indian Union by signing an Instrument of Accession, which made him the Rajpramukh (Princely Governor) of the state until 31 October 1956. Between 1946 and 1951, the Communist Party of India fomented the Telangana uprising against the feudal lords of the Telangana region. The Constitution of India, which became effective on 26 January 1950, made Hyderabad State one of the part B states of India, with Hyderabad city continuing to be the capital. In his 1955 report Thoughts on Linguistic States, B. R. Ambedkar, then chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution, proposed designating the city of Hyderabad as the second capital of India because of its amenities and strategic central location. Since 1956, the Rashtrapati Nilayam in Hyderabad has been the second official residence and business office of the President of India; the President stays once a year in winter and conducts official business particularly relating to Southern India.
On 1 November 1956 the states of India were reorganised by language. Hyderabad state was split into three parts, which were merged with neighbouring states to form the modern states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The nine Telugu- and Urdu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State in the Telangana region were merged with the Telugu-speaking Andhra State to create Andhra Pradesh,with Hyderabad as its capital. Several protests, known collectively as the Telangana movement, attempted to invalidate the merger and demanded the creation of a new Telangana state. Major actions took place in 1969 and 1972, and a third began in 2010. The city suffered several explosions: one at Dilsukhnagar in 2002 claimed two lives; terrorist bombs in May and August 2007 caused communal tension and riots; and two bombs exploded in February 2013. On 30 July 2013 the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of India declared that part of Andhra Pradesh would be split off to form a new Telangana state, and that Hyderabad city would be the capital city and part of Telangana, while the city would also remain the capital of Andhra Pradesh for no more than ten years. On 3 October 2013 the Union Cabinet approved the proposal, and in February 2014 both houses of Parliament passed the Telangana Bill. With the final assent of the President of India in June 2014, Telangana state was formed.
GEOGRAPHY
TOPOGRAPHY
Situated in the southern part of Telangana in southeastern India, Hyderabad is 1,566 kilometres south of Delhi, 699 kilometres southeast of Mumbai, and 570 kilometres north of Bangalore by road. It lies on the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of the Deccan Plateau. Greater Hyderabad covers 625 km2, making it one of the largest metropolitan areas in India. With an average altitude of 542 metres, Hyderabad lies on predominantly sloping terrain of grey and pink granite, dotted with small hills, the highest being Banjara Hills at 672 metres. The city has numerous lakes referred to as sagar, meaning "sea". Examples include artificial lakes created by dams on the Musi, such as Hussain Sagar (built in 1562 near the city centre), Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar. As of 1996, the city had 140 lakes and 834 water tanks (ponds).
CLIMATE
Hyderabad has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen Aw) bordering on a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh). The annual mean temperature is 26.6 °C; monthly mean temperatures are 21–33 °C. Summers (March–June) are hot and humid, with average highs in the mid-to-high 30s Celsius; maximum temperatures often exceed 40 °C between April and June. The coolest temperatures occur in December and January, when the lowest temperature occasionally dips to 10 °C. May is the hottest month, when daily temperatures range from 26 to 39 °C; December, the coldest, has temperatures varying from 14.5 to 28 °C.
Heavy rain from the south-west summer monsoon falls between June and September, supplying Hyderabad with most of its mean annual rainfall. Since records began in November 1891, the heaviest rainfall recorded in a 24-hour period was 241.5 mm on 24 August 2000. The highest temperature ever recorded was 45.5 °C on 2 June 1966, and the lowest was 6.1 °C on 8 January 1946. The city receives 2,731 hours of sunshine per year; maximum daily sunlight exposure occurs in February.
CONSERVATION
Hyderabad's lakes and the sloping terrain of its low-lying hills provide habitat for an assortment of flora and fauna. The forest region in and around the city encompasses areas of ecological and biological importance, which are preserved in the form of national parks, zoos, mini-zoos and a wildlife sanctuary. Nehru Zoological Park, the city's one large zoo, is the first in India to have a lion and tiger safari park. Hyderabad has three national parks (Mrugavani National Park, Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park and Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park), and the Manjira Wildlife Sanctuary is about 50 km from the city. Hyderabad's other environmental reserves are: Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy Botanical Gardens, Shamirpet Lake, Hussain Sagar, Fox Sagar Lake, Mir Alam Tank and Patancheru Lake, which is home to regional birds and attracts seasonal migratory birds from different parts of the world. Organisations engaged in environmental and wildlife preservation include the Telangana Forest Department, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Animal Welfare Board of India, the Blue Cross of Hyderabad and the University of Hyderabad.
ADMINISTRATION
COMMON CAPITAL OF TELANGANA AND ANDHRA PRADESH
According to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 part 2 Section 5: "On and from the appointed day, Hyderabad in the existing State of Andhra Pradesh, shall be the common capital of the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh for such period not exceeding ten years. After expiry of the period referred to in sub-section, Hyderabad shall be the capital of the State of Telangana and there shall be a new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh."
The same sections also define that the common capital includes the existing area designated as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation under the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, 1955. As stipulated in sections 3 and 18 of the Reorganisation Act, city MLAs are members of Telangana state assembly.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) oversees the civic infrastructure of the city's 18 "circles", which together encompass 150 municipal wards. Each ward is represented by a corporator, elected by popular vote. The corporators elect the Mayor, who is the titular head of GHMC; executive powers rest with the Municipal Commissioner, appointed by the state government. The GHMC carries out the city's infrastructural work such as building and maintenance of roads and drains, town planning including construction regulation, maintenance of municipal markets and parks, solid waste management, the issuing of birth and death certificates, the issuing of trade licences, collection of property tax, and community welfare services such as mother and child healthcare, and pre-school and non-formal education. The GHMC was formed in April 2007 by merging the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) with 12 municipalities of the Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medak districts covering a total area of 625 km2. In the 2009 municipal election, an alliance of the Indian National Congress and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen formed the majority. The Secunderabad Cantonment Board is a civic administration agency overseeing an area of 40.1 km2, where there are several military camps. The Osmania University campus is administered independently by the university authority.
Law and order in Hyderabad city is supervised by the governor of Telangana. The jurisdiction is divided into two police commissionerates: Hyderabad and Cyberabad, which are again divided into four and five police zones respectively. Each zone is headed by a deputy commissioner.
The jurisdictions of the city's administrative agencies are, in ascending order of size: the Hyderabad Police area, Hyderabad district, the GHMC area ("Hyderabad city") and the area under the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA). The HMDA is an apolitical urban planning agency that covers the GHMC and its suburbs, extending to 54 mandals in five districts encircling the city. It coordinates the development activities of GHMC and suburban municipalities and manages the administration of bodies such as the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB).
As the seat of the government of Telangana, Hyderabad is home to the state's legislature, secretariat and high court, as well as various local government agencies. The Lower City Civil Court and the Metropolitan Criminal Court are under the jurisdiction of the High Court. The GHMC area contains 24 State Legislative Assembly constituencies, which form five constituencies of the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India).
UTILITY SERVICES
The HMWSSB regulates rainwater harvesting, sewerage services and water supply, which is sourced from several dams located in the suburbs. In 2005, the HMWSSB started operating a 116-kilometre-long water supply pipeline from Nagarjuna Sagar Dam to meet increasing demand. The Telangana Southern Power Distribution Company Limited manages electricity supply. As of October 2014, there were 15 fire stations in the city, operated by the Telangana State Disaster and Fire Response Department. The government-owned India Post has five head post offices and many sub-post offices in Hyderabad, which are complemented by private courier services.
POLLUTION CONTROL
Hyderabad produces around 4,500 tonnes of solid waste daily, which is transported from collection units in Imlibun, Yousufguda and Lower Tank Bund to the dumpsite in Jawaharnagar. Disposal is managed by the Integrated Solid Waste Management project which was started by the GHMC in 2010. Rapid urbanisation and increased economic activity has also led to increased industrial waste, air, noise and water pollution, which is regulated by the Telangana Pollution Control Board (TPCB). The contribution of different sources to air pollution in 2006 was: 20–50% from vehicles, 40–70% from a combination of vehicle discharge and road dust, 10–30% from industrial discharges and 3–10% from the burning of household rubbish. Deaths resulting from atmospheric particulate matter are estimated at 1,700–3,000 each year. Ground water around Hyderabad, which has a hardness of up to 1000 ppm, around three times higher than is desirable, is the main source of drinking water but the increasing population and consequent increase in demand has led to a decline in not only ground water but also river and lake levels. This shortage is further exacerbated by inadequately treated effluent discharged from industrial treatment plants polluting the water sources of the city.
HEALTHCARE
The Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare is responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring of all facilities related to health and preventive services. As of 2010–11, the city had 50 government hospitals, 300 private and charity hospitals and 194 nursing homes providing around 12,000 hospital beds, fewer than half the required 25,000. For every 10,000 people in the city, there are 17.6 hospital beds, 9 specialist doctors, 14 nurses and 6 physicians. The city also has about 4,000 individual clinics and 500 medical diagnostic centres. Private clinics are preferred by many residents because of the distance to, poor quality of care at and long waiting times in government facilities, despite the high proportion of the city's residents being covered by government health insurance: 24% according to a National Family Health Survey in 2005. As of 2012, many new private hospitals of various sizes were opened or being built. Hyderabad also has outpatient and inpatient facilities that use Unani, homeopathic and Ayurvedic treatments.
In the 2005 National Family Health Survey, it was reported that the city's total fertility rate is 1.8, which is below the replacement rate. Only 61% of children had been provided with all basic vaccines (BCG, measles and full courses of polio and DPT), fewer than in all other surveyed cities except Meerut. The infant mortality rate was 35 per 1,000 live births, and the mortality rate for children under five was 41 per 1,000 live births. The survey also reported that a third of women and a quarter of men are overweight or obese, 49% of children below 5 years are anaemic, and up to 20% of children are underweight, while more than 2% of women and 3% of men suffer from diabetes.
DEMOGRAPHICS
When the GHMC was created in 2007, the area occupied by the municipality increased from 175 km2 to 625 km2. Consequently, the population increased by 87%, from 3,637,483 in the 2001 census to 6,809,970 in the 2011 census, 24% of which are migrants from elsewhere in India, making Hyderabad the nation's fourth most populous city. As of 2011, the population density is 18,480/km2. At the same 2011 census, the Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration had a population of 7,749,334, making it the sixth most populous urban agglomeration in the country. The population of the Hyderabad urban agglomeration has since been estimated by electoral officials to be 9.1 million as of early 2013 but is expected to exceed 10 million by the end of the year. There are 3,500,802 male and 3,309,168 female citizens - a sex ratio of 945 females per 1000 males, higher than the national average of 926 per 1000. Among children aged 0–6 years, 373,794 are boys and 352,022 are girls - a ratio of 942 per 1000. Literacy stands at 82.96% (male 85.96%; female 79.79%), higher than the national average of 74.04%. The socio-economic strata consist of 20% upper class, 50% middle class and 30% working class.
ETHNIC GROUPS, LANGUAGE AND RELIGION
Referred to as "Hyderabadi", residents of Hyderabad are predominantly Telugu and Urdu speaking people, with minority Bengali, Gujarati (including Memon), Kannada (including Nawayathi), Malayalam, Marathi, Marwari, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Uttar Pradeshi communities. Hadhrami Arabs, African Arabs, Armenians, Abyssinians, Iranians, Pathans and Turkish people are also present; these communities, of which the Hadhrami are the largest, declined after Hyderabad State became part of the Indian Union, as they lost the patronage of the Nizams.
Telugu is the official language of Hyderabad and Urdu is its second language. The Telugu dialect spoken in Hyderabad is called Telangana, and the Urdu spoken is called Dakhani. English is also used. A significant minority speak other languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Bengali and Kannada.
Hindus are in the majority. Muslims are present throughout the city and predominate in and around the Old City. There are also Christian, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Parsi communities and iconic temples, mosques and churches can be seen. According to the 2001 census, Hyderabad district's religious make-up was: Hindus (55.41%), Muslims (41.17%), Christians (2.43%), Jains (0.43%), Sikhs (0.29%) and Buddhists (0.02%); 0.23% did not state any religion.
SLUMS
In the greater metropolitan area, 13% of the population live below the poverty line. According to a 2012 report submitted by GHMC to the World Bank, Hyderabad has 1,476 slums with a total population of 1.7 million, of whom 66% live in 985 slums in the "core" of the city (the part that formed Hyderabad before the April 2007 expansion) and the remaining 34% live in 491 suburban tenements. About 22% of the slum-dwelling households had migrated from different parts of India in the last decade of the 20th century, and 63% claimed to have lived in the slums for more than 10 years. Overall literacy in the slums is 60–80% and female literacy is 52–73%. A third of the slums have basic service connections, and the remainder depend on general public services provided by the government. There are 405 government schools, 267 government aided schools, 175 private schools and 528 community halls in the slum areas. According to a 2008 survey by the Centre for Good Governance, 87.6% of the slum-dwelling households are nuclear families, 18% are very poor, with an income up to ₹20000 (US$300) per annum, 73% live below the poverty line (a standard poverty line recognised by the Andhra Pradesh Government is ₹24000 (US$360) per annum), 27% of the chief wage earners (CWE) are casual labour and 38% of the CWE are illiterate. About 3.72% of the slum children aged 5–14 do not go to school and 3.17% work as child labour, of whom 64% are boys and 36% are girls. The largest employers of child labour are street shops and construction sites. Among the working children, 35% are engaged in hazardous jobs.
NEIGHBOURHOODS
The historic city established by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah on the southern side of the Musi River forms the "Old City", while the "New City" encompasses the urbanised area on the northern banks. The two are connected by many bridges across the river, the oldest of which is Purana Pul ("old bridge"). Hyderabad is twinned with neighbouring Secunderabad, to which it is connected by Hussain Sagar.
Many historic and tourist sites lie in south central Hyderabad, such as the Charminar, the Mecca Masjid, the Salar Jung Museum, the Nizam's Museum, the Falaknuma Palace, and the traditional retail corridor comprising the Pearl Market, Laad Bazaar and Madina Circle. North of the river are hospitals, colleges, major railway stations and business areas such as Begum Bazaar, Koti, Abids, Sultan Bazaar and Moazzam Jahi Market, along with administrative and recreational establishments such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Telangana Secretariat, the Hyderabad Mint, the Telangana Legislature, the Public Gardens, the Nizam Club, the Ravindra Bharathi, the State Museum, the Birla Temple and the Birla Planetarium.
North of central Hyderabad lie Hussain Sagar, Tank Bund Road, Rani Gunj and the Secunderabad Railway Station. Most of the city's parks and recreational centres, such as Sanjeevaiah Park, Indira Park, Lumbini Park, NTR Gardens, the Buddha statue and Tankbund Park are located here. In the northwest part of the city there are upscale residential and commercial areas such as Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Begumpet, Khairatabad and Miyapur. The northern end contains industrial areas such as Sanathnagar, Moosapet, Balanagar, Patancheru and Chanda Nagar. The northeast end is dotted with residential areas. In the eastern part of the city lie many defence research centres and Ramoji Film City. The "Cyberabad" area in the southwest and west of the city has grown rapidly since the 1990s. It is home to information technology and bio-pharmaceutical companies and to landmarks such as Hyderabad Airport, Osman Sagar, Himayath Sagar and Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park.
LANDMARKS
Heritage buildings constructed during the Qutb Shahi and Nizam eras showcase Indo-Islamic architecture influenced by Medieval, Mughal and European styles. After the 1908 flooding of the Musi River, the city was expanded and civic monuments constructed, particularly during the rule of Mir Osman Ali Khan (the VIIth Nizam), whose patronage of architecture led to him being referred to as the maker of modern Hyderabad. In 2012, the government of India declared Hyderabad the first "Best heritage city of India".
Qutb Shahi architecture of the 16th and early 17th centuries followed classical Persian architecture featuring domes and colossal arches. The oldest surviving Qutb Shahi structure in Hyderabad is the ruins of Golconda fort built in the 16th century. The Charminar, Mecca Masjid, Charkaman and Qutb Shahi tombs are other existing structures of this period. Among these the Charminar has become an icon of the city; located in the centre of old Hyderabad, it is a square structure with sides 20 m long and four grand arches each facing a road. At each corner stands a 56 m-high minaret. Most of the historical bazaars that still exist were constructed on the street north of Charminar towards Golconda fort. The Charminar, Qutb Shahi tombs and Golconda fort are considered to be monuments of national importance in India; in 2010 the Indian government proposed that the sites be listed for UNESCO World Heritage status.
Among the oldest surviving examples of Nizam architecture in Hyderabad is the Chowmahalla Palace, which was the seat of royal power. It showcases a diverse array of architectural styles, from the Baroque Harem to its Neoclassical royal court. The other palaces include Falaknuma Palace (inspired by the style of Andrea Palladio), Purani Haveli, King Kothi and Bella Vista Palace all of which were built at the peak of Nizam rule in the 19th century. During Mir Osman Ali Khan's rule, European styles, along with Indo-Islamic, became prominent. These styles are reflected in the Falaknuma Palace and many civic monuments such as the Hyderabad High Court, Osmania Hospital, Osmania University, the State Central Library, City College, the Telangana Legislature, the State Archaeology Museum, Jubilee Hall, and Hyderabad and Kachiguda railway stations. Other landmarks of note are Paigah Palace, Asman Garh Palace, Basheer Bagh Palace, Errum Manzil and the Spanish Mosque, all constructed by the Paigah family.
ECONOMY
Hyderabad is the largest contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP), tax and other revenues, of Telangana, and the sixth largest deposit centre and fourth largest credit centre nationwide, as ranked by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in June 2012. Its US$74 billion GDP made it the fifth-largest contributor city to India's overall GDP in 2011–12. Its per capita annual income in 2011 was ₹44300 (US$670). As of 2006, the largest employers in the city were the governments of Andhra Pradesh (113,098 employees) and India (85,155). According to a 2005 survey, 77% of males and 19% of females in the city were employed. The service industry remains dominant in the city, and 90% of the employed workforce is engaged in this sector.
Hyderabad's role in the pearl trade has given it the name "City of Pearls" and up until the 18th century, the city was also the only global trading centre for large diamonds. Industrialisation began under the Nizams in the late 19th century, helped by railway expansion that connected the city with major ports. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Indian enterprises, such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Bharat Electronics (BEL), Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) and Andhra Bank (AB) were established in the city. The city is home to Hyderabad Securities formerly known as Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE), and houses the regional office of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). In 2013, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) facility in Hyderabad was forecasted to provide operations and transactions services to BSE-Mumbai by the end of 2014. The growth of the financial services sector has helped Hyderabad evolve from a traditional manufacturing city to a cosmopolitan industrial service centre. Since the 1990s, the growth of information technology (IT), IT-enabled services (ITES), insurance and financial institutions has expanded the service sector, and these primary economic activities have boosted the ancillary sectors of trade and commerce, transport, storage, communication, real estate and retail.
Hyderabad's commercial markets are divided into four sectors: central business districts, sub-central business centres, neighbourhood business centres and local business centres. Many traditional and historic bazaars are located throughout the city, Laad Bazaar being the prominent among all is popular for selling a variety of traditional and cultural antique wares, along with gems and pearls.
The establishment of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL), a public sector undertaking, in 1961 was followed over the decades by many national and global companies opening manufacturing and research facilities in the city. As of 2010, the city manufactured one third of India's bulk drugs and 16% of biotechnology products, contributing to its reputation as "India's pharmaceutical capital" and the "Genome Valley of India". Hyderabad is a global centre of information technology, for which it is known as Cyberabad (Cyber City). As of 2013, it contributed 15% of India's and 98% of Andhra Pradesh's exports in IT and ITES sectors and 22% of NASSCOM's total membership is from the city. The development of HITEC City, a township with extensive technological infrastructure, prompted multinational companies to establish facilities in Hyderabad. The city is home to more than 1300 IT and ITES firms, including global conglomerates such as Microsoft (operating its largest R&D campus outside the US), Google, IBM, Yahoo!, Dell, Facebook, and major Indian firms including Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Polaris and Wipro. In 2009 the World Bank Group ranked the city as the second best Indian city for doing business. The city and its suburbs contain the highest number of special economic zones of any Indian city.
Like the rest of India, Hyderabad has a large informal economy that employs 30% of the labour force. According to a survey published in 2007, it had 40–50,000 street vendors, and their numbers were increasing. Among the street vendors, 84% are male and 16% female, and four fifths are "stationary vendors" operating from a fixed pitch, often with their own stall. Most are financed through personal savings; only 8% borrow from moneylenders. Vendor earnings vary from ₹50 (75¢ US) to ₹800 (US$12) per day. Other unorganised economic sectors include dairy, poultry farming, brick manufacturing, casual labour and domestic help. Those involved in the informal economy constitute a major portion of urban poor.
CULTURE
Hyderabad emerged as the foremost centre of culture in India with the decline of the Mughal Empire. After the fall of Delhi in 1857, the migration of performing artists to the city particularly from the north and west of the Indian sub continent, under the patronage of the Nizam, enriched the cultural milieu. This migration resulted in a mingling of North and South Indian languages, cultures and religions, which has since led to a co-existence of Hindu and Muslim traditions, for which the city has become noted. A further consequence of this north–south mix is that both Telugu and Urdu are official languages of Telangana.[164] The mixing of religions has also resulted in many festivals being celebrated in Hyderabad such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali and Bonalu of Hindu tradition and Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha by Muslims.
Traditional Hyderabadi garb also reveals a mix of Muslim and South Asian influences with men wearing sherwani and kurta - paijama and women wearing khara dupatta and salwar kameez. Muslim women also commonly wear burqas and hijabs in public. In addition to the traditional Indian and Muslim garments, increasing exposure to western cultures has led to a rise in the wearing of western style clothing among youths.
LITERATURE
In the past, Qutb Shahi rulers and Nizams attracted artists, architects and men of letters from different parts of the world through patronage. The resulting ethnic mix popularised cultural events such as mushairas (poetic symposia). The Qutb Shahi dynasty particularly encouraged the growth of Deccani Urdu literature leading to works such as the Deccani Masnavi and Diwan poetry, which are among the earliest available manuscripts in Urdu. Lazzat Un Nisa, a book compiled in the 15th century at Qutb Shahi courts, contains erotic paintings with diagrams for secret medicines and stimulants in the eastern form of ancient sexual arts. The reign of the Nizams saw many literary reforms and the introduction of Urdu as a language of court, administration and education. In 1824, a collection of Urdu Ghazal poetry, named Gulzar-e-Mahlaqa, authored by Mah Laqa Bai - the first female Urdu poet to produce a Diwan - was published in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad has continued with these traditions in its annual Hyderabad Literary Festival, held since 2010, showcasing the city's literary and cultural creativity. Organisations engaged in the advancement of literature include the Sahitya Akademi, the Urdu Academy, the Telugu Academy, the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, the Comparative Literature Association of India, and the Andhra Saraswata Parishad. Literary development is further aided by state institutions such as the State Central Library, the largest public library in the state which was established in 1891, and other major libraries including the Sri Krishna Devaraya Andhra Bhasha Nilayam, the British Library and the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram.
MUSIC AND FILMS
South Indian music and dances such as the Kuchipudi and Kathakali styles are popular in the Deccan region. As a result of their culture policies, North Indian music and dance gained popularity during the rule of the Mughals and Nizams, and it was also during their reign that it became a tradition among the nobility to associate themselves with tawaif (courtesans). These courtesans were revered as the epitome of etiquette and culture, and were appointed to teach singing, poetry and classical dance to many children of the aristocracy. This gave rise to certain styles of court music, dance and poetry. Besides western and Indian popular music genres such as filmi music, the residents of Hyderabad play city-based marfa music, dholak ke geet (household songs based on local Folklore), and qawwali, especially at weddings, festivals and other celebratory events. The state government organises the Golconda Music and Dance Festival, the Taramati Music Festival and the Premavathi Dance Festival to further encourage the development of music.
Although the city is not particularly noted for theatre and drama, the state government promotes theatre with multiple programmes and festivals in such venues as the Ravindra Bharati, Shilpakala Vedika and Lalithakala Thoranam. Although not a purely music oriented event, Numaish, a popular annual exhibition of local and national consumer products, does feature some musical performances. The city is home to the Telugu film industry, popularly known as Tollywood and as of 2012, produces the second largest number of films in India with the largest number being produced by Bollywood. Films in the local Hyderabadi dialect are also produced and have been gaining popularity since 2005. The city has also hosted international film festivals such as the International Children's Film Festival and the Hyderabad International Film Festival. In 2005, Guinness World Records declared Ramoji Film City to be the world's largest film studio.
ART AND HANDICRAFTS
The region is well known for its Golconda and Hyderabad painting styles which are branches of Deccani painting. Developed during the 16th century, the Golconda style is a native style blending foreign techniques and bears some similarity to the Vijayanagara paintings of neighbouring Mysore. A significant use of luminous gold and white colours is generally found in the Golconda style. The Hyderabad style originated in the 17th century under the Nizams. Highly influenced by Mughal painting, this style makes use of bright colours and mostly depicts regional landscape, culture, costumes and jewellery.
Although not a centre for handicrafts itself, the patronage of the arts by the Mughals and Nizams attracted artisans from the region to Hyderabad. Such crafts include: Bidriware, a metalwork handicraft from neighbouring Karnataka, which was popularised during the 18th century and has since been granted a Geographical Indication (GI) tag under the auspices of the WTO act; and Zari and Zardozi, embroidery works on textile that involve making elaborate designs using gold, silver and other metal threads. Another example of a handicraft drawn to Hyderabad is Kalamkari, a hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile that comes from cities in Andhra Pradesh. This craft is distinguished in having both a Hindu style, known as Srikalahasti and entirely done by hand, and an Islamic style, known as Machilipatnam that uses both hand and block techniques. Examples of Hyderabad's arts and crafts are housed in various museums including the Salar Jung Museum (housing "one of the largest one-man-collections in the world"), the AP State Archaeology Museum, the Nizam Museum, the City Museum and the Birla Science Museum.
CUISINE
Hyderabadi cuisine comprises a broad repertoire of rice, wheat and meat dishes and the skilled use of various spices. Hyderabadi biryani and Hyderabadi haleem, with their blend of Mughlai and Arab cuisines, have become iconic dishes of India. Hyderabadi cuisine is highly influenced by Mughlai and to some extent by French, Arabic, Turkish, Iranian and native Telugu and Marathwada cuisines. Other popular native dishes include nihari, chakna, baghara baingan and the desserts qubani ka meetha, double ka meetha and kaddu ki kheer (a sweet porridge made with sweet gourd).
MEDIA
One of Hyderabad's earliest newspapers, The Deccan Times, was established in the 1780s. In modern times, the major Telugu dailies published in Hyderabad are Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy, Sakshi and Namaste Telangana, while the major English papers are The Times of India, The Hindu and The Deccan Chronicle, and the major Urdu papers include The Siasat Daily, The Munsif Daily and Etemaad. Many coffee table magazines, professional magazines and research journals are also regularly published. The Secunderabad Cantonment Board established the first radio station in Hyderabad State around 1919. Deccan Radio was the first radio public broadcast station in the city starting on 3 February 1935, with FM broadcasting beginning in 2000. The available channels in Hyderabad include All India Radio, Radio Mirchi, Radio City, Red FM and Big FM.
Television broadcasting in Hyderabad began in 1974 with the launch of Doordarshan, the Government of India's public service broadcaster, which transmits two free-to-air terrestrial television channels and one satellite channel. Private satellite channels started in July 1992 with the launch of Star TV. Satellite TV channels are accessible via cable subscription, direct-broadcast satellite services or internet-based television. Hyderabad's first dial-up internet access became available in the early 1990s and was limited to software development companies. The first public internet access service began in 1995, with the first private sector internet service provider (ISP) starting operations in 1998. In 2015, high-speed public WiFi was introduced in parts of the city.
EDUCATION
Public and private schools in Hyderabad are governed by the Central Board of Secondary Education and follow a "10+2+3" plan. About two-thirds of pupils attend privately run institutions. Languages of instruction include English, Hindi, Telugu and Urdu. Depending on the institution, students are required to sit the Secondary School Certificate or the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education. After completing secondary education, students enroll in schools or junior colleges with a higher secondary facility. Admission to professional graduation colleges in Hyderabad, many of which are affiliated with either Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTUH) or Osmania University (OU), is through the Engineering Agricultural and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAM-CET).There are 13 universities in Hyderabad: two private universities, two deemed universities, six state universities and three central universities. The central universities are the University of Hyderabad, Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the English and Foreign Languages University. Osmania University, established in 1918, was the first university in Hyderabad and as of 2012 is India's second most popular institution for international students. The Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University, established in 1982, is the first distance learning open university in India.
Hyderabad is also home to a number of centres specialising in particular fields such as biomedical sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, such as the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) and National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). Hyderabad has five major medical schools - Osmania Medical College, Gandhi Medical College, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Deccan College of Medical Sciences and Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences - and many affiliated teaching hospitals. The Government Nizamia Tibbi College is a college of Unani medicine. Hyderabad is also the headquarters of the Indian Heart Association, a non-profit foundation for cardiovascular education.
Institutes in Hyderabad include the National Institute of Rural Development, the Indian School of Business, the Institute of Public Enterprise, the Administrative Staff College of India and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. Technical and engineering schools include the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH), Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – Hyderabad (BITS Hyderabad) and Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) as well as agricultural engineering institutes such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University. Hyderabad also has schools of fashion design including Raffles Millennium International, NIFT Hyderabad and Wigan and Leigh College. The National Institute of Design, Hyderabad (NID-H), will offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses from 2015.
SPORTS
The most popular sports played in Hyderabad are cricket and association football. At the professional level, the city has hosted national and international sports events such as the 2002 National Games of India, the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2004 AP Tourism Hyderabad Open women's tennis tournament, the 2007 Military World Games, the 2009 World Badminton Championships and the 2009 IBSF World Snooker Championship. The city hosts a number of venues suitable for professional competition such as the Swarnandhra Pradesh Sports Complex for field hockey, the G. M. C. Balayogi Stadium in Gachibowli for athletics and football, and for cricket, the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium and Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, home ground of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. Hyderabad has hosted many international cricket matches, including matches in the 1987 and the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cups. The Hyderabad cricket team represents the city in the Ranji Trophy - a first-class cricket tournament among India's states and cities. Hyderabad is also home to the Indian Premier League franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. A previous franchise was the Deccan Chargers, which won the 2009 Indian Premier League held in South Africa.
During British rule, Secunderabad became a well-known sporting centre and many race courses, parade grounds and polo fields were built. Many elite clubs formed by the Nizams and the British such as the Secunderabad Club, the Nizam Club and the Hyderabad Race Club, which is known for its horse racing especially the annual Deccan derby, still exist. In more recent times, motorsports has become popular with the Andhra Pradesh Motor Sports Club organising popular events such as the Deccan 1/4 Mile Drag, TSD Rallies and 4x4 off-road rallying.
International-level sportspeople from Hyderabad include: cricketers Ghulam Ahmed, M. L. Jaisimha, Mohammed Azharuddin, V. V. S. Laxman, Venkatapathy Raju, Shivlal Yadav, Arshad Ayub and Noel David; football players Syed Abdul Rahim, Syed Nayeemuddin and Shabbir Ali; tennis player Sania Mirza; badminton players S. M. Arif, Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, Jwala Gutta and Chetan Anand; hockey players Syed Mohammad Hadi and Mukesh Kumar; rifle shooters Gagan Narang and Asher Noria and bodybuilder Mir Mohtesham Ali Khan.
TRANSPORT
The most commonly used forms of medium distance transport in Hyderabad include government owned services such as light railways and buses, as well as privately operated taxis and auto rickshaws. Bus services operate from the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station in the city centre and carry over 130 million passengers daily across the entire network. Hyderabad's light rail transportation system, the Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS), is a three line suburban rail service used by over 160,000 passengers daily. Complementing these government services are minibus routes operated by Setwin (Society for Employment Promotion & Training in Twin Cities). Intercity rail services also operate from Hyderabad; the main, and largest, station is Secunderabad Railway Station, which serves as Indian Railways' South Central Railway zone headquarters and a hub for both buses and MMTS light rail services connecting Secunderabad and Hyderabad. Other major railway stations in Hyderabad are Hyderabad Deccan Station, Kachiguda Railway Station, Begumpet Railway Station, Malkajgiri Railway Station and Lingampally Railway Station. The Hyderabad Metro, a new rapid transit system, is to be added to the existing public transport infrastructure and is scheduled to operate three lines by 2015. As of 2012, there are over 3.5 million vehicles operating in the city, of which 74% are two-wheelers, 15% cars and 3% three-wheelers. The remaining 8% include buses, goods vehicles and taxis. The large number of vehicles coupled with relatively low road coverage - roads occupy only 9.5% of the total city area - has led to widespread traffic congestion especially since 80% of passengers and 60% of freight are transported by road. The Inner Ring Road, the Outer Ring Road, the Hyderabad Elevated Expressway, the longest flyover in India, and various interchanges, overpasses and underpasses were built to ease the congestion. Maximum speed limits within the city are 50 km/h for two-wheelers and cars, 35 km/h for auto rickshaws and 40 km/h for light commercial vehicles and buses.
Hyderabad sits at the junction of three National Highways linking it to six other states: NH-7 runs 2,369 km from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, in the north to Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, in the south; NH-9, runs 841 km east-west between Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and Pune, Maharashtra; and the 280 km NH-163 links Hyderabad to Bhopalpatnam, Chhattisgarh. Five state highways, SH-1, SH-2, SH-4, SH-5 and SH-6, either start from, or pass through, Hyderabad.
Air traffic was previously handled via Begumpet Airport, but this was replaced by Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) (IATA: HYD, ICAO: VOHS) in 2008, with the capacity of handling 12 million passengers and 100,000 tonnes of cargo per annum. In 2011, Airports Council International, an autonomous body representing the world's airports, judged RGIA the world's best airport in the 5–15 million passenger category and the world's fifth best airport for service quality.
WIKIPEDIA
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The Royal Courts of Justice was opened by Queen Victoria in 1882 and became the permanent home of the Supreme Court. The history of the administration of justice in England and Wales spans many centuries. By the mid-19th century‚ a number of separate courts had come into existence at different times and to meet different needs. Many anomalies and archaisms had arisen and it was recognised that this state of affairs was unacceptable‚ and‚ in consequence‚ the Judicature Acts of 1873-75 reconstituted all the higher courts. The Judicature Acts abolished the former courts and established in their place a Supreme Court of Judicature‚ the name of which was changed in 1981 to the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
The Supreme Court consists of two courts: the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. The High Court consists of three Divisions dealing mainly with civil disputes: the Chancery Division (which took over the work of the old High Court of Chancery)‚ the Queen’s Bench Division (which incorporated the jurisdiction of the three former common law courts: the Court of King’s Bench‚ the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Exchequer) and the Probate‚ Divorce and Admiralty Division which took over the former Court of Admiralty‚ Court of Probate and Court for Divorce. This last division has itself been replaced by the Family Division which was created in 1970.
When Queen Victoria opened the Royal Courts of Justice on 4th December 1882 she was drawing a line under a long and difficult effort to achieve a home for the Supreme Court for England and Wales.
Before 1875‚ courts had been housed in Westminster Hall‚ Lincoln’s Inn and various other buildings around London and pressure had been mounting for a grand new building and in 1866 Parliament announced a competition for the design.
The eleven architects competing for the contract for the Law Courts each submitted alternative designs with the view of the possible placing of the building on the Thames Embankment. The present site was chosen only after much debate.
In 1868 it was finally decided that George Edmund Street‚ R.A. was to be appointed the sole architect for the Royal Courts of Justice and it was he who designed the whole building from foundation to varied carvings and spires.? Building was started in 1873 by Messrs. Bull & Sons of Southampton.
There was a serious strike of masons at an early stage which threatened to extend to other trades and caused a temporary stoppage of the works. In consequence‚ foreign workmen were brought in - mostly Europeans. This aroused bitter hostility on the part of the men on strike and the newcomers had to be specially protected by the police and were housed and fed in the building.? However‚ these disputes were eventually settled and the building took eight years to complete and was officially opened by Queen Victoria on the 4th of December‚ 1882. Sadly‚ Street died before the building was opened.
Parliament paid ?1‚453‚000 for the 7.5 acre site. It was reported that 4‚175 people lived in 450 houses. In two houses in Robin Hood Court 52 people had their abode‚ in Lower Serle’s Place 189 people slept in 9 houses. The site also housed the Kit Kat Club.
The building was paid for by cash accumulated in court from the estates of the intestate to the sum of ?700‚000. Oak work and fittings in the courts cost a further ?70‚000 and with decoration and furnishing the total cost for the building came to under a million pounds.
The dimensions of the building (in round figures) are: 470 feet (approx.143 metres) from East to West; 460 feet (approx.140 metres) from north to south; 245 (approx 74 metres) feet from the Strand level to the tip of the fleche.
Entering through the main gates in the Strand one passes under two elaborately carved porches fitted with iron gates. The carving over the outer porch consists of heads of the most eminent Judges and Lawyers. Over the highest point of the upper arch is a figure of Jesus Christ; to the left and right at a lower level are figures of Solomon and Alfred; that of Moses is at the northern front of the building. Also at the northern front‚ over the Judges entrance are a stone cat and dog representing fighting litigants in court.
The walls and ceilings (of the older‚ original Courts) are panelled in oak which in many cases is elaborately carved. In Court 4‚ the Lord Chief Justice’s court‚ there is an elaborately carved wooden royal Coat of Arms.? Each court has an interior unique to itself; they were each designed by different architects.
There are‚ in addition to the Waiting Rooms‚ several Arbitration and Consultation Chambers together with Robing Rooms for the members of the Bar.
It has been 1,067 days since Russia invaded Ukraine – the war continues – normality does not settle in – yet life goes on amidst the war, its consequences, and its losses.
I was driving to Otterden, using John Vigar's book as a guide to the East Kent churches I had missed.
I was using the Sat Nav, at least to get me to the village, so I could concentrate on the roads and sights as I went along, just on the offchance I passed another church unexpectedly.
And so I came to Eastling, and across a walled field, I saw the church, so, finding there was a large car park, I pulled up.
To get into the church yeard, one could either climb over a wooden stile, one built into the wall, or through the gate a few metres further along. I chose the gate.
Through the churchyard, and under the shadow of a huge yew tree to find the porch door, and church door beyond both unlocked.
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A huge church entered across a meadow along a path which passes a huge Yew tree. The porch is high Victorian with the jazziest floor in Kent, no doubt the work of Richard Hussey who restored the church in the mid nineteenth century. This leads to a church with origins in the 12th century but owing more to the 13th and even more to the 19th century! The arcades are built in a much replaced Early English style but work well. In the centre alley is the lovely ledger slab of a man who put it there a few years before his death and inscribed lest someone else steal his pole position! In the south transept is a pretty monument showing kneeling children and a most colourful shield of arms displaying sea creatures. The chancel contains some rare blank arcading in the north wall which may have formed sedilia elsewhere or which may be part of a monument. Its arches are held up by four strong men with bulging shoulders. What a surprise it is! Next to it is one of the finest 14th century tomb recesses in the county, though the faces at either end are Victorian fantasies. This is a much-loved and rewarding Downland church, which is open daily.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Eastling
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It is widely accepted that there has been a place of worship on the site of the Parish Church of St Mary's at Eastling since Anglo-Saxon times.
The oldest surviving parts of the present building are the base of the south-west Tower, the Nave and the western part of the Chancel. All are thought to have been built by the 11th century, possibly on the foundations of an earlier church. The remainder of the Tower and the central part of the Chancel are Norman.
The North and South Aisles and the Arcades between the Aisles and the Nave were built in the 13th century. In the 14th century, the Chancel was extended eastwards to create a Sanctuary. Also in that century, the St Katherine Chapel and an Arcade was added to the south-east corner of the building.
In 1855-56, the Nave, North Aisle and the South Arcade were substantially rebuilt, the West Porch added and the Nave re-roofed.
The Nave - or central area of the church - dates from the 12th century and is notable for its unusually narrow original walls (later, the Arcade walls). Fractionally over 2ft thick, they are considered to be attributable to Saxon workmanship which favoured relatively "thin" solid walls against the Norman style of "thicker" walls comprising two leaves with a filled cavity.
The western end of the Nave is thought to be a late 12th-century extension.
The South Aisle was constructed in the early part of the 13th century and substantially rebuilt by Victorian architect R. C. Hussey in 1855. Some original 13th-century material was re-used, and the eastern respond located against the Chancel remains substantially untouched.
The North Aisle was also created in the 13th century and completely rebuilt by Hussey as part of his major "modernisation" of the building. The South Aisle incorporates a 14th-century window.
The Victorians' enthusiasm for remodelling churches also extended to the Nave which was rebuilt by Hussey in 1855-56. He also added the West Porch, constructed a Vestry and re-built the Chancel arch. It's worth comparing the ceilings of the South Aisle which is said to have escaped Hussey's attentions and that of the Nave where he left only the tie beams and principal trusses visible.
The box pews, pulpit, lectern, rector's stall and choir stalls all date from the Victorian era. The wooden wall benches pre-date the pews.
The alignment of the Tower and Chancel is considered attributable to Saxon, rather than Norman, workmanship. If you stand in front of the east window and look back to the west door you will see that the Nave and Chancel are out of alignment, and this suggests that the Chancel pre-dates the Nave.
Examples of Norman workmanship to be seen in St Mary today are:
• the upper part of the Tower;
• perhaps the belfry stage with its pairs of round-headed openings;
• the re-styling of the western part of the Chancel; and
• the west end of the Nave (possibly a late 12th century extension).
Early in the 13th century, the Chancel was re-styled and given Early English lancet windows.
A further period of rebuilding-took place during the 14th century. The Chancel was extended eastwards by a further 22ft, so creating the Sanctuary.
The stained glass in the Chancel windows are memorials to the Birch Reynardson family. The east window contains picture panels, the work of famous church glass artist Thomas Willement of Davington.
On the north wall of the Sanctuary at Eastling Church is a double Aumbry.
Built as a cupboard in the wall - usually with a wooden door - this would have been used to house the Church Plate.
A piscina is, in effect, a medieval stone bowl near the altar where a priest carried out ceremonial cleaning tasks.
The piscina in Eastling Church dates from the late 13th century and takes the form of a stone cill incorporating twin bowls - one for hand washing, the other for cleaning the chalice and other sacred vessels.
It was originally located in the Chancel. When this part of the building was extended during the 14th century, the piscina was moved to its present position on the south wall of the Sanctuary.
The sedilia at Eastling Church comprise three recessed stone seats with trefoiled canopies. By convention, sedilia were placed south of the altar and used by the priest, deacon and sub-deacon.
Created late in the 13th century, Eastling's sedilia were moved, during the 14th century, from the Chancel to their present position in the (then) new Sanctuary.
