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The Postcard

 

A postally unused carte postale published by F. David, 21 Rue des Réservoirs, Versailles.

 

The Palace of Fontainebleau

 

The Palace of Fontainebleau, or Château de Fontainebleau, is located 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the centre of Paris.

 

The castle and subsequent palace served as a residence for French monarchs from Louis VII to Napoleon III.

 

Francis I and Napoleon were the monarchs who had the most influence on the Palace as it stands today.

 

It became a national museum in 1927, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for its unique architecture and historical importance.

 

The Medieval Palace

 

The earliest record of a fortified castle at Fontainebleau dates to 1137. It became a favorite residence and hunting lodge of the Kings of France because of the abundant game and many springs in the surrounding forest.

 

Fontainebleau took its name from one of the springs, la Fontaine de Bliaud, located now in the English Garden, next to the wing of Louis XV.

 

Fontainebleau was used by King Louis VII, for whom Thomas Becket consecrated the chapel in 1169; also by Philip II; by Louis IX (later canonised as Saint Louis), who built a hospital and a convent, the Couvent des Trinitaires, next to the castle; and by Philip IV, who was born and died in the castle.

 

The Renaissance Château of Francis I (1528–1547)

 

In the 15th. century some modifications and embellishments were made to the castle by Isabeau of Bavaria, the wife of King Charles VI, but the medieval structure remained essentially intact until the reign of Francis I (1494–1547).

 

He commissioned the architect Gilles Le Breton to build a palace in the new Renaissance style, recently imported from Italy. Le Breton preserved the old medieval donjon, where the King's apartments were located, but incorporated it into the new Renaissance-style Cour Ovale, built on the foundations of the old castle.

 

It included the monumental Porte Dorée, as its southern entrance. as well as a monumental Renaissance stairway, the Portique de Serlio, to give access the royal apartments on the north side.

 

Beginning in about 1528, Francis constructed the Galerie François I, which allowed him to pass directly from his apartments to the chapel of the Trinitaires. He brought the architect Sebastiano Serlio from Italy, and the Florentine painter Rosso Fiorentino, to decorate the new gallery.

 

Between 1533 and 1539 Fiorentino filled the gallery with murals glorifying the King, framed in stucco ornament in high relief, and panelling sculpted by the furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi.

 

Another Italian painter, Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna, joined later in the decoration of the palace. Together their style of decoration became known as the first School of Fontainebleau. This was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Fontainebleau introduced the Renaissance to France.

 

In about 1540, Francis began another major addition to the château. Using land on the east side of the Château purchased from the order of the Trinitaires, he began to build a new square of buildings around a large courtyard.

 

The Château was surrounded by a new park in the style of the Italian Renaissance garden, with pavilions and the first grotto in France.

 

The Château of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici (1547–1570)

 

Following the death of Francis I, King Henry II decided to continue and expand the Château. The King and his wife chose the architects Philibert de l'Orme and Jean Bullant to do the work.

 

They extended the east wing of the lower court and decorated it with the first famous horseshoe-shaped staircase which was built between 1547 and 1559. The staircase was subsequently re-built for Louis XIII by Jean Androuet du Cerceau in about 1632-1634.

 

In the Oval Court, they transformed the loggia planned by Francois into a Salle des Fêtes or grand ballroom with a coffered ceiling. Facing the courtyard of the fountain and the fish pond, they designed a new building, the Pavillon des Poeles (destroyed), to contain the new apartments of the King.

 

The decoration of the new ballroom and the gallery of Ulysses with murals by Francesco Primaticcio and sculptured stucco continued.

 

At Henri's orders the Nymphe de Fontainebleau by Benvenuto Cellini was installed at the gateway entrance of Château d'Anet, the domain of Henri's primary mistress Diane de Poitiers (the original bronze lunette is now in the Musée du Louvre, with a replica in place).

 

Following the death of Henry II in a jousting accident, his widow, Catherine de' Medici, continued the construction and decoration of the château. She named Primaticcio as the new superintendent of royal public works.

 

He designed the section known today as the wing of the Belle Cheminée, noted for its elaborate chimneys and its two opposing stairways. In 1565, as a security measure due to the Wars of Religion, she also had moat dug around the château to protect it against attack.

 

Château of Henry IV (1570–1610)

 

King Henry IV made more additions to the château than any King since Francis I. He extended the oval court toward the west by building two pavilions, called Tiber and Luxembourg.