The Stone Stalls, on the north side of the Chancel, would have once served as choir stalls. These recessed seats have unusual carved stone canopies in the form of four trefoiled arches carried on caryatids (columns sculpted as female figures).
In his "Notes on the Church", Eastling Church historian Richard Hugh Perks says that a 19th century ecclesiologist, Francis Grayling, theorised that they were mural recesses. Mr Perks considers the church might once have been decorated extensively with murals - born out by the traces of wall paintings found in the 1960s when the Chancel was re-decorated. However, the paintings were in such very poor condition that they were covered over. Mr Perks also draws attention to the fragment of the former Chancel east wall which can be seen at the east end of the Stone Stalls.
The St Katherine Chapel was built around 1350. As part of the scheme, an arcade was formed on the south side of the Chancel. The fluted (concave-sided) pillars are an unusual design, also found in Faversham Parish Church and at Eastchurch, Sheppey. It is thought that the workmanship might be by masons from either Leeds Priory or Faversham Abbey.
The Chapel houses a 19th century organ, the Martin James monument and a fine oak chest with an inscription of "1664 H" carved inside. The "H" is the mark of a Michael Shilling, who was churchwarden at the time.
There is evidence that Eastling Church once had a Rood Screen, possibly extending across both the Chapel and the Chancel. On this would have stood a Cross with a carving representing a crucified Jesus. The Reformation saw the destruction of the Rood and no trace remains, apart from the base of a stairs turret at the south-east corner of the South Aisle.
The West Porch was built in 1855, by Victorian architect R.C. Hussey as part of his major alterations to the church.
However, the fine Norman west doorcase is much older, possibly dating from 1180. It is carved from chalk blocks; some of the internal wall faces are also chalk, a common feature of many Downland churches. It was partly restored by the Victorians.
The churchyard owes much to a generous bequest for its maintenance by Dorothy Long (d. 1968). It used to be part of the 'Gods Acre Project' setup by the Vicar of Eastling Parish Caroline Pinchbeck (who departed the parish in 2012) but from 2013 has been returned to previous landscaping regimes.
When the churchyard was being managed with wildlife in mind, it preserved the diversity of nature alongside well kempt areas. This means parts of the old graveyard were left to grow from springtime onwards and were cut in September. Many species of wild flowers grew in a spring meadow and were followed by grasses. This encouraged wildlife into the graveyard, owls, field mice, voles, multiple species of insects and birds. The uncut areas were managed, which means to say they were not left to grow out of control. Brambles, the majority of stinging nettles and other unwanted plants were removed by hand and the graves were always tended so that the vegetation did not disturb them.
Areas of the churchyard that were mown were done so with a petrol mower but the grass was not collected, It was left on the ground as a mulch. No pesticides were used, they damaged the graves, leaving contaminated black rings around them and killed any wild flowers or grass in the affected areas. The emphasis of the gods acre project management process, started in 2008, was balance. By maintaining the churchyard in this way it was both cost effective and beneficial to local wildlife and preservation. (N. Perkins/ Grounds man Eastling Church 2007-2012)
The original graveyard has a modern extension with spaces still available for burials and close to the entry gate is an area dedicated to the burial of ashes.
Several graves date from the 17th and 18th centuries and include memorial stones to Mary Tanner who was born in the year of the Battle of Naseby; to Christopher Giles born in 1674 and his wife Susannah born in 1691; and to Thomas Lake of Eastling Gent died February the 19th 1717.
Close to the West Porch is a 13th century stone coffin slab, in the form of a cross with a sword, a style sometimes referred to as a "Crusader Tomb".(original text) This is infact incorrect, an archaeologist has confirmed that the stone is a medieval headstone most likely from the back of the church which was once standing that has been moved and placed by the entrance for asthetic qualities. There is another stone to the left of the entrance from a sarcophagus which again has been moved and placed by the entrance.
There is a Yew Tree by the West Door and It is said to be an ancient which would put it's minimum age at 2000 years, predating the church. However dating methods for Yew Trees are inconclusive.. It is hard to reliably scientifically date a Yew Tree due to several factors.. Information on the dating process can be found here. (source: ancient-yew.org) Also Yew trees can grow fast and ages can be exaggerated, a large Yew is most likely the age of the Church but unlikely to be older than it's Anglo-Saxon predecessor. There is no firm evidence to link Yew trees to pagan religions or the theory that Church's were built on Pagan Ritual Sites. (source: Illustrated History of the Countryside, Oliver Rackham)
The circle of yews which continue around the church have been said to have sprouted from the ancient Yew Tree, however archeologists and Yew Tree Specialists have put forward that actually the Yew Trees have been landscaped to look like that. In the past Yew Trees were planted to ward of witches and evil spirits. It is clear if you measure out the trees and use dimensions for aging that the trees have been landscaped.
Work carried out on the tower in 2010 to install a compostable toilet has radically changed the dimensions and structure of the lower and middle of the tower.
The base of the south-west Tower is said to date from the early 11th century, possibly earlier. Much of the remainder of the Tower is Norman.
The Tower - five feet thick at its base - is of flint and chippings, with ragstone quoins, and is heavily buttressed. The external brick buttress to the tower is 18th century. Brick was also used in rebuilding sections of the north-west angle of the Tower, the belfry openings and the Tower doorcase. Today's slated spire would once have been clad with wooden shingles.
The door to the Tower is set in a large arch with "Articles" of the Ringing Chamber, on wooden boards above it.
Eastling has six bells, four of them made by Richard Phelps during the time he occupied the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Click here for more info. Unfortunately, the present condition of the timber bell frame with its elm headstocks (constructed around 1700) and the upper part of the Tower do not allow the bells to be rung safely.
www.eastlingvillage.co.uk/st-mary-s-church.html
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THE next parish south-eastward from Newnham, is Easling, written in old deeds likewise Esling, and Iseling.
It is situated among the hills, on very high ground, about five miles southward from Faversham, and a little more than a mile south-eastward from Newnham valley, in a healthy but cold and forlorn country, being much exposed to the north-east aspect. The village, with the church and parsonage in it, a near pretty dwelling, stands on the road leading from Otterden to Newnham valley; in it there is a large well-timbered house, called Gregories, formerly of some account, and rebuilt in 1616, it formerly belonged to Hoskins, and then to Parmeter, in which name it still continues.—Though there is some level land in the parish, yet it is mostly steep hill and dale, the soil in gen ral a red cludgy earth, poor, and much covered with flints. It is very woody, especially in the eastern parts of it.
A fair is held in the village on Sept. 14, yearly, for toys and pedlary ware. On Nov. 30, being St. Andrew's, there is yearly a diversion called squirrel bunting, in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the labourers and lower kind of people assembling together, form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs, and other such weapons, spend the greatest part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings, and under the pretence of demolishing the squirrels, some few of which they kill, they destroy numbers of hares, pheasants, partridges, and in short whatever comes in their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief, and in the evening betaking themselves to the alehouses, finish their career there in drunkenness, as is usual with such sort of gentry.
THIS PLACE, at the time of the taking of the general survey of Domesday, was part of the extensive possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in that record:
Herbert held of the bishop of Baieux Nordeslinge. The arable land is one carucate. It was taxed at half a suling. There two borderers pay two shillings. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, it was worth twenty shillings, now twenty-five shillings. Turgod held it in the time of king Edward the Confessor.
These two manors, (one of which was Throwley, described immediately before in this record) Herbert, the son of Ivo, Held of the bishop of Baieux.
And a little below,
Roger, son of Ansebitil, held of the bishop, Eslinges. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is one carucate. There is in demesne . . . . and one borderer has half a carucate. There is a church, and one mill of ten shillings, and two acres of meadow. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth sixty shillings, and afterwards twenty shillings, now forty shillings. Unlot held it of king Edward, and could go where he pleased with his land.
Fulbert held of the bishop, Eslinges. It was taxed at five suling, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and now for two, and so it did after the bishop gave the manor to Hugh son of Fulbert. The arable land is six carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and thirty villeins having three carucates. There is a church, and twenty-eight servants, and one mill of ten shilings. Wood for the pannage of thirty bogs In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth ten pounds, and when he received it six pounds, now four pounds, and yet the bishop had eight pounds. Sired held it of king Edward.
The three estates described before, included North Easting and its appendages, Huntingfield and Diven manors, with others estates in this parish, then esteemed as part of them.
On the bishop's disgrace four years afterwards, all his possessions were confiscated to the crown.
Fulbert de Dover, mentioned above as tenant to the bishop of Baieux for one of these estates, appears afterwards to have held all three of them of the king in capite by barony, the tenant of them being bound by tenure to maintain a certain number of soldiers from time to time, for the defence of Dover castle, in which there was a tower called Turris dei inimica, which he was bound by his tenure likewise to repair.
Of him and his heirs these estates were held by knight's service, of the honor of Chilham, which they had made the caput baroniæ, or chief of their barony. (fn. 1) That part of the above-mentioned estates, called in Domesday Nordeslinge, was afterwards known by the name of THE MANOR OF EASLING, alias NORTHCOURT, which latter name it had from its situation in respect to the others, being held of the lords paramount by a family of the name of Esling, one of whom, Ralph de Esling, died possessed of it in the 26th year of king Edward I. anno 1297, then holding it by knight's service of the honor of Chilham. He left an only daughter and heir Alice, who carried this manor, with that of Denton, alias Plumford, in marriage to Sir Fulk de Peyforer, who, with Sir William de Peyforer, of Otterden, accompanied king Edward. I. in his 28th year, at the siege of Carlaverock, where, with many other Kentish gentlemen, they were both knighted. They bore for their arms, Argent, six fleurs de lis, azure.
Sir Fulk de Peyforer, in the 32d year of the above reign, obtained a grant of a market weekly on a Friday, and one fair yearly on the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross at Esling, and free-warren for his lands there. Before the end of which reign, the property of these manors was transferred into the family of Leyborne, and it appears by an inquisition taken in the 1st year of Edward III. that Juliana, the widow of William de Leyborne, who died anno 2 Edward II. was possessed of these estates at her death, and that their grand-daughter Juliana, was heir both to her grandfather and father's possessions, from the greatness of which she was usually stiled the Infanta of Kent.
She was then the wife of John de Hastings, as she was afterwards of Sir William de Clinton, created earl of Huntingdon, who paid aid for the manor of Northcourt, alias Easling. She survived him, and afterwards died possessed of this estate in Easling, together with Denton, alias Plymford, in the 41st year of king Edward III. and leaving no issue by either of her husbands, these manors, among the rest of her estates, escheated to the crown, for it appears by the inquisition taken that year, after her death, that there was no one who could make claim to her estates, either by direct or even by collateral alliance.
These manors remained in the crown till the beginning of king Richard the IId.'s reign, when they became vested in John, duke of Lancaster, and other seoffees, in trust for the performance of certain religious bequests in the will of Edward III. in consequence of which, the king Afterwards, in his 22d year, granted them, among other premises, to the dean and canons of St. Stephen's college, in Westminster, for ever. (fn. 2) In which situation they continued till the 1st year of king Edward VI. when, by the act passed that year, they were surrendered into the king's hands.
After which the king, by his letters patent, in his 3d year, granted these manors, among others lately belonging to the above-mentioned college, to Sir Thomas Cheney, privy counsellor and treasurer of his houshold, with all and singular their liberties and privileges whatsoever, in as ample a manner as the dean and canons held them, to hold in capite by knight's service. (fn. 3) whose son Henry, lord Cheney, of Tuddington, had possession granted to him of his inheritance anno 3 Elizabeth, and that year levied a fine of all his lands.
He passed these manors away by sale, in the 8th year of that reign, to Martin James, esq. prothonotary of the court of chancery, and afterwards a justice of the peace for this county, who levied a fine of them anno 17 Elizabeth, and died possessed of them in 1592, being buried in the south chancel of this church, under a monument, on which are the effigies of himself and his wife. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, vert, a dolphin naiant; second and third, Ermine, on a chief gules, three crosses, or. His great-grandson Walter James, esq. was possessed of them at the time of the restoration of king Charles II. whose heirs sold them in the latter end of that reign, to Mr. John Grove, gent. of Tunstall, who died possessed of them in 1678, after which they descended down to Richard Grove, esq. of Cambridge, but afterwards of the Temple, in London, who died unmarried in 1792, and by his will devised them to Mr. William Jemmet, of Ashford, and Mr. William Marshall, of London, who continue at this time the joint possessors of them.
THE MANOR OF HUNTINGFIELD, situated in the eastern part of this parish, was, at the time of the takeing of the general survey of Domesday, part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, as has been already taken notice of before, and on his disgrace came, with the rest of his estates, to the crown, about the year 1084.
After which, Fulbert de Dover appears to have held it, with others in this parish, of the king in capite by barony, by the tenure of ward to Dover castle for the defence of it. Of him and his heirs it was held by knight's service, of the honor of Chilham, the head or chief of their barony.
Simon de Chelsfield held it of them, as lords paramount, in the reign of Henry III. but at the latter end of that reign, this manor was come into the possession of that branch of the eminent family of Huntingfield settled in this county, descended from those of Suffolk, in which county and in Norfolk they had large possessions. Hence this manor assumed the name of Huntingfield-court, and it appears by the roll of knights fees, taken at the beginning of the reign of Edward I. that Peter de Huntingfield then held it. He resided at times both here and at West Wickham, of which manor he was likewise possessed, though it seems when he was sheriff in the 11th, 12th, and 13th years of that reign, he kept his shrievalty at Huntingfield-court. In the 9th year of it he obtained a charter of free-warren for his lands at Eslynge and Stalesfeld, and in the 28th year of it attended the king at the siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland, for which service he, with others, received the honor of knighthood. He died in the 7th year of Edward II. anno 1313, leaving by the lady Imayne his wise, who was buried in the church of the Grey Friars, London, Sir Walter de Huntingfield his son and heir, who having obtained several liberties for his manor of Wickham, and liberty to impark his grounds there, (fn. 4) seems to have deserted this place, which in the next reign of Edward III. was sold either by him or by his son, Sir John de Huntingfield, to one of the family of Sawfamere, and in the 20th year of that reign, the lady Sawfamere, Dna' de Sawsamero, as she is written in the book of aid, paid respective aid for it.
But before the end of that reign, it had passed into the name of Halden, for it appears by the escheat-rolls that William de Halden died in the 50th year of it, possessed of Easling manor, called Huntingfield, held of the castle of Chilham; soon after which it became the property of Sir Simon de Burleigh, who being attainted in the 12th year of Richard II. this manor, among the rest of his possessions, came to the crown. After which, anno 2 Henry IV. John, son and heir of Sir John de Burley, cousin and heir of Sir Simon de Burley, was, upon his petition, restored in blood, and the judgment against Sir Simon was revoked, and three years afterwards the king, with the assent of the lords, wholly restored him to all his hereditaments, except as to those excepted by him. (fn. 5) How long this manor remained in this name I have not found, but in the reign of Henry VI. it was in the possession of Sir James Fienes, who anno 25 of that reign, by reason of his mother's descent, was created Lord Say and Sele, and was afterwards made lord treasurer, but becoming unpopular, from his being so great a favorite, he was seized on in the insurrection raised by Jack Cade, and beheaded in the 29th year of that reign. He was at his death possessed of this manor, which by his will be devised to his son Sir William Fienes, who became likewise lord Say and Sele, but the unhappy contention which then subsisted between the houses of York and Lancaster, in which he risked not only his person, but his whole fortune, brought him soon afterwards into great distresses, and necessitated him to mortgage and sell the greatest part of his lands. How this manor was disposed of I have not found, but within a very few years afterwards it appears to have been in the hands of the crown, for king Richard III. in his first year, granted to John Water, alias Yorke Heraulde, an annuity out of the revenues of his lordship of Huntingfield, and afterwards by his writ, in the same year, on the resignation of John, garter, principal king at arms, and Thomas, clarencieux, king at arms, he committed to Richard Champeney, alias called Gloucestre, king of arms, the custody of this manor.
But the see of it seems to have remained in the crown till king Henry VIII. in his 35th year, granted it to John Guldford and Alured Randall, esqrs. to hold in capite by knight's service. John Guildford was the next year become the sole proprietor of it, and then alienated it to Sir Thomas Moyle; he sold it, in the 7th year of Edward VI. to John Wild, esq. of St. Martin's hill, Canterbury, with its members and appurtenances in Esling, Sheldwich, Whitstaple, Reculver, and Ulcombe. However, it appears that he was not possessed of the entire see of it at his death in 1554, for he by his will devised his two thirds of this manor, (besides the third part due to the queen, after his wife's death) to his son Thomas Wild, then an infant, whose son John Wild, esq. of St. Martin's hill, alienated his share, or two thirds of it, which included the courts, sines, amerciaments, and other privileges belonging to it, to Martin James, esq. prothonotary of the court of chancery, owner of the manor of North-court, alias Easling, as above-mentioned, whose great-grandson, Walter James, esq. possessed it at the restoration of Charles II. at the latter end of which reign his heirs sold it to Mr. John Grove, gent. of Tunstall, who died possessed of it in 1678, and his great-grandson Richard Grove, esq. of London, proprietor likewise of North-court above-described, died in 1792, having by his will devised these manors (which having been for many years united in the same owners, are now consolidated, one court being held for both, the stile of which is, the manor of Easling, alias North court, with that of Huntingfield annexed, in Easling, Ulcomb, and Sheldwich) among the rest of his estates, to Wm. Jemmet, gent. of Ashford, and William Marshall, of London, and they continue at this time the joint possessors of these manors.
BUT THE REMAINING THIRD PART of the manor of Hunting field, in the hands of the crown in the reign of Philip and Mary, as before-mentioned, in which was included the mansion of Huntingfield court, with the demesne lands adjoining to it, continued there till it was granted, in the beginning of the next reign of queen Elizabeth, to Mr. Robert Greenstreet, who died possessed of it in the 14th year of that reign, holding it in capite by knight's service. His descendant Mr. Mathew Greenstreet, of Preston, leaving an only daughter Anne, she carried this estate in marriage to Mr. Richard Tassell, of Linsted, and he alienated it in 1733 to Edward Hasted, esq. barrister-at law, of Hawley, near Dartford, whose father Mr. Joseph Hasted, gent. of Chatham, was before possessed of a small part of the adjoining demesne lands of Huntingfield manor, which had been in queen Elizabeth's reign become the property of Mr. Josias Clynch.
The family of Hasted, or as they were antiently written, both Halsted and Hausted, was of eminent note in very early times, as well from the offices they bore, as their several possessions in different counties, and bore for their arms, Gules, a chief chequy, or, and azure. William Hausted was keeper of the king's exchange, in London, in the 5th year of Edward II. from whom these of Kent hold themselves to be descended, one of whom, John Hausted, clerk, or as his descendants wrote themselves, Hasted, born in Hampshire, is recorded to have been chaplain to queen Elizabeth, and a person much in favor with her, whom he so far displeased by entering into the state of marriage, which he did with a daughter of George Clifford, esq. of Bobbing, and sister of Sir Coniers Clifford, governor of Connaught, in Ireland, that he retired to the Isle of Wight, where he was beneficed, and dying there about the year 1596, was buried in the church of Newport. His great grandson Joseph Hasted, gent. was of Chatham, and dying in 1732, was buried in Newington church, as was his only son Edward, who was of Hawley, esq. the purchaser of Huntingfield court as before-mentioned. He died in 1740, leaving by his wife Anne, who was descended from the antient and respectable family of the Dingleys, of Wolverton, in the isle of Wight, one son, Edward Hasted, esq. late of Canterbury, who has several children, of whom the eldest, the Rev. Edward Hasted, late of Oriel college, in Oxford, is now vicar of Hollingborne. He bears for his arms the antient coat of the family of Halsted, or Hausted, as mentioned before, with the addition in the field, of an eagle displayed,ermine,beaked and legged, or, with which he quarters those of Dingley, Argent, a fess azure, in chief, two mullets of the second between two burts, which colours Charles, the third son of Sir John Dingley, of Wolverton, in James the 1st.'s reign, changed from those borne by his ancestors and elder brothers, i.e. from sable to azure.
Edward Hasted, esq. of Canterbury, above-mentioned, succeeded his father in this estate, which he, at length, in 1787, alienated to John Montresor, esq. of Throwley, who continues the possessor of it.
The foundations of slint and stone, which have continually been dug up near this house, shew it to have been formerly much larger that it is at present. There was once a chapel and a mill belonging to it, the fields where they stood being still known by the name of chapel-field and mill-field, which answers the description of this estate given in Domesday.
DIVEN is A MANOR, situated almost adjoining to the church of Easting, which is so corruptly called for Dive-court, its more antient and proper name. This estate was likewise one of those described before in Domesday, as being part of the possessions of the bishop of Baieux, on whose disgrace it was, among, the rest of his estates, forfeited to the crown; after which, Fulbert de Dover appears to have held it, with others in this parish therein-mentioned, of the king in capite by barony, by the tenure of ward to Dover cattle, and of him and his heirs it was held, as half a knight's fee, of the honor of Chilham, the caput barouiæ, or head of their barony.
In the reign of Henry III. John Dive held this estate as before-mentioned, of that honor; and his descendant Andrew Dive, in the 20th year of king Edward III. paid aid for it as half a knight's fee, held of the above barony, when it paid ward annually to Dover castle. In this name the manor of Diven continued till the beginning of the next reign of king Richard II. when it was alienated to Sharp, of Ninplace, in Great Chart, in which it remained till the latter end of Henry VII. when it was conveyed to Thurston, of Challock, from which, some year after, it was passed by sale to John Wild, esq. who, before the reign of queen Elizabeth, sold it to Gates, and he alienated it to Norden, who conveyed it to Bunce, where it remained after the death of king Charles I. in 1648; soon after which this manor was sold to John Adye, esq of Down court, in Doddington, who died possessed of it in 1660, and his two sons, Edward and Nicholas, seem afterwards to have possessed it in undivided moieties.
Edward Adye, esq. was of Barham, and left seven daughters his coheirs, of whom Susanna, married to Ruishe Wentworth, esq. son and heir of Sir George Wentworth, a younger brother to Thomas, the noted but unfortunate earl of Strafford, entitled her husband to the possession of her father's moiety of this manor, with other lands in Doddington, upon the division of his estates among them. He left an only daughter and heir Mary, who married Thomas, lord Howard, of Essingham, who died possessed of this moiety of Diven-court in 1725, and leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in this estate by Francis his brother and heir, who was in 1731 created Earl of Essingham, and died in 1743. His son Thomas, earl of Effingham, afterwards alienated this moiety of Divencourt to Oliver Edwards, esq. of the six clerks office, as will be further mentioned hereafter.
The other moiety of this manor, which, on the death of his father, came into the possession of Nicholas Adye, esq. of Down-Court, in Doddington, was devised by him to his eldest son John Adye, esq. of Down court, who anno 23 Charles II. suffered a recovery of it. (fn. 6)
He left an only daughter and heir Mary, married to Henry Cullum, sergeant-at-law; but before that event, this estate seems to have been passed away by him to Thomas Diggs, esq. of Chilham castle, Whose descendant of the same name, in 1723, conveyed it, with Chilham-castle, and the rest of his estates in this county, to Mr. James Colebrook, citizen and mercer of London, who died possessed of this moiety of Diven-court in the year 1752, after which it passed in like manner with them, till it was at length sold by his descendants, under the same act of parliament, in the year 1775, to Thomas Heron, esq. of Newark upon Trent, afterwards of Chilham-castle, who about the year 1776, joined with Oliver Edwards, esq. the proprietor of the other moiety, as has been mentioned beforce, to Mr. Charles Chapman, of Faversham, who then became possessed of the whole of it, which, at his death in 1782, he devised by his will to his nephews and nieces, of the name of Leeze, two of whom are now entitled to the fee of it.
THE MANOR OF ARNOLDS, which is situated about a mile eastward from the church of Easling, was likewise part of the estates of the bishop of Baieux, mentioned before, and on his disgrace came with the rest of them, to the crown, of which it was held afterwards in capite by barony, by Fulbert de Dover, by the tenure of ward to Dover castle, and of him and his heirs it was again held, as half a knight's fee, as of the honor of Chilham, the head of their barony.
Of them it was held by Arnold de Bononia, whence it acquired the name of Arnolds, alias Esling. His son John Fitzarnold afterwards possessed it in the reign of Edward III. after which Peter de Huntingfield was owner of it, but in the 20th year of Edward III. the lady Champaine, or Champion, and the earl of Oxford paid aid for it, as half a knight's fee, held of the barony above-mentioned. How it passed afterwards I have not seen, but in the next reign of Richard II. it was become part of the endowment of the dean and canons of the collegiate free chapel of St. Stephen's, Westminster, with whom it remained till the suppression of it in the 1st year of Edward VI. when it came into the hands of the crown; after which it became the property of Gates, and after that of Terry, in which it continued several years, and by that acquired the name of Arnolds, alias Terrys, from which name it was sold, in the reign of queen Anne, one part to the Rev. William Wickens, rector of this parish, who bore for his arms, Party, per pale, or, and sable, a chevron coupee, between three trefoils, all counter changed, whose son Mr. William Wickens, succeeded to it on his death in 1718. He died without male issue, and by his will devised it to his two daughters, one of whom marrying Elvy, he bought the other sister's share in it, and his widow surviving him now possesses both of them; another part was sold to Chapman, and a third to Avery. Since which it has become more inconsiderable, by the two parts last-mentioned having been again parcelled out, so that now it is sunk into that obscurity, as hardly to be worthy of notice, but the manerial rights of the manor are claimed by John Wynne and Lydia his wife.
Charities.
EDWARD GRESWOLD, by his will in 1677, gave 20l. for the benefit of the poor not receiving alms, to be laid out in land or otherwise, by his executors, who in 1680 purchased a piece of land, called Pinkes-cross, in Easling, containing two acres, in trust, for this purpose, the rent of it is now 154. per annum, vested in the minister and parish officers.
The poor constantly relieved are about twelve, casually twenty-five.
EASLING is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, consists of three isles and a south chancel, called St. Katherine's. The steeple, which is a low pointed one, stands at the west end; there are six bells in it.
Alicia de Esling, wife of Robert de Eschequer, and lady of the manor of Esling, with the consent of archbishop Theobald, in the reign of king Stephen, granted the church of Elinges, situated on her estate, to the priory of Ledes, in perpetual alms, together with the temporalities, or appropriation of it, to be possessed by them for ever after the death of Gervas then incumbent of it. Which gift was confirmed by archbishop Hubert, in the reign of Richard I.
Notwithstanding which, there was no vicarage endowed here, nor did the canons of Ledes ever enjoy the parsonage of it; but archbishop Stephen Langton, who succeeded archbishop Hubert, with the consent and approbation of William de Eslinges, patron of this church, granted to the canons of Ledes twenty shillings yearly, to be received from it in the name of a benefice; and he ordained, that beyond that sum, they should not claim any thing further from it, but that whenever it should become vacant, the said William de Esling should present to it. But it should seem that after this, they had not given up all pretensions to it, for they obtained, seventy years after this, viz. in 1278, of the prior, and the convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, a confirmation of the archbishops Theobald and Hubert's charters to them, in which this church is particularly mentioned. (fn. 7) How long it continued in the hands of the family of Esling I do not find, or in those of private patronage; but before the 22d year of Edward III. it was become part of the possessions of the college founded by Sir John Poultney, in the church of St. Laurence, Canon-street, London, with which it remained till the suppression of the college, in the reign of Edward VI. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of it, into the hands of the crown.
After which it seems to have been granted to Sir Thomas Moyle, of Eastwell, whose sole daughter and heir Catherine married Sir Thomas Finch, of that place, and afterwards Nicholas St. Leger, esq. who in her right presented to this rectory in 1574; after which Sir Moyle Finch, knight and baronet, the eldest son of Sir Thomas and lady Catherine, succeeded to it, in whose descendants, earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, this advowson continued down to Daniel, earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, who died possessed of it in 1769, without male issue, leaving his four daughters his coheirs. He was succeeded in titles by his nephew George Finch, esq. only son of his next brother William; but this advowson, with Eastwell, and the rest of his Kentish estates, he gave by his will to his nephew George Finch Hatton, esq. only son of his third brother the hon. Edward Finch Hatton, (fn. 8) who is the present owner of it.
The pension of twenty shillings payable from this church to the priory of Ledes, at its suppression in the reign of Henry VIII. came into the hands of the crown; after which it was settled, among other premises, by the King, in his 33d year, on his newerected dean and chapter of Rochester, who are now entitled to it.
¶This rectory is valued in the king's books at sixteen pounds, and the yearly tenths at 1l. 12s. In 1587 the communicants here were eighty-seven.
In 1640 it was valued at 120l. Communicants one hundred. It is now worth upwards of 200l. per annum.
ITM1692074
At a crossroads – Needing to make an important decision
When you are at a crossroads, you are at a point in your life where you need to make a decision. The implication is that the decision you make will have big, life-altering consequences.
Bad apple – Bad person
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is not nice and maybe even criminal.
Barking up the wrong tree – Pursuing the wrong course
When you “bark up the wrong tree” you are pursuing the wrong solution to your problems.
Be closefisted – Stingy
If you are being “closefisted”, you don’t want to spend a lot of money.
Be cold-hearted – Uncaring
If you decide to be “cold-hearted”, you are making a deliberate decision not to care about someone or something.
Be on solid ground – Confident
When you are “on solid ground”, you are confident in your position or feel that you are safe.
Beat around the bush – Avoid saying
When you do this, you are taking a long time to say what you really need to say. You may be doing this because the “truth” is embarrassing or your unsure about how the listener will take it.
Behind you – Supportive
When you are “behind” someone, you are saying that they have your support.
Between a rock and a hard place – Facing difficulties
When you have to choose between two options, neither of which are ideal or “good”.
Blow off steam – Try to relax
When you are stressed or upset about something, sometimes you need to do something to keep you from thinking about it.
Born with a silver spoon in their mouth – Born wealthy
This idiomatic expression is used to describe someone who was born into a wealthy family.
Break the bank – Spend a lot
When you “break the bank”, you spend a lot of money on something. If something will “break the bank”, then it’s expensive.
Bright spark – Smart
A “bright spark” is someone who is smart and valuable to an organization.
Build a case – Argue your point
When you “build a case” for something, you are preparing to argue a point or convince someone that your opinion is the right one.
Build castles in the sky – Daydream
When you fantasize about something you hope to have or achieve.
Burn your bridges – End a relationship
When you “burn your bridges” you end a relationship permanently.
Butter up – Flatter
When you “butter” someone up, you are telling them nice things about themselves.
Bought a lemon – Bad bargain
If something you bought is a “lemon” it is a bad product. In a sense, you wasted your money on it.
Break the ice – Start a conversation
When you start a conversation strangers with the end goal of making new friends.
Calm before the storm – Peaceful
When you use this to describe your state of being or mind, you’re talking about a quiet period before anticipated trouble comes your way.
Chasing rainbows – Pursuing dreams
When you try to follow your dreams. The implication here, however, is that you might be better off forgetting your dreams.
Clear as mud – Hard to understand
When you are confused about something or a situation.
Cool as a cucumber – Calm
This idiomatic expression is meant to describe someone who is calm and relaxed.
Couch potato – Lazy
A couch potato is a lazy person. Specifically, someone who sprawls on their couch watching TV almost all day.
Cross that bridge when we get to it – Think about it later
When you say this, you are telling someone that you will think about something later. The implication is that it’s a problem or a decision that can be put off for now.
Chew it over – Think had about something
This idiom implies that you need to make an important decision and can’t afford to be hasty about it.
Come to light – Be revealed
When something “comes to light” something that was originally concealed from you is revealed.
Cut back on – Reduce
When you use this idiom, you are reducing something.
Cut to the chase – Speak concisely
When you tell someone to “cut to the chase”, you are expressing impatience. This is usually used when someone feels someone else is taking to long to deliver important news.
Crystal clear – Easy to understand
When you say that something is “crystal clear”, you are saying that it is understood.
Dead-end job – No more opportunities
When you are stuck in a “dead-end job”, you are in a career situation where there is no more room for advancement.
Dig deep – Strive
When you “dig deep” you put a lot of effort into a task.
Digging into – Looking closer
When you “dig into” something, you are looking for more information.
Don’t run before you can walk – Don’t assume something is easy
This is a descriptive idiom, it’s meant to make you think about how a baby needs to learn how to walk before they can run. It’s supposed to caution you about assuming you can just do something without learning the basics.
Down to earth – Practical
This describes someone who is known for being sensible and practical.
Eat like a bird – Small appetite
This is used to describe someone who doesn’t eat a lot.
Eat like a horse – Eat a lot
If you eat like a horse, you are eating a lot. You can “eat like a bird” most of the time but “eat like a horse” at a specific time because you are either very hungry or you really like the food.
Eat your words – Admit you were wrong
When you “eat your words” you are admitting that something you said earlier turned out to be wrong.
Every cloud has a silver lining – Things will get better
When you say this, you are telling yourself or someone else that you will get through your troubles.
Face the music – Face the consequences
When you “face the music”, you are owning up to a mistake and trying to make amends.
Find your feet – Adapt
When you are “finding your feet” you are learning how to adapt to a new situation, like a new job.
Follow in their footsteps – Imitate
This idiom is often used between children and their parents, but it can also refer to a mentor or someone you admire. If you “follow in someone’s footsteps”, you do the same thing that they did.
Food for thought – Something to think about
If you are given “food for thought” you have been given something to think about.
A frosty reception – To be unwelcome
If you received a “frosty reception”, you are not welcome.
Fly off the handle – Rages
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is visibly angry over a situation. Often this means that someone is shouting and maybe gesturing violently and even causing damage to property. It also implies that the angry reaction is disproportionate to the situation.
Get on with your life – Continue on after a setback
This is something you can say and should do after going through some problems.
Give them a run for their money – Compete
If you are competing with someone, you are giving them a “run for their money.”
Go Dutch – Split the bill
You can use this idiomatic expression when dining out with friends.
Go with the flow – Relax and get along
When you “go with the flow” you keep calm and just go along with whatever is happening around you.
Got off scot-free – Escaped
When you “get off scot-free”, you managed to escape any consequences for your actions.
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Hard to swallow – Unbelievable
If someone told you something that you just can’t believe, they told you something that is “hard to swallow”.
Have your whole life in front of you – Young
Someone who has their whole life in front of them is young and full of promise.
Hold out an olive branch – Apologize
When you do this, you try to make amends or peace with someone you’ve hurt or angered.
In hot water – In trouble
This idiomatic expression can be used to say that you are in a less than ideal situation.
Inching forward - Making slow progress
When you say this, you’re saying things are proceeding slowly.
Keep on the straight and narrow – Keep out of trouble
When you say this, you are implying that you are going to live in a morally correct way.
Keep your chin up – Stay positive
Even if you’re going through a hard time, you should keep thinking positive.
Kicked the bucket – Died
This is an irreverent phrase to say that someone has died. Be careful how you use it.
Let the cat out of the bag – Spoiled the secret
You “let the cat out of the bag” when you accidentally let someone in on a secret that they weren’t meant to know.
Look up to – Respect
When you “look up to” someone you are acknowledging that you respect them and value their opinion.
Loaded – Rich
When you call someone “loaded” you are saying that they are rich.
Lost at sea – Confused
If a situation is making you feel confused or lost, this is the idiom to use.
Making ends meet – Careful budgeting
If you. don’t have much money, you need to “make ends meet”. This means you carefully budget what you do have to meet your needs.
Make a mountain out of a molehill –Exaggerate
This idiom is used to say that someone is being over-dramatic with their complaints or concerns.
Make waves – Change things
When you “make waves”, you change a situation dramatically. This can also mean that you caused trouble.
Nip in the bud – Stop
When you do this, you take action to keep a situation from getting worse.
No sweat – Easy
When you say “no sweat” you are saying that a task was easy
Not your cup of tea – Not something you like
If you say that something is “not your cup of tea” you are saying it’s not something you particularly like or enjoy.
Once in a blue moon – Rare
This implies something that either won’t happen or rarely happens.
Out in the open – Public knowledge
When something is “out in the open”, it is a matter of public knowledge.
Over the moon – Very happy
You can use this to describe the feeling of getting something you’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
On cloud nine – Very happy
Similar to being over the moon.
Packed like sardines – Crowded
If people are “packed like sardines” in a venue, they are standing very close together in a small space.
Piece of cake –Easy
If you say something is a “piece of cake” you are saying that it is easy.
Pitch in - Contribute
When you “pitch-in”, you work with a group of people to reach a common goal.
Point of view – An opinion
Your “point of view” is what you think about someone or a situation.
Pony up – Pay
If you are paying back a debt, you are “ponying up” the money.
Pour oil on troubled waters – Calm things down
This basically means that you played peacemaker and kept an argument from developing into a physical fight.
Put your head in the sand – Deny something unpleasant
When you have your “head in the sand”, you are deliberately ignoring a bad situation.
Rags to riches – Became rich
Someone who went from “rags to riches” was born poor or underprivileged, but is now in a better social position.
Rain or shine – No matter what
This idiomatic expression is used to express the idea that nothing will stop you.
Reap the rewards – Received the benefits
When you “reap the rewards”, you are getting the benefits of your good work.
Rings a bell – Sounds familiar
When you think that you’ve heard a piece of information before but are not so sure.
Rule of thumb – General practice
A “rule of thumb” is an unwritten rule that is followed by the majority.
Separate the wheat from the chaff – Decide what is valuable
This picturesque idiom refers to how, when you harvest wheat, you need to separate it from the stalks and leaves. So, it means that you pick out or choose what is valuable to keep.
Shell out money – Pay
When you “shell out money”, you pay for an item.
Sitting on the fence – Neutral
When you “sit on the fence” you are avoiding making a decision. Often, this is a decision between two people with different opinions.
Smart cookie – Smart person
You can use this idiom to describe someone intelligent.
Spice things up – Make things interesting
When you “spice things up” you do something to break out of your normal routine.
Spill the beans – Tell
When you do this, you tell someone something they didn’t know. It may or not have been a secret previously.
Sticky fingers – Thief
If you accuse someone of having “sticky fingers” you are basically calling them a thief.
Take a side – Choose who to support
When you “take a side” in an argument, you are agreeing with one of those arguing.
Throw light on – Explain something
When you “throw light on” a situation, you help make sure that it is understood.
To move at a snail’s pace – Move slowly
This is another idiomatic phrase that’s meant to paint a picture. A snail moves slowly, so to move at its pace means things are going slowly.
Tread carefully – Be cautious
This implies that a situation is fraught and it might be easy to offend those involved.
Under the table – Secretive
When you do something “under the table”, you are trying to do something so that only a small amount of people are aware of it. It’s commonly used to describe something that is possibly unscrupulous. For example, bribes are given “under the table”.
Undermine your position – Act unconvincingly
When you behave in a way that makes you and your opinion seem untrustworthy.
Up in the air – Uncertain
When you say something is “up in the air”, you are saying that you are not sure that an event is happening.
Weather the storm – Survive
When you “weather the storm”, you endure a bad situation.
When it rains, it pours – Trouble comes
This refers to the fact that sometimes, many bad things happen to people at one time.
So there you have it, 10 idiomatic expressions and their meanings. These idioms are used by native English language speakers to add some color to their daily speech.
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At a crossroads – Needing to make an important decision
When you are at a crossroads, you are at a point in your life where you need to make a decision. The implication is that the decision you make will have big, life-altering consequences.
Bad apple – Bad person
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is not nice and maybe even criminal.
Barking up the wrong tree – Pursuing the wrong course
When you “bark up the wrong tree” you are pursuing the wrong solution to your problems.
Be closefisted – Stingy
If you are being “closefisted”, you don’t want to spend a lot of money.
Be cold-hearted – Uncaring
If you decide to be “cold-hearted”, you are making a deliberate decision not to care about someone or something.
Be on solid ground – Confident
When you are “on solid ground”, you are confident in your position or feel that you are safe.
Beat around the bush – Avoid saying
When you do this, you are taking a long time to say what you really need to say. You may be doing this because the “truth” is embarrassing or your unsure about how the listener will take it.
Behind you – Supportive
When you are “behind” someone, you are saying that they have your support.
Between a rock and a hard place – Facing difficulties
When you have to choose between two options, neither of which are ideal or “good”.
Blow off steam – Try to relax
When you are stressed or upset about something, sometimes you need to do something to keep you from thinking about it.
Born with a silver spoon in their mouth – Born wealthy
This idiomatic expression is used to describe someone who was born into a wealthy family.
Break the bank – Spend a lot
When you “break the bank”, you spend a lot of money on something. If something will “break the bank”, then it’s expensive.
Bright spark – Smart
A “bright spark” is someone who is smart and valuable to an organization.
Build a case – Argue your point
When you “build a case” for something, you are preparing to argue a point or convince someone that your opinion is the right one.
Build castles in the sky – Daydream
When you fantasize about something you hope to have or achieve.
Burn your bridges – End a relationship
When you “burn your bridges” you end a relationship permanently.
Butter up – Flatter
When you “butter” someone up, you are telling them nice things about themselves.
Bought a lemon – Bad bargain
If something you bought is a “lemon” it is a bad product. In a sense, you wasted your money on it.
Break the ice – Start a conversation
When you start a conversation strangers with the end goal of making new friends.
Calm before the storm – Peaceful
When you use this to describe your state of being or mind, you’re talking about a quiet period before anticipated trouble comes your way.
Chasing rainbows – Pursuing dreams
When you try to follow your dreams. The implication here, however, is that you might be better off forgetting your dreams.
Clear as mud – Hard to understand
When you are confused about something or a situation.
Cool as a cucumber – Calm
This idiomatic expression is meant to describe someone who is calm and relaxed.
Couch potato – Lazy
A couch potato is a lazy person. Specifically, someone who sprawls on their couch watching TV almost all day.
Cross that bridge when we get to it – Think about it later
When you say this, you are telling someone that you will think about something later. The implication is that it’s a problem or a decision that can be put off for now.
Chew it over – Think had about something
This idiom implies that you need to make an important decision and can’t afford to be hasty about it.
Come to light – Be revealed
When something “comes to light” something that was originally concealed from you is revealed.
Cut back on – Reduce
When you use this idiom, you are reducing something.
Cut to the chase – Speak concisely
When you tell someone to “cut to the chase”, you are expressing impatience. This is usually used when someone feels someone else is taking to long to deliver important news.
Crystal clear – Easy to understand
When you say that something is “crystal clear”, you are saying that it is understood.
Dead-end job – No more opportunities
When you are stuck in a “dead-end job”, you are in a career situation where there is no more room for advancement.
Dig deep – Strive
When you “dig deep” you put a lot of effort into a task.
Digging into – Looking closer
When you “dig into” something, you are looking for more information.
Don’t run before you can walk – Don’t assume something is easy
This is a descriptive idiom, it’s meant to make you think about how a baby needs to learn how to walk before they can run. It’s supposed to caution you about assuming you can just do something without learning the basics.
Down to earth – Practical
This describes someone who is known for being sensible and practical.
Eat like a bird – Small appetite
This is used to describe someone who doesn’t eat a lot.
Eat like a horse – Eat a lot
If you eat like a horse, you are eating a lot. You can “eat like a bird” most of the time but “eat like a horse” at a specific time because you are either very hungry or you really like the food.
Eat your words – Admit you were wrong
When you “eat your words” you are admitting that something you said earlier turned out to be wrong.
Every cloud has a silver lining – Things will get better
When you say this, you are telling yourself or someone else that you will get through your troubles.
Face the music – Face the consequences
When you “face the music”, you are owning up to a mistake and trying to make amends.
Find your feet – Adapt
When you are “finding your feet” you are learning how to adapt to a new situation, like a new job.
Follow in their footsteps – Imitate
This idiom is often used between children and their parents, but it can also refer to a mentor or someone you admire. If you “follow in someone’s footsteps”, you do the same thing that they did.
Food for thought – Something to think about
If you are given “food for thought” you have been given something to think about.
A frosty reception – To be unwelcome
If you received a “frosty reception”, you are not welcome.
Fly off the handle – Rages
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is visibly angry over a situation. Often this means that someone is shouting and maybe gesturing violently and even causing damage to property. It also implies that the angry reaction is disproportionate to the situation.
Get on with your life – Continue on after a setback
This is something you can say and should do after going through some problems.
Give them a run for their money – Compete
If you are competing with someone, you are giving them a “run for their money.”
Go Dutch – Split the bill
You can use this idiomatic expression when dining out with friends.
Go with the flow – Relax and get along
When you “go with the flow” you keep calm and just go along with whatever is happening around you.
Got off scot-free – Escaped
When you “get off scot-free”, you managed to escape any consequences for your actions.
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Hard to swallow – Unbelievable
If someone told you something that you just can’t believe, they told you something that is “hard to swallow”.
Have your whole life in front of you – Young
Someone who has their whole life in front of them is young and full of promise.
Hold out an olive branch – Apologize
When you do this, you try to make amends or peace with someone you’ve hurt or angered.
In hot water – In trouble
This idiomatic expression can be used to say that you are in a less than ideal situation.
Inching forward - Making slow progress
When you say this, you’re saying things are proceeding slowly.
Keep on the straight and narrow – Keep out of trouble
When you say this, you are implying that you are going to live in a morally correct way.
Keep your chin up – Stay positive
Even if you’re going through a hard time, you should keep thinking positive.
Kicked the bucket – Died
This is an irreverent phrase to say that someone has died. Be careful how you use it.
Let the cat out of the bag – Spoiled the secret
You “let the cat out of the bag” when you accidentally let someone in on a secret that they weren’t meant to know.
Look up to – Respect
When you “look up to” someone you are acknowledging that you respect them and value their opinion.
Loaded – Rich
When you call someone “loaded” you are saying that they are rich.
Lost at sea – Confused
If a situation is making you feel confused or lost, this is the idiom to use.
Making ends meet – Careful budgeting
If you. don’t have much money, you need to “make ends meet”. This means you carefully budget what you do have to meet your needs.
Make a mountain out of a molehill –Exaggerate
This idiom is used to say that someone is being over-dramatic with their complaints or concerns.
Make waves – Change things
When you “make waves”, you change a situation dramatically. This can also mean that you caused trouble.
Nip in the bud – Stop
When you do this, you take action to keep a situation from getting worse.
No sweat – Easy
When you say “no sweat” you are saying that a task was easy
Not your cup of tea – Not something you like
If you say that something is “not your cup of tea” you are saying it’s not something you particularly like or enjoy.
Once in a blue moon – Rare
This implies something that either won’t happen or rarely happens.
Out in the open – Public knowledge
When something is “out in the open”, it is a matter of public knowledge.
Over the moon – Very happy
You can use this to describe the feeling of getting something you’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
On cloud nine – Very happy
Similar to being over the moon.
Packed like sardines – Crowded
If people are “packed like sardines” in a venue, they are standing very close together in a small space.
Piece of cake –Easy
If you say something is a “piece of cake” you are saying that it is easy.
Pitch in - Contribute
When you “pitch-in”, you work with a group of people to reach a common goal.
Point of view – An opinion
Your “point of view” is what you think about someone or a situation.
Pony up – Pay
If you are paying back a debt, you are “ponying up” the money.
Pour oil on troubled waters – Calm things down
This basically means that you played peacemaker and kept an argument from developing into a physical fight.
Put your head in the sand – Deny something unpleasant
When you have your “head in the sand”, you are deliberately ignoring a bad situation.
Rags to riches – Became rich
Someone who went from “rags to riches” was born poor or underprivileged, but is now in a better social position.
Rain or shine – No matter what
This idiomatic expression is used to express the idea that nothing will stop you.
Reap the rewards – Received the benefits
When you “reap the rewards”, you are getting the benefits of your good work.
Rings a bell – Sounds familiar
When you think that you’ve heard a piece of information before but are not so sure.
Rule of thumb – General practice
A “rule of thumb” is an unwritten rule that is followed by the majority.
Separate the wheat from the chaff – Decide what is valuable
This picturesque idiom refers to how, when you harvest wheat, you need to separate it from the stalks and leaves. So, it means that you pick out or choose what is valuable to keep.
Shell out money – Pay
When you “shell out money”, you pay for an item.
Sitting on the fence – Neutral
When you “sit on the fence” you are avoiding making a decision. Often, this is a decision between two people with different opinions.
Smart cookie – Smart person
You can use this idiom to describe someone intelligent.
Spice things up – Make things interesting
When you “spice things up” you do something to break out of your normal routine.
Spill the beans – Tell
When you do this, you tell someone something they didn’t know. It may or not have been a secret previously.
Sticky fingers – Thief
If you accuse someone of having “sticky fingers” you are basically calling them a thief.
Take a side – Choose who to support
When you “take a side” in an argument, you are agreeing with one of those arguing.
Throw light on – Explain something
When you “throw light on” a situation, you help make sure that it is understood.
To move at a snail’s pace – Move slowly
This is another idiomatic phrase that’s meant to paint a picture. A snail moves slowly, so to move at its pace means things are going slowly.
Tread carefully – Be cautious
This implies that a situation is fraught and it might be easy to offend those involved.
Under the table – Secretive
When you do something “under the table”, you are trying to do something so that only a small amount of people are aware of it. It’s commonly used to describe something that is possibly unscrupulous. For example, bribes are given “under the table”.
Undermine your position – Act unconvincingly
When you behave in a way that makes you and your opinion seem untrustworthy.
Up in the air – Uncertain
When you say something is “up in the air”, you are saying that you are not sure that an event is happening.
Weather the storm – Survive
When you “weather the storm”, you endure a bad situation.
When it rains, it pours – Trouble comes
This refers to the fact that sometimes, many bad things happen to people at one time.
So there you have it, 10 idiomatic expressions and their meanings. These idioms are used by native English language speakers to add some color to their daily speech.
Google is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence,[9] and consumer electronics. It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world"[10] and one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the area of artificial intelligence.[11][12][13] Its parent company Alphabet is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of the stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet's Internet properties and interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.[14]
The company has since rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services beyond Google Search, many of which hold dominant market positions. These products address a wide range of use cases, including email (Gmail), navigation (Waze & Maps), cloud computing (Cloud), web browsing (Chrome), video sharing (YouTube), productivity (Workspace), operating systems (Android), cloud storage (Drive), language translation (Translate), photo storage (Photos), video calling (Meet), smart home (Nest), smartphones (Pixel), wearable technology (Pixel Watch & Fitbit), music streaming (YouTube Music), video on demand (YouTube TV), artificial intelligence (Google Assistant), machine learning APIs (TensorFlow), AI chips (TPU), and more. Discontinued Google products include gaming (Stadia), Glass,[citation needed] Google+, Reader, Play Music, Nexus, Hangouts, and Inbox by Gmail.[15][16]
Google's other ventures outside of Internet services and consumer electronics include quantum computing (Sycamore), self-driving cars (Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project), smart cities (Sidewalk Labs), and transformer models (Google Brain).[17]
Google and YouTube are the two most visited websites worldwide followed by Facebook and Twitter. Google is also the largest search engine, mapping and navigation application, email provider, office suite, video sharing platform, photo and cloud storage provider, mobile operating system, web browser, ML framework, and AI virtual assistant provider in the world as measured by market share. On the list of most valuable brands, Google is ranked second by Forbes[18] and fourth by Interbrand.[19] It has received significant criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust and abuse of its monopoly position.
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California,[52] which is home to several prominent Silicon Valley technology start-ups.[53] The next year, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords against Page and Brin's initial opposition toward an advertising-funded search engine.[54][22] To maintain an uncluttered page design, advertisements were solely text-based.[55] In June 2000, it was announced that Google would become the default search engine provider for Yahoo!, one of the most popular websites at the time, replacing Inktomi.
In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office complex from Silicon Graphics, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.[59] The complex became known as the Googleplex, a play on the word googolplex, the number one followed by a googol zeroes. Three years later, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.[60] By that time, the name "Google" had found its way into everyday language, causing the verb "google" to be added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, denoted as: "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet".[61][62] The first use of the verb on television appeared in an October 2002 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[63]
Additionally, in 2001 Google's investors felt the need to have a strong internal management, and they agreed to hire Eric Schmidt as the chairman and CEO of Google.[49] Eric was proposed by John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins. He had been trying to find a CEO that Sergey and Larry would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company. Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital at one point even menaced requesting Google to immediately pay back Sequoia's $12.5m investment if they did not fulfill their promise to hire a chief executive office, which had been made verbally during investment negotiations. Eric
Berlin boasts two zoological gardens, a consequence of decades of political and administrative division of the city. The older one, called Zoo Berlin, founded in 1844, is situated in what is now called "City West". It is the most species-rich zoo worldwide. The other one, called Tierpark Berlin ("Animal Park"), was established on the long abandoned premises of Friedrichsfelde Palace Park in the eastern borough of Lichtenberg, in 1954. Covering 160 ha, it is the largest landcape zoo in Europe. And honouring its past as landscape park, it still has large gardened areas.
Legong is a form of Balinese dance. It is a refined dance form characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated footwork, and expressive gestures and facial expressions.
An extremely basic definition of legong is a dance traditionally performed by pre-pubescent girls in the palaces of feudal Bali.
One translation is that the word is made up of two words. Lega meaning happy and Ing wong meaning person – put them together and you get: “something that makes people happy”. Another one is oleg meaning dance and gong meaning gamelan, the music that accompanies the dance.
Legong probably originated in the 19th century as royal entertainment. Today the most common legong dance is Legong Keraton, so named by the Sultanate of Keraton Surakarta when the music and dance composer and genius I Wayan Lotring from Kuta was invited to perform in the 1920s with his Gamelan Pelegongan group in the keraton (palace) in Surakarta.
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.
With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.
Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.
Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.
HISTORY
ANCIENT
Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.
In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.
Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.
Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.
The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.
PORTUGUESE CONTACTS
The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.
DUTCH EAST INDIA
In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.
In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:
I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.
The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.
AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS
exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.
Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.
During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.
INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH
In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.
CONTEMPORARY
The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.
The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.
As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.
GEOGRAPHY
The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.
Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.
The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.
The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.
Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.
To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.
CLIMATE
Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.
Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.
ECOLOGY
Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.
Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.
Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.
Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.
The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.
A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.
Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.
ENVIRONMENT
Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.
From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).
Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.
ECONOMY
Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.
AGRICULTURE
Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.
The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.
TOURISM
The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.
The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.
An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.
In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.
Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.
Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.
In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.
In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.
Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.
Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.
Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.
SEX TOURISM
In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.
Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.
By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.
TRANSPORTATION
The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.
A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.
In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.
On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.
In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.
On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.
To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.
ETHNIC ORIGINS
A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.
CASTE SYSTEM
Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:
- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.
- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials
- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste
- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests
RELIGION
Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.
Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.
Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.
Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.
LANGUAGE
Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.
English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.
CULTURE
Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.
The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.
Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.
Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.
Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.
Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.
Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.
WIKIPEDIA
Dr. Maderline Hsu’s interview in English
Trieu Giang: We have heard that Center for Asian American Studies at UT will offer a
"Vietnamese American Heritage & History" course in this spring semester.
This is very happy news for Vietnamese American students as well as the
Vietnamese American community. Can you tell us the reason why CAAS has made
this move?
Dr. Madeline Hsu: CAAS has wanted to offer this course for a long time to help students and the UT community better understand the important history and sociopolitical dynamics of
the trajectory of Vietnamese Americans. This course explores the meaning and
consequences of American wars overseas and highlights the nature of the
relationship between the U.S. and its Asian allies and Asian peoples as well as
exploring how refugee experiences shape lives in the U.S. We wanted also to
offer this class to serve the many Vietnamese American students on campus and
to complement our other ethnic specific course offerings in South Asian
Diasporic Literature, South Asian Activism, and Filipino and Chinese American
history.
Trieu Giang: Will this course be a credited course and if so, will it strictly be an
elective or is it a mandatory course for certain minors or majors.
Students can take this course for credit and it can be counted toward the AAS
major and minor.
Dr. Madeline Hsu: What is the student enrollment response for the class so far?
As anticipated, enrollment is healthy at about 35 students so far.
Trieu Giang: What graduated student can do with their AAS’s degree?
Dr. Madeline Hsu: They can work for a marketing or a public service company such as the Red Cross or many other companies that need an expert on Asian American community. They also can go to law shools or persue higher education for a Master degree in social studies.
Trieu Giang: Beside this course, is CAAS offering any Vietnamese Language courses?
A former director of CAAS, Rowena Fong, pushed for Vietnamese language courses
to be offered through the Department of Asian Studies.
Trieu Giang: Does CAAS have any plans for expansion of offering "Vietnamese American Studies" as a minor?
Dr. Madeline Hsu: At present we do not have such plans. As far as I know, no AAS program in theUS has such a major.
Trieu Giang: We have heard that CAAS will have some collaboration with The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation on this subject. Can you tell us a little bit
about it?
Dr. Madeline Hsu: We are hoping to work with VAHF to preserve local Asian American history through collaborative efforts. One project is to have students collect oral histories. We are also hoping to develop a community service learning course to have
students learn more about the local Asian American community and organizations
through internships.
Trieu Giang: Do you have any messages for Vietnamese American students as well as the
Vietnamese community on this subject?
We are continuing to try to recruit faculty with expertise on Southeast Asian
Americans and Southeast Asia. Our program is still in the process of
developing and growing and support from students and community members is still
invaluable as we struggle to gain attention and resources. We hope in the next
five years to have an expanded range of courses and programming to better
address the interests and concerns of all Asian American groups on campus and
in Austin.
Trieu Giang: what can an individual who would like to support CAAS of gaining attention and resorce can do in partically?
Dr. Madeline Hsu: You can write or contact with the Dean office with UT’s officials who are in charge of scheduling to address your concerns and support to the work of CAAS
Trieu Giang: Thank you so much for granting me this interview. Best whishes to your plan.
Linda Ho Peche interview in English
Trieu Giang: Can you tell us about the content of the Vietnamese American Culture &
History course that you will teach at UT next Springs?
Linda Ho: The course is called Vietnamese American Culture and History. Students will learn how and why Vietnamese Americans have come to the United States. They will also learn how Vietnamese Americans have been represented in American history and popular culture.
Trieu Giang This subject is considered very new in the classroom and it required lot
of researches from you? Can you tell us a little bit about your work? Can
you also let us know why you are interested in this subject?
Linda Ho: This is a new course that is offered at UT, and a relatively new subject. There are many books about the Vietnam War, but only recently have scholars begun to study how Vietnamese refugees have created a Vietnamese American identity and community. Instead of focusing on displacement and psychological trauma, I would like to focus on the creative cultural aspects that make vibrant Vietnamese American communities. My own doctoral research will examine the practice of respecting the ancestors and creating religious altars in Houston, Texas. These spiritual and religious altars connect families all over the U.S. and in Vietnam as well. This transnational connection is fascinating to me.
Trieu Giang: What do you anticipate the students will do in this course?
Linda Ho: In this course, students will learn about the Vietnamese American experience by conducting oral history interviews with family and other members of the community. They will ask about the reasons for leaving home, the dangers of the journey, and the difficulties of adapting to a new life in the United States. The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation in Austin, Texas has offered to archive these interviews and to make these stories available to the wider public. Students will also create story panels based on the interviews to display at The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in the spring. The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation will coordinate the exhibit, and they hope to be able to travel to other public history venues around the state.
Trieu Giang: What do you expect student will learn after taking the course?
Students will have the opportunity to examine the Vietnamese American experience through first-hand oral history interviews. They will learn how Vietnamese Americans have been represented--as Asians, refugees, and immigrants. They have been represented as poor, uneducated, boat people on the one hand and as model minorities and successful immigrants on the other. Students will learn the history of these stereotypes of the community. Students will also have the opportunity to create their own representations of Vietnamese Americans by helping create a public exhibit.
Trieu Giang: Any future plan for expansion?
Linda Ho: This course is offered through the Center for Asian American Studies at UT. The course will be offered again if there is student interest in the subject. Currently, the course is almost full for the spring 2008. However, I would encourage student who interest in this class to register even the class was full, because from now until the class begin, there will be a lot of drops and ads, due to the schedule conflict or other reasons the registered student may not be able to attend and you have a good chance to get in.
Trieu Giang: Thank you and best whishes to your class.
Chieu Anh Interview in English
Trieu Giang: We have heard that you have been appointed as VAHF's coordinator to work with Ms. Linda Ho Peche', the instructor of UT who will teach The Vietnamese American Culture and History course at UT in this coming spring, can you tell us about your roll?
Ann Pham: My role is still being defined at the moment. However, my strength is in networking, coordinating, and implementing. I hope to be able to identify key profiles, schedule interviews, and coordinate the logistics of the overall project. I should have a more definitive description in the next few weeks but regardless, I will support UT and VAHF to the best of my abilities.
Trieu Giang: Who do you think you will invite to be in the interview for this oral history collection?
Ann Pham: My team and I will discuss the profile criterions with Linda in December 2007. We haven't selected the full spectrum of the criterions but since the oral history collection project has a timeline of only four months, I believe my team will focus and carefully consider individuals who 1) shown a huge amount of dedication to the preservation of our Vietnamese culture, 2) experienced any military, religious, or political prosecution, 3) have made a huge contribution to the American or Vietnamese community, and 4) would like to share their immigrant stories.
Trieu Giang: What is the most challenge that you can foresee in your work?
Ann Pham: I believe the biggest challenge is getting people to share and talk openly about their experiences, joys, disappointments, and achievements. As a society, we are taught to be modest and humble. My team project manager has participated and lead many outreach projects so I believe this will help us get more people to share their experiences for the oral history collection.
Trieu Giang: You are also teaching at Saint Edwards University in Austin, can you tell us why you doing all this? What kind of rewards are you receiving?
Ann Pham: Yes, I teach at Saint Edward's University in the School of Business and Management. I teach undergraduate students in the fields of Business Communication, Public Speaking, and Business Management. Next semester, I will also teach International Business. There are so many rewards I receive when I teach. First, I learn just as much as the students do. Second, I believe it is a duty and responsibility to share my global and domestic experiences with the younger generation. I want to guide them as they make their career choices and teach them that there is a difference between theory and application. There is an old Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a li fetime." My personal goal with my students is to teach them to think for a lifetime.
Trieu Giang: What message you would like to send to Vietnamese American community in term of asking people in our community to assist you to achieve your goal?
Ann Pham: First, I ask that anyone who would be interested in having their oral history collected to contact the project manager - Thuy Phan, Linda Peche, Nancy Bui or myself (Chieu-Anh Pham). Also, I would ask that the Vietnamese American community come out and support us in April 2008. When we finish our project, we will have an exhibit at the Texas State History Museum. We would love for the entire community to come out to see and hear our immigrant stories. My mom has always put an emphasis on giving back to others. For this reason, I have been volunteering since I was 16 years old. My biggest reward from volunteering with VAHF is that I have an opportunity to help preserve, promote, and celebrate the Vietnamese heritage for future generations. I have made great friendships and learned a great deal from the multi-talented volunteers in this organization.
Phỏng vấn: Đại diện Đại học Texas và
Hội Bảo Tồn Lịch Sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt
* Lần đầu tiên môn Lịch Sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt được giảng dạy
• Còn cần nhiều đến sự hỗ trợ của sinh viên, phụ huynh và cộng đồng
• Một sự kết hợp thật đôc đáo và mang nhiều ý nghiã!
• Sinh viên sẽ thực hành với kỹ thuật làm “Lịch sử thu thanh”
* Triều Giang
Nhân dịp Đại học Texas tại Austin lần đầu tiên khai giảng môn học “Lịch sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt”, với sự cộng tác của hội Bảo Tồn Lịch Sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt (VAHF). Môn học sẽ giảng dạy về lịch sử tị nạn CS của người Việt, những kinh nghiêm quý giá của người Việt trong việc làm quen với cuộc sống mới, và nền văn hóa đặc thù với những sinh hoạt sinh động của cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt. Đặc biệt, sinh viên theo học môn học này sẽ được thực hành qua chương trình thực tập để thực hiện “lịch sử thu thanh” qua các cuộc phỏng vấn một số cá nhân và hội đoàn trong cộng đồng người Việt, rồi ghi lại bằnh âm thanh và hình ảnh để làm tài liệu cho các cuộc triển lãm.
Để tìm hiểu vấn đề một cách cặn kẽ hơn, người viết đã thực hiện 4 cuộc phỏng vấn dành cho hai đại diện Đại học Texas là Tiến sĩ Madeline Hsu và giảng viên Linda Hồ, và hai đại diện của hội VAHF là Bà Khúc Minh Thơ, chủ tịch Ban Quản trị và cô Ann Phạm, một thành viên của Ban Quản trị, người đã được cử làm phối trí viên cuả VAHF cho một sự kết hợp độc dáo giữa một bên là một đại học danh tiếng và bên kia là một tổ chức thiện nguyện hoạt động trong lãnh vực bảo tồn lịch sử và văn hoá của người Mỹ gốc Việt. Mới quý độc giả theo dõi.
Phỏng vấn Tiến sĩ Madeline Hsu,
Giám đốc Trung Tâm Á Châu Học Viện tại Đại học Texas,Austin
“Mong muốn từ lâu! Còn gặp nhiều khó khăn
trong việc gây được sự chú tâm và hỗ trợ!”
Hính 1- Tiến sĩ Madeline Hsu, Giám đốc Trung Tâm Á Châu Học viện tại Đại Hoc Texas (UT) tại Austin. Tiến sĩ Hsu hoàn tất bằng tiến sĩ Sử học tại Đại học Yale năm 1996. Đạt được nhiều giải thưởng quốc gia về môn lịch sử về các sắc dân thiểu số tại Hoa Kỳ. Bà chuyên giảng dạy môn lịch sử người Mỹ gốc Trung Hoa và xuất bản nhiều sách về môn học này (Hình của University of Texas Office of Public Affairs)
Triều Giang: Được biết Trung Tâm Á Châu Học Viện (CAAS) của Đại học UT tại Austin lần đầu tiên sẽ khai giảng môn học Lịch Sử và Văn hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt vào mùa Xuân sáp tới, đây là một tin vui cho sinh viên và cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt, xin bà cho biết mục đích của CAAS trong việc dạy môn học này?
TS. Madeline Hsu: CAAS từ lâu đã muốn dạy môn học này để giúp sinh viên và cộng đồng thuộc hệ thống đại học UT hiểu rõ hơn về một phần lịch sử quan trọng, và những động lực chính trị, xã hội trong quỹ đạo người Mỹ gốc Việt. Môn học này sẽ còn nghiên cứu về ý nghiã và hoàn cảnh của những cuộc chiến tranh tại ngoại quốc của người Mỹ, và sẽ chú tâm đặc biệt về mối tương giao giữa nước Mỹ và các quốc gia đồng minh Á Châu và người dân châu Á. Môn học này cũng sẽ nghiên cứu về việc làm thế nào những người tị nạn đã thích ứng với cuộc sống mới tại Mỹ. Chúng tôi cũng muốn thật nhiều sinh viên người Mỷ gốc Việt học môn học này cùng với những môn học về các nhóm thiểu số khác, đặc biệt là môn Văn Chương của Người Nam Á Tị Nạn, và Lịch sử người Mỹ gốc Phi Luật Tân và Trung Hoa.
Triều Giang: Đây là một môn học có tín chỉ? Và là môn chính hay môn phụ cuả ngành học nào?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Sinh viên sẽ được cấp tín chỉ cho môn học và sẽ được tính vào tổng số điểm của bằng cử nhân AAS chính ngành (major), hay ngành phụ (minor)
Triều Giang: Sinh viên ra trường với bằng cử nhân AAS sẽ có thể tìm việc trong những ngành nghề nào?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Các em có thể làm cho các công ty tiếp thị, các tổ chức phục vụ xã hỗi, hoặc thi vào trường Luật hoặc học lên cao học với các ngành xã hội học hay còn nhiều ngành nghề khác cần đến kiến thức về các dân tộc Á châu.
Triều Giang: Khóa học muà xuân đã gần tới, xin bà cho biết hiện có bao nhiêu sinh viên đã ghi danh?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Như dự tính, số sinh viên ghi danh rất tốt. Đã có khoảng 35 em.
Triều Giang: Ngoài môn học này CAAS có dạy thêm những lớp tiếng Việt hay không?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Bà Rowen Fong, cựu gíám đốc của trung tâm đã cố gắng mở lớp tiếng Việt và theo chỗ tôi hiểu thì trong khóa mùa xuân sắp tới có hai lớp tiếng Việt sẽ được giảng dạy tại CAAS.
Triều Giang: Trong tương lai, CAAS có dự tính phát triển ngành học Người Mỹ Gốc Việt như một ngành phụ cho bằng cử nhân.
TS, Madeline Hsu: Hiện tại CAAS chưa có dự tính này. Theo chỗ tôi được biết thì chưa một đại học nào trên đất Mỹ có chương trình này.
Triều Giang: Chúng tôi cũng được biết hội VAHF sẽ cộng tác với CAAS trong vấn đề này, bà cho biết một ít chi tiết?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Chúng tôi hy vọng được làm việc với hội VAHF để bảo tồn lịch sử của người Mỹ Gốc Việt tại địa phương trong tinh thần hợp tác. Dự án của chúng tôi là sẽ hướng dẫn sinh viên sưu tầm những “lịch sử thu thanh”. Ngoài ra chúng tôi cũng hy vọng sẽ phát trển được môn học về phục vụ cộng đồng ( community service learning course) để sinh viên hiểu rõ hơn về các tổ chức và cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Á tại địa phương qua các chương trình thực tập.
Triều Giang: Bà có lời nhắn gửi gì tới sinh viên và cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt trong dịp này hay không?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Chúng tôi tiếp tục cố gắng tuyển các giáo sư và giảng viên với khả năng chuyên môn về người Mỹ gốc Nam Á và Đông Nam Á. Chương trình của chúng tôi hiện vẫn còn trong giai đoạn phát triển và tăng trưởng. Do đó, chúng rất cần đến sự hỗ trợ của các sinh viên và cộng đồng về nỗi khó khăn mà chúng tôi còn vướng phải nhằm lôi kéo được sự chú tâm cũng như những nguồn tài trợ. Chúng tôi hy vọng trong 5 năm sắp tới, chúng tôi có thể có được nhiều môn học và chương trình học rộng rãi để có thể nới lên được tất cả những vấn đề đang bận tâm bởi tấy cả các nhóm người Mỹ gốc Á tại UT và Austin.
Triều Giang: Bà nói cần sự hỗ trợ của sinh viên và cộng đồng, bà có thể cho biết cụ thể sinh viên và cộng đồng có thể làm gì để giúp CAAS thực hiện được những mục tiêu đã nêu trên?
TS. Madeline Hsu: Sinh viên và phụ huyng cũng như thành viên trong các cộng đồng có thể viết thư, email, hoặc gọi điện thoại cho văn phòng Dean, hoặc cho những người điều hành việc sắp xếp chương trình của đại học UT về sự quan tâm cũng như ủng hộ những chương trỉnh của CAAS. Địa chỉ của văn phòng Dean tại:
The University of Texas at Austin
Office of the Dean of Students
1 University Station A5800
Austin, Texas 78712-0175
Phone: (512) 471-1201
Fax: (512) 471-7833 .Email: dos75@uts.cc.utexas.edu
Triều Giang: Xin chân thành cám ơn bà về cuộc phỏng vấn và những nỗ lực đưa lịch sử người Việt tị nạn vào đại học. Chúc bà và CAAS gặt hái được nhiều kết quả tốt đẹp.
Phỏng vấn Giảng viên Linda Ho Peche’
Giảng viên môn Lịch sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt
"Học về Lịch sử và Văn hóa Ngưòi Mỹ gốc Việt
Thực hành bằng những “lịch sử thu thanh”
Hình 2- Gỉảng viên ng ười Mỹ gốc Việt, Linda HỒ Peche’ đang làm luận án Tiến sĩ môn Nhân Chủng học (Anthopology). Ngoài việc giảng dạy tại UT, cô còn làm việc bán thời gian với chức vụ Phối trí viên Liên hệ Cộng đồng cho cuộc triển lãm “Galveston Immigration” sẽ được tổ chức vào năm 2009 tại Viện Bảo Tàng Tiểu bang Texas, tại Austin. (Hình của VAHF)
Triều Giang: Cô có thể cho biết về nội dung môn học cô sắp giảng dạy tại UT vào niên khóa muà xuân sắp tới?
Linda Hồ: Môn học có tên là “Lịch Sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt”. Sinh viên sẽ được học về lý do và hoàn cảnh người Mỹ gốc Việt đã đến Mỹ như thế nào? Sinh viên cũng sẽ được học về người Mỹ gốc Việt đã được diễn tả như thế nào trong lịch sử Mỹ và trong nền văn hoá đại chúng?
Triều Giang: Đây là một môn học mới trong lớp học của đại học Hoa kỳ, nó đòi hỏi thật nhiều việc nghiên cứu, tìm tòi, cô có thể cho biết về phương pháp nghiên cứu và công việc của cô trong việc huẩn bị cho việc giang dạy này? Và vì sao cô lại chọn môn này?
Linda Hồ: Đúng như vậy, đây là một môn học tương đối mới mẻ. Tuy đã có khá nhiều sách viết về chiến tranh Việt Nam . Nhưng gần đây mới có một số nhà nghiên cứu bắt đầu chú tâm vào cộng đồng tị nạn Việt nam. Những người đã có nhiều nỗ lực để tạo cho họ một căn cước đặc thù và một cộng đồng thật sinh động. Trong môn học, tôi sẽ chú trọng tới khiá cạnh vừa nêu trên thay vì tìm kiếm những sai lạc, khủng hoảng. Riêng về luận án tiến sĩ của tôi, tôi còn đang nghiên cứu thêm về sự tôn kính tổ tiên của người Việt và tinh thần tôn giáo đặc biệt của người Việt tại Houston, Texas. Tâm linh và tôn giáo liên kết các gia đình Việt Nam trên toàn nước Mỹ, và tới cả Việt Nam. Sự liên kết đa quốc gia này khiến tôi thật say mê!
Triều Giang: Cô dự định cho học sinh làm những gì trong môn học này?
Linda Hồ: Trong môn học này, sinh viên sẽ được học về những kinh nghiệm của người Mỹ gốc Việt qua việc phỏng vấn những cá nhân trong cộng đồng người Việt. Sinh viên sẽ hỏi những người được phỏng vấn về lý do họ phải ra đi? Sự nguy hiểm của cuộc hành trình, và những khó khăn trong việc thích ứng với cuộc sống mới tại Hoa Kỳ. Hội VAHF đã nhận lời sắp xếp những cuộc phỏng vấn này vào trong bộ sưu tầm của họ để có thể phổ biến tới công chúng. Sinh viên cũng có thể tổ chức các buổi thảo luận căn cứ vào những cuộc phỏng vấn này, rồi tập trưng bày. Cuối cùng, kết quả sẽ được triển lãm tại Viện Bảo tàng Bob Bullock của Tiểu bang Texas vào cuối muà xuân sắp tới. Hội VAHF sẽ đứng ra tổ chức buổi triển lãm này, và hội cũng hy vọng sẽ có thể đưa cuộc triển lãm này luân lưu tới các trung tâm lịch sử khác trong tiểu bang Texas.
Triều Giang: Cô kỳ vọng sinh viên sẽ học được những gì sau khi hoàn tất khoá học.
Linda Hồ: Sinh viên sẽ có cơ hội để tìm hiểu và phân tích những kinh nghiệm thẳng từ chính những người được phỏng vấn. Sinh viên cũng sẽ được học về người Mỹ gốc Việt đã được diễn tả là những người Á Châu tị nạn và di dân như thế nào. Họ đã từng bị diễn tả như nhóm người nghèo khó, ít học, như những thuyền nhân. Mặt khác, người Mỹ gốc Việt cũng đã được diễn tả như một nhóm thiểu số gương mẫu, hoặc là những người di dân thành công . Sinh viên sẽ được nghiên cứu về những mẫu người vưà kể trên trong cộng đồng. Sinh viên cũng được hướng dẫn để các em có thể tự tổ chức một cuộc triển lãm để giới thiệu về người Mỹ gốc Việt với công chúng.
Triều Giang: Cô có chương trình phát triển gì cho môn học này không?
Linda Hồ: Môn học này được mở dưới Trung Tâm CAAS. Nó sẽ được tiếp tục nếu có nhiều sinh viên quan tâm và theo học. Hiện tại, lớp học này đã gần đầy cho muà xuân tới. Nếu có sinh viên nào muốn theo học nên ghi danh càng sớm, càng tốt. Nếu thấy lớp đầy cũng đừng nản. cứ ghi danh vào dự khuyết vì từ nay tới lúc khoá học khai giảng sẽ còn nhiều thay đổi, có những người ghi danh trước có thể không theo học đưọc vì thời khoá biểu của họ không cho phép.
Triều Giang: Xin chân thành cám ơn và chúc khoá học nhiều thú vị và thành công.
Phỏng vấn Bà Khúc Minh Thơ,
Chủ tịch Hội đồng Quản Trị Hội VAHF
“Một sự hợp tác độc đáo và đầy ý nghiã!”
Hình 3-Bà Khúc Minh Thơ, Chủ tịch Ban Quản trị hội VAHF, Chủ tịch hội Gia đình Tù nhân Chính trị VN (FVPPA) . Bà Khúc Minh Thơ đã sát cánh tranh đấu suốt cuộc đời với cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt cho chương trình Humanitarian Operation (HO); đòi hỏi chính quyền CSVN thả tự do cho các tù nhân chính trị VN và cho họ và gia đình họ đi định cư tại Mỹ. Đã có trên 300,000 người được định cư tại Mỹ dưới diện HO. Hồ sơ tranh đấu 30 năm của Hội FVPPA đã được chuyển giao sang cho hội VAHF để đóng góp vào kho tài liệu lịch sử của người Mỹ gốc Việt (Hình của VAHF)
Triều Giang: Bà có thể cho biết mục đích của hội VAHF trong việc hợp tác với Đại học Texas trong môn học Lịch sử và Văn Hoá Người Mỹ gốc Việt? Theo ý kiến của bà thì việc hợp tác này mang một ý nghiã như thế nào đối với cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt của chúng ta?
Bà KM THơ: Mục đích của hội VAHF là sưu tầm, gìn giữ, phổ biến và tán dương lịch sử và văn hoá người Mỹ gốc Việt, kết hợp với đại học UT tại Austin, một trung tâm giáo dục hàng đầu của Hoa kỳ, hội VAHF đã đi đúng với mục tiêu đã đề ra cuả mình. Việc hướng dẫn sinh viên sưu tầm tài liệu qua những cuộc phỏng vấn, đó là công tác sưu tầm. Khi những tài liệu thu thập này được dùng làm tài liệu để nghiên cứu, giảng dạy trong lớp học , và còn được dùng vào việc triển lãm cho công chúng thì mục tiêu phổ biến,và gìn giữ của hội đã được đạt tới. Về phía đại học Texas, tôi nghĩ rằng Ban lãnh đạo trường thể hiện qua sự điều hành của TS. Madeline Hsu và CAAS đã có một sáng kiến độc đáo trong việc xây dựng và phát triển một ngành học tương đối là mới mẻ bằng cách kết hợp một bên là chuyên môn là trường đại học, một bên là một hội đoàn có sự liên hệ chặt chẽ với cộng đồng, nơi lịch sử đang được tàng trữ với những nhân chứng sống, với những kinh nghiệm đầy ắp cần phải được học hỏi. Thật là một kết hợp độc dáo, khôn ngoan và đầy ý nghiã. Tiện đây tôi cũng xin gửi lời cám ơn chân thành tới đại học Texas, tới TS Madeline Hsu và CAAS, tới giảng viên Linda Hồ đã sốt sắng trong công việc đem lịch sử chính thống của người Việt tị nạn vào hoc đường.
Triều Giang: Hội VAHF đã làm việc trong bao lâu để đi đến kết quả hôm nay?
Bà KM Thơ: Nếu tôi nhớ không lầm, hội gặp Tiến sĩ Madeline Hsu lần đầu tiên khoảng hơn một năm nay. Sau nhiều cuộc hội họp đã đi đến kết quả ngày hôm nay. Tôi xin nhân dịp này được tuyên dương chị hội trưởng Nancy Bùi, Ban điều hành và tất cả các hội viên của hội VAHF đã hy sinh nhiều thời gian và công sức cho dự án này.
Triều Giang: Hội VAHF sẽ được hưởng thù lao hoặc bất kỳ quyền lợi nào trong sự hợp tác này hay không?
Bà KM Thơ: Không có thù lao hoặc bất kỳ phần thưởng vật chất nào. Phần thưởng tinh thần duy nhất là đã được tiếp tiếp tay vào công việc đua lịch sử và văn hóa của người Việt tự do vào trương lớp để cho cả sinh viên Việt Nam và tất cả mọi người bất kể nguồn gốc từ đâu cũng thể theo học. Tôi nghĩ rằng đó, chính là một phần thưởng vô gíá!
Triều Giang: Bà có lời kêu gọi gì đối với cộng đồng của chúng ta trong việc hỗ trợ hội VAHF trong công tác văn hóa quan trọng này?
Bà KM THơ: Đối với cộng đồng của chúng ta thi tôi nghĩ đây là một chiến thắng lớn. Con em của chúng ta sẽ được học về kinh nghiệm máu xương của chúng ta, về lịch sử và văn hoá chính thống của người Việt tự do. Chúng ta hãy vui mừng và hỗ trợ cho đại học UT Austin và hội VAHF bằng cách quảng bá, khuyến khích con em chúng ta ghi danh học môn này, viết thư,email hoặc bất cứ hình thức liên lạc nào tới ban lãnh đạo cuả trương UT Austin để bày tỏ sự quan tâm và tiếp tay với hội VAHF trong việc giới thiệu cũng như chia xẻ về kinh nghiệm của chính quý vị cho những cuộc phỏng vấn khi có yêu cầu.
Triều Giang: Bà có lời khuyên gì đối với các sinh viên sắp học hoặc đang muốn học môn học này?
Bà KM Thơ: Các em nên đi học và quảng bá với bạn bè và người thân quen về môn học này. Môn học này sẽ giúp các em hiểu và hãnh diện nguồn gốc của mình, Để mai sau ra đời. các em không phải xấu hổ khi gặp một người ngoại quốc mà họ lại am tường về nguồn gốc, văn hoá của mình hơn chính mình. Tôi nghĩ rằng, môn học còn khiến cho các em yêu quí cha mẹ. gia đình, cộng đồng và chính bản thân của các em hơn vì các em sẽ được hiểu về những hy sinh to lớn của cha ông cho cái gía của cuộc sống tự do. Các em cứ thử học và nhớ cho tôi biết kết quả sau khi tham dự lớp học. Chúc các em vạn sự thành công và một tương lai tươi sáng.
Phỏng vấn Cô Ann Phạm,
Phối trí viên của Hội VAHF
“Khó khăn nhất sẽ là có được sự hợp tác
của những người cần được phỏng vấn”
Hình 4 – cô Ann Phạm, thành viên của hội đồng quản trị của hội VAHF. Phối trí viên của VAHF trong chương trình tập sự dành cho sinh viên UT, môn Lịch sử và Văn hoá Người Mỹ gốc Việt. Cô Ann Phạm còn là giảng viên tại đai học St. Edwards, tại Austin với ngành Quản trị Kinh doanh. Cô Ann Phạm có bằng Cao học về Quản trị Kinh Doanh Quốc tế ( Master Degree of International Business Management). (Hình cuả VAHF)
Triều Giang: Được biết cô được cử làm Phối trí viên cho hội VAHF để làm việc với giảng viên Linda Hồ trong việc hướng dẫn chương trình tập sự của sinh viên theo học môn Lịch sử và Văn hoá Người Mỹ Gốc Việt, cô có thể cho biết chi tiết về vai trò của cô?
Ann Phạm: Hiện tại thì vai trò này còn đang được định nghĩa cho rõ hơn. Nới chung thì sở trường của tôi là phối trí, điều hành, và giao dịch. Tôi hy vọng sẽ tìm ra được những biểu tượng chính của từng gian đọan lịch sử để lập hồ sơ về họ, rồi liên hệ, lập thời khoá biểu cho việc phỏng vấn, và điều hành toàn bộ dự án này dưới sự hướng dẫn của VAHF . Tôi sẽ có nhiều chi tiết hơn về toàn bộ vai trò cuả mình trong vài tuần tới. Dù trong hoàn cảnh nào, tôi sẽ làm việc với hết khả năng cuả mình để giúp UT và VAHF hoàn tất dự án này.
Triều Giang: Ai là những người mà cô sẽ chọn để phỏng vấn cho bộ sưu tần “Lịch sử thâu thanh” này?
Ann Phạm: Nhóm của tôi sẽ bàn về những tiêu chuẩn để chọn người được phỏng vấn trong tháng 12 này. Chúng tôi cũng chưa bàn xong phần tổng thể của các tiêu chuẩn này. Tuy nhiên, với thới gian bốn tháng, tôi nghĩ rằng chúng tôi sẽ chú tâm đến những cá nhân có những thành tích về: 1) cống hiến một lượng thời gian lâu dài và có những nỗ lực to lớn trong việc gìn giữ lịch sử và văn hoá Việt. 2) Trài qua những cuộc tù đày vì từng ở trong quân đội, vì lý do tôn giáo, hoặc chính trị. 3) Có những đóng góp to lớn trong việc xây dựng cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt và cuối cùng là sẵn sàng chia xẻ câu chuyện của họ .
Triều Giang: Đâu là những khó khăn nhất của công việc này?