 

Between 1601 and 1606, he remade all the façades around the courtyard, including that of the chapel of Saint-Saturnin, to give the architecture greater harmony. On the east side, he built a new monumental domed gateway, the Porte du Baptistère.

 

Between 1606 and 1609, he built a new courtyard, the Cour des Offices or Quartier Henry IV, to provide a place for the kitchens as well as residences for court officials.

 

Two new galleries, the Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the Galerie des Cerfs, were built to enclose the old garden of Diane. He also added a large Jeu de Paume, or indoor tennis court, the largest such court in the world.

 

A Second School of Fontainebleau painters and decorators went to work on the interiors. The architect Martin Fréminet created the ornate chapel of the Trinity, while the painters Ambroise Dubois and Toussaint Dubreuil created a series of heroic paintings for the salons. A new wing, named after its central building, La Belle Cheminée, was built next to the large carp pond.

 

Henry IV also devoted great attention to the park and gardens around the Château. The garden of the Queen or garden of Diane, created by Catherine de' Medici, with the fountain of Diane in the centre, was located on the north side of the palace.

 

Henry IV's gardener, Claude Mollet, who trained at Château d'Anet, created a large parterre of flower beds, decorated with ancient statues and separated by paths into large squares.

 

The fountain of Diana and the grotto were made by Tommaso Francini, who may also have designed the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden for Marie de Medici.

 

On the south side, Henry created a park, planted with pines, elms and fruit trees, and laid out a grand canal 1200 meters long, sixty years before Louis XIV built his own grand canal at Versailles.

 

The Château from Louis XIII through Louis XVI

 

King Louis XIII was born and baptized in the Château, and continued the works begun by his father. He completed the decoration of the chapel of the Trinity, and assigned the court architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau to re-construct the horseshoe stairway on the courtyard that had become known as the Cour de Cheval Blanc.

 

After his death, his widow, Anne of Austria, re-decorated the apartments within the Wing of the Queen Mothers (Aile des Reines Mères) next to the Court of the Fountain, designed by Primatrice.

 

King Louis XIV spent more days at Fontainebleau than any other monarch. He liked to hunt there every year at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

 

He made few changes to the exterior of the Château, but did build a new apartment for his companion Madame de Maintenon. He furnished it with major works of André-Charles Boulle. He also demolished the old apartments of the baths under the Gallery of Francis I to create new apartments for the royal princes.

 

The architect Jules Hardouin-Mansard built a new wing alongside the Galerie des Cerfs and the Galerie de Diane in order to provide more living space for the Court.

 

Louis XIV made major changes to the park and gardens; he commissioned André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau to redesign the large parterre into a French formal garden. He destroyed the hanging garden which Henry IV had built next to the large carp lake, and instead built a pavilion, designed by Le Vau, on a small island in the centre of the lake.

 

Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau at the Château on the 22nd. October 1685, revoking the policy of tolerance towards Protestants begun by Henry IV.

 

Louis welcomed many foreign guests at the Château, including the former Queen Christina of Sweden, who had just abdicated her crown. While a guest in the Château on the 10th. November 1657, Christina suspected her Master of the Horse and reputed lover, the Marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, of betraying her secrets to her enemies.

 

Her servants chased him through the halls of the Château and stabbed him to death. Louis XIV came to see her at the Château, did not mention the murder, and allowed her to continue her travels.

 

On the 18th. and 20th. May 1717, following the death of Louis XIV, the Russian Czar Peter the Great was a guest at Fontainebleau. A hunt for stags was organized for him, along with a banquet.

 

Although officially the visit was a great success, later memoires revealed that Peter disliked the French style of hunting, and that he found the Château too small, compared to the other royal French residences.

 

The routine of Fontainebleau also did not suit his tastes; he preferred beer to wine (and brought his own supply with him) and he liked to get up early, unlike the French Court.

 

The renovation projects of Louis XV were more ambitious than those of Louis XIV. To create more lodging for his enormous number of courtiers, in 1737–38 the King built a new courtyard, called the Cour de la Conciergerie or the Cour des Princes, to the east of the Galerie des Cerfs.

 

On the Cour du Cheval Blanc, the wing of the Gallery of Ulysses was torn down and gradually replaced by a new brick and stone building, built in stages in 1738–1741 and 1773–74, extending west toward the Pavilion and grotto of the pines.