Ann Phạm: Tôi tin rằng, điều khó khăn nhất vẫn là tìm được ngưòi đúng những tiêu chuẩn đã đăt ra và thuyết phục họ sẵn sàng chia xẻ, bằng cách nói về những kinh nghiệm riêng, những vui buồn, những bất mãn, những thành tựu của họ. Chúng ta sống trong một xã hội mà chúng ta đã được dạy dỗ là cần phải kín đáo và khiêm nhường. Thật là khó để cho mọi người sẵn sàng nói về minh, nhưng tôi cũng tin tưởng rằng những người điều hành VAHF đã từng thực hiện thành công rất nhiều dự án cần đến sự hợp tác của các cá nhân trong cộng đồng, tôi tin tưởng chúng tối sẽ làm tròn nhiệm vụ cuả mình.
Triều Giang Cô cũng đang phụ trách giảng dạy tai đai học Saint Edwards, tai Austin, cô có thể cho biết vì sao cô làm công việc thiện nguyện này?
Ann Phạm: Vâng, tôi đang là gỉảng viên ngành Quản Trị Kinh doanh trong đại học Saint Edwards. Tôi dạy các môn Kỹ thuật nói truyện trước công chúng và trong thương trường ( Business Communication, Public Speaking, and Business Management), và Quản trị Kinh doanh. Niên học tới, tôi cũng sẽ dạy lớp “Kinh doanh Quốc tế ( International Business” Dạy học đối với tôi là một phần thưởng nhiều ý nghiã. Trước hết nó giúp tôi tiếp tục học hỏi cùng với sinh viên. Kế đến là tôi có thể chia xẻ kinh nghiệm của tôi tại nội địa và toàn cầu tới thế hệ trẻ. Tôi muốn hướng dẫn họ để họ có thể có những chọn lựa tốt và hiểu biết được sự khác biệt giữa lý thuyết và thực hành. Đông phương chúng ta có câu ngạn ngữ :” Cho một người một con cá, họ có thể ăn trong một ngày, nhưng dạy họ câu cá thì họ có thể ăn một đời”. Mục tiêu của tôi là có thể dạy học trò của của mình nghĩ cho cả cuộc đời của họ (think for a life time). Đó là phần thưởng cho công việc chuyên môn của tôi. Riêng với công việc thiện nguyện với VAHF, phần thưởng của tôi là niềm vui giúp cộng đồng của chúng ta gìn giữ được lịch sử và văn hoá cho thế hệ hôm nay và tương lai. Mẹ tôi luôn nhắc nhở tôi phải dành thì giờ để làm việc công ích. Khi làm việc với VAHF, tôi có cơ hội cho tôi được trả ơn cho cộng đồng, xã hội, và đưọc quen biết một nhóm anh chị em thật tốt bụng, họ hy sinh thời gian để làm một công việc thật có ý nghiã.
Triêu Giang: Cô có gì nhắn gửi cộng đồng và đặc biệt là lớp người trẻ trong việc tiếp tay với cô trong dự án sắp tới?
Ann Phạm: Trước hết, tôi kêu gọi tất cả quý vị muốn chia xẻ kinh nghiệm hãy liên lạc với trưởng nhóm cuả chúng tôi là anh Thụy Phan, cô Linda Hồ, chị Nancy Bùi, và cá nhân tôi qua điện thoại số 512-844-9417. Sau cùng là tôi mong mỏi toàn thể cộng đồng hãy đến và ủng hộ cuộc triển lãm vào tháng 4 năm 2008 cuả hội VAHF tại Viện Bảo Tàng Lịch sử của Tiểu bang Texas tại Austin để cùng chia xẻ những câu chuyện của những người Việt tị nạn.
Triều Giang: Cám ơn cô và chúc mọi việc thành công tốt đẹp.
Cũng nên nhắc lại, hội VAHF đã được thành lập từ năm 2004 với mục đích sưu tàm, gìn giữ, phổ biến và tán dương lịch sử người Mỹ gốc Việt. Hội đã sưu tầm được trêm 200,000 trang tài liệu và hình ảnh hiện đang được tàng trữ tại Việt Nam Center thuộc đại học Texas Tech, Hội đả hướng dẫn phái đoàn gồm 17 người sang đảo Guam để đón nhận những tài liệu về người Việt tị nạn tại đây do Thống đốc đảo Guam, Đại học Guam cùng người dân đảo Guam vào dip 30 tháng 4 năm 2006. Hội cũng đã phối hợp với một số hội đoàn tại Houston dẹp bỏ những sách độc hại tại hệ thống thư viện Houston, và mới đây đã hợp tác với Đại học Texas tại Austin để dưa lịch sử người Mỹ gốc Việt vào đại học Hoa Kỳ.
Mọi liên lạc với VAHF, xin điện thoại tới số (512) 844-8417. Hoặc email tới địa chỉ: triumph@texas.net
Triều Giang
Tháng 12/2007
Worcester Cathedral is the commanding presence on the skyline of the city, perched on high ground overlooking the River Severn. It is one of England's most rewarding cathedrals, though denied first rank status owing to the heavy handed Victorian restorations it underwent, an unavoidable consequence of being built of soft red sandstone (a problem shared with Chester and Lichfield) and thus a 19th century feel pervades inside and out in it's mostly renewed external stonework and furnishings.
The cathedral impresses with it's scale, one or our longer churches, crowned by a magnificent central tower (originally surmounted by a lead spire, lost sometime after the Refomation; subtle alterations to the tower's design were made when it was refaced in the Victorian restoration) and with a secondary pair of transepts flanking the choir (as at Salisbury, Lincoln, Rochester & Canterbury). Of the former monastic buildings the cloister and Norman chapter house have survived (along with the refectory, now part of neighbouring King's School), making this a more complex and enjoyable building to explore.
The earliest parts are of the Norman period with the superb 12th century crypt under the choir. The west end of the nave is also Norman work, though very late and unusual in design, with transitional pointed arches. However the bulk of the building we see dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, the east end in Early English gothic style (where most of the windows were restored to stepped lancets by Sir George Gilbert Scott during the Victorian restoration, having been altered over the centuries), whilst the remainder of the nave and tower largely of the Decorated period (the cathedral originally also possessed a detached octagonal bell tower with a lead spire, which stood near the north east corner but was demolished in 1647).
Of the original furnishings little remains beyond the fine set of misericords in the choir stalls. The stained glass too is nearly entirely Victorian (only some meagre, much restored medieval fragments survive in traceries of the south aisle). Much of the Victorian glass is quite impressive, particularly the great east and west windows by Hardman's of Birmingham.
Worcester is however especially rich in tombs and monuments of all periods, with medieval effigies of bishops, knights and ladies, not all in good condition but worth seeking out. There are also several large tombs from the post-Reformation period (especially in the cluttered south aisle) and some fine Baroque work in the north transept.
The most significant of the monuments here are Royal; in the centre of the choir lies the fine 13th century effigy of King John, best remembered for signing the Magna Carta. Nearby is the superb chantry chapel of Prince Arthur, elder brother of Henry VIII, whose premature death aged 15 changed England forever (one of the most pivotal moments in our history, had he survived the Reformation may never have happened). The gorgeous late Perpendicular gothic chapel stands to the south of the High Altar and is remarkable for it's rich sculpted detail.
From the Official Programme
THE NATIONAL COMMEMORATION OF THE CENTENARY OF THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN AND ANZAC DAY AT THE CENOTAPH, WHITEHALL, LONDON
HOSTED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE HIGH COMMISSIONS OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND IN LONDON
On 25 April 1915 Allied soldiers landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey in one of the most ambitious amphibious assaults in history.
More than 550,000 soldiers from Britain, Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Indian sub-continent, Canada and Sri Lanka waged this historic campaign, including 400,000 from Britain alone. 58,000 Allied servicemen and 87,000 from Turkey died in this campaign.
ANZAC Day was established by Australia and New Zealand as an annual day of commemoration to remember their servicemen who died in Gallipoli. The first ANZAC Day march in London took place on 25 April 1916. ANZAC Day has been commemorated in London on 25 April every year since then.
ORDER OF SERVICE
11:00 Big Ben strikes the hour
Two minutes’ silence
The Last Post Sounded by buglers from the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines
Reading by Michael Toohey, age 22, descendant of Private Thomas Toohey, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, killed in action at V beach on 25 April 1915, aged 22.
The Fallen by Laurence Binyon, 4th verse, published in The Times on 21 September 1914
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
All: We will remember them.
Laying of Wreaths
After Her Majesty The Queen has laid a wreath the Massed Bands will play Elegy (1915) – in memoriam Rupert Brooke – by F S Kelly (1881–1916) and Largo by G F Handel (1685–1759).
Her Majesty The Queen lays the first wreath followed by:
The Right Honourable David Cameron, Prime Minister Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Senator the Honourable George Brandis QC, Attorney General, Commonwealth of Australia
The Right Honourable David Carter MP, 29th Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives
A representative of the Republic of Turkey
The Right Honourable Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The Right Honourable Michael Fallon, Secretary of State for Defence
The Right Honourable Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Right Honourable Hugo Swire, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Helen Grant, Minister for the First World War Centenary
Dr Andrew Murrison, Prime Minister’s Special Representative for the First World War Centenary
The Right Honourable Ed Miliband, Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition
Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, Scottish Government
The Right Honourable Carwyn Jones, First Minister, Welsh Government
A representative of the Northern Ireland Executive
Lieutenant General Sir Gerry Berragan KBE CB, Adjutant General
Air Marshal Dick Garwood CB CBE DFC, Director General Defence Safety Authority
Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB, Fleet Commander and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff
Lieutenant General John Caligari AO DSC, Chief Capability Development Group, Australian Defence Force
Brigadier Antony Hayward ONZ, Head New Zealand Defence Staff, New Zealand High Commission
Colonel Ömer Özkan, Air Attaché, Embassy of Turkey
A representative of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Steven Vandeput, Minister of Defence of Belgium
His Excellency Gordon Campbell, High Commissioner for Canada
A representative of the Republic of France
A representative of the Federal Republic of Germany
His Excellency Dr Ranjan Mathai, High Commissioner for the Republic of India
His Excellency Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador of Ireland to the United Kingdom
His Excellency The Honourable Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of the Republic of Malta
A representative of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
His Excellency The Honourable Peter O’Neill CMG MP, Prime Minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea
His Excellency Mr Obed Mlaba, High Commissioner for the Republic of South Africa
A representative of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Sonata Tupou, Acting High Commissioner for the Kingdom of Tonga
The Honourable Bronwyn Bishop MP, Speaker to the Australian House of Representatives
Bill Muirhead AM, Agent-General for South Australia
Ken Smith, Trade Commissioner for Europe and Agent General for UK at Trade & Investment Queensland
Kevin Skipworth CVO, Agent-General for Western Australia
Ian Matterson, Representative of the Premier of Tasmania
Mathew Erbs, on behalf of the Agent-General for Victoria
Gary Dunn, Deputy Commonwealth Secretary General
General The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux GCB CBE DSO, Deputy Grand President, British Commonwealth Ex-Servicemen’s League
Vice Admiral Peter Wilkinson CB CVO, National President, the Royal British Legion
Right Honourable The Viscount Slim OBE DL, Returned and Services League of Australia
Colonel Andrew Martin ONZM, Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association
Lindsay Birrell, CEO, London Legacy
Captain Christopher Fagan DL, Chairman, The Gallipoli Association
The Honourable Mrs Ros Kelly AO, Commissioner, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Sue Pillar, Director of Volunteer Support, Soldiers’ And Sailors’ Families Association (SSAFA)
Captain Jim Conybeare, Master, The Honourable Company of Master Mariners
Lyn Hopkins, Director General, The Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship
Sir Anthony Figgis KCVO CMG, Chairman, Royal Overseas League
Reveille sounded by buglers from the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines
THE PRAYERS
Prayer by The Venerable Ian Wheatley QHC, Royal Navy Chaplain of the Fleet
God our Father, we come together today to honour all those who gave themselves with great courage in service and sacrifice for their country in the Gallipoli Campaign. We pray that their example may continue to inspire us to strive for the common good, that we may build up the harmony and freedom for which they fought and died.
Help us O Lord, to lift our eyes above the torment of this broken world, and strengthen our resolve to work for peace and justice, and for the relief of want and suffering. As we honour the past, may we put our faith in your future; for you are the source of life and hope, now and forever. Amen.
Hymn led by the Choirs of Chelmsford Cathedral and accompanied by the Massed Bands
I Vow To Thee My Country
All:
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
I heard my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me.
Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,
And around her feet are lying the dying and the dead;
I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns;
I haste to thee, my mother, a son among thy sons.
And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
Prayer read by Grace van Gageldonk (14 years old) from Australia
God of compassion and mercy, we remember with thanksgiving and sorrow, those whose lives in world wars and conflicts past and present, have been
given and taken away.
Enfold in your love, all who in bereavement, disability and pain, continue to suffer the consequences of fighting and terror; and guide and protect all those who support and sustain them. Amen.
National anthem Advance Australia Fair
Led by the Choirs of Chelmsford Cathedral and accompanied by the Massed Bands
Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
‘Advance Australia Fair’.
Prayer read by Kathryn Cooper (11 years old) from New Zealand
God of hope, the source of peace and the refuge of all in distress, we remember those you have gathered from the storm of war into the everlasting peace of your presence; may that same peace calm our fears, bring reconciliation and justice to all peoples, and establish lasting harmony among the nations.
We pray for all members of the armed forces who strive for peace and fight for justice today; bless and keep their families and friends at home awaiting their return. Help us, who today remember the cost of war, to work for a better tomorrow, and bring us all, in the end, to the peace of your presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
National anthem God Defend New Zealand
Led by the Choirs of Chelmsford Cathedral and accompanied by the Massed Bands
E Ihowā _Atua,
O ngā _iwi mātou rā
Āta whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tō _atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa
God of Nations at Thy feet,
in the bonds of love we meet,
hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star
from the shafts of strife and war,
make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.
Reading Atatürk’s message to bereaved pilgrims, 1934, read by Ecenur Bilgiç (14 years old) from Turkey
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours…
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
National anthem İstiklal Marşı (The Independence March)
Led by Burak Gülşen from Turkey, accompanied by the Massed Bands
Korkma, sönmez bu şafaklarda yüzen al sancak;
Sönmeden yurdumun üstünde tüten en son ocak.
O benim milletimin yıldızıdır, parlayacak;
O benimdir, o benim milletimindir ancak.
Çatma, kurban olayım, çehreni ey nazlı hilal!
Kahraman ırkıma bir gül! Ne bu şiddet, bu celal?
Sana olmaz dökülen kanlarımız sonra helal…
Hakkıdır, Hakk’a tapan, milletimin istiklal!
Fear not! For the crimson flag that flies at this dawn, shall not fade,
As long as the last fiery hearth that is ablaze in my country endures.
For that is the star of my nation, which will forever shine;
It is mine; and solely that of my valiant nation.
Frown not, I beseech you, oh thou coy crescent!
Come smile upon my heroic race! Why this rage, this fury?
The blood we shed for you shall not be blessed otherwise;
For independence is the absolute right of my God-worshipping nation.
Remembering Gallipoli a commemoration created by Michael McDermott
Music composed by Michael McDermott
Reading by James McDermott (17 years old) from the United Kingdom
The Attack at Dawn (May, 1915) by Leon Maxwell Gellert (1892–1977)
‘At every cost,’ they said, ‘it must be done.’
They told us in the early afternoon.
We sit and wait the coming of the sun
We sit in groups, — grey groups that watch the moon.
We stretch our legs and murmur half in sleep
And touch the tips of bayonets and yarn.
Our hands are cold. They strangely grope and creep,
Tugging at ends of straps. We wait the dawn!
Some men come stumbling past in single file.
And scrape the trench’s side and scatter sand.
They trip and curse and go. Perhaps we smile.
We wait the dawn! … The dawn is close at hand!
A gentle rustling runs along the line.
‘At every cost,’ they said, ‘it must be done.’
A hundred eyes are staring for the sign.
It’s coming! Look! … Our God’s own laughing sun!
Closing prayers by The Venerable Ian Wheatley QHC, Royal Navy Chaplain of the Fleet
Eternal God,
from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed;
Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all, the true love of peace
and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom
those who take counsel for the nations of the world,
that in tranquillity your kingdom may go forward,
and all people may spend their days in security, freedom and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Merciful God
we offer to you the fears in us
that have not yet been cast out by love:
may we accept the hope you have
placed in the hearts of all people,
and live lives of justice, courage and mercy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
All:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come, thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give is this day our daily bread.
And forgive is our trespasses,
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those that trespass against us.
And lead is not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
fro ver and ever. Amen.
The Blessing
God grant to the living grace, to the departed rest,
to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth and all people,
unity, peace and concord,
and to us and all God’s servants, life everlasting;
and the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always. Amen.
National anthem God Save the Queen
Led by the Choirs of Chelmsford Cathedral and accompanied by the Massed Bands
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen.
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!
They Are At Rest by Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934), sung by the Choirs of Chelmsford Cathedral (unaccompanied)
THE MARCH PAST
Contingents from:
The Royal Navy
HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH
The Fleet Air Arm
The Submarine Service
Hybrid (HMS OCEAN, HMS ALBION,
Britannia Royal Naval College)
The Royal Marines
Maritime Reserves (Royal Navy
and Royal Marines Reserves)
Representatives from the Armed Forces of other countries who fought at Gallipoli
invited to join the March Past:
Australia
New Zealand
Canada
Turkey
India
Germany
Ireland
France
Bangladesh
Pakistan
South Africa
Papua New Guinea
Tonga
The Gallipoli Association
Naval Services Associations
The Royal Naval Association
The Royal Marines Association
Army Units and their Associations
The Royal Regiment of Artillery
The Royal Corps of Engineers
The Royal Regiment of Scotland
The Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment
The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
The Royal Anglian Regiment
The Yorkshire Regiment
The Mercian Regiment
The Royal Welsh
The Royal Irish Regiment
The Royal Gurkha Rifles
The Rifles
The Royal Logistics Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Veterinary Corps
The Royal Yeomanry
The Royal Wessex Yeomanry
The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry
The London Regiment
Court & City Yeomanry Association
In-Pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea
The Turkish Air Force Band plays Marche Mustafa Kemal Atatürk by Fazıl Çağlayan
Followed by: Descendants of those whose ancestors were involved in the Gallipoli campaign and others who march past the Cenotaph every year to commemorate Anzac Day.
Inspector Matt Bailey-Smith and the pint that could cost £50,000.
Car wreckage and a £50,000 pint come to Manchester
People in Manchester were be exposed to two very different consequences of drink driving by Greater Manchester Police this week. The wreckage of a car whose owner was killed in drink driving crash went on display at the University of Manchester, alongside a pint worth £50,000 – the personal financial cost of a conviction.
The £50,000 pint, displayed behind velvet ropes and housed in a protective glass case, represents the personal financial cost of drink-driving, calculated for the first time by the Institute of Advanced Motorists. The calculation reflects the fines, legal costs, rise in insurance premiums and possible job losses faced by those who are convicted.
The wreckage, known as the Think! Car, was owned by a 21-year-old man who lost control of his car on his way home and hit a tree, sadly killing him.
The activity was part of the University ‘Wellbeing Week’ and involved police conducting on the spot breathalyser tests and handing out free ‘scratchcards’, as well as activity highlighting the dangers posed to cyclists and bikers straying into the blind spots of HGVs and buses.
Inspector Matt Bailey-Smith from Greater Manchester Police said: "Drink driving ruins lives. It can cost motorists their family, job and worse still their life or that of somebody else.
"Many people do not think of the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol until it is too late and police are committed to tackling this issue so that we can make the roads of Greater Manchester a safer place to be.
"If you are planning on driving then the safest choice you can make is to avoid alcohol all together, and if you see somebody else attempting to drink and drive then make sure you stop them. It could be the difference between life and death."
Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond said:
“It might only look like a humble pint of beer, but it could end up costing much more than a few quid – in fact it comes with an eye-watering hidden cost if it pushes you over the limit.
“Most people know not to drink and drive but a small number still do, which is why we are highlighting the consequences of a drink drive conviction through our THINK! campaign.
“Anyone thinking of drinking and driving should be without any doubt – if you are caught driving over the limit you will face a heavy court fine and lose your licence – you could even go to prison.”
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website.
You should call 101, the new national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
Austrian postcard, Iris Verlag 5311. Aafa Film. Lux-Film-Verleih.
Livio Pavanelli (1881-1958) was an Italian actor of the Italian and in particular German silent cinema. He also worked in Italian sound cinema as actor and as production manager. He directed four Italian films, both in the silent and the sound era.
Livio Pavanelli was born September 7th, 1881, in Copparo and was member of a big family of farmers and merchants from the Ferrara area – his father Andrea being also a notable patriot in the Italian Risorgimento – but as a consequence of financial disasters in the family he moved with his parents to Bologna where he visited the technical school. During his adolescence he wandered around Italy, eager for excitement. When in Venice in 1898, he fell in love with the stage while assisting a show of wandering artists, and started a theatrical career, performing with various companies like that of Antono Gandusio, and in 1902 the Venetican company of Emilio Zago. He then shifted to the company of Gustavo Salvini and Ermete Zacconi, before reaching Eleonora Duse’s company with whom he stayed for 9 years, accompanying her in her foreign tours as well.
In the 1910s Pavanelli’s film career started, performing leads in various films, firstly in a series of films with Pina Fabbri like Il delitto della via di Nizza (Henri Etievant 1913) and Il romanzo di due vite (Attilio Fabbri 1913), from 1914 on in a series of films with Hesperia like L’ereditiera (1914) and L’agguato (1915); with Mercedes Brignone like Il re dell’Atlantico (1914) and Mezzanotte (1915); and with Gianna Terribili-Gonzales; mostly directed by Baldassare Negroni, or by others like Zorzi or Genina. In 1916-1917 Pavanelli didn’t appear in films, but in 1918 he was back in film, opposite Francesca Bertini in various parts of the series I sette peccati capitali (1918, directed by various filmmakers), La piovra (Edoardo Bencivenga 1919) and Anima allegra (Roberto Roberti 1919); and opposite Lyda Borelli in Carnevalesca (Amleto Palermi 1918) and Una notte a Calcutta (Mario Caserini 1918). In 1918 he also played Saint Sebastian in Enrico Guazzoni’s epic Fabiola, opposite Elena Sangro in the title role, and he had a part in the propagandistic fake biopic of and with Francesca Bertini: Mariute. In those years, Thea Pavanelli, aka as simply Thea, played with Pavanelli in La reginetta Isotta (1918), based on Balzac. She might have been his wife, but no additional information is available about this.
In the late 1910s and early 1920s, Pavanelli really was a star of Italian silent cinema, not only in epic films like Il sacco di Roma (Enrico Guazzoni/Giulio Aristide Sartorio 1920), but also in long list of diva films with Pina Menichelli such as La storia di una donna (Eugenio Perego 1920), La verità nuda (Telemaco Ruggeri 1921), L’età critica (Palermi 1921), La seconda moglie (Palermi 1922), and La biondina (Palermi 1923). Other actresses opposite whom Pavanelli acted in the early 1920s years were Tilde Kassay, Diomira Jacobini, and Cecil Tryan. In Saitra la ribelle (Palermi 1924), Coiffeur pour dames (Palermi 1924) and Vedi Napoli, poi muori (Perego 1924), Pavanelli played opposite Leda Gys, and he played the lead of Turiddu opposite Tina Xeo as Santuzza in the adaptation of Verga’s story and Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria rusticana (Mario Gargiulo 1924).
Because of the crisis in Italian cinema, Pavanelli moved first to Austria and then to Germany in 1924, where he proceeded his succesful career, performing opposite the female stars of Weimar cinema, such as Lee Parry (Die schönste Frau der Welt, 1924), Fern Andra (Die Liebe is der Frauen Macht, 1924), Liane Haid (Ich liebe dich!, 1924; Im weissen Rössl, 1926; Als ich wieder kam, 1926), Ossi Oswalda (Niniche, 1924), Ida Wüst (Kammermusik, 1925), Maria Corda (Der Tänzer meiner Frau, 1925), Elga Brink (Der Ritt in die Sonne, 1926; Das Gasthaus zur Ehe, 1926), Marcella Albani, Lya De Putti, and male stars like Hans Albers (Mein Freund der Chauffeur, 1926). In 1926 Pavanelli played in various boulevard comedies: he had the male lead as the industrial Franz Kaltenbach in Familie Schimeck/Wiener Herzen (Alfred Halm, Rudolf Dworsky), opposite Olga Tschechowa as his wife Olga, and also the male lead in der lachende Ehemann (Rudolf Walther-Fein, Rudolf Dworsky), opposite Elisabeth Pinajeff as his wife, but he also played with Dolly Davis, André Roanne and Agnes Esterhazy in Fräulein Josette, meine Frau (Gaston Ravel), with Mady Christians and Roanne in Die Königin der Moulin Rouge (Robert Wiene), with Xenia Desni in Küssen ist keine Sund (Walther-Fein/Dworsky) and Schützenliesel (same directors), with Mary Nolan in Die Königin des Weltbades (Viktor Janson), and with Jenny Jugo in Die ledige Töchter (Carl Boese). It is clear that 1926 was Pavanelli’s most prolific year.
More films with Mary Nolan, Mady Christians and in particular Xenia Desni followed in 1927, but also parts in the Henny Porten drama Die grosse Pause (Carl Froehlich). In 1927 Pavanelli was temporarily back in Italy to play Florette in the adaptation of the popular boulevard comedy Florette et Patapon (Palermi 1927), with French actor Marcel Levesque as Patapon, and German actress Ossi Oswalda as Riquette Florette. In 1928 followed parts in the Lyda de Putti comedy Charlott is etwas verrückt (Adolf E. Licho), the Cilly Feindt vehicle Gefährdete Mädchen (Hans Otto), the Arlette Marchal drama Die Frau von gestern und morgen (Heinz Paul), the Spanish-German production Herzen ohne Ziel/Corazones sin rumbo (Benito Perojo/Gustav Ucicky), the Italo-German coproduction Scampolo (Genina), and the Ossi Oswalda vehicle Das Haus ohne Männer (Rolf Randolf). In 1929 Pavanelli played the lead in Liebfraumilch (Carl Froehlich) and Sir Henry Baskerville in Der Hund von Baskerville (Richard Oswald, next to smaller parts in other films like the Maria Paudler drama Liebe im Schnee (Max Obal/Walther-Fein) and Hotelgeheimnisse (Friedrich Feher). Even in 1930 Pavanelli continued to play in German films, such as Freiheit in Fesseln (Carl Heinz Wolff), starring Fritz Kampers and Vivian Gibson, and Ehestreik (Carl Boese), with Georg Alexander and Maria Paudler.
When sound cinema set in, Pavanelli first played opposite former silent star Maria Jacobini in the film Perché no?, an Italian version of The Lady Lies, shot in the Paramount studios in Paris and directed by Palermi. Pavanelli next had one part in the German sound film Liebeskommando (Geza von Bolvary 1931), and then returned to Italy, where his star as actor declined while still acting in films like Pergolesi (Guido Brignone 1932), with Elio Steiner in the title role, and L’ultimo dei Bergerac (Gennaro Righelli 1933). Pavanelli had one last film performance in Germany in the film Frühlingsmärchen (Carl Froehlich 1934), in which he appropriately played a singing master from Milan. According to Wikipedia Pavanelli played both in the Italian and the German version of Max Neufeld’s La canzone del sole/Das Lied der Sonne (1934), starring Vittorio De Sica. He also performed in Gustav Machaty’s Italian production Ballerine (1936). In the 1930s Pavanelli also became producer, scriptwriter and director. Wikipedia claims one of his productions was opera singer Tito Schipa’s success film Vivere of 1937, while IMDB lists Pavanelli not as producer but as production manager or unit manager for 10 different films between 1939 and 1954, often for Guido Brignone such as La mia canzone al vento (Brignone 1939) and Romanzo di un giovane povero (Brignone 1942), but also the postwar epic Messalina (Carmine Gallone (1951). In 1939 Pavanelli was also scriptwriter for La mia canzone al vento. In 1941-42 he directed his sole sound feature Solitudine, starring Carola Höhn (Pavanelli had already directed three films in the silent era: Silvio Pellico, 1915; La complice muta, 1920; Madonnina, 1921). Livio Pavanelli’s last film as actor was L’altra (1947) by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, in which he played a French impresario. After that he only continued as production or unit manager. His last job was production management of the epic Cortigiana di Babilonia (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia 1954), starring Rhonda Fleming. Livio Pavanelli died at the hospital San Giovanni in Rome on 29 April 1958.
Sources: Italian Wikipedia, IMDB, filmportal.de.
ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. In memoria del Progetto Fori (2019): “Viadotto della Via dell’ Impero (1938) & Via dei Fori (2015-19), s.v., Luigi Lenzi (1931); Guido Calza (1934) & Guido Fiorini (1934-38). S.v., VEZIO DE LUCIA (2019); Maria L. Gottari (2016) & Adriano La Regina (2015/1999). Storia del Fori progetto, in: Antonella Clementoni (2017) [Italiano] & Andrew John Manson (2017) [English]. wp.me/pPRv6-4TZ
Foto sinistra | fonte | source:
-- Via Dell’ Impero; in: Luigi Lenzi, “The New Rome”, The Town Planning Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (May, 1931), p. 162.
Con commento supplementare di Guido Calza (03/1934):
"...The pre-war period, moreover, was unpropitious for any attempt to carry out such so large a project, and in consequence the scheme prepared by Corrado Ricci and Ludovico Pogiaghi in 1911 remained a dead letter. These two men had made a survey of all that was visible of the Forums in the basements of various houses, and, by comparing the material with designs prepared by great artists of the Renaissance, had obtained a marvelous picture of what they thought the locality of the Imperial Forums would look like after the demolitions had been carried out. (…) ‘…yet, to excavate that vast zone of now occupied by the new street [the Via dell` Impero, now the Via dei Fori Imperiali], to decide its plan on the basis of what might be have been found there of archaeological interest, and to make the street pass over the ruins like a suspension bridge, would have been exceedingly costly and difficult undertaking, and would have required in addition many years of work. This does not mean that partial research cannot be made here and there in the substructures of the street itself in order to see what is hidden."
Dr. Guido Calza,
“THE VIA DELL` IMPERO AND THE IMPERIAL FORA,”
JRIBA, (24 March 1934), pp. 489 & 503.
Foto destra| fonte | source:
-- Guido Fiorini, ‘Viadotto della Via dell’ Impero’ (1938), fig. 12 a & b, in: Elisabetta Pallottino, Isolamenti e invenzione di contesti nell'opera del Governatorato a Roma. Liberazione e restauro della Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi (1924-1949). Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma Vol. 116 (2015), pp. 233-248. S.v., sotto: Antonella Clementoni (2017) & Andrew John Manson (2015).
Nota: Nell'ultimo decennio circa studiosi italiani, studenti universitari e ricercatori indipendenti a Roma (e altrove in Italia) hanno iniziato a riesaminare la storia architettonica e urbanistica di Via dei Fori negli anni '30. Con il nuovo accesso agli archivi degli anni '30 che diventano più disponibili, è ora possibile ricostruire la storia del progetto degli anni '30.
Ecco altri piani degli anni '30 per i fori e il progetto 1931, 1934 * 1938.
Nota: nel 1934, il Prof. Guido Calza, allora direttore archeologico di Ostia e poi direttore del Foro Romano 1945-46, menzionò nel 1934, l'idea del nuovo viadotto di Via dei Fori dopo il 1934. Come notato in il piano del dott. G. Fiorini del 1938 (citato qui sopra). Problema nessuno ha mai studiato e pubblicato il piano di Fiorini del 1938 e i commenti di Calza del 1934, insieme.
__________________
1). ROMA – RIVIVE L’ URBE ANTICA “ANCHE GRAZIE AL DUCE.” Gli espropri già` realizzati da Mussolini costerebbe centinaia di miliardi. Corriere Della Sera (29|07|1999), p. 27. [Nota: Italiano / English].
--Cominciamo, professor La Regina, delle demolizioni volute da Mussolini. E` vero che senza il piccone, usato per butter giu` le costruzioni medioevali e rinascimentali presenti dove adesso corre come una grande autostrada urbana via dei Fori Imperiali, gli scavi in corso sarebbero stati impensabili? Cosa ne pensa?
“Sono contro le demonizzazioni acritiche. Non avrebbe senso dopo sessanta o settant'anni, lodare o biasimare La storia e` stata quella che e stata. Fatto sta che le trasformazioni operate dal fascismo, e costi sociali pagati a quelle trasformazioni ci hanno messo oggi nelle condizioni migliori per lavorare. Quello su cui operiamo e infatti terreno pubblico. Non dobbiamo procedure quindi, a espropri (già` operati da Mussolini) che oggi risulterebbero economicamente onerosi simi. Si deve pensare a una spesa, rapportata ai costi odierni, di centinaia e centinaia di miliardi. C`e poi un'altra questione relativa alla popolazione residente, Il regime, all'epoca degli sventramenti, ha spostato I romani che vivevano nelle costruzioni medievali e rinascimentali abbattute per far posto a via dell'Impero ( l’odierna via dei Fori Imperiali, ndr ) negli insediamenti nati con le nuove periferie. Noi non avremmo avuto la cultura e l’animo per realizzare una simile politica.”
--Si accennava prima che via dei Fori Imperiali non sara` piu` quella di oggi. Che cosa la sostituirà`?
“Si dovrà arrivare, in tempi ragionevolmente brevi, a un collegamento tra piazza Venezia e il Colosseo affidato a più` strade. Certo dovrà` sparire via dei Fori Imperiali come si presenta oggi. Si può` pensare realisticamente a una serie di collegamenti pedonali potenziati da un’ agile corsia di emergenza riservata ai servizi pubblici. Buona parte del traffico dovrà~ poi essere dirottato su altri percorsi.”
--Parliamo di tempi adesso. Quando si potrà` godere della Roma archeologica così` come stanno portandola alla luce gli scavi attualmente in corso?
“Qualcosa si puo` gia vedere, altro verra` consegnato all'utenza prima che inizi l’anno giubilare. Certo il completamento degli scavi il restauro, il riassetto dei collegamenti stradali richiederanno tempi lunghi.”
--Ci vorranno anni e anni?
“Di più`, decenni. L’impressione, a lavori ultimati, sarà tuttavia fortissima. Dai Mercati Traianei, passando attraverso il Foro di Cesare, il Foro Romano e il Palatino senza mai abbandonate le rovine dell’ antica Roma, si potrà giungere al circo Massimo e alla passeggiata archeologica.”
-- C'è` un grosso problema. Professor La Regina. Riguarda il sovrapporsi, ai resti dell’ antica Roma, di reperti medievali e rinascimentali. Che cosa conservare? Che cosa distruggere?
“E’ un problema, quello da lei sollevato, che si e sempre posto negli scavi urbani. Quando si lavorava al recupero del Foro Romano non vi erano interessi scientifici per il Medioevo e per le epoche successive. Si giunse così` fino a demolire interre chiese Adesso c’e un'attenzione diversa. Dentro il Foro di Nerva, per esempio, abbiamo ritrovato un edificio medievale di epoca carolingia costruito con materiali di saccheggio. Lo abbiamo conservato perche ci e` parso interessante per documentare l'evoluzione della citta. Ai piedi del Campidoglio, dove stiamo operando in questi giorni, sta venendo fuori un edificio dello stesso periodo… Non conserviamo però`, dopo averle documentate, le cantine degli edifici rinascimentali che occupano il novanta per cento di quanto sta emergendo dagli attuali scavi. L'attività` archeologica non e` meccanica e impone delle scelte.”
1.1). ROME - The Ancient City Lives Again "Also Thanks to Il Duce." Corriere Della Sera (29|07|1999), p. 27.
The Ancient City Lives Again "Also Thanks to IL Duce." - The expropriations already realized by Mussolini would have cost hundreds of Billions.
The news is important: The Via dei Fori Imperiali,' as we know it today will soon be a memory. As far as the archeological excavations, button - hole (pride) of the pre-Jubilee Rome, would not have been realizable without the demolitions carried out during the Fascist period [1930-1932], According to Prof. Adriano la Regina - The Archeological Superintendent of Rome.
-Let's start, Prof. La Regina, with the demolitions done by Mussolini. It's true that without the pick, used to knock down the Medieval & Renaissance buildings which were where the via dei Fori Imperiali now is, the current excavations would have been unthinkable? What do you think about it?
“I'm against senseless blame. It does not make sense to praise or to blame history after sixty or seventy years. History has been what it’s been. The fact is that the transformations done during fascism, and the social costs paid for those transformations have put us today in the best condition to work. The soil we work on is in fact public Soil. Therefore, we do not need to undertake expropriation procedures (already done by Mussolini) which today would turn out to be an economical burden.”
“Nowadays it would have cost hundreds and hundreds of billions. There's then another problem concerning the people living in the area. The regime at the time of the demolitions moved the Romans that lived in the medieval and renaissance buildings knocked down in order to construct the 'Via dell' Impero' (Via dei Fori Imperiali) to the newly created suburbs. We wouldn't have had the culture and the spirit to carry out such a policy.”
-Before we mention the Via dei Fori Imperiali will no longer be as it is today. What will it be replaced by it?
“In a reasonably short time, several connection roads will lead from the Piazza Venezia to the Coliseum. Certainly the Via dei Fori Imperiali as it is today will disappear. We could actually think of a series of pedestrian connections supported by a quick emergency roadway for public services. Therefore most of the traffic will have to be diverted on other routes.”
-Lets talk about the time now when we will be able to enjoy the 'archeological' Rome which the present excavations are bringing to light?
“Something can already be seen, more will be delivered before the beginning of the Jubilee year [27/12/1999]. Obviously the completions of the diggings, the restoration and the rearrangement of the streets connections will demand longer time.”
-Will it take years and years?
“More, decades… The impression is, once the works are completed will however be very strong. From the Markets of Trajan, passing through the Forum of Caesar, the Roman Forum and the Palatine hill without ever leaving the ruins of ancient Rome; As well as the Circus Maximus all reached via archeological walk-way.”
- There is a big Problem Prof. La Regina. It regarding the Medieval & Renaissance findings built upon the remains of ancient Rome. What to preserve? What to destroy?
“It's a big problem, that you just raised, which has always been raised concerning the diggings in the city. When they [Fascist] were working to recover the Roman Forum there was no scientific interests for the Middle Ages and subsequent ages. Therefore, they even demolished whole churches. Now there's a different interest. In the Forum of Nerva, for example, we have found a medieval building dating back to the Carolinian age built with pillaged materials. We have preserved it because it seemed interesting in order to document the evolution of the city. At the foot of the Capitoline Hill, where we are working at the present, a building of the same age is coming to light…, we did not preserve it though, after documented them the cellars of the Renaissance buildings that occupy 90% of what is emerging from the present excavations. Archeology is not mechanical and it demands to make choices.”
Fonte | source:
-- Corriere Della Sera (29|07|1999), p. 27. (Accessed in early August 1999), in:
Rassegna Stampa / MIBACT.
www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/MenuPr...
2). ROMA - “Chiudere via dei Fori e costruire un viadotto sull’area archeologica”. [Adriano] La Regina: “soluzione appoggiata dalla commissione”. LUMSA NEWS Online (09/03/2015).
“La proposta è stata fatta, ora sta al Comune decidere o meno se accettarla”. L’ex soprintendente ai Beni Culturali e Artistici di Roma Adriano La Regina è sicuro: “Via dei Fori deve essere smantellata”. Nella conferenza che si è tenuta nell’istituto di archeologia e storia dell’arte è stata presentata la relazione della commissione istituita dal Mibact sui Fori imperiali. I membri hanno lavorato dal 1 agosto al 31 dicembre e hanno steso un documento su possibili interventi da realizzare: alcuni a breve, altri a lungo termine.Il ponte. La posizione assunta dalla commissione è quella di chiudere via dei Fori imperiali e costruire un viadotto carrabile e pedonale. L’idea è datata, ed era stata portata avanti dall’archeologo Pierluigi Romeo nel 1979 per poi essere ripresa dall’architetto Massimiliano Fuksas e arrivare così fino ai giorni nostri. Sotto il ponte tutta l’area archeologica dei fori verrebbe riunita come un tempo. Per quanto riguarda i costi dell’operazione non sono stati fatti i numeri ma La Regina ha rassicurato: “Nonostante quanto si possa pensare, realizzare un’opera del genere non graverebbe molto sui bilanci del Comune”.
Anche per quanto riguarda via Alessandrina l’attuale presidente dell’istituto di archeologia e storia dell’arte ha le idee chiare: “Non vedo perché la strada parallela a via dei Fori debba essere smontata. La via risale al Rinascimento e ha una sua grande rilevanza storica”.La storia. L’odierna via dei Fori è nata per volere di Benito Mussolini. la strada che taglia in due l’area archeologica prese inizialmente il nome di “via dell’Impero” per ricordare l’Impero Romano, sul quale il Fascismo basava la peopria propaganda e al quale faceva sempre riferimento nelle varie occasioni della vita pubblica. La via fu inaugurata il 28 ottobre del 1932. Mussolini a cavallo tagliò il nastro inaugurale e sulla nuova via sfilarono i mutilati della grande guerra. Il nome di “via dell’Impero” fu attribuito anche ai tratti adiacenti alla strada oltre la piazza del Colosseo, diventata raggiungibile con l’eliminazione dell’antica collina della Velia, con le attuali vie “di San Gregorio” e “delle Terme di Caracalla”. Dopo il 1945 il primo tratto di via dell’Impero venne rinominato “via dei Fori Imperiali”, ogni anno qui avviene la parata del 2 giugno.
Fonte | source:
-- LUMSA NEWS Online (09/03/2015).
www.lumsanews.it/chiudere-via-dei-fori-e-costruire-un-via...
3). ROMA - VEZIO DE LUCIA, “In memoria del Progetto Fori.” eddyburg.it (26/03/2019).
Nessuno lo ha ricordato, ma ricorrono quarant’anni da quando cominciò a prendere forma il Progetto Fori, la più straordinaria proposta di rinnovamento dell’urbanistica di Roma dopo l’Unità. E' necessario rievocarlo, in una delle stagioni più amare della nostra povera capitale. (m.b).
Mussolini urbanista
Nessuno lo ha ricordato, ma giusto quarant’anni fa cominciò a prendere forma il Progetto Fori, la più straordinaria proposta di rinnovamento dell’urbanistica di Roma dopo l’Unità. La sostanza del progetto – che raccolse grande entusiasmo e l’attiva partecipazione di migliaia di cittadini di ogni ceto e di ogni quartiere – consiste nella trasformazione dei più famosi resti dell’Impero romano in una componente vitale della città contemporanea. Ma dopo la morte del sindaco Petroselli lo stesso progetto è stato ricoperto da una montagna d’ipocrisia, e poi dimenticato. Mi pare perciò necessario rievocarlo, specialmente in una delle stagioni più amare della nostra povera capitale.
Comincio dagli sventramenti voluti da Benito Mussolini. Un secolo fa, all’inizio degli anni Venti, da piazza Venezia non si vedeva il Colosseo. Dove sta adesso la via dei Fori Imperiali, e sopra i resti dei Fori di Traiano, di Augusto, di Nerva, di Cesare, del Tempio della Pace, si trovava un vasto quartiere cresciuto nel corso dei secoli dopo la caduta dell’impero romano. A ridosso della basilica di Massenzio, si alzava la collina della Velia (che raccordava l’Esquilino al Palatino) sovrastata dallo splendido giardino di Palazzo Rivaldi. Fu tutto travolto per volontà del duce che – riprendendo le idee dei piani regolatori del 1883, 1909 e 1931 – volle nel cuore di Roma una strada adatta alle parate militari, in uno scenario che doveva celebrare la continuità fra l’impero romano e il regime fascista. Perciò fu scelto un tracciato “dritto come la spada di un legionario”, furono demoliti chiese, case e palazzi per decine di migliaia di metricubi, e alcune migliaia di sventurati abitanti furono sgomberati e in gran parte deportati nelle borgate che in quegli anni cominciavano a essere costruite dal Governatorato.
Lo sfondamento della via dell’Impero (oggi dei Fori Imperiali) è raccontato da Antonio Cederna in Mussolini urbanista. Lo sventramento di Roma negli anni del consenso. Feroci ed esilaranti, all’inizio del libro, le biografie dei sette maggiori responsabili, scritti in ordine alfabetico cognome e nome, a cominciare da Brasini Armando (“campione del titanismo di cartapesta”), quindi Giovannoni Gustavo, Muñoz Antonio, Ojetti Ugo, Piacentini Marcello, Ricci Corrado, Testa Virgilio. Le demolizioni ebbero inizio nell’autunno del 1931 e la via dell’Impero fu inaugurata “nel fatidico decennale”, il 28 ottobre del 1932. L’anno dopo fu la volta della via dei Trionfi (oggi di S. Gregorio), dal Colosseo al Circo Massimo. E, per trasformare il Colosseo in un monumentale spartitraffico, si distrussero il basamento del Colosso di Nerone e la Meta Sudante: un torrione conico in mattoni alto otto metri, unico resto a Roma di fontana monumentale.
Nel dopoguerra le cose peggiorarono. Le conseguenze degli sventramenti furono letali. Attraverso le vie dei Fori Imperiali e del Teatro di Marcello, via del Plebiscito – corso Vittorio Emanuele, il Corso, via Nazionale – via IV novembre, da ogni punto cardinale il traffico converge a piazza Venezia, ombelico del mondo. Per la via dei Fori transitavano 60 mila auto al giorno.
Anche il Progetto Fori fu una conseguenza del Sessantotto
Una conseguenza del Sessantotto fu certamente, nel giugno del 1974, la schiacciante vittoria del “no” nel referendum per abolire la legge sul divorzio. Ancor più sorprendente nelle elezioni amministrative del 15 e 16 giugno dell’anno dopo fu l’avanzata del Pci nelle maggiori città italiane: Torino, Milano, Venezia, Genova, Bologna, Firenze, Napoli, Cosenza. A Roma la svolta avvenne il 20 e 21 giugno del 1976, quando il Pci guadagnò più del 35 per cento dei voti. Fu eletto sindaco Giulio Carlo Argan, insigne storico dell’arte, fortemente voluto dal segretario della federazione comunista Luigi Petroselli. Per Roma una novità epocale.
Con Argan, il Campidoglio si libera dai sordidi legami con la proprietà fondiaria che avevano caratterizzato le precedenti amministrazioni con la mezza dozzina di sindaci, sempre democristiani (da Salvatore Rebecchini a Clelio Darida) che si erano succeduti dal 1946 al 1976. La manifestazione più vistosa del vento di novità che attraversa la capitale fu l’estate romana, inventata dall’assessore alla cultura Renato Nicolini, che esplose nell’estate del 1977 e, proprio quand’era più cupa la stagione del terrorismo, convinse i romani a reagire, a uscire di casa, a stare insieme.
Per farla breve, esistevano a Roma tutte le condizioni perché prendesse corpo il Progetto Fori. La storia comincia il 21 dicembre del 1978 quando i giornali pubblicarono una dichiarazione del soprintendente archeologo Adriano La Regina sulle drammatiche condizioni dei monumenti corrosi dall’inquinamento. Per alcune opere i danni erano gravissimi e irreversibili. In verità, già da alcuni anni a Roma si discuteva del disastro dei beni archeologici, dell’inettitudine delle autorità e delle responsabilità politiche. Ma la dichiarazione del soprintendente introdusse per la prima volta una diretta connessione fra l’area archeologica centrale e l’assetto urbanistico della città.
La cronaca dei primi passi dell’operazione e dell’interesse che riscosse in Italia e all’estero è raccontata da Italo Insolera e Francesco Perego nel libro Archeologia e città. Storia moderna dei Fori di Roma dove sono raccolti i documenti, le testimonianze e le immagini fondamentali dell’area archeologica centrale, delle proposte e delle trasformazioni realizzate dal 1870 al 1983.
All’inizio, protagonista indiscusso è il soprintendente La Regina che con determinazione inconsueta nella burocrazia ministeriale “impedisce che il tema passi nel campo del deja vu martellando la scena romana con richiami talvolta ripetitivi, certamente efficaci”. La Regina torna sul tema il 21 aprile del 1979, invitato in Campidoglio dal sindaco Argan per le celebrazioni del 2732° anniversario della fondazione di Roma. Il soprintendente formula per la prima volta l’ipotesi della chiusura della via dei Fori. Dopo aver ripetuto che il centro storico di Roma non può più svolgere indiscriminatamente tutte le funzioni amministrative, politiche, culturali, commerciali e abitative che lo soffocano propone la soppressione della via dei Fori Imperiali, nel tratto tra piazza Venezia e lo sbocco di via Cavour, “al fine di restituire unità al complesso monumentale più significativo che esista, inutilmente sepolto dall’asfalto”. Non più guastati dalla strada che insensatamente li sovrasta, i Fori di Traiano, di Augusto, di Cesare, di Nerva, il Tempio della Pace possono essere trasformati in cinque sorprendenti piazze pedonali che tengono insieme passato e futuro. Per la prima volta i resti archeologici sono affrancati dalla secolare consuetudine di essere racchiusi in un recinto specializzato e vengono invece equiparati “ad altre parti storiche – medievali, rinascimentali, barocche – che la città non ha mai smesso di usare” (Insolera e Perego).
Con l’elezione a sindaco di Luigi Petroselli, quando Argan si dimette, il Progetto Fori occupa il centro del dibattito politico e culturale. Nei due anni che corrono dalla sua nomina (27 settembre 1979) alla repentina e prematura scomparsa (7 ottobre 1981) si raggiunge il livello più alto per l’urbanistica romana contemporanea. Il recupero dei Fori, che sembra a portata di mano, mobilita le migliori energie, raccoglie un consenso vastissimo che va dalle autorità di governo alla grande intellettualità internazionale, agli abitanti delle borgate che si stanno risanando.
Nell’ottobre del 1980 l’esordio del sindaco in materia di archeologia è lo smantellamento della via della Consolazione che da un secolo separava il Campidoglio dal Foro Repubblicano. Continua subito dopo con l’eliminazione del piazzale che separava il Colosseo dall’arco di Costantino e dal resto del complesso Foro – Palatino. Si ricostituisce così l’unità Colosseo – Foro Romano – Campidoglio e la continuità dell’antica via Sacra. E il Colosseo non è più uno spartitraffico.
Accorciare le distanze, di tempo e di spazio
La chiusura domenicale al traffico della via dei Fori comincia il 1° febbraio del 1981 e continua nelle domeniche successive. È una festa popolare, alle visite guidate organizzate dal Comune, prendono parte migliaia di persone. Il clima è lo stesso dell’Estate Romana, ma le domeniche pedonali sono soprattutto un elemento decisivo della strategia del sindaco di unificazione della città realizzata conferendo a un progetto urbanistico e archeologico anche uno straordinario valore aggiunto di natura sociale e democratica. La romanità, cioè il rapporto con l’antica Roma, non è più competenza esclusiva per studiosi e ceti benestanti e benpensanti, ma parte essenziale dell’esperienza quotidiana della cittadinanza romana. Un’unificazione che è l’esatto contrario dell’omologazione consumistica denunciata dal Pier Paolo Pasolini, non l’annullamento delle differenze, non la rinuncia alle radici e alla storia, ma un intento autentico e primario di uguaglianza.
A favore del Progetto Fori sono i quattro quotidiani a maggiore diffusione a Roma, che diventano anzi protagonisti dell’operazione: Corriere della sera, l’Unità, Paese sera, Il Messaggero, il cui direttore Vittorio Emiliani scende in campo personalmente.
Il consenso al sindaco è ormai vastissimo. Nel marzo del 1981 concludendo la seconda conferenza urbanistica cittadina, Petroselli dichiara che non c’è nessun contrasto tra la via dei Fori imperiali e la periferia romana, “si può partire da via dei Fori imperiali, come si sta facendo, per andare al Forte Prenestino, negli altri luoghi storici della città e concorrere al programma di difesa dei monumenti, ma soprattutto quello che accade e che vogliamo che accada è che non solo il tempo di percorrenza, ma il tempo mentale e il tempo culturale si accorci tra via dei Fori imperiali e la periferia, tra la periferia e via dei Fori imperiali”.
“Accorciare le distanze” è la sintesi del pensiero di Petroselli che si concretizza nel progetto Fori. Accorciare le distanze fra i tempi della storia, fra centro e periferia, fra borghesia e ceti popolari. I romani comprendono e apprezzano l’impegno del sindaco. Alle elezioni comunali del giugno 1981, il Pci raggiunge il 36 per cento dei consensi, meglio che nel 1976, risultato mai più raggiunto.
Ma il 7 ottobre del 1981, Petroselli improvvisamente morì, a quarantanove anni, mentre parlava al comitato centrale del Pci. E con lui finirono il Progetto Fori e tutte le cose che aveva cominciato a fare per Roma.
Cederna scrisse su Rinascita dello “scandalo” di Petroselli: lo scandalo di un sindaco comunista che aveva capito, a differenza di tanti anche autorevoli storici e intellettuali, l’importanza del passato nella costruzione del futuro di Roma.
Declino e fine del Progetto Fori
Con la morte di Petroselli opportunismo, buonsenso, prudenza, avvolsero lentamente il progetto. I tempi si prolungarono all’infinito. Il successore Ugo Vetere non smentì mai il programma di Petroselli, ma ne rallentò il passo. Decisamente contrari Cesare Brandi, Giuliano Briganti e Federico Zeri. Su la Repubblica Cederna è isolato e le pagine culturali sono in prevalenza occupate da chi contrasta il nuovo assetto dell’area archeologica centrale.
Con le elezioni del 1985 la sinistra fu sconfitta e al comune tornarono democristiani e socialisti. Non serve il resoconto delle estenuanti procedure che insabbiarono il progetto. Una ripresa della discussione ci fu nel 1989, quando Cederna, deputato della Sinistra indipendente, promosse il suo noto disegno di legge “per la riqualificazione di Roma capitale della Repubblica” (nell’anno successivo approvato con qualche modifica). Una legge rimasta del tutto inapplicata per entrambi gli aspetti che la qualificano, il Progetto Fori e lo Sdo (Sistema direzionale orientale), senza che nessuno l’abbia mai smentita.
Nel 1993, la sinistra tornò in Campidoglio con Francesco Rutelli sindaco. Dopo le amministrazioni Dc e Psi travolte dagli scandali e dall’azione della magistratura, doveva essere la grande occasione per riprendere le idee di Petroselli e le elaborazioni avviate in attesa di una nuova stagione dell’urbanistica romana. Ma la svolta non ci fu. Anzi Rutelli (che aveva firmato il disegno di legge Cederna) dichiarò che non sarebbe stata eliminata la via dei Fori. Come lui quasi tutti gli altri sindaci dopo Petroselli hanno continuano a evocare il Progetto Fori, ciascuno intendendo una cosa diversa, comunque mai mettendo in discussione la sopravvivenza della strada (con la sola eccezione di Ignazio Marino che rilanciò il progetto all’inizio della sua sfortunata esperienza).
Perché è successo questo? Certamente per la scomparsa di un sindaco dalla tempra eccezionale come Luigi Petroselli. Poi per la contrarietà di studiosi animati da storicismo esasperato, secondo i quali si deve conservare qualunque testimonianza del passato, anche del passato recente, sottraendola a rigorose valutazioni storico-critiche (un atteggiamento che in verità copre anche il fascismo sempre risorgente in una città come Roma). Ma l’archiviazione del Progetto Fori è stata determinata soprattutto dal tramonto di una politica sostenuta da partiti capaci di garantire l’esito di idee e proposte di valore strategico.
L’archiviazione era stata comunque burocraticamente formalizzata fin dal 2001 con la decisione della Soprintendenza ai beni architettonici di imporre un vincolo di conservazione sulla via dei Fori che da allora è tutelata al pari dei sottostanti resti dei Fori. La strada che Petroselli, La Regina, Benevolo, Cederna, Argan, Insolera consideravano un obbrobrio, di cui volevano cancellare la memoria, per il ministero dei Beni culturali è invece intangibile. A proposito del vincolo, Leonardo Benevolo scrisse sul Corriere della Sera che era “diventato illegale il disseppellimento degli invasi dei Fori di Cesare, Augusto, Vespasiano, Nerva e Traiano, che renderebbe percepibile ai cittadini di oggi uno dei più grandiosi paesaggi architettonici del passato. […] si è preferito Antonio Muñoz (lo sprovveduto autore di quelle sistemazioni) ad Apollodoro di Damasco, l’architetto dell’imperatore Traiano”. Poteva diventare un “sublime spazio pubblico”, si rammarica Benevolo, colto “da un sentimento di sconcerto e di rabbia”.
Appare inaudito il fatto che la via dei Fori sia diventata intangibile proprio quando non serve più come strada a seguito dei provvedimenti di Walter Tocci assessore alla mobilità che ha quasi azzerato il traffico per il quale è più che sufficiente la via Alessandrina (l’unica strada storica sopravvissuta allo sventramento fascista). A quasi un secolo dalla retorica della via dell’Impero di Benito Mussolini, resta il desolato paesaggio di tre inutili corsie per senso di marcia, come la Cristoforo Colombo.
Ho scritto prima che quasi tutti i sindaci dopo Petroselli hanno continuato a evocare il Progetto Fori, però ciascuno intendendo una cosa diversa, comunque mai mettendo in discussione la permanenza della via dei Fori Imperiali. Solo Virginia Raggi non può essere accusata di ipocrisia, credo che non abbia mai parlato del Progetto Fori. Ma ha attivamente operato per affossarlo definitivamente autorizzando la demolizione della storica via Alessandrina e decidendo di mettere i binari del tram sulla la via dei Fori.
Note.
Articolo scritto per la rivista Luoghi comuni diretta da Andrea Ranieri, in corso di stampa.
Il quarantennale sarà ricordato il prossimo 16 aprile da Adriano La Regina con una conferenza organizzata dall'Associazione Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. Su eddyburg vi terremo informati.
Fonte | source:
-- eddyburg.it (26/03/2019).
www.eddyburg.it/2019/03/in-memoria-del-progetto-fori.html
S.v.,
-- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Antonella Clementoni, “Gli architetti e l’archeologia: Roma 1922-1938 [= Corrado Ricci, Alfonso Bartoli, Antonio Munoz e Gustavo Giovannoni].” Dottorato di ricerca, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali. Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (2017): 1-276 [in PDF].
-- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Andrew John Manson, Rationalism and Ruins in Roma Mussoliniana: The 1934 Palazzo del Littorio Competition. Thesis, Ph.D., Columbia University (2015), [PDF] pp. 1-512.
-- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Maria Luisa Gottari, Prende il via il bando-concorso ‘Via dei Fori Imperiali’ a Roma Problemi archeologici con il fascio delle infrastrutture viarie e di trasporto, EDILIA2000 (08|03|2016). Foto: I Fori Imperiali & Via Dell’ Impero (G. Calza [1934] & L. Lenzi [1931]). wp.me/pPRv6-3xy
This relates to the previous shot. I hope it conveys the fear of being somewhere that you shouldnt, of being found and the consequences. Looks like im a rabbit caught in headlights.
I Felt a bit like Little Red Riding hood here (if i was wearing red that is)
.........Speaking of which, Im off to see the wolf for a few days ; ) catch you all soon, have a great wk ; )
Listening to this again... There There - Radiohead
Tuesday 22 November 2016, saw local Greater Manchester Police officers join HMP Manchester Community Team in a visit to St. Edward’s RC Priamry School in Lees, Oldham as part of the ‘Actions Have Consequences’ campaign.
‘Actions Have Consequences’ workshops inform pupils on how their actions can affect them and their local community and the negative outcomes that could occur if they were to stray off the beaten track.
Subjects include nuisance 999 calls, bullying, anti-social behaviour, stranger danger, internet safety as well as others. Although the workshops carry a serious message, they are structured to be fun, informative and engaging.
The HMP Community Team gave the young people an idea of the harsh reality of prison life and the dangers of knife and gang-related crime.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website.
You should call 101, the new national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The history of the Austrian Museum of Applied Art/Contemporary Art
1863 / After many years of efforts by Rudolf Eitelberger decides emperor Franz Joseph I on 7 March on the initiative of his uncle archduke Rainer, following the model of the in 1852 founded South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) the establishment of the "k.u.k. Austrian Museum for Art and Industry" and appoints Rudolf von Eitelberger, the first professor of art history at the University of Vienna director. The museum should be serving as a specimen collection for artists, industrialists, and public and as a training and education center for designers and craftsmen.
1864/ on 12th of May, opened the museum - provisionally in premises of the ball house next to the Vienna Hofburg, the architect Heinrich von Ferstel for museum purposes had adapted. First exhibited objects are loans and donations from the imperial collections, monasteries, private property and from the k.u.k. Polytechnic in Vienna. Reproductions, masters and plaster casts are standing value-neutral next originals.
1865-1897 / The Museum of Art and Industry publishes the journal Communications of Imperial (k.u.k.) Austrian Museum for Art and Industry .
1866 / Due to the lack of space in the ballroom the erection of an own museum building is accelerated. A first project of Rudolf von Eitelberger and Heinrich von Ferstel provides the integration of the museum in the project of imperial museums in front of the Hofburg Imperial Forum. Only after the failure of this project, the site of the former Exerzierfelds (parade ground) of the defense barracks before Stubentor the museum here is assigned, next to the newly created city park at the still being under development Rind Road.
1867 / Theoretical and practical training are combined with the establishment of the School of Applied Arts. This will initially be housed in the old gun factory, Währinger street 11-13/Schwarzspanier street 17, Vienna 9.
1868 / With the construction of the building at Stubenring is started as soon as it is approved by emperor Franz Joseph I. the second draft of Heinrich Ferstel.
1871 / The opening of the building at Stubering takes place after three years of construction, 15 November. Designed according to plans by Heinrich von Ferstel in the Renaissance style, it is the first built museum building at the Ring. Objects from now on could be placed permanently and arranged according to main materials. / / The School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) moves into the house at Stubenring. / / Opening of Austrian arts and crafts exhibition.
1873 / Vienna World Exhibition. / / The Museum of Art and Industry and the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts are exhibiting together at Stubenring. / / Rudolf von Eitelberger organizes in the framework of the World Exhibition the worldwide first international art scientific congress in Vienna, thus emphasizing the orientation of the Museum on teaching and research. / / During the World Exhibition major purchases for the museum from funds of the Ministry are made, eg 60 pages of Indo-Persian Journal Mughal manuscript Hamzanama.
1877 / decision on the establishment of taxes for the award of Hoftiteln (court titels). With the collected amounts the local art industry can be promoted. / / The new building of the School of Arts and Crafts, adjoining the museum, Stubenring 3, also designed by Heinrich von Ferstel, is opened.
1878 / participation of the Museum of Art and Industry as well as of the School of Arts and Crafts at the Paris World Exhibition.
1884 / founding of the Vienna Arts and Crafts Association with seat in the museum. Many well-known companies and workshops (led by J. & L. Lobmeyr), personalities and professors of the School of Arts and Crafts join the Arts and Crafts Association. Undertaking of this association is to further develop all creative and executive powers the arts and craft since the 1860s has obtained. For this reason are organized various times changing, open to the public exhibitions at the Imperial Austrian Museum for Art and Industry. The exhibits can also be purchased. These new, generously carried out exhibitions give the club the necessary national and international resonance.
1885 / After the death of Rudolf von Eitelberger, Jacob von Falke, his longtime deputy, is appointed manager. Falke plans all collection areas al well as publications to develop newly and systematically. With his popular publications he influences significantly the interior design style of the historicism in Vienna.
1888 / The Empress Maria Theresa exhibition revives the contemporary discussion with the high Baroque in the history of art and in applied arts in particular.
1895 / end of directorate of Jacob von Falke. Bruno Bucher, longtime curator of the Museum of metal, ceramic and glass, and since 1885 deputy director, is appointed director.
1896 / The Vienna Congress exhibition launches the confrontation with the Empire and Biedermeier style, the sources of inspiration of Viennese Modernism.
1897 / end of the directorate of Bruno Bucher. Arthur von Scala, director of the Imperial Oriental Museum in Vienna since its founding in 1875 (renamed Imperial Austrian Trade Museum 1887), takes over the management of the Museum of Art and Industry. / / Scala wins Otto Wagner, Felician of Myrbach, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Alfred Roller to work at the museum and School of Arts and Crafts. / / The style of the Secession is crucial for the Arts and Crafts School. Scala propagates the example of the Arts and Crafts Movement and makes appropriate acquisitions for the museum's collection.
1898 / Due to differences between Scala and the Arts and Crafts Association, which sees its influence on the Museum wane, archduke Rainer puts down his function as protector. / / New statutes are written.
1898-1921 / The Museum magazine Art and Crafts replaces the Mittheilungen (Communications) and soon gaines international reputation.
1900 / The administration of Museum and Arts and Crafts School is disconnected.
1904 / The Exhibition of Old Vienna porcelain, the to this day most comprehensive presentation on this topic, brings with the by the Museum in 1867 definitely taken over estate of the "k.u.k. Aerarial Porcelain Manufactory" (Vienna Porcelain Manufactory) important pieces of collectors from all parts of the Habsburg monarchy together.
1907 / The Museum of Art and Industry takes over the majority of the inventories of the Imperial Austrian Trade Museum, including the by Arthur von Scala founded Asia collection and the extensive East Asian collection of Heinrich von Siebold .
1908 / Integration of the Museum of Art and Industry in the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Public Works.
1909 / separation of Museum and Arts and Crafts School, the latter remains subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and Education. / / After three years of construction, the according to plans of Ludwig Baumann extension building of the museum (now Weiskirchnerstraße 3, Wien 1) is opened. The museum thereby receives rooms for special and permanent exhibitions. / / Arthur von Scala retires, Eduard Leisching follows him as director. / / Revision of the statutes.
1909 / Archduke Carl exhibition. For the centenary of the Battle of Aspern. / / The Biedermeier style is discussed in exhibitions and art and arts and crafts.
1914 / Exhibition of works by the Austrian Art Industry from 1850 to 1914, a competitive exhibition that highlights, among other things, the role model of the museum for arts and crafts in the fifty years of its existence.
1919 / After the founding of the First Republic it comes to assignments of former imperial possession to the museum, for example, of oriental carpets that are shown in an exhibition in 1920. The Museum now has one of the finest collections of oriental carpets worldwide.
1920 / As part of the reform of museums of the First Republic, the collection areas are delimited. The Antiquities Collection of the Museum of Art and Industry is given away to the Museum of Art History.
1922 / The exhibition of glasses of classicism, the Empire and Biedermeier time offers with precious objects from the museum and private collections an overview of the art of glassmaking from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. / / Biedermeier glass serves as a model for contemporary glass production and designs, such as of Josef Hoffmann.
1922 / affiliation of the museal inventory of the royal table and silver collection to the museum. Until the institutional separation the former imperial household and table decoration is co-managed by the Museum of Art and Industry and is inventoried for the first time by Richard Ernst.
1925 / After the end of the directorate of Eduard Leisching, Hermann Trenkwald is appointed director.
1926 / The exhibition Gothic in Austria gives a first comprehensive overview of the Austrian panel painting and of arts and crafts of the 12th to 16th Century.
1927 / August Schestag succeeds Hermann Trenkwald as director.
1930 / The Werkbund (artists' organization) Exhibition Vienna, a first comprehensive presentation of the Austrian Werkbund, takes place on the occasion of the meeting of the Deutscher (German) Werkbund in Austria, it is organized by Josef Hoffmann in collaboration with Oskar Strnad, Josef Frank, Ernst Lichtblau and Clemens Holzmeister.
1931 / August Schestag concludes his directorate.
1932 / Richard Ernst is new director.
1936 and 1940 / In exchange with the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History), the museum at Stubenring gives away part of the sculptures and takes over arts and crafts inventories of the collection Albert Figdor and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
1937 / The Collection of the Museum of Art and Industry is newly set up by Richard Ernst according to periods. / / Oskar Kokoschka exhibition on the 50th birthday of the artist.
1938 / After the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany, the museum is renamed into "National Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna".
1939-1945 / The museums are taking over numerous confiscated private collections. The collection of the "State Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna" in this way also is enlarged.
1945 / Partial destruction of the museum building by impact of war. / / War losses on collection objects, even in the places of rescue of objects.
1946 / The return of the outsourced objects of art begins. A portion of the during the Nazi time expropriated objects is returned in the following years.
1947 / The "State Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna" is renamed into "Austrian Museum of Applied Arts".
1948 / The "Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Stephen" organizes the exhibition The St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Museum of Applied Arts. History, monuments, reconstruction.
1949 / The Museum is reopened after repair of the war damages.
1950 / As last exhibition under director Richard Ernst takes place Great art from Austria's monasteries (Middle Ages).
1951 / Ignaz Schlosser is appointed manager.
1952 / The exhibition Social home decor, designed by Franz Schuster, makes the development of social housing in Vienna again the topic of the Museum of Applied Arts.
1955 / The comprehensive archive of the Wiener Werkstätte (workshop) is acquired.
1955-1985 / The Museum publishes the periodical ancient and modern art .
1956 / Exhibition New Form from Denmark, modern design from Scandinavia becomes topic of the museum and model.
1957 / On the occasion of the exhibition Venini Murano glass, the first presentation of Venini glass in Austria, there are significant purchases and donations for the collection of glass.
1958 / End of the directorate of Ignaz Schlosser
1959 / Viktor Griesmaier is appointed as new director.
1960 / Exhibition Artistic creation and mass production of Gustavsberg, Sweden. Role model of Swedish design for the Austrian art and crafts.
1963 / For the first time in Europe, in the context of a comprehensive exhibition art treasures from Iran are shown.
1964 / The exhibition Vienna around 1900 (organised by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna) presents for the frist time after the Second World War, inter alia, arts and crafts of Art Nouveau. / / It is started with the systematic work off of the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte. / / On the occasion of the founding anniversary offers the exhibition 100 years Austrian Museum of Applied Arts using examples of historicism insights into the collection.
1965 / The Geymüllerschlössel (small castle) is as a branch of the Museum angegliedert (annexed). Simultaneously with the building came the important collection of Franz Sobek - old Viennese clocks, made between 1760 and the second half of the 19th Century - and furniture from the years 1800 to 1840 in the possession of the MAK.
1966 / In the exhibition Selection 66 selected items of modern Austrian interior designers (male and female ones) are brought together.
1967 / The Exhibition The Wiener Werkstätte. Modern Arts and Crafts from 1903 to 1932 is founding the boom that continues until today of Austria's most important design project in the 20th Century.
1968 / To Viktor Griesmaier follows Wilhelm Mrazek as director.
1969 / The exhibition Sitting 69 shows at the international modernism oriented positions of Austrian designers, inter alia by Hans Hollein.
1974 / For the first time outside of China Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China are shown in a traveling exhibition in the so-called Western world.
1979 / Gerhart Egger is appointed director.
1980 / The exhibition New Living. Viennese interior design 1918-1938 provides the first comprehensive presentation of the spatial art in Vienna during the interwar period.
1981 / Herbert Fux follows Gerhart Egger as director.
1984 / Ludwig Neustift is appointed interim director. / / Exhibition Achille Castiglioni: designer. First exhibition of the Italian designer in Austria
1986 / Peter Noever is appointed director and starts with the building up of the collection contemporary art.
1987 / Josef Hoffmann. Ornament between hope and crime is the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of the architect and designer.
1989-1993 / General renovation of the old buildings and construction of a two-storey underground storeroom and a connecting tract. A generous deposit for the collection and additional exhibit spaces arise.
1989 / Exhibition Carlo Scarpa. The other city, the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of the architect outside Italy.
1990 / exhibition Hidden impressions. Japonisme in Vienna 1870-1930, first exhibition on the theme of the Japanese influence on the Viennese Modernism.
1991 / exhibition Donald Judd Architecture, first major presentation of the artist in Austria.
1992 / Magdalena Jetelová domestication of a pyramid (installation in the MAK portico).
1993 / The permanent collection is newly put up, interventions of internationally recognized artists (Barbara Bloom, Eichinger oder Knechtl, Günther Förg, GANGART, Franz Graf, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Peter Noever, Manfred Wakolbinger and Heimo Zobernig) update the prospects, in the sense of "Tradition and Experiment". The halls on Stubenring accommodate furthermore the study collection and the temporary exhibitions of contemporary artists reserved gallery. The building in the Weiskirchner street is dedicated to changing exhibitions. / / The opening exhibition Vito Acconci. The City Inside Us shows a room installation by New York artist.
1994 / The Gefechtsturm (defence tower) Arenbergpark becomes branch of the MAK. / / Start of the cooperation MAK/MUAR - Schusev State Museum of Architecture Moscow. / / Ilya Kabakov: The Red Wagon (installation on MAK terrace plateau).
1995 / The MAK founds the branch of MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, in the Schindler House and at the Mackey Apartments, MAK Artists and Architects-in-Residence Program starts in October 1995. / / Exhibition Sergei Bugaev Africa: Krimania.
1996 / For the exhibition Philip Johnson: Turning Point designs the American doyen of architectural designing the sculpture "Viennese Trio", which is located since 1998 at the Franz-Josefs-Kai/Schottenring.
1998 / The for the exhibition James Turrell. The other Horizon designed Skyspace today stands in the garden of MAK Expositur Geymüllerschlössel. / / Overcoming the utility. Dagobert Peche and the Wiener Werkstätte, the first comprehensive biography of the work of the designer of Wiener Werkstätte after the Second World War.
1999 / Due to the Restitution Act and the Provenance Research from now on numerous during the Nazi time confiscated objects are returned.
2000 / Outsourcing of Federal Museums, transformation of the museum into a "scientific institution under public law". / / The exhibition Art and Industry. The beginnings of the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna is dealing with the founding history of the house and the collection.
2001 / In the course of the exhibition Franz West: No Mercy, for which the sculptor and installation artist developed his hitherto most extensive work, the "Four lemurs heads" are placed at the bridge Stubenbrücke, located next to the MAK. / / Dennis Hopper: A System of Moments.
2001-2002 / The CAT Project - Contemporary Art Tower after New York, Los Angeles, Moscow and Berlin is presented in Vienna.
2002 / Exhibition Nodes. symmetrical-asymmetrical. The historical Oriental Carpets of the MAK presents the extensive rug collection.
2003 / Exhibition Zaha Hadid. Architecture. / / For the anniversary of the artist workshop, takes place the exhibition The Price of Beauty. 100 years Wiener Werkstätte. / / Richard Artschwager: The Hydraulic Door Check. Sculpture, painting, drawing.
2004 / James Turrell's MAKlite is since November 2004 permanently on the facade of the building installed. / / Exhibition Peter Eisenmann. Barefoot on White-Hot Walls, large-scaled architectural installation on the work of the influential American architect and theorist.
2005 / Atelier Van Lieshout: The Disciplinator / / The exhibition Ukiyo-e Reloaded presents for the first time the collection of Japanese woodblock prints of the MAK on a large scale.
2006 / Since the beginning of the year, the birthplace of Josef Hoffmann in Brtnice of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK Vienna as a joint branch is run and presents annually special exhibitions. / / The exhibition The Price of Beauty. The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet House brings the objects of the Wiener Werkstätte to Brussels. / / Exhibition Jenny Holzer: XX.
2007/2008 / Exhibition Coop Himmelb(l)au. Beyond the Blue, is the hitherto largest and most comprehensive museal presentation of the global team of architects.
2008 / The 1936 according to plans of Rudolph M. Schindler built Fitzpatrick-Leland House, a generous gift from Russ Leland to the MAK Center LA, becomes with the aid of a promotion that granted the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department the MAK Center, center of the MAK UFI project - MAK Urban Future Initiative. / / Julian Opie: Recent Works / / The exhibition Recollecting. Looting and Restitution examines the status of efforts to restitute expropriated objects from Jewish property from museums in Vienna.
2009 / The permanent exhibition Josef Hoffmann: Inspiration is in the Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice opened. / / Exhibition Anish Kapoor. Shooting into the Corner / / The museum sees itself as a promoter of Cultural Interchange and discusses in the exhibition Global:lab Art as a message. Asia and Europe 1500-1700 the intercultural as well as the intercontinental cultural exchange based on objects from the MAK and from international collections.
2011 / After Peter Noever's resignation, Martina Kandeler-Fritsch takes over temporarily the management. / /
Since 1 September Christoph Thun-Hohenstein is director of the MAK and declares "change through applied art" as the new theme of the museum.
2012 / With future-oriented examples of mobility, health, education, communication, work and leisure, shows the exhibition MADE4YOU. Designing for Change, the new commitment to positive change in our society through applied art. // Exhibition series MAK DESIGN SALON opens the MAK branch Geymüllerschlössel for contemporary design positions.
2012/2013 / opening of the newly designed MAK Collection Vienna 1900. Design / Decorative Arts from 1890 to 1938 in two stages as a prelude to the gradual transformation of the permanent collection under director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein
2013 / SIGNS, CAUGHT IN WONDER. Looking for Istanbul today shows a unique, current snapshot of contemporary art production in the context of Istanbul. // The potential of East Asian countries as catalysts for a socially and ecologically oriented, visionary architecture explores the architecture exhibition EASTERN PROMISES. Contemporary Architecture and production of space in East Asia. // With a focus on the field of furniture design NOMADIC FURNITURE 3.0. examines new living without bounds? the between subculture and mainstream to locate "do-it-yourself" (DIY) movement for the first time in a historical context.
2014 / Anniversary year 150 years MAK // opening of the permanent exhibition of the MAK Asia. China - Japan - Korea // Opening of the MAK permanent exhibition rugs // As central anniversary project opens the dynamic MAK DESIGN LABORATORY (redesign of the MAK Study Collection) exactly on the 150th anniversary of the museum on May 12, 2014 // Other major projects for the anniversary: ROLE MODELS. MAK 150 years: from arts and crafts to design // // HOLLEIN WAYS OF MODERN AGE. Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos and the consequences.
(Read the entire text it the 'note' section). The playwright based “Dear Madam City Attorney McLean”upon his experiences/discussions with City of Santee, California, City Attorney Don McLean. The play examines the consequences of unethical conduct bygovernment lawyers. The play is available to anyone gratis!
TITLE: Dear Madam City Attorney McLean
! &n bsp; by Richard W. White
Copyright 1997; Edited, 2000.
CLASSIFICATION:Three-act, contemporary political drama
RATING: G
CAST: RICK - male, near fifty; thin; worn;
McLEAN – male, used to giving orders.
TAX LADY - female; self-assured; over bearing;
Ms. HOWARD - female; handsome; well dressed.
GEORGE - friendly; city cowboy; well fed.
LENGTH:50 minutes, plus or minus.
REQUIREMENTS: Permission to produce “Dear MadamCity Attorney McLean” is granted to any public or private school or theater.The playwright asks to be informed on any production of this work.
“Dear Madam City Attorney McLean” was written for the classroom or community theater setting, with minimal set requirements or rehearsal. Thecharacter McLEAN may be entirely read from the script, since the player is never seen. The character RICK may read much of his dialogue “from the computer monitor” (since he is writing it as he is speaking it). The glowing light (the McLEAN effect) maybe a flashlight or a small spotlight.
CONTACTING THE PLAYWRIGHT OR THE MAYOR:
The playwright may be contacted through by email firecat2@sbcglobal.net
NOTES: The playwright based “Dear Madam CityAttorney McLean” upon his experiences/discussions with Santee City Attorney DonMcLean. The play examines the consequences of unethical conduct by government lawyers. The characters of the play examine the political drama genre in contemporary America.
DEAR MADAM CITYATTORNEY McLEAN
A political drama
by RICHARD W.WHITE
based upondiscussions with
Donald McLean,City Attorney
City of Santee,California
© 1997 by Richard W. White
Theauthor hereby grants to everyone the right to use this play gratis!
DEARMADAM CITY ATTORNEY McLEAN
APolitical Drama by RICHARD W. WHITE
Based upondiscussions with
Don McLean,City Attorney,
City of Santee,California
CHARACTERS
RICK TAX LADY
McLEAN DIRECTOR
! Ms. HOWARD
GEORGE
UNNAMED COUNCILMAN
MRS. McLEAN
With the curtain closed, RICK, a thin, cleanbut worn man near fifty, hurrying toward old age, appears at the center of thestage.
RICK: I’m going to start byreading the first two pages of the letter I read to the Santee City Council inApril 1995. Then, I’ll get on with the play.
Rick walks to the side of the stage andtakes his place behind a small podium.
RICK: Good evening, Mr. Mayorand Santee City Council. My name is Rick: I’m a former twenty yearresident and business owner. And I came here this evening to tell you straightout, the City of Santee cheated me on the Prospect Avenue bridge project.
The City engineer, Cary Stewart, concealed survey error from me and heconcealed plan error from the surveyors. And the result was chaos. Piles weren't centered under the footings. Footings weren't aligned underthe abutments. The bridge deck had to be lowered and reduced inthickness. Some alignments were off as much as two (2) foot.
City Engineer Cary Stewart concealed the survey error because he didn't want topay for fixing his mistakes. They were his mistakes because his planswere wrong and I should have been paid for fixing the accumulated errors. But I wasn't paid. I was cheated and Cary couldn't have cheated mewithout the help of City Attorney McLean. Period.
Cary also requested extra work, which he didn't pay for. The asphaltbikeway; lowering the bridge deck and cutting off the rebar; extra rip rap; changesin the manholes. Cary kept a 'log of extras', but when the project wasfinished, Cary wouldn't pay for any of it and he wouldn't give us any reasonfor not paying.
Nearly a year after we finished the work, we demanded arbitration before theState Board. In answer to our demand, City Attorney McLean sued claiming theState didn’t have authority to hear it.
But Cary and Attorney McLean weren't satisfied to see me cheated. Andthey weren't satisfied to see me wasting my! time an d money playing lawyergames. They decided to destroy my business with a bogus defaultresolution voted on by this city council without advance notice to me. The State found 100% in my favor two months after Santee defaulted me. It’s been years: Why hasn't the Santee rescinded the default resolution? Why haven’t I been paid? Why was I cheated? Why is it okay for Santee tocheat?
Good evening.
As Rick begins to walk behind the curtain,councilwoman Lori Howard blocks his path.
RICK: If you don’t mind, we’lldo this scene here, instead of in your coffee shop, to save on set cost.
LORI: Rick, you can’t do thisplay. The council has talked about it in closed session. You can’t do it,in my coffee shop or anywhere else.”
A rotund city cowboy, George Tockstein, CityManager enters.
RICK: Hi ya,George. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.
GEORGE: (Smiling andfriendly)Rick, we, I mean the council, we, the city, would rather just rely on thefinding of the court.
RICK: George, there has neverbeen a hearing on the merits. There has never been a finding by anycourt, except the one that decided Cary’s labor complaint was bogus. Whydon’t you just ask Cary Stewart why he didn’t pay me?
LORI: You can’t do thisplay! We aren’t asking or answering anything. Come on, George,let’s get out of this play.
UnnamedCouncilman steps into Rick’ path.
MRS. McLEAN: “I don’tcare if you use my name, in this play. It’s my married nameanyway.”
UNNAMED COUCILMAN: “Rick, you can’t do this play. On the phone or anywhere else.”
RICK: I won’t say yourname, or try to describe your peculiar voice or overly long sideburns. Iwill only work with your voice and the threat that you made to me. I tookit as a threat when you told me on the phone ‘this time you have gone too far,’in response, I thought, you’d said that to me for the barbeque I had thrown forthat intercity pop-Warner football team I sponsored. I gave the barbeque as aprize for the team having won the league championship. And I won’t saynothing about seeing you at five o’clock in the morning stuffing Jack Doylecampaign signs in the truck of your late model Japanese make sedan. Ihave already decided to keep the Mayor’s name out of this by referencing themayor of La Mesa, Art Madrid, who, I ran into in the parking lot of La MesaCity Hall.”
Nameless Councilmanleaves in a huff, as Lori and George walk from the stage. The curtainopens to reveal an early morning scene. Rick takes his seat, a foldingsteel chair at a folding table, which serves as his desk, facing theaudience. He is under the glow of a desk lamp, typing at the green hazeof his small computer monitor. Books are stacked on the d! esk, whi ch is setbetween two (tall) old steel filing cabinets. The walls of the room behindthe desk are primarily old scaffolding and two-by-four wall studs with noplaster covering. The house has been gutted by reconstruction. Framed pictures hang about on open-wall studs. A door is at the back ofthe stage. A wooden plank on saw horses serves as a counter top on stageright. An electric coffee pot is set upon the plank, together with coffeecup, a jar of instant coffee, a pill bottle and a grocery bag. Twocardboard boxes, stuffed with clothing, covered with plastic trash bags, are onthe floor at the back of the stage and a sleeping bag. Drying laundryhangs about. Old books, under plastic sheets, are stacked about on thefloor.
RICK: (Reading aloudin monotone from his computer monitor.) Opening scene. At his desk in his sparsepremises, Rick is reading from his computer screen, making a sternpronouncement: (Announcing, narrative style, still reading from thecomputer screen.) Since the beginning of history, productive people have organized themselves …
(The green glow of t! he compu ter screenbecomes tinged with orange, causing RICK to stop reading.)
RICK: McLean, move offmy monitor. I can’t see to read.
McLEAN: (A demanding, butdistant sounding man who is used to giving orders, speaking from high offstage.) It’s cold over here. The warmth feels good.
RICK: (Grinning.) Then go to hell.
(The orange glow fades from the computerscreen as a glow of light appears on the small gray cloth screen that is aboveand in front of R! ick.)&nb sp;
McLEAN: That little exercisebefore the city council last night was a waste of time.