 

Between 1750 and 1754, the King commissioned the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build a new wing along the Cour de la Fontaine and the carp lake.

 

The old Pavilion des Poeles was demolished and replaced by the Gros Pavilion, built of cream-colored stone. Lavish new apartments were created inside this building for the King and Queen. The new meeting room for the Royal Council was decorated by the leading painters of the day, including François Boucher, Carle Vanloo, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Alexis Peyrotte. A magnificent small theatre was created on the first floor of the wing of the Belle Cheminée.

 

King Louis XVI also made additions to the Château in order to create more space for his courtiers. A new building was constructed alongside the Gallery of Francis I; it created a large new apartment on the first floor, and a number of small apartments on the ground floor, but also blocked the windows on the north side of the Gallery of Francis I.

 

The apartments of Queen Marie-Antoinette were redone, a Turkish-style salon was created for her in 1777, a room for games in 1786–1787, and a boudoir in the arabesque style. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette made their last visit to Fontainebleau in 1786, on the eve of the French Revolution.

 

The Château during the Revolution and the First Empire

 

During the French Revolution the Château did not suffer any significant damage, but all the furniture was sold at auction. The buildings were occupied by the Central School of the Department of Seine-et-Marne until 1803, when Napoleon I installed a military school there.

 

As he prepared to become Emperor, Napoleon wanted to preserve as much as possible of the palaces and protocol of the Old Regime. He chose Fontainebleau as the site of his historic 1804 meeting with Pope Pius VII, who had travelled from Rome to crown Napoleon Emperor.

 

Napoleon had a suite of rooms decorated for the Pope, and had the entire Château refurnished and decorated. The bedroom of the Kings was transformed into a throne room for Napoleon. Apartments were refurnished and decorated for the Emperor and Empress in the new Empire style.

 

The Cour du Cheval Blanc was re-named the Cour d'Honneur. One wing facing the courtyard, the Aile de Ferrare, was torn down and replaced with an ornamental iron fence and gate, making the façade of the Palace visible.

 

The gardens of Diane and the gardens of the Pines were replanted and turned into an English landscape garden.

 

Napoleon's visits to Fontainebleau were not frequent, because he was occupied so much of the time with military campaigns. Between 1812 and 1814, the Château served as a very elegant prison for Pope Pius VII. On the 5th. November 1810, the chapel of the Château was used for the baptism of Napoleon's nephew, the future Napoleon III, with Napoleon serving as his godfather, and the Empress Marie-Louise as his godmother.

 

Napoleon spent the last days of his reign at Fontainebleau, before abdicating there on the 4th. April 1814. On the 20th. April, after failing in an attempt to commit suicide, he gave an emotional farewell to the soldiers of the Old Guard, assembled in the Court of Honor. Later, during the One Hundred Days, he stopped there on the 20th. March 1815.

 

In his memoires, written while in exile on Saint Helena, he recalled his time at Fontainebleau:

 

"The true residence of Kings, the house of

the centuries. Perhaps it was not a rigorously

architectural palace, but it was certainly a place

of residence well thought out and perfectly

suitable. It was certainly the most comfortable

and happily situated palace in Europe.”

 

The Château during the Restoration and the Reign of Louis-Philippe (1815–1848)

 

Following the restoration of the Monarchy, Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X each stayed at Fontainebleau, but neither made any major changes to the palace. Louis-Philippe was more active, both restoring some rooms and redecorating others in the style of his period.

 

The Hall of the Guards and Gallery of Plates were redecorated in a Neo-Renaissance style, while the Hall of Columns, under the ballroom, was remade in a neoclassical style. He added new stained glass windows, made by the royal manufactory of Sèvres.

 

The Château During the Second Empire

 

Emperor Napoleon III, who had been baptised at Fontainebleau, resumed the custom of long stays at the Château, particularly during the summer. Many of the historic rooms, such as the Galerie des Cerfs, were restored to something like their original appearance, while the private apartments were redecorated to suit the tastes of the Emperor and Empress.

 

Numerous guest apartments were squeezed into unused spaces within the buildings. The old theatre of the palace, built in the 18th. century, was destroyed by a fire in the wing of the Belle Cheminée 1856. Between 1854 and 1857 the architect Hector Lefuel built a new theatre in the style of Louis XVI.