RICK: The necessity of it goesbeyond what we can see or understand just now.
McLEAN: So why did you bother?
RICK: This experience needs tobe shared. The helplessness of one man’s humanity, the richness ofpoverty, the peace I am feeling: all of this deserves to be celebrated. But more importantly, you’re not the only crooked government lawyer: peopleneed to shown what happens when the government cheats.
McLEAN: What people? Idon't understand. Who are you are talking about? You should beworking.
RICK: Michaelanglo once toldthe Pope, ‘A man doesn't work with his hands alone.’ My heart is tootroubled to work.
McLEAN: Your soul is troubled.
RICK: Look who'stalking.
McLEAN: I was surprised howgood you looked last night.
RICK: Appearances is thecheapest of modern lifes’ necessities. It’s the one perk I allow mypride.
McLEAN: Pride? You don't evenown a bed.
RICK: When all my bills arepaid, I’ll buy a bed. (Softly speaking to McLean) Now please, I’m tryingto work. (After a slight pause, starting again with the narratorvoice.) Sincethe beginning, productive people have organized themselves into governments forthe purpose of mutual benefit. Where government is honest and withoutcorruption, society prospers. Where government is dishonest, societyfails to thrive.
For thoseliving it, the correlation between the ethics of government and quality of lifeis obscure, but it is observable, by a stroke as brief and brilliant as theflash of lighting, which unites the earth and sky in the night. I haveseen this coruscation as its power passed through my existence, vaporizing mylife’s work. And I come before you as a witness, for having lived throughit, (a pause, then the dialogue flows quickly) I know that the great unseendanger that America faces today, (slowly) is the ethical depravity which is creepinginto the ranks of our government lawyers.
McLEAN: That indictment is alittle enthusiastic.
RICK: (Quietly to McLEAN): I am still editing. Nowhush, I want to finish this. (! Narratin g) For America to prosper,we need to publicly condemn the crooked government lawyer.
McLEAN: What is allthis?
RICK: I’m writing a play aboutus.
McLEAN: Us? Doesn’t seem very productive.
(RICK types during thefollowing dialogue, reading it as he types it.)
RICK: (Speaking offhand): Realistically, my options arevery limited. My only asset is experience, which would count a negativein any other enterprise, but in this play writing business, it may be anadvantage. And the risk in this undertaking is minimal, which makes itattractive. (Rick stops typing) McLean, read this, please.
McLEAN (Poetically): In search of understanding,you trespassed into timeless contemplation, and for this offense, fate has castyou adrift upon a cosmic tide, where the jetsam of humanity twines with dybbuksand bobbing ossuaries in a slick of black ink on a windless white page, toawait Dies Irae. (Plainly): This play is crap.
RICK: What should I do tocontribute to America? Go door to door, to collect secondhand integrityand slightly worn ethics for you and your law partner wife?
McLEAN: Where do you get theseideas?
RICK: I asked you thatquestion while you were still living and you did the same thing: Why don’t youanswer me? I’m trying to do some good here: or should I write Mrs. McLeana letter, setting out my concerns for America’s future?
McLEAN: Reading oldbooks?
RICK: My experience is asomber treasure. For it to have value, it must be cast into the pool ofliterature, where in the ageless waters of humanly acceptable conclusions, allthe obtuse, precisely objective, impersonal phenomenon of science and law blendtogether … to become understanding … eventually.
(RICK types the words that McLEAN isspeaking.)
McLEAN: (Conciliatory,condescending): It’s these old books, isn’t it? These used up, very old books.
RICK: (RICK stops histyping and looks at McLEAN): George Bernard Shaw was self-taught.
McLEAN: And he to was afailure, painting his ideological graffiti in other peoples’ minds. (Apause) This idea is lunacy. Why don’t you get back into business?
RICK: (Looking to McLEAN): Lunacy is inspiration indisguise, since a man with many more brains than his fellows, necessarilyappears as mad to them as one who has less.
McLEAN: And cynicism is thelast refuge of a quitter.
RICK: ‘No man is abovethe law’. Did you ever read my letters?
McLEAN: Your little ethicslessons were misdirected: I was the law.
RICK: And that is preciselythe problem: You were the government of my part of America, functioning withthe ethics of an open pit toilet, a putrid, infected zit on the economic hullof America.
McLEAN: If America has aproblem, it’s people like you, failing to contribute their talents.
RICK: One more man on the oarswon’t save a leaky boat.
McLEAN: You’re pumping bilgewater onto the deck of the sturdiest democracy ever to set sail.
RICK: I’m simply plugging thelegal rot below the waterline.
McLEAN: If this country sinks,the fatal damage will more likely spring from the infectious negative mentalityof your ilk, rather than from structural damage, legal or otherwise.
RICK: The economic hull ofAmerica is taking on water, but you are still loading lawyer ballast. Don’t you realize each business lost in a free enterprise system is anotherhole in the ship of state?
McLEAN: What ken yourintellect brings to the American political discussion is as shallow as thisso-called play.
RICK: Allowing government lawyerslike you to smash small businessmen like me, with impunity, brings this countryto a potentially dangerous crossroads. The greatness of America comesfrom the diversity of its entrepreneurs sailing in the shallows; theinnovators; the small shops; individuals working alone who aren’t swimming withthe main stream. Ben Franklin with his kite; the Wright brothers in theirbicycle shop; Ford, with his first gasoline motor on his kitchen sink onChristmas eve.
McLEAN: (Enunciatingsternly) Isee the problem here: you imagine yourself a sort of mental ventriloquist whocan cleverly project his thoughts into other people’s minds. That’s whatyou used to do with your letters to me, wasn’t it? Well, you should know,your constant little lessons in good citizenship were a waste of postagestamps.
RICK: The drama of life isn’tplayed out with thoughts alone, lawyer McLean. (The telephone ringsand RICK answers it.) Hello. (He smiles proudly.) Yeah, this is Grandpa. (Helistens carefully for a moment.) No, I didn’t die. It’s just hard for me tocome and visit. (Listening, then gently) Mommy is driving on thelittle tire? (A pause.) Oh, gee. We’ll have to do something aboutthat. (Pause a beat) Is Mommy at work? (Pause) Okay. Grampa willthink of something. You better get ready for school. Grampa lovesyou. Bye-bye.
(RICK hangs up the telephone and typesMcLEAN’s dialogue as he speaks it.)
McLEAN: A rational manacting in the real world will strike a balance between what he desires and whatcan be done. It is only in imaginary worlds that we can do whatever wewish.
RICK: (Looking at McLean) (Typing the next line ofdialogue):This is my play and I imagine you gone. Go away. I don’t need thephilosophical counsel of a crooked government lawyer.
(RICK dials the telephone while McLeanreads.)
McLEAN: Choose your friends onmoral principles and you’ll soon have less company then you have now.
RICK: (Speaking tothe telephone) Isthe boss there?
McLEAN: I am here as the voiceof reality. You can’t continue to subsist like a Brahmanistictramp.
(A noisy jet passes low, shaking the house.)
RICK: (Speaking to McLean,offhand.) Reality in practical affairs is simply a series of tradeoffs. I choose tosurvive without material flourish. (Speaking into the telephone.) Hello, John. Hey,do you still want a structural slab behind the shop? (A pause.) I’ll make you a trade: fourtires for the slab. You buy the mud. (A pause.) Thanks. (Hehangs up the handset.)
McLEAN: You have turned yourlife into a lonely tragedy.
RICK: (Typing as hespeaks): This solitude is a thing of beauty.
McLEAN: It’s been years. Have you lost all sense of time?
RICK: Contemplation is thetimeless sense and best practiced in isolation, for as Emerson said, ‘alone iswisdom’. Leave me.
McLEAN: You are not happy inthis state.
RICK: Emerson said, ‘alone ishappiness’. Leave me.
McLEAN: You need to get outamong normal people.
RICK: Emerson said, ‘the crowdthat you are obstructs my contentment’. Leave me.
McLEAN: Emerson also said,‘Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day.’
(A moment of silence.)
McLEAN: You’re a talentedfellow. You should contribute.
RICK: This is mycontribution. You were the government: why did you cheat me?
McLEAN: For me to discussparticulars of the matter would violate the attorney/client privilege. Itwould be unethical.
RICK: (Looking to McLEAN,sans typing):So tell me of your ethics.
McLEAN: You should be doingsomething.
RICK: This play issomething. Help me with it or leave me alone.
McLEAN: You don’t really wantme to leave. Without me, you would have nothing at all and you reallywould be all alone.
RICK: Why did you cheatme?
McLEAN: I was protecting myclient.
RICK: Your client was thetaxpayer, not City engineer Cary Stewart. Your duty was to the law, notyour fat wallet. ABA Rule one point two D: ‘A lawyer shall not … assist aclient in conduct that … is … fraudulent.’
McLEAN: I will not respond toyour egregious slander. I assert it was my job to protect the City.
RICK: Your engineer CaryStewart ordered the work and then wouldn’t pay for it. When I demanded Statearbitration, you sued the State, claiming it had no authority to settle thematter. It was all legal baloney, to fatten your own wallet.
McLEAN: I love the law; I wastop of my class at Cal Western in sixty-two; but I’m not being paid to argueand I won’t do it.
RICK: So then leave.
McLEAN: I see you better thanyou realize. You turned your anger inside and now it is coming fullcircle, inside out, until it’s directed against those who would help you.
RICK: You are not helpingme.
McLEAN: You’re bulliedby your own ego; you’re trying to undo what happened with shear will power. It can’t be done. You can’t shift a single grain of sand with willpower. You should start a new business. You have the ability tocreate jobs.
RICK: (Typing as hespeaks): Ihave created a new job: I am a prospector, panning the sands of my experience, (gesturingto the books)exploring the veins of these old pages, in search of understanding.
McLEAN: (Laughs): Look around you. You made a better brick layer.
RIC! K: Brick s were a hobby,something for me to love: nothing more.
McLEAN: Your hobby made asplash at City Hall when they featured your home in the newspaper homesection.
RICK: Cary used to walk hisdog by every night, to make a splash on my bricks, after Santee defaulted me.
McLEAN: I’m notsurprised. You put him on the defensive. He needed to do somethingto assuage his ego.
RICK: Your loyalty wasmisplaced in Cary. Shielding him from the Engineer’s Board investigationwas a disservice to the community and a breach of your professionaleth! ics.&nbs p;
McLEAN: For me to commentwould be a breach of the attorney client privilege.
RICK: Cary wasn’t yourclient. It was a professional breach to stonewall the engineer’s boardinvestigation for five years.
McLEAN: What’s thepoint? It’s been eight years.
RICK: (RICK puts his handsto his forehead and looks to McLean through his fingers) Eight years and I am stillunable to make any sense of it. Eight years of document searches,depositions, motions, law! yer game s. Eight years with my spirit frustrated,my aspirations chained, my family in disarray. Eight years since I spentthe last of my pride, since I could afford self respect.
McLEAN: Forget it.
RICK: All I have is my memory:it is the most of me; and it needs healing: it must be healed, because ourfuture rests on our memories; memories are the foundation of our spirit - butto be healed, they must be exposed to the light.
McLEAN: (After a long pause.) Have you read this allthe way through? You sound stilted, on artificial wooden words that willalways be too long for your social stature. Believe me, you need to getback into business.
RICK: (Tinged with irony,his hands over his lowered head): The business I know has no sense to it, ifgovernment can cheat with impunity.
McLEAN: Government must putits own interest, the good of all, before that of any individual citizen.
(Rick rises and pours himself a cup ofcoffee while speaking the following dialogue.)
RICK: ‘Injusticeanywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever affects one directly,affects all indirectly’. Dr. King wrote that in his letter fromBirmingham jail.
McLEAN: And what did itget him? He was dead within six months.
RICK: What hope do any of ushave, if our government cheats?
I have been trying to get inside Temple Church for some years now. Lat time was in January when the warden assured me it would be open on Saturday, only to find after travelling up from Dover that the door was locked, despite the sign on the door saying it was due to be open.
Anyway, all good things come to those that wait.
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The Temple Church was consecrated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 10 February 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The whole Temple community had moved from an earlier site in High Holborn, considered by the 1160s to be too confined. The church was the chapel serving the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, and from them it took its name. The Templars – as the knights were popularly known – were soldier monks.
After the success of the First Crusade, the order was founded in Jerusalem in a building on the site of King Solomon’s temple. Their mission was to protect pilgrims travelling to and from the Holy Land, but in order to do this they needed men and money. For more details of the Templars and this early history of the Church, see The Round Church, 1185.
The London Temple was the Templars’ headquarters in Great Britain. The Templars’ churches were always built to a circular design to remind them of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, a round, domed building raised over the site of the sepulchre where Jesus was buried. At first, the Templars were liked and respected. St Bernard of Clairvaux became their patron and they gained many privileges from popes and much support from kings.
In England, King Henry II was probably present at the consecration of the church; King Henry III favoured them so much that he wished to be buried in their church. As a consequence of this wish, the choir of the church was pulled down and a far larger one built in its place, the choir which we now see. This was consecrated on Ascension Day 1240 in the presence of the king. However, after Henry died it was discovered that he had altered his will, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
On 10 February 1185 Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, processed into the Round for the church’s consecration. The King was almost certainly present. A grand church for a grand occasion; for the Round had no such quiet austerity as we see in it today. The walls and grotesque heads were painted: the walls most probably with bands and lozenges of colour. The Round was proudly modern: Heraclius entered through the Norman door to find the first free-standing Purbeck columns ever cut; above them curved in two dimensions Gothic arches rising to the drum. A chancel, some two thirds of the present chancel’s length, stretched to the east. There the Patriach’s procession will have come to rest for Mass. And there the altar stayed. What, then, – on that great day or later – was the function of the Round?
Its most important role was played by its shape. Jerusalem lies at the centre of all medieval maps, and was the centre of the crusaders’ world. The most sacred place in this most sacred city was the supposed site of Jesus’ own burial: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here the crusaders inherited a round church. It was the goal of every pilgrim, whose protection was the Templars’ care. This was the building, of all buildings on earth, that must be defended from its enemies.
In every round church that the Templars built throughout Europe they recreated the sanctity of this most holy place. Among the knights who would be buried in the Round was the most powerful man of his generation: William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (died 1219), adviser to King John and regent to Henry III. His sons’ effigies lie around his own. The Marshal himself (who lies recumbent and still) took the Cross as an old man; his sons (drawing their swords) did not. Their figures lie frozen in stone, forever alert in defence of their father’s long-forgotten cause. Such burial was devoutly to be desired; for to be buried in the Round was to be buried ‘in’ Jerusalem.
The Patriarch Heraclius may well have been the most ignorant, licentious and corrupt priest ever to hold his see. Our reports of his character, however, reach us from his enemies. The great Western chronicler of the Crusades, William of Tyre, was for decades Heraclius’ opponent and rival. In 1180 William had (and had been) expected to be appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem. But the king of Jerusalem was swayed by his mother, said to be a mistress of Heraclius – who was duly appointed Patriarch. William himself was honorably reticent in the face of this reverse. His followers were less restrained. ‘Ernoul’ tells (with more indignation, it seems, than accuracy) how his hero William was excommunicated by the new patriarch, went into exile and died at the hands of Heraclius’ own doctor in Rome. William’s narrative was expanded and continued in Old French as L’Estoire d’ Eracles: its story starts with the Emperor Heraclius who recovered the True Cross in 628 – and includes a prophecy that the Cross, secured by one Heraclius, would be lost (as it was) by another.
Can anything redeem our Heraclius’ reputation? Far more was at stake on his visit than at first appears. He was in London as part of a larger mission:- King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was dying. His kingdom was riven by factions and under threat from Saladin. He had drawn up in his will the rules for the succession: if his nephew, due to become the child-king Baldwin V, were to die before the age of ten, a new ruler should be chosen through the arbitration of four potentates: the Pope, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the King of France and Henry II of England. Late in 1184 a deputation headed west from the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Heraclius, the Grand Master of the Templars and the Hospitallers’ Grand Prior. They visited the Pope, Frederick, Philip II Augustus – and finally Henry. The emissaries reached Reading. As credentials they brought the keys of the Tower of David and the Kingdom’s royal standard. According to some English chroniclers, they offered the Kingdom itself to Henry. The incident is hard to analyse. To plead for protection was to offer the power that would make such protection effective. Did that call for the Kingdom itself? The apparent offer of keys and standard may have been misread; for the ambassadors were reworking a performance already presented to Philip of France. (One French chronicler later derides Heraclius: he was offering the keys to any prince he met.) But the Kingdom of Jerusalem was in desperate straits; and behind the pageant may have lain hopes for the subtlest solution of all: to side-step Jerusalem’s factions; and instead to secure one – any one – of Europe’s leaders as king. How strange, to entrust any such delicate mission to the buffoonish Patriarch of myth.
The story offered welcome ammunition to Henry II’s enemies. Gerald of Wales, bitterly opposed to the Angevins, sees here the turning-point in Henry’s reign: the king failed to rise to this one supreme test; from then on his own and his sons’ adventures faced ruin. Gerald inherited the topos from an old story with a quite different cast. His new version gave Heraclius a starring role. The Patriarch confronted Henry, Gerald tells us, at Heraclius’ departure from Dover. Here is the king’s last chance. ‘Though all the men of my land,’ said the king, ‘were one body and spoke with one mouth, they would not dare speak to me as you have done.’ ‘Do by me,’ replied Heraclius, ‘as you did by that blessed man Thomas of Canterbury. I had rather be slain by you than by the Saracen, for you are worse than any Saracen.’ ‘I may not leave my land, for my own sons will surely rise against me in my absence.’ ‘No wonder, for from the devil they come and to the devil they shall go.’
Gerald’s Heraclius was no coward, and no fool. ‘That blessed man Thomas of Canterbury’ had been killed in 1170. The penance of the four knights who killed him was to serve with the Templars for fourteen years. Henry himself promised to pay for two hundred Templar knights for a year; and in 1172 he undertook to take the Cross himself. Thirteen years had passed. Henry was growing old. Such a vow, undischarged, threatened his immortal soul – as both Heraclius and he knew well. Henry must tread carefully. He summoned a Great Council at Clerkenwell. Surrounded by his advisers, he gave Heraclius his answer: ‘for the good of his realm and the salvation of his own soul’ he declared that he must stay in England. He would provide money instead. Heraclius was unimpressed: ‘We seek a man even without money – but not money without a man.’ Virum appetimus qui pecunia indigeat, non pecuniam quae viro.
***
Our church’s consecration was deep within the diplomatic labyrinth at whose centre lay the future of Jerusalem. The Templars had come a long way. The Order was founded in 1118-9 by a knight of Champagne, Hugh of Payns, who led a group of his fellow-knights in vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. At their foundation they were deeply suspect: it was unnatural for one man to be soldier and monk together. A handful of such ambivalent knights had little chance, it might seem, of attracting support. In the twelfth century the significance of their seal was well known: Matthew Paris, monk of St Albans, explained that the two knights on one horse recalled their lack of horses and poor beginnings.
In Champagne and Burgundy lay the Order’s origin and the seed of its success. Over the course of fifty years a star-burst of spiritual energy illumined all of Europe; and its centre lay in a small area of eastern France. Hugh’s town of Payns was near Troyes, the local city of one Robert, who became a Cluniac monk. In 1075 this Robert, already an abbot, left his monastery with a group of hermits to found a new house: at Molesme. The list of those influenced by Robert and his houses reads as a roll-call of Europe’s spiritual leaders. There was Bruno, who lived briefly as a hermit near Molesme before establishing the most ascetic of all houses, La Grande Chartreuse; Bruno had already been master to Odo, who later became Pope Urban II and preached the First Crusade. When Robert moved again, in search of a yet more rigorous life, he took with him Stephen Harding, later Archbishop of Canterbury. They set up their house at Citeaux.
Harding would in time become abbot. The rigour of the house made it few friends among the local nobility. Its future was uncertain. And then arrived as remarkable a monk as any of that remarkable age: Bernard. He spent three years at Citeaux before a local lord, Hugh Count of Champagne, gave him in 1116 an area of inhospitable woodland well to the north, back in the neighbourhood of Payns. It was known as the Valley of Gall. Bernard gave it a new name: Clairvaux, the Valley of Light.
Bernard secured single-handed the Templars’ future. Hugh of Champagne became a Templar; so did Bernard’s own uncle Andrew. The Templars’ constitution, the Rule, shows all the marks of Bernard’s influence; at the Council of Troyes in 1129 he spoke up for the Order; and, most influential support of all, at the repeated request of Hugh of Payns Bernard wrote In Praise of the New Knighthood.
The New Knighthood’s first half is well-known: in a text advising and praising and warning the knights, Bernard speaks as well to their critics. He is under no illusions: Europe was as glad to be rid of these warring knights as the Holy Land (in Bernard’s eyes) was glad to see them; their army could be a force for good – or for lawless violence. In the tract’s second half Bernard turns to the Holy Land and to Jerusalem itself. Here was his sharpest spur to the pilgrims’ understanding and to the Templars’ own.
Bernard reads Jerusalem itself like a book. In the tradition of Cassian’s fourfold reading of scripture, dominant throughout the Middle Ages, Bernard saw beneath the appearance of the city’s famous sites a far more important spiritual meaning. The land itself invited such a reading:- Bethlehem, ‘house of bread’, was the town where the living bread was first manifest. The ox and ass ate their food at the manger; we must discern there, by contrast, our spiritual food, and not chomp vainly at the Word’s ‘literal’ nourishment. Next, Nazareth, meaning ‘flower’: Bernard reminds us of those who were misled by the odour of flowers into missing the fruit.
And so to Jerusalem itself:- To descend from the Order’s headquarters on the Temple Mount across the Valley of Josaphat and up the Mount of Olives opposite, – this was itself an allegory for the dread of God’s judgement and our joy at receiving his mercy. The House of Martha, Mary and Lazarus offers a moral: the virtue of obedience and the fruits of penance. And above all: in the Holy Sepulchre itself the knight should be raised up to thoughts of Christ’s death and of the freedom from death that it had won for his people: ‘The death of Christ is the death of my death.’ Bernard draws on Paul’s famous account of baptism, and finds in the pilgrims’ weariness the process of their necessary ‘dying’: ‘For we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, so we shall be also in the likeness of the resurrection. How sweet it is for pilgrims after the great weariness of a long journey, after so many dangers of land and sea, there to rest at last where they know their Lord has rested!’
***
The Temple Church is now famous as a backwater, a welcome place of calm. The tides of history have shifted; their currents have dug deep channels far from our own Round Church. It was not always so. The effigies of the Marshal and his sons bear telling witness to the Temple’s role in the court’s and nation’s life. In the 16th century the chronicler Stow described the Templars’ seal. The story of their poverty was by then forgotten or incredible. Stow saw rather an emblem of Charity: a knight on horseback takes a fellow Christian out of danger. Perhaps there had always been romance in that picture of knights sharing a horse. The Order’s Rule, after all, allowed each knight three horses and a squire.
The effigies testify as well to a rich ‘reading’ of Jerusalem. The New Knighthood is double-edged: all that Bernard writes in praise of Jerusalem frees the faithful from the need to travel there: it is the spiritual sense of the city that matters – a sense as readily grasped at home. To find ‘Jerusalem’, as Bernard would have it, the faithful should rather come to Clairvaux, and not just on pilgrimage. So resolute a reading was hard to sustain. Bernard might detach Jerusalem from the benefits its contemplation could bring; but those around him sooner attached Jerusalem’s blessings to such places as fostered its contemplation.
Our effigies seem to us frozen in stone, their figures forever poised to fight battles that ended 700 years ago. But these knights’ eyes are open. They are all portrayed in their early thirties, the age at which Christ died and at which the dead will rise on his return. The effigies are not memorials of what has long since been and gone; they speak of what is yet to come, of these once and future knights who are poised to hear Christ’s summons and to spring again to war.
By 1145 the Templars themselves wore white robes with red crosses. White was linked with more than purity. In the Book of Revelation the martyrs of Christ, clad in white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7.14), are those who will be called to life at the ‘first resurrection’. For a millennium they will reign with Christ; at its end Satan will lead all the nations of the earth against ‘the beloved city’ (Rev 20.9). The final battle will be in Jerusalem. Our knights have good reason to draw their swords. For buried in ‘Jerusalem’, in Jerusalem they shall rise to join the Templars in the martyrs’ white and red. Here in the Temple, in our replica of the Sepulchre itself, the knights are waiting for their call to life, to arms and to the last, climactic defence of their most sacred place on earth.
Little more than fifty years after the consecration of the chancel, the Templars fell on evil times. The Holy Land was recaptured by the Saracens and so their work came to an end. The wealth they had accumulated made them the target of envious enemies, and in 1307, at the instigation of Philip IV King of France, the Order was abolished by the Pope. The papal decree was obeyed in England and King Edward II took control of the London Temple.
Eventually he gave it to the Order of St John – the Knights Hospitaller – who had always worked with the Templars. At the time, the lawyers were looking for a home in London in order to attend the royal courts in Westminster. So the Temple was rented to two colleges of lawyers, who came to be identified as the Inner and Middle Temples. The two colleges shared the use of the church. In this way, the Temple Church became the “college chapel” of those two societies and continues to be maintained by them to the present day.
It was King Henry VIII who brought about the next change in the church. In 1540 he abolished the Hospitallers and confiscated their property. The Temple again belonged to the Crown. It was then for Henry to provide a priest for the church, to whom he gave the title ‘Master of the Temple’.
‘Be of good comfort,’ said Hooker: ‘we have to do with a merciful God, rather to make the best of that little which we hold well; and not with a captious sophister who gathers the worst out of every thing in which we err.’
Richard Hooker was appointed Master of the Temple in 1585. England was in alarm. The threat from Catholic Europe had revived: there had been rebellion against the Queen and Settlement in 1569; in 1570 the Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her subjects free from their allegiance; Mary Queen of Scots was linked with ever further conspiracy against her cousin; and the danger of Spanish invasion was growing.
England’s radical reformers were convinced: England’s only hope of spiritual and political safety lay in the example of Calvin’s godly state, Geneva. The ‘head and neck’ of English Calvinism were Thomas Cartwright and Walter Travers. Since 1581 Travers had been the Reader (lecturer) of the Temple. In 1584 the Privy Council ordered the Inner Temple to continue his stipend ‘for his public labours and pains taken against the common adversaries, impugners of the state and the authorities under her Majesty’s gracious government.’ Hooker and Travers were to be colleagues. Their differences soon became clear. To recover the purity of the primitive church, Travers would be rid of all that intervened and would forge the English church anew. Hooker was steeped in classical and medieval thought; saw the roots of his own (and Travers’) understanding in Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas and Calvin himself; and acknowledged –even valued – the differences to which such a rich tradition could give rise: ‘Be it that Peter has one interpretation, and Apollos has another; that Paul is of this mind, and Barnabas of that. If this offend you, the fault is yours.’ As then, so now: ‘Carry peaceable minds, and you may have comfort by this variety.’ When Hooker carefully and bravely explored the possibility that individual Catholics could be saved, the scene was set for the most famous public debated of the day. ‘Surely I must confess unto you,’ said Hooker: ‘if it be an error to think that God may be merciful to save men, even when they err, my greatest comfort is my error. Were it not for the love I bear unto this “error”, I would neither wish to speak nor to live.’
We hear of Hooker’s preaching at the Temple: ‘his voice was low, stature little, gesture none at all, standing stone still in the pulpit, as if the posture of his body were the emblem of his mind, immovable in his opinions. Where his eye was left fixed at the beginning, it was found fixed at the end of the sermon. …The doctrine he delivered had nothing but itself to garnish it.’ Travers, by contrast, was a natural orator, and he was himself a distinguished thinker; he later became the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Hooker held his ground and deepened his reasoning. It was to disclose and offer the comfort of faith that he spoke: ‘Have the sons of God a father careless whether they sink or swim?’ The Temple sermons that survive stress the simple conditions of salvation: ‘Infidelity, extreme despair, hatred of God and all godliness, obduration in sin – cannot stand where there is the least spark of faith, hope, love or sanctity; even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be where heat in the first degree is found.’
The debate was brought to an end by Archbishop Whitgift: In March 1586 Travers was forbidden to preach. In 1591 Hooker resigned, and was appointed vicar of Bishopsbourne in Kent. Here he developed his thought in his masterpiece, Ecclesiastical Polity, the foundational – and still, perhaps, the most important – exploration of doctrine in the history of the Anglican church. Hooker elaborated a theory of law based on the ‘absolute’ fundamental of natural law: this is the expression of God’s supreme reason and governs all civil and ecclesiastical polity. ‘Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.’ Hooker’s influence has pervaded English thought ever since. He was admired by Laud and by the puritan Baxter, extolled by the Restoration bishops, and brought once more to prominence by Keble and the Oxford Movement; he has now been rediscovered (in a recent monograph by Richard Atkinson) within the modern evangelical church. His reach has extended far beyond theologians. Ecclesiastical Polity was the starting-point for Clarendon’s History and seminal for Locke’s philosophy; its self-critical balance touched Andrew Marvell; and Samuel Pepys read it at the recommendation of a friend who declared it ‘the best book, and the only one that made him a Christian.’
THE BATTLE OF THE PULPIT
In 1585 the Master of the Temple, Richard Alvey, died. His deputy – the Reader, Walter Travers – expected to be promoted, but Queen Elizabeth I and her advisers regarded his views as too Calvinist, and Travers was passed over.
Instead a new Master, Richard Hooker, was appointed from Exeter College, Oxford. On Hooker’s arrival, a unique situation arose. Each Sunday morning he would preach his sermon; each Sunday afternoon Travers would contradict him. People came to call it the Battle of the Pulpit, saying mischievously that Canterbury was preached in the morning and Geneva in the afternoon. There was a lasting result of all this: Hooker published his teaching as Ecclesiastical Polity and came to be recognised as the founding father of Anglican theology.
By the end of the 16th century, the two Inns of Court had erected many fine buildings at the Temple, yet their position as tenants was not a secure one. In order to protect what they had built up from any future whims of the Crown, they petitioned King James I for a more satisfactory arrangement. On 13 August 1608 the King granted the two Inns a Royal Charter giving them use of the Temple in perpetuity.
One condition of this was that the Inns must maintain the church. The Temple and the church are still governed by that charter. In gratitude, the Inns gave King James a fine gold cup. Some years later, in the Civil war, his son Charles I needed funds to keep his army in the field. The cup was sold in Holland and has never been traced.
In February 1683, the treasurers of the two Societies of the Temple commissioned an organ from each of the two leading organ builders of the time, Bernhard Smith (1630-1708) and Renatus Harris (1652-1708). The organs were to be installed in the halls of the Middle and Inner Temple, to enable them to be played and judged. Smith was annoyed to discover that Harris was also invited to compete for the contract; he was under the impression that the job had already been offered to him. Smith petitioned the treasurers and won permission to erect his instrument in the church instead of in one of the halls. It was set on a screen which divided the round from the quire. This advantage was short-lived as Harris sought and obtained approval to place his organ at the opposite end of the church, to the south side of the communion table. It is thought that both organs were completed by May 1684.
Harris and Smith engaged the finest organists to show off their respective instruments and were put to great expense as the competition intensified and each instrument became more.
In 1841 the church was again restored, by Smirke and Burton, the walls and ceiling being decorated in the high Victorian Gothic style. The object of this was to bring the church back to its original appearance, for it would have been brightly decorated like this when first built. Nothing of the work remains, however, for it was destroyed by fire bombs exactly a century after its completion. After the Victorian restoration, a choir of men and boys was introduced for the first time. The first organist and choirmaster was Dr Edward John Hopkins who remained in this post for over 50 years, 1843-96, establishing the Temple Church choir as one of the finest in London, a city of fine choirs. This tradition of high-quality music was maintained by Hopkins’ well-known successor, Henry Walford Davies, who stayed until 1923.
In 1923 Dr GT Thalben-Ball was appointed organist and choirmaster. This musician, later world- renowned, was to serve the church even longer than his predecessor, John Hopkins, retiring in 1982 after 59 years in office. One reason for his fame was the record made in 1927 of Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer by Thalben-Ball and the boy soloist Ernest Lough. The recording became world-famous and brought visitors to the church from all parts of the globe.
In 1941 on the night of 10 May, when Nazi air raids on London were at their height, the church was badly damaged by incendiary bombs. The roof of the round church burned first and the wind soon spread the blaze to the nave and choir. The organ was completely destroyed, together with all the wood in the church. Restoration took a long time to complete. The choir, containing a new organ given by Lord Glentannar, was the first area of the church to be rededicated in March 1954. By a stroke of good fortune the architects, Walter and Emil Godfrey, were able to use the reredos designed by Wren for his 17th-century restoration. Removed by Smirke and Burton in 1841, it had spent over a century in the Bowes Museum, County Durham, and was now re-installed in its original position. The round church was rededicated in November 1958.
Probably the most notable feature of today’s church is the east window. This was a gift from the Glaziers’ Company in 1954 to replace that destroyed in the war. It was designed by Carl Edwards and illustrates Jesus’ connection with the Temple at Jerusalem. In one panel we see him talking with the learned teachers there, in another driving out the money-changers. The window also depicts some of the personalities associated with Temple Church over the centuries, including Henry II, Henry III and several of the medieval Masters of the Temple.
Historic Sierra County Courthouse in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The Territorial Revival style building was built in 1939 as a New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.
St Andrew, Westhall, Suffolk
I'm currently preparing a new page for Westhall at suffolkchurches.co.uk - I'm parking the old one here so it doesn't get lost forever.
Listen: come with me. We’ll set off from the Queen’s Head at Blyford, a fine and welcoming pub across the road from that village’s little church. Perhaps we’ll have just had lunch, and we’ll be sitting outside with a couple of pints of Adnams. You’d like to stay there in the sunshine for the rest of the afternoon, but I’m going to take you somewhere special, so stir yourself. You are probably thinking it is Holy Trinity at Blythburgh, Suffolk’s finest church a couple of miles away on the main A12. But it isn’t.
Nor is it St Andrew at Wenhaston, a mile away across the bridge, and home of the Doom, one of Suffolk’s greatest medieval art treasures. You’ve already seen that.
No. Within a few miles of the pub sign (notice that it features St Etheldreda, whose father King Anna was killed in battle on the Blyth marshes) there is a third of Suffolk’s finest churches. It is the least known of the three, partly because it is so carefully hidden, so secreted away, and partly because Simon Jenkins, inconceivably, unforgivably, missed it out of his book England’s Thousand Best Churches.This may yet have serious consequences, as we shall see.
Blyford is on the main road between Halesworth and Dunwich, but we are going to take a narrow lane that you might almost miss if you weren’t with me. It leads northwards, and is quickly enveloped by oak-buttressed hedgerows, beyond which thin fields spread. Pheasants scuttle across the road in front of us; a hare watches warily for a moment before kicking sulkily back into the ditch (we are on foot perhaps, or bicycle). Occasional lanes thread off towards the woods and the sea.
After a couple of miles, we reach the obscenity of a main road, and cross it quickly, leaving it behind us. Now, the lane narrows severely, the banks steepening, trees arching above us. They guard the silence, until our tunnel doglegs suddenly, and an obscure stream appears beyond the hedgerow. Once, on a late winter afternoon, my dream was disturbed here by a startled heron rising up, its bony legs clacking dryly as it took flight over my head. I felt the rush of its wings.
This road was not designed for cars. Instead, it traces the ancient field pattern, cutting across the ends of strips and then along the sides, connecting long-vanished settlements. The lane splits (we take the right fork) and splits again (the left) and suddenly we are descending steeply into a secret glade shrouded in ancient tree canopies. The lane curves, narrows and opens – and here we are. Still, you might not notice it, because the church is still camouflaged by the trees, and the absurdity of the neighbouring bungalow with its kitschy garden may distract you; but to your right, in a silent velvet graveyard sits St Andrew, Westhall. It has been described in one book as Suffolk’s best kept secret.
I hope that I can convey to you something of why this place is so special. Firstly, notice the unusual layout of the building as you walk around it. That fine late 13th century tower, not too high despite its post-Reformation bell-stage, organic and at one with the trees; the breathtaking little Norman church that spreads to the east of it. And then, to the north, a large 13th century nave, thatched and rustic. It was designed for this graveyard, for this glade. Neither has changed much. Beyond it, the grand 14th century chancel, rudely filling almost the entire east end of the graveyard. Perhaps as we step around to the north side the same thing will happen as happened to me one muggy Saturday afternoon in July 2003 – a tawny owl sat watching me on a headstone, and then threw itself furiously into the air and away.
Your first thought may be that here we have two churches joined together – and this is almost exactly right. You can see the same thing on a similar timescale at Ufford, although the development there is rather more subtle than it is here.
Here at Westhall, there was a Norman church – an early one. Several hundred years later a tower was built to the west of it, and then the vast new nave to the north. A hundred years later came the chancel. Perhaps the east end of the Norman church was rebuilt at this time. Mortlock thinks that there was once a Norman chancel, and this may be so. The old church became a south aisle, the particular preserve perhaps of the Bohun family. They married into the famous Coke family, who we have already met at nearby Bramfield.
And so, we step inside. We may do so through the fine north porch; it is a wide, open one, clearly intended for the carrying out of parish business. It was probably the last substantial part of the church to be built, on the eve of the Reformation. The door appears contemporary. Or, I might send you round to step in through the Norman doorway on the south side, into the body of the original church.
You expect dust and decay, perhaps, in such a remote place. But this is a well-kept church, lovingly maintained and well-used. Although there are a couple of old benches scattered about, most of the seating is early 19th century, with that delightful cinema curve to the western row which was fashionable immediately before the Oxford Movement and the Camden Society sent out their great resacramentalising waves, and English churches were never the same again.
If you step in from the south, then you are immediately confronted with something so stunning, so utterly wonderful, that we are going to pretend you cannot believe your eyes, and you pass it by. Instead, draw back the curtain, and step into the space beneath the tower. Walk to the western wall, and turn back.
You are confronted with the main entrance of a grand post-conquest church, probably about 1100. Surviving faces in the unfinished ranges look like something out of Wallace and Grommit. Above, an arcade of windows, the central one open. Almost a thousand years ago, it would have thrown summer evening light on the altar.
As you step back into the aisle, it is now easy to see it as the nave it once was. The northern wall has now gone, replaced by a low arcade, and you step through into the wideness of the modern (it is only 600 years old!) nave.
Here, then, let us at last allow ourselves an exploration of Suffolk’s other great medieval art survival. This is Westhall’s famous font, one of the seven sacrament series, but more haunting than all the others because it still retains almost all its original colour.
The Mass panel is the most familiar, because it is the cover of Eamonn Duffy’s majestic The Stripping of the Altars. The other panels, anti-clockwise from this, are Last Rites, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Confirmation, Baptism, Ordination, and the odd panel out, the Baptism of Christ.
The font asks more questions than it answers. How did it survive? Suffolk has 13 Seven Sacrament fonts in various states of repair. Those nearby at Blythburgh, Wenhaston and Southwold are clearly from the same group as this one, but have been completely effaced. Other good ones survive nearby at Weston and Great Glemham, at Monk Soham, at neighbours Woodbridge and Melton, neighbours Cratfield and Laxfield, at Denston in the south west and at Badingham. We don’t know how many others there might have been; probably not many, for most East Anglian churches have a surviving medieval font of another design. The surviving panels were probably plastered over during the long puritan night (the damage to the figures is probably a result of making the faces flush rather than any attempt at iconoclasm) but they were also all probably once coloured. So why has only this one survived in that state?
The other feature of the font that is quite, quite extraordinary is the application of gessowork for the tabernacled figures between the faces. This is plaster of Paris which is moulded on and allowed to dry – it can then be carved. It is sometimes used on wood to achieve fine details, but rarely on stone. Was it once found widely elsewhere? How has it survived here?
If it was just for the font, then St Andrew would still be an essential destination for anyone interested in medieval churches. But there are several other features that, in any other church, would be considered equally essential.
There is the screen. It is a bit of a curiosity. Firstly, the two painted ranges are clearly the work of different artists. On the south side are female Saints, very similar in style to those on the screen at Ufford. The artists helpfully labelled them, and they are St Etheldreda (the panel bearing her left half has been lost) St Sitha, St Agnes, St Bridget, St Catherine, St Dorothy, St Margaret of Aleppo and finally one of the most essential Saints in the medieval economy of grace, St Apollonia - she it was who could be asked to intercede against toothache. With the possible exception of St Margaret, modern Anglicans would think of all of these as peculiarly Catholic Saints, a reminder that St Andrew was built, after all, as a Catholic church.
The depictions on the northern part of the screen are much simpler (Pevsner thought them crude) and are probably painted by a local artist. Note the dedicatory inscription along the top on this side; it is barely legible, but the names Margarete and Tome Felton and Richard Lore and Margaret Alen are still discernible. I think the figures on this screen are equally fascinating, if not more so. They are all easily recognisable, and are fondly rendered. With one remarkable exception, they are familiar to us from many popular images.
The first is Saint James in his pilgrim's garb, as if about to set out for Santiago de Compostella. The power of such an image to medieval people in a backwater like north-east Suffolk should not be underestimated. Next comes St Leonard, associated with the Christian duty of visiting prisoners - perhaps this had a local resonance. Thirdly, there is a triumphant St Michael, one of the major Saints of the late medieval panoply, and then St Clement, the patron Saint of seafarers. This is interesting, because although Westhall is a good six miles from the sea, it is much closer to the Blyth river, which was probably much wider and faster in medieval times. It seems strange to think of Westhall as having a relationship with the sea, but it probably did.
Next comes the remarkable exception. The next three panels represent between them the Transfiguration; Christ on a mountain top between the two figures of Moses and Elijah. It is the only surviving medieval screen representation of the Transfiguration in England. Eamonn Duffy, in The Stripping of the Altars, argues that here at Westhall is priceless evidence of the emergence of a new cult on the eve of the Reformation, which would snuff it out. Another representation survived in a wall painting at Hawkedon, but has faded away during the last half century.
The last panel is St Anthony of Egypt, recognisable from the dear little pig at his feet. I wonder if it was painted from the life.
There is a fascinating wall painting against the north wall. It shows St Christopher, as you might expect. St Christopher was a special devotion in the hearts of medieval churchgoers, and usually sits opposite the main entrance so that they could look in at the start of the day and receive his blessing. As a surviving inscription at Creeting St Peter reminds us, anyone who looks on the image in the morning would be spared a sudden death that day. It is the other figures in the illustration that are remarkable, though, for one of them is clearly Moses, wearing his ‘horns of light’ (an early medieval mistranslation of ‘halo’).
There are a couple of other wall-paintings, including a beautiful flower-surrounded consecration cross beside the south door, and a painted image niche alcove in the eastern splay of a window in the south wall. This is odd; it should have a figure in it, but none appears to have been painted there. Perhaps it was intended to have a statue placed in front of it, but the window sill is very steep, and it is hard to see how a statue could have been positioned there. DD surmised that there had once been a stand, the base of which was canted in some manner, and that the sill had once been less steep (the base of the painting seems to suggest this). Whatever, it is very odd.
Between the painted niche and consecration cross there are surviving traces of a large painting; it seems to consist of the leafy surrounds of seven large roundels. Mortlock wondered if it might have been a sequence of the Seven Works of Mercy as at Trotton in Sussex, but there is insufficient remaining to tell.
Nicholas Bohun's tomb, in very poor repair, sits in the south-east corner; an associated brass gives you rather more information than you might think you need. A George III royal arms hangs above.
If you haven't lost your appetite for the extraordinary, come back up into the apparently completely Victorianised chancel. Chalice brasses are incredibly rare, because of their Catholic imagery. Westhall had two of them, although unfortunately only the matrices survive. Then, look up; on one of the roof beams is an image of the Holy Trinity, with God the Father holding the Crucified Christ between his knees. There is probably a dove as well, although that is not visible from the ground. Indeed, the whole thing is too small, as if the artist hadn't really thought about the scale needed for it to be seen from the chancel floor.
So there we are, I've let you in on Suffolk's best-kept secret. But I said earlier that I was afraid Simon Jenkins’s omission of this church might have serious consequences. Here is why: there is an ongoing programme of essential repairs, and the church has had to raise tens of thousands of pounds at fairly short notice. The parish has less than a hundred people living in it, and the congregation is barely in double figures. The church is clearly a national treasure, and its continued survival is essential; but it is difficult to convince people of this, because it has been missed out of what is increasingly being treated as a heritage wish-list. It was bad enough that Pevsner’s books were used as arbiters of what should survive when redundancies loomed in the 1970s; it would be appalling if the Jenkins book was used in the same way now.
The "new" order on Arriva's routes 86 and 87 in Leicester. This Alexander ALX400 bodied DAF DB250 was new to Arriva London, as fleet number DLA170, in April 2000. It has just entered service at Wigston depot, in Leicestershire, where it has ousted a 2 year old Enviro 200 single-decker. It's a bit of a kick in the teeth bringing in vehicles which are 12 years senior than those they're replacing and the reason isn't altogether clear, but I would speculate that it's one (or a combination) of the following:
1) Passenger numbers are too high on the routes for the Enviro 200s to cope with (assuming the timetable is reliable).
2) The timetable is not robust enough to deliver a reliable and punctual service. As a consequence, the buses on the services bunch up meaning that the first little Enviro 200 to turn up takes a hammering. Yes, it's a capacity problem but slightly different from point one as the resources aren't being efficiently used.
3) The traffic calming humps around Eyres Monsell are still problematic to the Enviro 200s, causing damage to skirt panels and the like.
The iBus database tells us that this bus was last used in London service on 25/02/2013, when it worked on route 415 (Tulse Hill - Elephant & Castle via Brixton).
2022 (71st ) Truth or Consequences ( T or C ) Fiesta T OR C is the county seat of Sierra County NM .
Arrey /Derry volunteer Fire Dept Ford Super duty Brush truck
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 60
•Date: 1842
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions
oOverall: 134.3 × 195.3 cm (52⅞ × 76⅞ in.)
oFramed: 162.9 × 224.8 × 17.8 cm (64⅛ × 88½ × 7 in.)
•Credit Line: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
•Accession Number: 1971.16.1
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848
Overview
Cole’s renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the “River of Life.” Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of “Youth” and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature’s fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero’s triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole’s intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and nature.
Inscription
•Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Provenance
Sold by the artist to George K. Shoenberger [1809-1892], Cincinnati, perhaps as early as 1845 and no later than May 1846;[1] Shoenberger heirs, after 20 January 1892;[2] purchased 1908 by Ernst H. Huenefeld, Cincinnati;[3] gift 1908 to Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association of Methodist Church of Cincinnati;[4] sold 17 May 1971 through (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York) to NGA.
[1]For a discussion of a possible 1845 date, see Thomas Cole, Exh. cat. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969: 35. Other sources place the acquisition a bit later than 1845; see Paul D. Schweizer, “The Voyage of Life: A Chronology,” in The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 45 (“December 1846?”), and Ellwood C. Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination, Newark, Delaware, 1988: 332 (“sometime late in 1846 or, more likely, early in 1847”); however in a Boston Transcript article entitled “The Voyage of Life,” which appeared 21 May 1846, the pictures are mentioned as then belonging to “a wealthy gentleman of Cincinnati.”
[2]A letter of April 1979 from Mrs. Robert Heuck (in NGA curatorial files) specifies: “Mr. Shoenberger died in 1892, at which time many of the belongings of the home were given to heirs.” Shoenberger died 20 January 1892; for additional information, see The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio, 6 vols., Cincinnati, 1895: 6:1457-1458.
[3]Mrs. Robert Heuck, letter of April 1979 (in NGA curatorial files) states: “In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. [sic] Huenefeld purchased the land [and the house and contents].”
[4]Edward H. Dwight and Richard J. Boyle, “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’,” Art in America 55 (May 1967): 62.
Associated Names
•Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association
•Hirschl & Adler Galleries
•Huenefeld, Ernst H.
•Shoenberger, George K.
Exhibition History
•1842—Annual Exhibition of Modern Artists, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1842, no cat.
•1842—Private Exhibition, Luther Terry’s studio, Orto di Napoli, Rome, 1842.
•1843—Pictures by Thomas Cole N.A. … The Voyage of Life! A Series of Allegorical Pictures, National Academy of Design, New York, 1843-1844, no. 1.
•1843—Second Exhibition, Boston Artists’ Association, 1843, no. 1.
•1844—Paintings Exhibited…, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1844, no. 1.
•1848—Western Art Union, Cincinnati, 1848, no cat.
•1854—Pictures at the Ladies’ Gallery, Cincinnati, 1854, 2 and 5, no. 20, as Infancy.
•1983—A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 25, repro.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985, 4, 5, 28, 30-32, 34-36, 38-40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 53, 66-69, no. 33.
•1994—Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Brooklyn Museum, 1994-1995, fig. 115.
•1995—Loan for display with permanent collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1995-1996.
•2000—Explorar el Edén: Paisaje Americano del Siglo XIX, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2000-2001, no. 2, repro.
Technical Summary
Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
All four paintings in The Voyage of Life series were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970-1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
Bibliography
•1843—“Cole’s Pictures at the National Academy of Design.” Anglo American (30 December 1843): 239.
•1843—“Dottings on Art and Artists. No. II.” New World 6 (25 February 1843): 246.
•1843—“Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (26 December 1843): 2.
•1843—New-York Daily Tribune (18 February 1843): 3.
•1844—“A Few Words About Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New World 8 (17 February 1844): 217.
•1844—“Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (9 January 1844): 2.
•1844—“Editor’s Table.” The Knickerbocker 23 (January/February 1844): 97, 196.
•1844—P., S.H.J. “To Thomas Cole.” New Mirror 2 (27 January 1844): 269.
•1847—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1847. Cincinnati, 1847: 25.
•1848—Bryant, William Cullen. A Funeral Oration, occasioned by the death of Thomas Cole delivered before the National Academy of Design, New York, May 4, 1848. Philadelphia and New York, 1848: 30.
•1848—Whitley, Thomas W. Reflections on the Government of the Western Art Union and a Review of the Works of Art on Its Walls. [Originally published in the Herald of Truth] Cincinnati, 1848: 17-18.
•1849—Lanman, Charles. “The Epic Paintings of Thomas Cole.” Southern Library Messenger 15 (June 1849): 353.
•1849—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1848. Cincinnati, 1849: 10.
•1853—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N.A.. New York, 1853: 295-298, 301, 309, 312-314, 317, 320-322, 353, 359.
•1854—“Thomas Cole.” National Magazine 4 (April 1854): 318-321.
•1855—“Sketchings.” The Crayon 1 (7 February 1855): 92.
•1858—“Notes and Gleanings—Cole’s Pictures of Life.” National Magazine 13 (September 1858): 284-285.
•1860—Green, George W. Biographical Sketches. New York, 1860: 101, 105, 110-112.
•1860—“The Artists of America—Taken from New American Cyclopaedia.” The Crayon 7 (February 1860): 46.
•1865—Cummings, Thomas S. Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design (1825-1863). Philadelphia, 1865. Reprint, New York, 1965: 170, 176, 201.
•1932—Mayer, Frank Blackwell. With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851: The Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer. Edited by Bertha L. Heilbron. Reprint, Saint Paul, 1932: 41.
•1954—La Budde, Kenneth James. “The Mind of Thomas Cole.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1954: 171, 212.
•1962—Devane, James. “Sightseers Have Visited Scarlet Oaks for 95 Years.” Cincinnati Enquirer (20 May 1962): 6A.
•1964—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (1853). Edited by Elliot S. Vesell. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964: 220-224, 231, 233-235, 237, 239-240, 264.
•1967—Dwight, Edward H., and Richard J. Boyle. “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’.” L’Art et les Artistes 55 (May 1967): 60-63, repro. 62.
•1967—Merritt, Howard S. “Thomas Cole’s List, ‘Subjects for Pictures.’” In Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual II: Studies on Thomas Cole, an American Romanticist. Baltimore, 1967: 84, 90.
•1970—Riordan, John. “Thomas Cole: A Case Study of the Painter-Poet Theory ofArt in American Painting from 1825-1850.” 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970: 1:99-100; 2:345, 455-497.
•1973—Wallach, Alan Peter. “The Ideal American Artist and the Dissenting Tradition: A Study of Thomas Cole’s Popular Reputation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1973: 70-72, 106.
•1976—Kurland, Sydney. “The Aesthetic Quest of Thomas Cole and Edgar Allan Poe: Correspondence in their Thought and Practice in Relation to their Time.” Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, 1976: 105-109, 172, repro. 227.
•1977—Wallach, Alan. “The Voyage of Life as Popular Art.” The Art Bulletin 59 (1957): 234.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 133, repro.
•1980—Coen, Rena N. “Cole, Coleridge and Kubla Khan.” Art History 3 (June 1980): 218, 227, pl. 31.
•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 14, 88, repro. 88.
•1981—Virdis, Caterina Limentani. “Paesaggio e racconto in Edgar Allan Poe.” Artibus et Historiae 4 (1981): 90, 94, repro. 89.
•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 96, 112-113.
•1983—Schweizer, Paul D. “Another Possible Literary Source for Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” In “New Discoveries in American Art.” Edited by Jayne A. Kuchina. The American Art Journal 15 (1983): 74-75.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 66-69.
•1987—Sarnoff, Charles A. “The Voyage of Life Had a Life of Its Own.” Paper presented to the NGA, January 1987.
•1987—Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 44, 46, 47, color repro. 42.
•1988—Parry, Ellwood C., III. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark, London, and Toronto, 1988: 218, 228, 265-268, 270-272, 275, 277, 280, 284-285, 291-298, 301-303, 332, 338, 378.
•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 11, 17, 102, 103, repro. 102.
•1990—Powell, Earl A., III. Thomas Cole. New York, 1990: 103.
•1991—Kopper, Philip. America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 261, 263, color repro.
•1991—Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, 1991: 56, 67, repro. 57.
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 145, repro.
•1994—Truettner, William H., and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole: Landscape into History. Exh. cat. Natl. Mus. of Am. Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Brooklyn Museum. Washington,1994: 42,46-47,79,82,84,98-101,113,130-133,138,144,149-150,152,154,182, no. 115.
•1995—Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. The Spirit and the Vision: The Influence of Christian Romanticism on the Development of 19th-Century American Art. Atlanta, 1995: 137-148, fig. 26.
•1996—Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 95-108, color repro.
•1998—Boeckl, Christine M. “Path/Road/Crossroads.” In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:692.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 308-310, no. 247, color repros.
•2012—“Rethinking ‘Luminism’: Taste, Class, and Aestheticizing Tendencies in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting.” In The Cultured Canvas: New Perspectives on American Landscape Painting edited by Nancy Siegel. Lebanon, N.H., 2012: 133-134.
•2013—Corbett, David Peters. “Painting American Frontiers: ‘Encounter’ and the Borders of American Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art.” Perspective 2013, no. 1: 140, 141, color fig. 9.
From American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I:
1971.16.1 (2550)
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
•1842
•Oil on Canvas, 134.3 × 195.3 (52⅞ × 76⅞)
•Ails a Mellon Bruce Fund
•Inscriptions:
oAt Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Technical Notes
All four paintings were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970—1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
1971.16.1 (Childhood): Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
Description by the Artist:
First Picture: Childhood
A stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out the cave glides a Boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the Hours: steered by an Angelic Form, and laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing Infant, the Voyager whose varied course the artist has attempted to delineate. On either hand the banks of the stream are clothed in luxuriant herbage and flowers. The rising sun bathes the mountains and the flowery banks in rosy light.
The dark cavern is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past. The Boat, composed of Figures of the Hours, images the thought, that we are borne on the hours down the Stream of Life. The Boat identifies the subject in each picture. The rosy light of the morning, the luxuriant flowers and plants, are emblems of the joyousness of early life. The close banks, and the limited scope of the scene, indicate the narrow experience of Childhood, and the nature of its pleasures and desires. The Egyptian Lotus in the foreground of the picture is symbolical of Human Life. Joyousness and wonder are the characteristic emotions of childhood.
Every one of us has a great responsibility to protect the environment – and climate change is a global issue that is going to require a global solution. This globe illustrated some of the ways our climate could change in the future.
Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, and just over 20 miles (32 km) west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with its adjoining hillside, the site of memorials. Runnymede Borough is named after the area, Runnymede being at its northernmost point.
Topography
The name Runnymede refers to land in public and National Trust ownership in the Thames flood plain south-west of the river between Old Windsor and Egham. The area includes (to the west of A308 road) the Long Mede and Runnymede, which together with Coopers Hill Slopes is managed by the National Trust. There is also a narrower strip of land, east of the road and west of the river, known as the Yard Mede. Slightly further downstream from the area shown on the map are (inter alia): a recreational area with a car park; a number of private homes; a large distribution centre; and an hotel.
The landscape of Runnymede is characterised as "Thames Basin Lowland", urban fringe. It is a gently undulating vale of small fields interspersed by woods, shaws, ponds, meadows, and heath. The National Trust area is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) which contains a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Both sites are overseen by Runnymede Borough Council.
The National Trust holding includes:
188 acres (0.76 km2) donated in 1929 set behind a narrow riverside park with occasional benches on the southern river bank, with car and coach parking;
110 acres (0.45 km2) of broadleaved woodland on Coopers Hill Slopes, given in 1963 by the former Egham Urban District Council.
Long Mede is a meadow north of the ancient "mede" (meadow) of Runnymede towards Old Windsor and has been used for centuries to provide good-quality hay from the alluvial pasture. Runnymede itself lies towards Egham. It is likely that Runnymede proper was the site of the sealing of Magna Carta, although the Magna Carta Memorial (see below) stands on Long Mede, and the event is also popularly associated with Magna Carta Island, on the opposite bank of the Thames.
Near the Island, on the north-east flood plain, in parkland on the eastern bank of the river, are Ankerwycke and the ruins of the 12th century Priory of St Mary's. The Thames has changed course here occasionally, and these areas may once have been an integral part of Runnymede. Both were acquired by the National Trust in 1998.
History
Runnymede's historical significance has been heavily influenced by its proximity to the Roman Road river crossing at nearby Staines-upon-Thames.
The name Runnymede may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon runieg (regular meeting) and mede (mead or meadow), describing a place in the meadows used to hold regular meetings. The Witan, Witenagemot or Council of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of the 7th to 11th centuries was held from time to time at Runnymede during the reign of Alfred the Great. The Council met usually in the open air. This political organ was transformed in succeeding years, influencing the creation of England's 13th century parliament.
The water-meadow at Runnymede is the most likely location at which, in 1215, King John sealed Magna Carta. The charter indicates Runnymede by name as "Ronimed. inter Windlesoram et Stanes" (between Windsor and Staines). Magna Carta had an impact on common and constitutional law as well as political representation also affecting the development of parliament.
Runnymede's association with ideals of democracy, limitation of power, equality and freedom under law has attracted placement there of monuments and commemorative symbols.
The last fatal duel in England took place in 1852, on Priest Hill, a continuation of Cooper's Hill by Windsor Great Park.
The National Trust land was donated in 1929 by Cara Rogers Broughton and her two sons. The American-born widow of Urban Hanlon Broughton, she was permitted by letter from George V to join her son's new peerage in tribute to her husband and this gift and be officially styled Lady Fairhaven. The gift was given in memory of Urban Broughton. At the time the New Bedford Standard-Times commented "It must be a source of gratification to all Americans, and especially to us here and in Fairhaven, that the presentation of this historic spot as public ground has been brought about by an American woman, an appropriate enough circumstance considering that the great charter underlies the USA's conception of government and human rights."
Features
Urban H. Broughton Memorials
After the death of Urban Broughton in 1929, Sir Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to design a set of twin memorials consisting of large kiosks and posts or "piers" with stone blocks crowned with laurel wreaths and formalised urns at the Egham end and with lodges and piers at the Windsor end. Lutyens also designed a low wide arch bridge to carry the main road over the Thames to the north, integrating the road layout and bridge design into his plans for the memorials. The southern kiosks were moved to their present location when the M25 motorway was constructed.
There are two octagonal kiosks with piers facing each other across the A308 towards Egham. These piers are a shorter version of those adjacent to the lodges either side of the same road towards Old Windsor in the Long Mede. The lodges show typical Lutyens design features with steeply angled roofs, large false chimneys and no rainwater gutters at the eaves.
The piers carry similar inscriptions. On one face is the inscription:
“ In these Meads on 15th June 1215 King John at the instance of Deputies from the whole community of the Realm granted the Great Charter the earliest of constitutional documents whereunder ancient and cherished customs were confirmed abuses redressed and the administration of justice facilitated new provisions formulated for the preservation of peace and every individual perpetually secured in the free enjoyment of his life and property. ”
and on the other the words:-
“ In perpetual memory of Urban Hanlon Broughton 1857 – 1929 of Park Close Englefield Green in the county of Surrey Sometime Member of Parliament These meadows of historic interest on 18th December 1929 were gladly offered to the Nation by his widow Cara Lady Fairhaven and his sons Huttleston Lord Fairhaven and Henry Broughton ”
The memorials were opened in 1932 by the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) and are Grade II listed buildings.
Langham Pond SSSI
Langham Pond was created when the meandering River Thames formed an oxbow lake. Its status as a wetland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) was first notified in 1975 and later reviewed under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 when the protected area was extended to 64 acres (260,000 m2) within Runnymede as managed by the National Trust.
The pond and associated meadow form a habitat considered unique in Southern England and of international importance for nature conservation. The flora and fauna include nationally scarce plants and insects including a species of fly unrecorded elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
Air Forces Memorial
The Air Forces Memorial commemorates the men and women of the Allied Air Forces who died during the Second World War and records the names of the 20,456 airmen who have no known grave.
From the top of the tower visitors can see long views over Windsor, the surrounding counties and aircraft taking off and landing at Heathrow. On a good day visitors can see as far as the Wembley Arch and even the Gherkin in the City of London. The memorial was designed by Sir Edward Maufe, architect of Guildford Cathedral.
John F. Kennedy Memorial
The British memorial for U.S. President John F. Kennedy was jointly dedicated in May 1965, by Queen Elizabeth II and Jacqueline Kennedy, prior to a reception for the Kennedy family at Windsor Castle. The memorial consists of a garden and Portland stone memorial tablet inscribed with the famous quote from his Inaugural Address:
“ Let every Nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty. ”
Visitors reach the memorial by treading a steep path of irregular granite steps, intended to symbolise a pilgrimage. There are 50 steps in total. Each step is different from all others, with the entire flight made from 60,000 hand-cut granite setts.[10] Landscape architect Geoffrey Jellicoe designed the garden; sculptor Alan Collins designed and carved the stone inscription. The area of ground on which the memorial is situated was given as a gift to the United States of America by the people of Britain. (Though property ownership was transferred to the federal government of the United States, the area remains under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.) It is maintained by the Kennedy Memorial Trust, which also sponsors educational scholarships for British students to attend university in the United States.
In 1968 the 7-ton stone was damaged by a bomb during a time of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations; it was later repaired by the sculptor.
Magna Carta Memorial
Situated in a grassed enclosure. on the lower slopes of Cooper's Hill, this memorial is of a domed classical style monopteros, containing a pillar of English granite on which is inscribed "To commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of Freedom Under Law". The memorial was created by the American Bar Association (ABA) to a design by Sir Edward Maufe R.A., and was unveiled on 18 July 1957 at a ceremony attended by American and English lawyers.
Since 1957 representatives of the ABA have visited and rededicated the Memorial, renewing pledges to the Great Charter. In 1971 and 1985 commemorative stones were placed on the Memorial plinth. In July 2000 the ABA came:
“ to celebrate Magna Carta, foundation of the rule of law for ages past and for the new millennium. ”
In 2007, on its 50th anniversary, the ABA again visited Runnymede. During its convention it installed as President Charles Rhyne, who devised Law Day, which in the USA represents an annual reaffirmation of faith in the forces of law for peace.
In 2008 floodlights were installed to light the memorial at night.
In 2015, in anticipation of the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, the two wooden benches at the memorial were replaced by stone benches. On 15 June, the anniversary day, the ABA, accompanied by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, rededicated the memorial in a ceremony led by HRH The Princess Royal in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and other members of the Royal family.
The Magna Carta Memorial is administered by the Magna Carta Trust, which is chaired by the Master of the Rolls.
Ceremonial Tree Plantings
The Duke of Kent together with David K. Diebold, a Minister-Counselor at the US Embassy in London, planted an oak tree adjacent to the Magna Carta Memorial in 1987, as did P. V. Narismha Rao, Prime Minister of the Republic of India. The Prime Minister left a plaque reading:
“ As a tribute to the historic Magna Carta, a source of inspiration throughout the world, and as an affirmation of the values of Freedom, Democracy and the Rule of Law which the People of India cherish and have enshrined in their Constitution. March 16, 1994 ”
In 1987 two further oak trees were planted near the Memorial. One, planted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, marked National Tree Week. Another, planted by John O. Marsh, Secretary of the Army of the USA, has a plaque which reads:
“ This oak tree, planted with soil from Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, commemorates the bicentenary of the Constitution of the United States of America. It stands in acknowledgement that the ideals of liberty and justice embodied in the Constitution trace their lineage through institutions of English law to the Magna Carta, sealed at Runnymede on June 15th, 1215. ”
The Jurors
The Jurors artwork was commissioned by Surrey County Council and the National Trust to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. The sculptor Hew Locke created 12 bronze chairs each of which is decorated with symbols of past and present struggles for freedom, equality and the rule of law. The artist / sculptor invites participants to sit, reflect upon and discuss the themes represented. In the image the back of the chair nearest the viewer is a representation of Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island, South Africa. The portrait seen of the further chair is of Lillie Lenton wearing insignia related to the imprisonment and activism of suffragettes.
The installation was inaugurated at Runnymede by Prince William during the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary celebrations.
Cooper's Hill House
A large house on Cooper's Hill, overlooking Runnymede and the River Thames, has played a number of roles – as the Royal Indian Engineering College; wartime Post Office headquarters; storage for the Statue of Eros during World War II; an emergency teacher training college; Shoreditch College – a centre for craft and handiwork education – and most recently, Brunel University's design school (has removed to Uxbridge Main Campus).
Ankerwycke Yew
The revered +1,400 year old Ankerwycke Yew, on the left bank of the river, is also a possible site where Magna Carta may have been sealed. The sacred tree could have been the location of the Witan council and influenced the founding of St Mary's Priory there. This religious site may well have been the preferred neutral meeting place of King John and the barons.
Land development proposals threatening the yew led to action resulting in the tree and surrounding estate passing into the protection of the National Trust in 1998.
Henry VIII is said to have met Anne Boleyn under the tree in the 1530s.
In 1992, botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy led a dedication at the yew, stating:
“ We the free people of the islands of Great Britain on the 777th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta do:
Look back and give thanks for the benefits that the signings, sealing and swearing of oaths on that document handed down to us. Look forward to a new age of freedom through sustainability by granting the following rights to all the sons of plants and animals with which we share our islands and our planet.
”
There followed ten pledges to sustain all life forms.
Location and access
Runnymede is 20 miles (32 km) west by southwest of the centre of London. It is owned by the National Trust and is open 24 hours, seven days a week, at no charge.
Runnymede is accessed via the road or river towpath on foot or by bicycle, or by motor vehicle via the A308 road near Egham about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Windsor. Two car parks (on the A308) adjoin the Windsor entrance (these may be closed in winter due to flooding etc.). Runnymede is also along the Thames Path National Trail. The nearest railway station is Egham. One of the Lutyens lodges at the Windsor entrance to the meadow houses a popular tea room.
The Anckerwycke area on the other bank of the river is accessible from the B376 between Wraysbury and Staines (nearest station Wraysbury).
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 60
•Date: 1842
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions
oOverall: 134.3 × 195.3 cm (52⅞ × 76⅞ in.)
oFramed: 162.9 × 224.8 × 17.8 cm (64⅛ × 88½ × 7 in.)
•Credit Line: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
•Accession Number: 1971.16.1
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848
Overview
Cole’s renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal hero along the “River of Life.” Confidently assuming control of his destiny and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of “Youth” and its aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries him toward the next picture in the series, where nature’s fury, evil demons, and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the hero’s triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole’s intrepid voyager also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for both man and nature.
Inscription
•Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Provenance
Sold by the artist to George K. Shoenberger [1809-1892], Cincinnati, perhaps as early as 1845 and no later than May 1846;[1] Shoenberger heirs, after 20 January 1892;[2] purchased 1908 by Ernst H. Huenefeld, Cincinnati;[3] gift 1908 to Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association of Methodist Church of Cincinnati;[4] sold 17 May 1971 through (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York) to NGA.
[1]For a discussion of a possible 1845 date, see Thomas Cole, Exh. cat. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969: 35. Other sources place the acquisition a bit later than 1845; see Paul D. Schweizer, “The Voyage of Life: A Chronology,” in The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 45 (“December 1846?”), and Ellwood C. Parry III, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination, Newark, Delaware, 1988: 332 (“sometime late in 1846 or, more likely, early in 1847”); however in a Boston Transcript article entitled “The Voyage of Life,” which appeared 21 May 1846, the pictures are mentioned as then belonging to “a wealthy gentleman of Cincinnati.”
[2]A letter of April 1979 from Mrs. Robert Heuck (in NGA curatorial files) specifies: “Mr. Shoenberger died in 1892, at which time many of the belongings of the home were given to heirs.” Shoenberger died 20 January 1892; for additional information, see The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio, 6 vols., Cincinnati, 1895: 6:1457-1458.
[3]Mrs. Robert Heuck, letter of April 1979 (in NGA curatorial files) states: “In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. [sic] Huenefeld purchased the land [and the house and contents].”
[4]Edward H. Dwight and Richard J. Boyle, “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’,” Art in America 55 (May 1967): 62.
Associated Names
•Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Association
•Hirschl & Adler Galleries
•Huenefeld, Ernst H.
•Shoenberger, George K.
Exhibition History
•1842—Annual Exhibition of Modern Artists, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1842, no cat.
•1842—Private Exhibition, Luther Terry’s studio, Orto di Napoli, Rome, 1842.
•1843—Pictures by Thomas Cole N.A. … The Voyage of Life! A Series of Allegorical Pictures, National Academy of Design, New York, 1843-1844, no. 1.
•1843—Second Exhibition, Boston Artists’ Association, 1843, no. 1.
•1844—Paintings Exhibited…, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1844, no. 1.
•1848—Western Art Union, Cincinnati, 1848, no cat.
•1854—Pictures at the Ladies’ Gallery, Cincinnati, 1854, 2 and 5, no. 20, as Infancy.
•1983—A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 25, repro.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985, 4, 5, 28, 30-32, 34-36, 38-40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 53, 66-69, no. 33.
•1994—Thomas Cole: Landscape into History, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Brooklyn Museum, 1994-1995, fig. 115.
•1995—Loan for display with permanent collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1995-1996.
•2000—Explorar el Edén: Paisaje Americano del Siglo XIX, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2000-2001, no. 2, repro.
Technical Summary
Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
All four paintings in The Voyage of Life series were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970-1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
Bibliography
•1843—“Cole’s Pictures at the National Academy of Design.” Anglo American (30 December 1843): 239.
•1843—“Dottings on Art and Artists. No. II.” New World 6 (25 February 1843): 246.
•1843—“Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (26 December 1843): 2.
•1843—New-York Daily Tribune (18 February 1843): 3.
•1844—“A Few Words About Mr. Cole’s Paintings.” New World 8 (17 February 1844): 217.
•1844—“Cole’s Paintings.” New-York Daily Tribune (9 January 1844): 2.
•1844—“Editor’s Table.” The Knickerbocker 23 (January/February 1844): 97, 196.
•1844—P., S.H.J. “To Thomas Cole.” New Mirror 2 (27 January 1844): 269.
•1847—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1847. Cincinnati, 1847: 25.
•1848—Bryant, William Cullen. A Funeral Oration, occasioned by the death of Thomas Cole delivered before the National Academy of Design, New York, May 4, 1848. Philadelphia and New York, 1848: 30.
•1848—Whitley, Thomas W. Reflections on the Government of the Western Art Union and a Review of the Works of Art on Its Walls. [Originally published in the Herald of Truth] Cincinnati, 1848: 17-18.
•1849—Lanman, Charles. “The Epic Paintings of Thomas Cole.” Southern Library Messenger 15 (June 1849): 353.
•1849—Transactions of the Western Art Union for the Year 1848. Cincinnati, 1849: 10.
•1853—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N.A.. New York, 1853: 295-298, 301, 309, 312-314, 317, 320-322, 353, 359.
•1854—“Thomas Cole.” National Magazine 4 (April 1854): 318-321.
•1855—“Sketchings.” The Crayon 1 (7 February 1855): 92.
•1858—“Notes and Gleanings—Cole’s Pictures of Life.” National Magazine 13 (September 1858): 284-285.
•1860—Green, George W. Biographical Sketches. New York, 1860: 101, 105, 110-112.
•1860—“The Artists of America—Taken from New American Cyclopaedia.” The Crayon 7 (February 1860): 46.
•1865—Cummings, Thomas S. Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design (1825-1863). Philadelphia, 1865. Reprint, New York, 1965: 170, 176, 201.
•1932—Mayer, Frank Blackwell. With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851: The Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer. Edited by Bertha L. Heilbron. Reprint, Saint Paul, 1932: 41.
•1954—La Budde, Kenneth James. “The Mind of Thomas Cole.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1954: 171, 212.
•1962—Devane, James. “Sightseers Have Visited Scarlet Oaks for 95 Years.” Cincinnati Enquirer (20 May 1962): 6A.
•1964—Noble, Louis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (1853). Edited by Elliot S. Vesell. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964: 220-224, 231, 233-235, 237, 239-240, 264.
•1967—Dwight, Edward H., and Richard J. Boyle. “Rediscovery: Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’.” L’Art et les Artistes 55 (May 1967): 60-63, repro. 62.
•1967—Merritt, Howard S. “Thomas Cole’s List, ‘Subjects for Pictures.’” In Baltimore Museum of Art, Annual II: Studies on Thomas Cole, an American Romanticist. Baltimore, 1967: 84, 90.
•1970—Riordan, John. “Thomas Cole: A Case Study of the Painter-Poet Theory ofArt in American Painting from 1825-1850.” 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970: 1:99-100; 2:345, 455-497.
•1973—Wallach, Alan Peter. “The Ideal American Artist and the Dissenting Tradition: A Study of Thomas Cole’s Popular Reputation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1973: 70-72, 106.
•1976—Kurland, Sydney. “The Aesthetic Quest of Thomas Cole and Edgar Allan Poe: Correspondence in their Thought and Practice in Relation to their Time.” Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, 1976: 105-109, 172, repro. 227.
•1977—Wallach, Alan. “The Voyage of Life as Popular Art.” The Art Bulletin 59 (1957): 234.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 133, repro.
•1980—Coen, Rena N. “Cole, Coleridge and Kubla Khan.” Art History 3 (June 1980): 218, 227, pl. 31.
•1980—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 14, 88, repro. 88.
•1981—Virdis, Caterina Limentani. “Paesaggio e racconto in Edgar Allan Poe.” Artibus et Historiae 4 (1981): 90, 94, repro. 89.
•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 96, 112-113.
•1983—Schweizer, Paul D. “Another Possible Literary Source for Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” In “New Discoveries in American Art.” Edited by Jayne A. Kuchina. The American Art Journal 15 (1983): 74-75.
•1985—The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. Exh. cat. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1985: 66-69.
•1987—Sarnoff, Charles A. “The Voyage of Life Had a Life of Its Own.” Paper presented to the NGA, January 1987.
•1987—Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 44, 46, 47, color repro. 42.
•1988—Parry, Ellwood C., III. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark, London, and Toronto, 1988: 218, 228, 265-268, 270-272, 275, 277, 280, 284-285, 291-298, 301-303, 332, 338, 378.
•1988—Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 11, 17, 102, 103, repro. 102.
•1990—Powell, Earl A., III. Thomas Cole. New York, 1990: 103.
•1991—Kopper, Philip. America’s National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 261, 263, color repro.
•1991—Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, 1991: 56, 67, repro. 57.
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 145, repro.
•1994—Truettner, William H., and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole: Landscape into History. Exh. cat. Natl. Mus. of Am. Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Brooklyn Museum. Washington,1994: 42,46-47,79,82,84,98-101,113,130-133,138,144,149-150,152,154,182, no. 115.
•1995—Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. The Spirit and the Vision: The Influence of Christian Romanticism on the Development of 19th-Century American Art. Atlanta, 1995: 137-148, fig. 26.
•1996—Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 95-108, color repro.
•1998—Boeckl, Christine M. “Path/Road/Crossroads.” In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:692.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 308-310, no. 247, color repros.
•2012—“Rethinking ‘Luminism’: Taste, Class, and Aestheticizing Tendencies in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting.” In The Cultured Canvas: New Perspectives on American Landscape Painting edited by Nancy Siegel. Lebanon, N.H., 2012: 133-134.
•2013—Corbett, David Peters. “Painting American Frontiers: ‘Encounter’ and the Borders of American Identity in Nineteenth-Century Art.” Perspective 2013, no. 1: 140, 141, color fig. 9.
From American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I:
1971.16.1 (2550)
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
•1842
•Oil on Canvas, 134.3 × 195.3 (52⅞ × 76⅞)
•Ails a Mellon Bruce Fund
•Inscriptions:
oAt Lower Left: 1842 / T. Cole / Rome
Technical Notes
All four paintings were executed on herringbone twill fabric with moderately fine threads and a moderately rough surface. The paintings were lined (apparently for the first time) and the original panel-back stretchers were replaced during treatment in 1970—1971. The presence of unused tack holes and the pattern of wear on the canvas edges suggest that the paintings were originally stretched and painted on slightly larger stretchers, and then restretched by the artist on the panel-backed stretchers. All four paintings have white ground layers; in specific areas of each painting (see individual comments, below) secondary ground layers of different colors were applied. Infrared reflectography reveals only minimal underdrawing. Paint was applied moderately thinly and with low and broad brushstrokes in some areas such as the skies, and more thickly and with some high impasto in details such as the figures and foliage. In general, the paintings are in excellent condition, with only scattered small losses, some craquelure, and minor abrasion. In 1970-1971, discolored varnish was removed and the paintings were restored.
1971.16.1 (Childhood): Secondary ground layers include red under the top left corner; yellow under the boat and angel; red under the center in the light area of mountain; red under top right corner in the light area of sky; red under the water around the boat. Infrared reflectography reveals some underdrawing of mountain contours in the right middle and far distance. There are scattered small losses along the edges, a small loss below the boat, and craquelure throughout.
Description by the Artist:
First Picture: Childhood
A stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out the cave glides a Boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the Hours: steered by an Angelic Form, and laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing Infant, the Voyager whose varied course the artist has attempted to delineate. On either hand the banks of the stream are clothed in luxuriant herbage and flowers. The rising sun bathes the mountains and the flowery banks in rosy light.
The dark cavern is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past. The Boat, composed of Figures of the Hours, images the thought, that we are borne on the hours down the Stream of Life. The Boat identifies the subject in each picture. The rosy light of the morning, the luxuriant flowers and plants, are emblems of the joyousness of early life. The close banks, and the limited scope of the scene, indicate the narrow experience of Childhood, and the nature of its pleasures and desires. The Egyptian Lotus in the foreground of the picture is symbolical of Human Life. Joyousness and wonder are the characteristic emotions of childhood.
It looks like yesterdays Ice Box Incident wasn’t without consequences. When I woke up this morning I had the sniffles. I kept sneezing and sneezing. I had to spend most of the day wrapped in a towel and in front of an inhalator.
The only good thing is that the inhalator was herb flavoured so when I closed my eyes I could pretend that I was taking a nap on a lovely meadow.
After the inhalator was all used up I crawled behind the radiator with some comfort food. That made me feel a bit better, hopefully the sniffles will be all gone tomorrow.
Ash is a large village, now almost a town, now bypassed by the Canterbury to Sandwich road.
St Nicholas is a large church, and sits on a low mound above the High Street and houses.
The church itself is cruciform in shape, and previously stated, large.
It is furnished with serval monuments and brasses, all of a very high standard.
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A large and impressive church of mainly thirteenth century date over restored in 1847 by the irrepressible William Butterfield. The scale of the interior is amazing - particularly in the tower crossing arches which support the enormous spire. They are an obvious insertion into an earlier structure. The best furnishing at Ash is the eighteenth century font which stands on an inscribed base. For the visitor interested in memorials, Ash ahs more than most ranging from the fourteenth century effigy of a knight to two excellent alabaster memorials to Sir Thomas Harfleet (d 1612) and Christopher Toldervy (d 1618). Mrs Toldervy appears twice in the church for she accompanies her husband on his memorial and may also be seen as a `weeper` on her parents` memorial! On that she is one of two survivors of what was once a group of seven daughters - all her weeping brothers have long since disappeared.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ash+2
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ASH
LIES adjoining to the last-described parish of Staple northward. It is written in Domesday, Ece, and in other antient records, Aisse, and is usually called Ash, near Sandwich, to distinguish it from Ash, near Wrotham.
The parish of Ash is very large, extending over a variety of soil and country, of hill, dale, and marsh lands, near four miles across each way, and containing more than six thousand acres of land, of which about one half is marsh, the river Stour being its northern bounday, where it is very wet and unwholesone, but the southern or upland part of the parish is very dary, pleasant and healthy. The soil in general is fertile, and lets on an average at about one pound an acre; notwithstanding, there is a part of it about Ash-street and Gilton town, where it is a deep sand. The village of Ash, commonly called Ash-street, situated in this part of it, on high ground, mostly on the western declivity of a hill, having the church on the brow of it, is built on each side of the road from Canterbury to Sandwich, and contains about fifty houses. On the south side of this road, about half a mile westward, is a Roman burial ground, of which further mention will be taken hereaster, and adjoining to it the hamlet of Gilton town, formerly written Guildanton, in which is Gilton parsonage, a neat stuccoed house, lately inhabited by Mr. Robert Legrand, and now by Mrs. Becker. In the valley southward stands Mote farm, alias Brooke house, formerly the habitation of the Stoughtons, then of the Ptoroude's and now the property of Edward Solly, esq. of London.
There are dispersed throughout this large parish many small hamlets and farms, which have been formerly of more consequence, from the respective owners and in habitants of them, all which, excepting East and New Street, and Great Pedding, (the latter of which was the antient residence of the family of solly, who lie buried in Ash church-yard, and bore for their arms, Vert, a chevron, per pale, or, and gules, between three soles naiant, argent, and being sold by one of them to dean Lynch, is now in the possession of lady Lynch, the widow of Sir William Lynch, K. B.) are situated in the northern part of the parish, and contain together about two hundred and fifty houses, among them is Hoden, formerly the residence of the family of St. Nicholas; Paramour-street, which for many years was the residence of those of that name, and Brook-street, in which is Brook-house, the residence of the Brooke's, one of whom John Brooke, esq. in queen Elizabeth's reign, resided here, and bore for his arms, Per bend, vert and sable, two eagles, counterchanged.
William, lord Latimer, anno 38 Edward III. obtained a market to be held at Ash, on a Thursday; and a fair yearly on Lady-day, and the two following ones. A fair is now held in Ash-street on Lady and Michaelmas days yearly.
In 1473 there was a lazar house for the infirm of the leprosy, at Eche, near Sandwich.
¶The manor of Wingham claims paramount over this parish, subordinate to which there were several manors in it, held of the archbishop, to whom that manor belonged, the mansions of which, being inhabited by families of reputation and of good rank in life, made this parish of much greater account than it has been for many years past, the mansions of them having been converted for a length of time into farmhouses to the lands to which they belong.
f this manor, (viz. Wingham) William de Acris holds one suling in Fletes, and there he has in demesne one carucate and four villeins, and one knight with one carucate, and one fisbery, with a saltpit of thirty pence. The whole is worth forty shillings.
This district or manor was granted by archbishop Lanfranc, soon after this, to one Osberne, (fn. 7) of whom I find no further mention, nor of this place, till king Henry III.'s reign, when it seems to have been separated into two manors, one of which, now known by the name of the manor of Gurson Fleet, though till of late time by that of Fleet only, was held afterwards of the archbishop by knight's service, by the family of Sandwich, and afterwards by the Veres, earls of Oxford, one of whom, Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, who died anno 3 Edward III. was found by the escheat-rolls of that year, to have died possessed of this manor of Fleet, which continued in his descendants down to John de Vere, earl of Oxford, who for his attachment to the house of Lancaster, was attainted in the first year of king Edward IV. upon which this manor came into the hands of the crown, and was granted the next year to Richard, duke of Gloucester, the king's brother, with whom it staid after his succession to the crown, as king Richard III. on whose death, and the accession of king Henry VII. this manor returned to the possession of John, earl of Oxford, who had been attainted, but was by parliament anno I Henry VII. restored in blood, titles and possessions. After which this manor continued in his name and family till about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, when Edward Vere, earl of Oxford, alienated it to Hammond, in whose descendants it continued till one of them, in the middle of king Charles II.'s reign, sold it to Thomas Turner, D. D. who died possessed of it in 1672, and in his name and descendants it continued till the year 1748, when it was sold to John Lynch, D. D. dean of Canterbury, whose son Sir William Lynch, K. B. died possessed of it in 1785, and by his will devised it, with the rest of his estates, to his widow lady Lynch, who is the present possessor of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
Archbishop Lanfranc, on his founding the priory of St. Gregory, in the reign of the Conqueror, gave to it the tithe of the manor of Fleet; which gift was confirmed by archbishop Hubert in Richard I.'s reign. This portion of tithes, which arose principally from Gurson Fleet manor, remained with the priory at its dissolution, and is now part of Goldston parsonage, parcel of the see of Canterbury, of which further mention has been made before.