 

On the ground floor of the Gros Pavilion, the Empress Eugénie built a small but well-stocked museum, containing gifts from the King of Siam in 1861, and works of art taken during the pillage of the Summer Palace in Beijing.

 

The museum also featured paintings by contemporary artists, including Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and the sculptor Charles Henri Joseph Cordier. Close by, in the Louis XV wing, the Emperor established his office, and the Empress made her Salon of Lacquer.

 

These were the last rooms created by the royal residents of Fontainebleau. In 1870, during the Franco-German War, the Empire fell, and the Château was closed.

 

The Château from the Third Republic to the Present Day

 

During the Franco-Prussian War, the palace was occupied by the Prussians on the 17th. September 1870, and briefly used as an army headquarters by Frederic Charles of Prussia from March 1871.

 

Following the war, two of the buildings became the home of the advanced school of artillery and engineering of the French Army, which had been forced to leave Alsace when the province was annexed by Germany.

 

The Château was occasionally used as a residence by the Presidents of the Third Republic, and to welcome state guests including King Alexander I of Serbia (1891), King George I of Greece (1892) Leopold II of Belgium (1895) and King Alphonse XIII of Spain (1913).

 

It also received a visit by the last survivor of its royal residents, the Empress Eugenie, on the 26th. June 1920.

 

The façades the major buildings received their first protection by classification as historic monuments on the 20th. August 1913.

 

In 1923, following the Great War, the Château became the home of the Écoles d'Art Américaines, schools of art and music, which still exist today. In 1927 it became a national museum. Between the wars the upper floors of the wing of the Belle Cheminée, burned in 1856, were rebuilt by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

 

During World War II, Fontainebleau was occupied by the Germans on the 16th. June 1940, and occupied until the 10th. November 1940, and again from the 15th. May to the end of October 1941.

 

Following the war, part of the Château became a headquarters of the Western Union and later NATO's Allied Forces Central Europe/Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, until 1966.

 

The general restoration of the Château took place between 1964 and 1968 under President Charles De Gaulle and his Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture purchased the royal stables, and began their restoration.

 

Beginning in 2007, restoration began of the theatre of the Château, created by Napoleon III during the Second Empire. The project was funded by the government of Abu-Dhabi, and in exchange the theater was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan. It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014.

 

On the 1st. March 2015, the Chinese Museum of the Château was robbed by professional thieves. They broke in at about six in the morning, and, despite alarms and video cameras, in seven minutes stole about fifteen of the most valuable objects in the collection, including the replica of the crown of Siam given by the Siamese government to Napoleon III, a Tibetan mandala, and an enamel chimera from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795).

 

The Grand Apartments at Fontainebleau

 

The Gallery of Francis I

 

The Gallery of Francis I is one of the first and finest examples of Renaissance decoration in France. It was originally constructed in 1528 as a passageway between the apartments of the King with the oval courtyard and the great chapel of the convent Trinitaires, but in 1531 Francis I made it a part of his royal apartments, and between 1533 and 1539 it was decorated by artists and craftsmen from Italy, under the direction of the painter Rosso Fiorentino, in the new Renaissance style.

 

The lower walls of the passage were the work of the master Italian furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi; they are decorated with the coat of arms of France and the salamander, the emblem of the King. The upper walls are covered by frescoes framed in richly sculpted stucco. The frescoes used mythological scenes to illustrate the virtues of the King.

 

On the side of the gallery with windows, the frescoes represent Ignorance Driven Out; The Unity of the State; Cliobis and Biton; Danae; The Death of Adonis; The Loss of Perpetual Youth; and The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithes.

 

On the side of the gallery facing the windows, the frescoes represent: A Sacrifice; The Royal Elephant; The Burning of Catane; The Nymph of Fontainebleau (painted in 1860–61 by J. Alaux to cover a former entry to the gallery); The Sinking of Ajax; The Education of Achilles and The Frustration of Venus.

 

The Ballroom

 

The Ballroom was originally begun as an open passageway, or loggia, by Francis I. In about 1552 King Henry II closed it with high windows and an ornate coffered ceiling, and transformed it into a room for celebrations and balls.

 

The 'H', the initial of the King, is prominent in the decor, as well as figures of the crescent moon, the symbol of Henry's mistress Diane de Poitiers.