The other part of the district of Fleet was called, to distinguish it, and from the possessors of it, the manor of Nevills Fleet, though now known by the name of Fleet only, is situated between Gurson and Richborough, adjoining to the former. This manor was held in king John's reign of the archbishop, by knight's service, by Thomas Pincerna, so called probably from his office of chief butler to that prince, whence his successors assumed the name of Butler, or Boteler. His descendant was Robert le Boteler, who possessed this manor in king Ed ward I.'s reign, and from their possession of it, this manor acquired for some time the name of Butlers Fleet; but in the 20th year of king Edward III. William, lord Latimer of Corbie, appears to have been in the possession of it, and from him it acquired the name of Latimers Fleet. He bore for his arms, Gules, a cross flory, or. After having had summons to parliament, (fn. 8) he died in the begening of king Richard II.'s reign, leaving Elizabeth his sole daughter and heir, married to John, lord Nevill, of Raby, whose son John bore the title of lord Latimer, and was summoned to parliament as lord Latimer, till the 9th year of king Henry VI. in which he died, so that the greatest part of his inheritance, among which was this manor, came by an entail made, to Ralph, lord Nevill, and first earl of Westmoreland, his eldest, but half brother, to whom he had sold, after his life, the barony of Latimer, and he, by seoffment, vested it, with this manor and much of the inheritance above-mentioned, in his younger son Sir George Nevill, who was accordingly summoned to parliament as lord Latimer, anno 10 Henry VI. and his grandson Richard, lord Latimer, in the next regin of Edward IV. alienated this manor, which from their length of possession of it, had acquired the name of Nevill's Fleet, to Sir James Cromer, and his son Sir William Cromer, in the 11th year of king Henry VII, sold it to John Isaak, who passed it away to Kendall, and he, in the beginning of king Henry VIII.'s reign, sold it to Sir John Fogge, of Repton, in Ashford, who died possessed of it in 1533, and his son, of the same name, before the end of it, passed it away to Mr. Thomas Rolfe, and he sold it, within a few years afterwards, to Stephen Hougham, gent. of this parish, who by his will in 1555, devised it to his youngest son Rich. Hougham, of Eastry, from one of whose descendants it was alienated to Sir Adam Spracklin, who sold it to one of the family of Septvans, alias Harflete, in which name it continued till within a few years after the death of king Charles I. when by a female heir Elizabeth it went in marriage to Thomas Kitchell, esq. in whose heirs it continued till it was at length, about the year 1720, alienated by one of them to Mr. Thomas Bambridge, warden of the Fleet prison, upon whose death it became vested in his heirs-at-law, Mr. James Bambridge, of the Temple, attorney at-law, and Thomas Bambridge, and they divided this estate, and that part of it allotted to the latter was soon afterwards alienated by him to Mr. Peter Moulson, of London, whose only daughter and heir carried it in marriage to Mr. Geo. Vaughan, of London, and he and the assignees of Mr. James Bambridge last mentioned, have lately joined in the conveyance of the whole fee of this manor to Mr. Joseph Solly, gent. of Sandwich, the present owner of it. There is not any court held for this manor.
In this district, and within this manor of Fleet lastmentioned, there was formerly a chapel of cose to the church of Ash, as that was to the church of Wingham, to which college, on its foundation by archbishop Peckham in 1286, the tithes, rents, obventions, &c of this chapel and district was granted by him, for the support in common of the provost and canons of it, with whom it remained till the suppression of it, anno I king Edward VI. The tithes, arising from this manor of Fleet, and the hamlet of Richborough, are now a part of the rectory of Ash, and of that particular part of it called Gilton parsonage, parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, of which further mention will be made hereafter. There have not been any remains left of it for a long time part.
Richborough is a hamlet and district of land, in the south-east part of this parish, rendered famous from the Roman fort and town built there, and more so formerly, from the port or haven close adjoining to it.
It was in general called by the Romans by the plural name of Rutupiæ; for it must be observed that the æstuary, which at that time separated the Isle of Thanet from the main land of Kent, and was the general passage for shipping,had at each mouth of it, towards the sea, a fort and haven, called jointly Rutupiæ. That at the northern part and of it being now called Reculver, and that at the eastern, being the principal one, this of Richborough.
The name of it is variously spelt in different authors. By Ptolemy it is written [Patapiaia (?)] urbem; by Tacitus, according to the best reading, Portus, Rutupensis; by Antonine, in his Itinerary, Ritupas, and Ritupis Portum; by Ammianus, Ritupiæ statio; afterwards by the Saxons, Reptacester, and now Richborough.
The haven, or Portus Rutupinus, or Richborough, was very eminent in the time of the Romans, and much celebrated in antient history, being a safe and commodious harbour, stationem ex adverso tranquillam, as Ammianus calls it, situated at the entrance of the passage towards then Thamas, and becoming the general place of setting sail from Britain to the continent, and where the Roman fleets arrived, and so large and extensive was the bay of it, that it is supposed to have extended far beyond Sandwich on the one side, almost to Ramsgate cliffs on the other, near five miles in width, covering the whole of that flat of land on which Stonar and Sandwich were afterwards built, and extending from thence up the æstuary between the Isle of Thanet and the main land. So that Antonine might well name it the Port, in his Itinerary, [Kat exochin], from there being no other of like consequence, and from this circumstance the shore for some distance on each side acquired the general name of Littus Rutupinum, the Rutupian shore. (fn. 9) Some have contended that Julius Cæsar landed at Richborough, in his expeditions into Britain; but this opinion is refuted by Dr. Hasley in Phil, Trans. No. 193, who plainly proves his place of landing to have been in the Downs. The fort of Richborough, from the similarity of the remains of it to those of Reculver, seems to have been built about the same time, and by the same emperer, Serveris, about the year 205. It stands on the high hill, close to a deep precipice eastward, at the soot of which was the haven. In this fortress, so peculiarly strengthened by its situation, the Romans had afterwards a stationary garrison, and here they had likewise a pharos, of watch tower, the like as at Reculver and other places on this coast, as well to guide the shipping into the haven, as to give notice of the approach of enemies. It is by most supposed that there was, in the time of the Romans, near the fort, in like manner as at Reculver, a city or town, on the decline of the hill, south-westward from it, according to custom, at which a colony was settled by them. Prolemy, in his geography, reckons the city Rutpia as one of the three principal cities of Kent. (fn. 10) Orosius. and Bede too, expressly mention it as such; but when the haven decayed, and there was no longer a traffic and resort to this place, the town decayed likewise, and there have not been, for many ages since, any remains whatever of it left; though quantities of coins and Roman antiquities have been sound on the spot where it is supposed to have once stood.
During the latter part of the Roman empire, when the Saxons prevented all trade by sea, and insefted these coasts by frequent robberies, the second Roman legion, called Augusta, and likewise Britannica, which had been brought out of Germany by the emperor Claudius, and had resided for many years at the Isca Silurum, in Wales, was removed and stationed here, under a president or commander, præpositus, of its own, who was subordinate to the count of the Saxon shore, and continued so till the final departure of the Romans from Britain, in the year 410, when this fortress was left in the hands of the Britons, who were afterwards dispossessed of it by the Saxons, during whose time the harbour seems to have began to decay and to swerve up, the sea by degrees entirely deserting it at this place, but still leaving one large and commodious at Sandwich, which in process of time became the usual resort for shipping, and arose a flourishing harbour in its stead, as plainly appears by the histories of those times, by all of which, both the royal Saxon fleets, as well as those of the Danes, are said to sail for the port of Sandwich, and there to lie at different times; (fn. 11) and no further mention is made by any of them of this of Rutupiæ, Reptachester, or Richborough; so that the port being thus destroyed, the town became neglected and desolate, and with the castle sunk into a heap of ruins. Leland's description of it in king Henry VIII.'s reign, is very accurate, and gives an exceeding good idea of the progressive state of its decay to that time. He says, "Ratesburg otherwyse Richeboro was, of ever the ryver of Sture dyd turn his botom or old canale, withyn the Isle of the Thanet, and by Iykelyhod the mayn se came to the very foote of the castel. The mayn se ys now of yt a myle by reason of wose, that has there swollen up. The scite of the town or castel ys wonderful fair apon an hille. The walles the wich remayn ther yet be in cumpase almost as much as the tower of London. They have bene very hye thykke stronge and wel embateled. The mater of them is flynt mervelus and long brykes both white and redde after the Britons fascion. The sement was made of se sand and smaul pible. Ther is a great lykelyhod that the goodly hil abowte the castel and especially to Sandwich ward hath bene wel inhabited. Corne groweth on the hille yn bene mervelous plenty and yn going to plowgh ther hath owt of mynde fownd and now is mo antiquities of Romayne money than yn any place els of England surely reason speketh that this should be Rutupinum. For byside that the name sumwhat toucheth, the very near passage fro Cales Clyves or Cales was to Ratesburgh and now is to Sandwich, the which is about a myle of; though now Sandwich be not celebrated by cawse of Goodwine sandes and the decay of the haven. Ther is a good flyte shot of fro Ratesburg toward Sandwich a great dyke caste in a rownd cumpas as yt had bene for sens of menne of warre. The cumpase of the grownd withyn is not much above an acre and yt is very holo by casting up the yerth. They cawle the place there Lytleborough. Withyn the castel is a lytle paroche chirch of St. Augustine and an heremitage. I had antiquities of the heremite the which is an industrious man. Not far fro the hermitage is a cave wher men have sowt and digged for treasure. I saw it by candel withyn, and ther were conys. Yt was so straite that I had no mynd to crepe far yn. In the north side of the castel ys a hedde yn the walle, now fore defaced with wether. They call it queen Bertha hedde. Nere to that place hard by the wal was a pot of Romayne mony sownd."
The ruins of this antient castle stand upon the point of a hill or promontory, about a mile north-west from Sandwich, overlooking on each side, excepting towards the west, a great flat which appears by the lowness of it, and the banks of beach still shewing themselves in different places, to have been all once covered by the sea. The east side of this hill is great part of it so high and perpendicular from the flat at the foot of it, where the river Stour now runs, that ships with the greatest burthen might have lain close to it, and there are no signs of any wall having been there; but at the north end, where the ground rises into a natural terrace, so as to render one necessary, there is about 190 feet of wall left. Those on the other three sides are for the most part standing, and much more entire than could be expected, considering the number of years since they were built, and the most so of any in the kingdom, except Silchester. It is in shape an oblong square, containing within it a space of somewhat less than five acres. They are in general about ten feet high within, but their broken tops shew them to have been still higher. The north wall, on the outside, is about twice as high as it is within, or the other two, having been carried up from the very bottom of the hill, and it seems to have been somewhat longer than it is at present, by some pieces of it sallen down at the east end. The walls are about eleven feet thick. In the middle of the west side is the aperture of an entrance, which probably led to the city or town, and on the north side is another, being an entrance obliquely into the castle. Near the middle of the area are the ruins of some walls, full of bushes and briars, which seem as if some one had dug under ground among them, probably where once stood the prætorium of the Roman general, and where a church or chapel was afterwards erected, dedicated to St. Augustine, and taken notice of by Leland as such in his time. It appears to have been a chapel of ease to the church of Ash, for the few remaining inhabitants of this district, and is mentioned as such in the grant of the rectory of that church, anno 3 Edward VI. at which time it appears to have existed. About a furlong to the south, in a ploughed field, is a large circular work, with a hollow in the middle, the banks of unequal heights, which is supposed to have been an amphitheatre, built of turf, for the use of the garrison, the different heights of the banks having been occasioned by cultivation, and the usual decay, which must have happened from so great a length of time. These stations of the Romans, of which Richborough was one, were strong fortifications, for the most part of no great compass or extent, wherein were barracks for the loding of the soldiers, who had their usual winter quarters in them. Adjoining, or at no great distance from them, there were usually other, buildings forming a town; and such a one was here at Richborough, as has been already mentioned before, to which the station or fort was in the nature of a citadel, where the soldiers kept garrison. To this Tacitus seems to allude, when he says, "the works that in time of peace had been built, like a free town, not far from the camp, were destroyed, left they should be of any service to the enemy." (fn. 12) Which in great measure accounts for there being no kind of trace or remains left, to point out where this town once stood, which had not only the Romans, according to the above observation, but the Saxons and Danes afterwards, to carry forward at different æras the total destruction of it.
The burial ground for this Roman colony and station of Richborough, appears to have been on the hill at the end of Gilton town, in this parish, about two miles south-west from the castle, and the many graves which have been continually dug up there, in different parts of it, shew it to have been of general use for that purpose for several ages.
The scite of the castle at Richborough was part of the antient inheritance of the family of the Veres, earls of Oxford, from which it was alienated in queen Elizabeth's reign to Gaunt; after which it passed, in like manner as Wingham Barton before-described, to Thurbarne, and thence by marriage to Rivett, who sold it to Farrer, from whom it was alienated to Peter Fector, esq. of Dover, the present possessor of it. In the deed of conveyance it is thus described: And also all those the walls and ruins of the antient castle of Rutupium, now known by the name of Richborough castle, with the scite of the antient port and city of Rutupinum, being on and near the lands before-mentioned. About the walls of Richborough grows Fæniculum valgare, common fennel, in great plenty.
It may be learned from the second iter of Antonine's Itinerary, that there was once a Roman road, or highway from Canterbury to the port of Richborough, in which iter the two laft stations are, from Durovernum, Canterbury, to Richborough, ad portum Rutupis, xii miles; in which distance all the different copies of the Itinerary agree. Some parts of this road can be tracted at places at this time with certainty; and by the Roman burial-ground, usually placed near the side of a high road, at Gilton town, and several other Roman vestigia thereabouts, it may well be supposed to have led from Canterbury through that place to Richborough, and there is at this time from Goldston, in Ash, across the low-grounds to it, a road much harder and broader than usual for the apparent use of it, which might perhaps be some part of it.
Charities.
A person unknown gave four acres and an half of land, in Chapman-street, of the annual produce of 5l. towards the church assessments.
Thomas St. Nicholas, esq. of this parish, by deed about the year 1626, gave an annuity of 11. 5s. to be paid from his estate of Hoden, now belonging to the heirs of Nathaniel Elgar, esq. to be distributed yearly, 10s. to the repairing and keeping clean the Toldervey monument in this church, and 15s. on Christmas-day to the poor.
John Proude, the elder, of Ash, yeoman, by his will in 1626, ordered that his executor should erect upon his land adjoining to the church-yard, a house, which should be disposed of in future by the churchwardens and overseers, for a school-house, and for a storehouse, to lay in provision for the church and poor. This house is now let at 1l. per annum, and the produce applied to the use of the poor.
Richard Camden, in 1642, gave by will forty perches of land, for the use of the poor, and of the annual produce of 15s. now vested in the minister and churchwardens.
Gervas Cartwright, esq. and his two sisters, in 1710 and 1721, gave by deed an estate, now of the yearly value of 50l. for teaching fifty poor children to read, write, &c. vested in the minister, churchwardens, and other trustees.
The above two sisters, Eleanor and Anne Cartwright, gave besides 100l. for beautifying the chancel, and for providing two large pieces of plate for the communion service; and Mrs. Susan Robetts added two other pieces of plate for the same purpose.
There is a large and commodious workhouse lately built, for the use of the poor, to discharge the expence of which, 100l. is taken yearly out of the poor's rate, till the whole is discharged. In 1604, the charges of the poor were 29l. 15s. 11d. In 1779. 1000l.
There is a charity school for boys and girls, who are educated, but not cloathed.
The poor constantly relieved are about seventy-five, casually fifty-five.
This parish is within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the dioceseof Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a handsome building, of the form of a cross, consisting of two isles and two chancels, and a cross sept, having a tall spire steeple in the middle, in which are eight bells and a clock. It is very neat and handsome in the inside. In the high or south chancel is a monument for the Roberts's, arms, Argent, three pheons, sable, on a chief of the second, a greybound current of the first; another for the Cartwrights, arms, Or, a fess embattled, between three catherine wheels, sable. In the north wall is a monument for one of the family of Leverick, with his effigies, in armour, lying cross-legged on it; and in the same wall, westward, is another like monument for Sir John Goshall, with his effigies on it, in like manner, and in a hollow underneath, the effigies of his wife, in her head-dress, and wimple under her chin. A gravestone, with an inscription, and figure of a woman with a remarkable high high-dress, the middle part like a horseshoe inverted, for Jane Keriell, daughter of Roger Clitherow. A stone for Benjamin Longley, LL. B. minister of Ash twenty-nine years, vicar of Eynsford and Tonge, obt. 1783. A monument for William Brett, esq. and Frances his wife. The north chancel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, belongs to the manor of Molland. Against the north wall is a tomb, having on it the effigies of a man and woman, lying at full length, the former in armour, and sword by his side, but his head bare, a collar of SS about his neck, both seemingly under the middle age, but neither arms nor inscription, but it was for one of the family of Harflete, alias Septvans; and there are monuments and several memorials and brasses likewise for that family. A memorial for Thomas Singleton, M. D. of Molland, obt. 1710. One for John Brooke, of Brookestreet, obt. 1582, s. p. arms, Per bend, two eagles.—Several memorials for the Pekes, of Hills-court, and for Masters, of Goldstone. A monument for Christopher Toldervy, of Chartham, obt. 1618. A memorial for Daniel Hole, who, as well as his ancestors, had lived upwards of one hundred years at Goshall, as occupiers of it. In the north cross, which was called the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, was buried the family of St. Nicholas. The brass plates of whom, with their arms, are still to be seen. A tablet for Whittingham Wood, gent. obt. 1656. In the south cross, a monument for Richard Hougham, gent. of Weddington, and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Edward Sanders, gent. of Norborne. An elegant monument for Mary, wife of Henry Lowman, esq. of Dortnued, in Germany. She died in 1737, and he died in 1743. And for lieutenant colonel Christopher Ernest Kien, obt. 1744, and Jane his wife, their sole daughter and heir, obt. 1762, and for Evert George Cousemaker, esq. obt. 1763, all buried in a vault underneath, arms, Or, on a mount vert, a naked man, bolding a branch in his hand, proper, impaling per bend sinister, argent and gules, a knight armed on borjeback, holding a tilting spear erect, the point downwards, all counterchanged. On the font is inscribed, Robert Minchard, arms, A crescent, between the points of it a mullet. Several of the Harfletes lie buried in the church-yard, near the porch, but their tombs are gone. On each side of the porch are two compartments of stone work, which were once ornamented with brasses, most probably in remembrance of the Harfleets, buried near them. At the corner of the church-yard are two old tombs, supposed for the family of Alday.
In the windows of the church were formerly several coats of arms, and among others, of Septvans, alias Harflete, Notbeame, who married Constance, widow of John Septvans; Brooke, Ellis, Clitherow, Oldcastle, Keriell, and Hougham; and the figures of St. Nicholas, Keriell, and Hougham, kneeling, in their respective surcoats of arms, but there is not any painted glass left in any part of the church or chancels.
John Septvans, about king Henry VII.'s reign, founded a chantry, called the chantry of the upper Hall, as appears by the will of Katherine Martin, of Faversham, sometime his wife, in 1497. There was a chantry of our blessed Lady, and another of St. Stephen likewise, in it; both suppressed in the 1st year of king Edward VI. when the former of them was returned to be of the clear yearly certified value of 15l. 11s. 1½d. (fn. 13)
The church of Ash was antiently a chapel of east to that of Wingham, and was, on the foundation of the college there in 1286, separated from it, and made a distinct parish church of itself, and then given to the college, with the chapels likewise of Overland and Fleet, in this parish, appurtenant to this church; which becoming thus appropriated to the college, continued with it till the suppression of it in king Edward VI.'s reign, when this part of the rectory or parsonage appropriate, called Overland parsonage, with the advowson of the church, came, with the rest of the possessions of the college, into the hands of the crown, where the advowson of the vicarage, or perpetual curacy of it did not remain long, for in the year 1558, queen Mary granted it, among others, to the archbishop. But the above-mentioned part of the rectory, or parsonage appropriate of Ash, with those chapels, remained in the crown, till queen Elizabeth, in her 3d year, granted it in exchange to archbishop Parker, who was before possessed of that part called Goldston parsonage, parcel of the late dissolved priory of St. Gregory, by grant from king Henry VIII. so that now this parish is divided into two distinct parsonages, viz. of Overland and of Goldston, which are demised on separate beneficial leases by the archbishop, the former to the heirs of Parker, and the latter, called Gilton parsonage, from the house and barns of it being situated in that hamlet, to George Gipps, esq. M. P. for Canterbury. The patronage of the perpetual curacy remains parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury.
¶At the time this church was appropriated to the college of Wingham, a vicarage was endowed in it, which after the suppression of the college came to be esteemed as a perpetual curacy. It is not valued in the king's books. The antient stipend paid by the provost, &c. to the curate being 16l. 13s. 4d. was in 1660, augmented by archbishop Juxon with the addition of 33l. 6s. 8d. per annum; and it was afterwards further augmented by archbishop Sheldon, anno 28 Charles II. with twenty pounds per annum more, the whole to be paid by the several lessees of these parsonages. Which sum of seventy pounds is now the clear yearly certified value of it. In 1588 here were communicants five hundred; in 1640, eight hundred and fifty. So far as appears by the registers, the increase of births in this parish is almost double to what they were two hundred years ago.
Thankfully my cold is much better today but as a consequence I've done a lot more today, indeed I even got the lawn mower out and also wasted a hour in the o2 shop trying to get some money out of them, it seems the system works very smoothly when they want you to buy something but when it's a refund it's like climbing through hoops and pulling out hen's teeth. I'm not quite fit yet so after all my exertions it has all caught up with me so no exciting post tonight just Jojo with her hands in her pockets.
Knowing what to do or where to go at weekends is now easy, I just consult the list of churches and pick a group close at random, and we can load up the car and go.
Main issue is that most of the churches on the list are now in west and north Kent, meaning a bit of a hike to get there, and on top of that, not knowing if your target will be open.
So, with the three churches chosen, postcodes noted, we can prepare for the morning.
Make coffee, feed the cats, fill up the bird feeders and make bacon butties to give us a decent start to the day.
Saturday was dark and gloomy, not a good day perhaps to do church crawling, but what else is there: too gloomy certainly for wildflowers, those that are out. And the flat light, can be good for photography in churches. At least that is what I tell myself.
Off up the A20 to Folkestone, and from there up the motorway, where, after Ashford, Highways England are removing the Operation Brock contraflow barriers. Now, I know I said no more Brexit, but an observation here: Kent MPs lobbied the PM to have these removed as it was a major pain for locals, but the threat of no deal and/or traffic jams caused by increased paperwork check is higher now, and the hundreds of thousands now being spent taking the barriers down could be spent again putting it back up later in the year.
In Brexit, anything is possible.
But back to the churchcrawling.
We turn off at Maidstone, go through Leeds up the down, where along the ridge there are a series of churches overlooking the low-laying land to the south, where the churches served a series of impressive houses set in sloping parkland. From Leeds through Sutton to the two Boughtons, at east half a dozen churches stand looking down on west Kent.
Eighteen months ago, I visited the two Boughtons, and also East Sutton, not realising there were two other churches in Sutton: Valence and Chart. I passed Sutton Valence just as a vintage Rolls depsosited a bride at the lych gate on the "main road". So, no point in trying to crawl that back on the warm September afternoon, but was on my list since then for a return.
And here we were.
The sat nav took us down a narrow lane, with a space large enough to abandon the car in, while I get my gear and walk to the church, trailing behind JOols who had gone to check the door. I get the thumbs up to indicate it was open.
Good news.
Sadly, the church has been stripped of most of its character and history. It is a fine church, nothing wrong with it, but few monuments, no brasses, no medieval features, so my job of recording it was completed in a few minutes. Another tick in the box done, though.
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Stunningly situated on the Greensand Way, yet not altogether enjoying the views, this church is more interesting than beautiful. Incorporating part of a late fifteenth century structure (chancel piers and transept arches) this is predominantly an 1820s church built wide and tall to fit in galleries which were the norm. A blocked door from the tower stairs would have led into the southernmost gallery. Then the in the nineteenth century Mr Habershon, architect to the establishment, Gothicised the church by removing the galleries and fitting arcades to form aisles. He also added tracery to the windows and tried to create a medieval space. It is not unsuccessful. The only weak part is the chancel which ahs a canted apse which speaks of its pre-Ecclesiological origins. The font survives from the medieval church as does a fine thirteenth century coffin lid in the north aisle. Recent redecoration of red carpet and red ceiling has successfully linked the two elements and created a most welcoming and cared for building.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sutton+Valence
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TOWN SUTTON, ALIAS SUTTON VALENCE,
IS the next parish eastward from Chart Sutton. It has the name of Valence from that eminent family, who continued long owners of it, and is called Town Sutton from the largeness of the village or town of it, in comparison of those of the adjoining parishes of the same name.
THE PARISH of Town Sutton is situated much like that of Chart Sutton last described, and the soil the same, being about the hill, the quarry stone covered with a thin loam, fertile for corn, fruit and hops; above it a red earth mixed with flints, and below the hill a stiff clay, rendered more prolific by the mixture of marle with it. The village, now a poor mean place, is situated a little lower than the summit of the quarry hill, having the church at the west end of it; the manor-house stands on the small green adjoining the church-yard, having an extensive view over the country southward. The road from Chart to East Sutton, of but little traffic, leads through the village, and another crosses it from Langley down the hill into the Weald; at a small distance below the village is Sutton-place and the parsonage, and below the foot of the hill the little manor of Forsham, formerly the estate of the Austens, baronets, beyond which this parish extends southward across a low flat country, deep, wet, and miry, till it joins that of Hedcorne; above the village it joins to Kingswood, part of which is within it.
On the brow of the hill at a small distance eastward from the village, and adjoining to the parsonage-yard, stand the venerable ruins of SUTTON CASTLE, now almost covered with ivy, and the branches of the trees which sprout out from the walls of it. What remains of it seems, to have been the keep or dungeon of this fortress, two separate rooms of which are still in being; and by the cavities where the joists have been laid into the walls, appear to have been at least a story higher than they are at present. The remains of the walls are more than three feet in thickness, and about twenty feet high, and have loop-holes for arrows at proper distances; they are composed of the quarry stone and flint mixed, together with some few thin bricks or paying tiles interspersed throughout. The whole appears to have been exceeding strong, though of very rude workmanship; and seems to have been built in the time of the barons wars, most likely by one of the family of Valence, earls of Pembroke, whilst the church and its demesnes yet remained as appendages to their manor of Sutton Valence, and the part of their possessions. It stands high, commanding a most extensive view over the adjacent country southward, and was most probably made use of as a place of defence for the partizans of the lords of it, to make their excursions from, and retreat again to, when likely to be overpowered by their enemies. Fronting the title of this volume is a view of it in its present state.
Kilburne imagines the sea came up this valley underneath Sutton castle, which he supposes to have been built when it did so; and he seems to be confirmed in that opinion by an anchor's having been found not far below it, in the memory of some men then living.
A fair is kept in this village yearly, on the day of St. Edmond the king, on the 20th of November.
THIS PLACE was given by William the Conqueror, on his obtaining the crown of this realm, to his halfbrother Odo, bishop of Baieux; it having been part of the possessions of Leoswine, a younger brother of king Harold, who was slain fighting on his brother's part, at the fatal battle of Hastings; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of the bishop's lands, in the survey of Domesday:
Adam Fitzhubert holds of the bishop of Baieux, Sudtone. It was taxed at two sulings. The arable land is seven carucates. In demesne there are two, and eighteen villeins, with five borders, having four carucates. There is a church and four acres of meadow, and one mill. Wood for fifty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth twelve pounds, when he received it ten pounds, now fourteen pounds, and yet it pays eighteen pounds. Earl Leuuin held it.
Four years after the taking this survey, the bishop was disgraced, and this among the rest of his possessions was confiscated to the crown. After which it became the property of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albermarle, who in the 5th year of king John's reign, granted this manor, among others in this county, to William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, with Alice his daughter, in frank marriage.
In the 10th year of king Henry III. he again married Alianore, the king's sister, and in the 14th year of that reign had a confirmation of this manor, upon condition that Alianore his wife, if she survived him, should enjoy it during her life. He died in the 15th year of that reign, s. p. on which the Sheriff had the king's precept to deliver possession of it to his widow. She afterwards re-married Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, who was slain in the 49th year of that reign, fighting on the part of the discontented barons, at the battle of Evesham; after which, the countess Alianore and her children were forced to forsake the realm, and she died sometime afterwards in the nunnery of Montarges, in France.
In the mean time the four brothers of William, earl of Pembroke, successively earls of Pembroke, being dead s. p. their inheritance became divided between the heirs of their five sisters, when the manor of Sutton was allotted among others, to Joane, the second sister, then the widow of Warine de Montchensie, (fn. 1) by whom she had one son William, and a daughter Joane, married to William de Valence, the king's half-brother, who in her right became possessed of it. He died in the 23d year of king Edward I. leaving Joane his widow surviving, who had this manor assigned to her as part of her dowry, when it was found to be held of the king in capite, and that it was of the king's marechasly. She left one son, Adomar, or Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, and three daughters,
Aymer, earl of Pembroke, the son, on her death became possessed of this manor. He was murdered in France in the 17th year of king Edward II. being then possessed of this manor of Sutton Valence, for so it was now usually called, and leaving no issue by either of his wives, for he was three times married, his three sisters above-mentioned became his coheirs; of whom Isabel married to John de Hastings, of Bergavenny, seems to have had this manor allotted to her, as part of her share in the inheritance. In consequence of this match, the arms of Hastings quartering Valence, were put up by some of his descendants on the roof of Canterbury cloysters, where they now remain. She was then a widow, her husband having deceased in the 6th year of that reign, leaving John de Hastings his son and heir; who likewise died anno 18 Edward II. leaving no issue by Juliana de Leyborne his then wife. But by his former wife he had one son, Lawrence, who was in the 13th year of king Edward III. made earl of Pembroke, by reason of his descent from Isabel, the eldest sister and coheir of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke; and he died possessed of this manor in the 22d year of that reign, as did his grandson John, earl of Pembroke, s. p. in the 13th year of king Richard II. about which time I find this manor stiled in some records the manor of Sutton Hastings, which name however it soon dropped, and resumed its former one of Valence. Philippa, countess of Pembroke, survived her husband, and afterwards re-married Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, and died in the possession of this manor in the 2d year of king Henry IV. she then bearing the title of countess of Pembroke, when Reginald lord Grey, of Ruthin, became entitled to it, as next of kin, and heir of Aymer, earl of Pembroke; and as such, at the coronation of king Henry the IVth, he carried the great golden spurs. After which being taken prisoner in Wales, by Owen Glendower, he was obliged to give ten thousand marcs for his ransom. To raise which, king Henry in his 4th year, granted licence to Robert Braybrooke, bishop of London, and others, feoffees of several of Reginald's lordships, to sell this manor among others towards the raising of that sum.
They sold it soon afterwards, as it should seem, to St. Leger, for Juliana, widow of Thomas St. Leger, esq. of Otterden, died possessed of it in the 5th year of the next regin of king Henry the Vth. Soon after which it became the property of William Clifford, esq. son of Sir Lewis Clifford, descended from the Cliffords, of Clifford-castle, in Herefordshire, who bore for his arms, Chequy or and azure on a fess gules, a crescent for difference, all within a bordure argent. He was sheriff in the 4th and 13th years of king Henry the VIth, and died three years afterwards, leaving by Eleanor his wife, sister and sole heir of Arnold Savage, esq. of Bobbing, two sons, Lewis and John, of whom Lewis Clifford, the eldest son, died in his life time, leaving a son Alexander, who was of Bobbing, esq. and on his mother's death, in the 19th year of Henry VI. succeeded to this manor. After which it continued in his name down to his grandson Nicholas Clifford, who leaving a sole daughter and heir, Mildred, she carried it in marriage to Sir George Harpur, (fn. 2) who resided at Sutton Valence, where he kept his shrievalty in the 2d year of king Edward VI. and in the windows of the manor house were formerly the coats of arms of the family of Clifford, and their several matches; and among others of Clifford impaling Culpeper, Savage, and Bourne. On the gateway was carved Clifford impaling Isley, quartering Fremingham, and a shield of Isley quartering Fremingham. In the windows of the hall was the coat of Harpur, Argent, a lion rampant sable, within a bordure engrailed of the second, with all its quarterings, and the same impaling Gaynsford, and a coat, Argent, a saltier gules, within a border sable, Bezantee, for De La Poyle. After his death she remarried Sir Edward Moore, who afterwards settled at Mellefont, in Ireland. By her first husband she left a son Edward, who was knighted, and by her second she had several children.
¶She seems to have entitled both her husbands to the possession of this manor during her life, after which it became the property of her son Sir Edward Harpur, who alienated it to Sir Edward Hales, knight and baronet, who died possessed of it in 1654, upon which it came to his grandson and heir, Sir Edward Hales, bart. whose trustees sold it in 1670 to Sir William Drake, of Agmondesham, in Buckinghamshire, and he settled part of it in jointure in 1675, on Elizabeth his wife, daughter, and at length sole heir of William Montague, chief baron of the exchequer, their son, Montague Drake, esq. of Agmondesham, left by Mary, sole daughter and heir of Sir John Gerrard, bart. of Hertfordshire, a son Montague Gerrard Drake, whose trustees, during his infancy, anno 5 queen Anne, having procured an act for that purpose, in 1708 sold this manor with the demesnes, and other estates in this and the adjoining parishes (excepting such of them as were in jointure to dame Elizabeth, widow of Sir William Drake as above mentioned, then the wife of Samuel Trotman, esq. of Siston, in Gloucestershire) to Sir Christopher Desbouverie, of Chart Sutton, (fn. 3) who afterwards in 1720, purchased of Montague Gerrard Drake, esq. the remainder of his estates which had been settled in jointure on his mother as above-mentioned, and so became possessed of the entire fee of them. He died possessed of this manor in 1733, and was buried at Beechworth, in Surry. Since which this manor has descended in like manner as those of Langley and Chart before described, to his youngest daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Bouverie, now of Teston, the present owner of it. A court leet and court baron is held for this manor.
But though this manor, on the division of Sir Christopher Desbouverie's estates between his two daughters and coheirs, after the death of their two brothers, who both died s. p. was allotted to the youngest, Elizabeth, yet several farms and lands in the out-parts of this and the adjoining parishes, were allotted to the eldest daughter Anne, married to John Hervey, esq. afterwards of Beechworth, which on his death descended to his only son Christopher Hervey, esq.
It should be noticed here, that in the 10th year of king George II. an act passed enabling the family of Desbouverie to use the surname of Bouverie only, in pursuance to the desire of Jacob Desbouverie, esq. and Sir Christopher Desbouverie, deceased.
Charities.
WILLIAM LAMBE, sometime a gentleman of the chapel to king Henry VIII. and a great favorite of that prince, was of the company of cloth-workers, in London, and among many other extensive charities, out of his great love for learning, and for the place where he was born, erected in 1578, at his own proper costs and charges, a free grammer school, in this parish, for the education and instruction of youth, allowing yearly to the moster 20l. and 10l. yearly to the usher from time to time, as either place should be supplied by succession, and to the former a good house and garden to reside in.
MR. GEORGE MAPLESDEN, in 1713, left by will 5l. per annum for 30 English usher, to be appointed by the master of the school.
THERE ARE LIKEWISE two exhibitions of ten pounds per annum each, given to St. John's college, in Cambridge, by will in 1720, by the Rev. Francis Robbins, B. D. who had been fellow of that college, for the benefit of two scholars educated at this school.
The Rev. John Griffin is the present master of this school.
MR. WILLIAM LAMBE, above-mentioned, also founded in the village of Town Sutton six alms-houses, having an orchard and gardens to them, for the benefit of six poor inhabitants of this parish, and allotted the sum of ten pounds to be divided among them yearly, and entrusted the company of cloth-workers with the estates and direction of these charities. By some means 6l. of the above sum has been some-time with-held, and 4l. only is paid yearly. The poor inhabitants are usually appointed by the master of the school. The arms of the founder, being a fess between three cinquefoils, are carved in stone on the front of the alms-houses.
THE REV. MR. ROBBINS above-mentioned, left likewise 3l. to be paid yearly on March 11, to the poor of this parish, by the church-wardens, vested in Mrs. Felicia and Elizabeth Smith.
TOWN SUTTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sutton, to which it was once so considerable as to give name.
The church which stands at a small distance westward from the village, is dedicated to St. Mary. It is a handsome church, the steeple stands on the north side of it, and had a high spire on it formerly, the upper half of which having been burnt down by lightning, it is at that part flat and covered with lead.
This church was antiently an appendage to the manor of Sutton Valence, in which state it continued down to John de Hastings, earl of Pembroke, lord of that manor, who died possessed of it in the 49th year of king Edward II. as appears by the escheat rolls of that year. Soon after which it must have passed into the possession of the priory of Leeds; for in the 2d year of the next reign of king Richard II. that king granted his licence to the above-mentioned priory, to appropriate this church; and it was confirmed to the priory by patents of the 18th and 20th years of king Henry VI. when at the request of the prior and cannons there, the parish church of East Sutton, likewise of their patronage, was united to this church, to which it has been ever since esteemed as a chapel.
On the dissolution of the priory of Leeds in the reign of king Henry VIII. this parsonage, with the advowson of the vicarage, and the chapel of East Sutton annexed, came into the hands of the crown, where it did not continue long, for the king settled it in his 32d year on his new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, part of whose inheritance it still remains.
The parsonage, with the manor annexed to it, has been for many years held in lease from the dean and chapter, by the family of Payne. Edward Payne, esq. of London, who has been already mentioned before, died in 1794, possessed of the lease of it, and his heirs are now entitled to it.
The advowson of the vicarage is reserved by the dean and chapter in their own hands.
¶On the abolition of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles the 1st, this parsonage was surveyed by order of the state in 1649, when it was returned, that the parsonage of Sutton Valence, with the rights of it, and the manor or parsonage-house, three barns, a stable, and several other necessary outhouses, with a yard, garden and orchard, containing by estimation two roods, together with the tithes, were altogether worth sixty pounds per annum. All which were let by the late dean and chapter, anno 16 Charles I. to Thomas Shipton, gent. for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of fourteen pounds, and one quarter of wheat, two quarters of oats, and one good brawn every Christmas; which rent was valued at 18l. 16s. and that the premises were worth upon improvement over and above the said rent 56l. 2s. per annum.
The vicarage of Sutton Valence is endowed with all tithes whatsoever, except corn and hay. It is valued in the king's books at 7l. 9s. 7d. and the yearly tenths at 14s. 11½d.
In 1640 it was valued at seventy-three pounds. Communicants, 226.
The vicar of Sutton Valence serves the cure of the church of East Sutton, as a chapel annexed to it; and as such is entitled to the vicarial tithes of that parish in right of his vicarage, he being presented and inducted to the vicarage of Sutton Valence, with the chapel of East Sutton annexed.
Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit is calling it a “DOTUC fee,” for Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences, and the airline says it covers costs to the airline for holding fares 24 hours after booking without penalty.
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......item 1) .... Las Vegas Sun News ... www.lasvegassun.com/news .... TRANSPORTATION:
Spirit Airlines says DOT ignoring cost impact to customers, adds ‘unintended consequences’ fee
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img code photo .... A Spirit Airlines jet
photos.lasvegassun.com/media/img/photos/2011/08/26/scaled...
A Spirit Airlines jet takes off from McCarran International Airport on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011.
Sam Morris
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FEBRUARY 2, 2012
By Richard N. Velotta (contact)
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 | 3:13 p.m.
www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jan/31/spirit-airlines-says...
The battle between discount air carrier Spirit Airlines and the U.S. Department of Transportation escalated today with the airline — the fastest growing carrier at McCarran International Airport last year — adding a new $2 fee to ticket prices to cover costs associated with new consumer regulations that took effect last week.
Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit is calling it a “DOTUC fee,” for Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences, and the airline says it covers costs to the airline for holding fares 24 hours after booking without penalty.
The Department of Transportation ordered new consumer protection rules that took effect on Thursday. Spirit, Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air, all prominent operators at McCarran, have been the most vocal in their displeasure with the rules.
Spirit’s passenger counts at McCarran grew by 228 percent last year over 2010. Southwest is the busiest carrier at McCarran while Las Vegas-based Allegiant is poised to grow substantially in 2012 after having a 6.4 percent increase in local passengers last year.
The new rules order airlines to include all taxes and fees when advertising or displaying costs of airfares. Airlines don’t have to disclose fees that may not apply to all travelers, such as baggage and booking fees. The rules also order airlines to hold passengers’ fares when booking and allow them to be canceled or changed without penalty for 24 hours.
“People love the idea of not having to commit to a reservation, but this regulation, like most, imposes costs on consumers,” Spirit President and CEO Ben Baldanza said in a company release issued today.
“Wouldn’t we all like to eat all we want and not get fat?” Baldanza said. “Regulators like to try to sell the idea of this rule but have ignored the cost impact to consumers. You simply can’t eat all you want without consequences.”
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img code photo ... Senate Ethics Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
photos.lasvegassun.com/media/img/photos/2011/05/12/AP1105...
Senate Ethics Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is pursued by reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 12, 2011, after speaking on the Senate floor about former Nevada Sen. John Ensign.
AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
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Baldanza was on the receiving end of a scathing letter from Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, who criticized Spirit for emailing customers and telling them the government is encouraging airlines to hide federal taxes. It is Spirit’s contention that by requiring airlines to display the full cost of a ticket that customers won’t see how much of it is taxes and fees and how much of it is the airline’s fare.
“I have been shocked by the failure of your airline to tell the truth in an email sent to your customers earlier this week as well as warnings posted on Spirit.com that read, ‘New government regulations require us to HIDE taxes in your fares.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” Boxer wrote.
“What the rule says is that you have to tell your customers the full cost of a ticket," she continued. "It prohibits Spirit or any other airline from advertising fares ‘that exclude taxes, fees or other charges since the major impact of such presentations is to confuse and deceive consumers.’
“And despite Spirit's claim that the airline must now hide relevant information, the rule ‘allows carriers to advise the public in their fare solicitations about government taxes and fees ...’
“Today's consumers are faced with many options when planning air travel, and being able to compare the full price before purchase is both necessary and fair. Your recent statement that ‘the better form of transparency is to break out costs so that consumers know exactly what they are buying’ is exactly what this new DOT rule will help do,” her letter said.
Airlines like Spirit, Southwest and Allegiant are more sensitive to the new rules because they traditionally have offered lower fares and the displays that include taxes and fees come across as sticker shock to potential customers.
Spirit and Allegiant have business models that offer greatly discounted fares but numerous fees for baggage, booking by phone or online and for seat selection. Southwest fares appear higher with taxes and fees, but its counterparts don’t have to disclose bag fees it doesn’t have.
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