 

At the western end is a monumental fireplace, decorated with bronze statues originally copied from classical statues in Rome. At the eastern end of the room is a gallery where musicians played during balls.

 

The decor was restored many times over the years. The floor, which mirrors the design of the ceiling, was built by Louis-Philippe in the first half of the 19th. century.

 

The frescoes on the walls and pillars were painted beginning in 1552 by Nicolo dell'Abate, following drawings by Primatice. On the garden side of the ballroom, they represent: The Harvest; Vulcan forging weapons for Love at the request of Venus; Phaeton begging the sun to let him drive his chariot; and Jupiter and Mercury at the home of Philemon and Baucis.

 

The frescoes on the side of the Oval Courtyard represent: The feast of Bacchus; Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus; The Three Graces dancing before the gods; and The wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus.

 

St. Saturnin's Chapel

 

Behind the ballroom, there is St. Saturnin's Chapel. The lower chapel was originally built in the 12th. century, but was destroyed and completely rebuilt under Francis I. The windows made in Sèvres were installed during Louis Philippe's period, and were designed by his daughter Marie, an artist herself.

 

The upper chapel was the royal chapel decorated by Philibert de l'Orme. The ceiling, made in the same style as the ballroom, ends with a dome.

 

Room of the Guards

 

A room for the guards was always located next to the royal bedchambers. The Salle des Gardes was built during the reign of Charles IX. Some traces of the original decor remain from the 1570's, including the vaulted ceiling and a frieze of military trophies attributed to Ruggiero d'Ruggieri.

 

In the 19th. century Louis Philippe turned the room into a salon, and redecorated it with a new parquet floor of exotic woods echoing the design of the ceiling, along with a monumental fireplace (1836), which incorporates pieces of ornament from demolished rooms that were built the 15th. and early 16th. century.

 

The bust of Henry IV, attributed to Mathieu Jacquet, is from that period, as are the two figures on either side of the fireplace. The sculpted frame around the bust, by Pierre Bontemps, was originally in the bedchamber of Henry II.

 

The decorations added by Louis Philippe include a large vase decorated with Renaissance themes, made by the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in 1832.

 

During the reign of Napoleon III, the hall was used as a dining room.

 

Stairway of the King

 

The stairway of the King was installed in 1748 and 1749, in the space occupied during the reign of Francis I by the bedroom of Anne de Pisseleu, the Duchess of Étampes, a favorite of the King.

 

It was designed by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who used many decorative elements from the earlier room, which had originally been decorated by Primatice.

 

The upper portion of the walls is divided into panels, oval and rectangular, with scenes representing the love life of Alexander the Great. The paintings are framed by large statues of women by Primatice. The eastern wall of the room was destroyed during the reconstruction, and was replaced during the reign of Louis Philippe in the 19th. century with paintings by Abel de Pujol.

 

The Queen's Bedroom

 

All of the Queens and Empresses of France from Marie de Medici to the Empress Eugènie slept in the bedchamber of the Queen. The ornate ceiling over the bed was made in 1644 by the furniture-maker Guillaume Noyers for the Dowager Queen Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, and bears her initials.

 

The room was redecorated by Marie Leszczynska, the Queen of Louis XV in 1746–1747. The ceiling of the alcove, the decoration around the windows and the wood panelling were made by Jacques Vererckt and Antoine Magnonais in the rocaille style of the day. The decoration of the fireplace dates to the same period.

 

The doors have an arabesque design, and were made for Marie-Antoinette, as were the sculpted panels over the doors, installed in 1787. The bed was also made especially for Marie Antoinette, but did not arrive until 1797, after the Revolution and her execution. it was used instead by Napoleon's wives, the Empress Josephine and Marie-Louise of Austria.

 

The walls received their ornamental textile covering, with a design of flowers and birds, in 1805. It was restored in 1968–1986 using the original fabric as a model.

 

The furniture in the room all dates to the First Empire. The balustrade around the bed was originally made for the throne room of the Tuileries Palace in 1804. The armchairs with a sphinx pattern, the consoles and screen and the two chests of drawers were placed in the room in 1806.

 

The Boudoir of Marie-Antoinette

 

The boudoir next to the Queen's bedroom was created for Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1786, and permitted the Queen to have a measure of privacy.

 

The room is the best surviving example of the decorative style just before the French Revolution, inspired by ancient Roman models, with delicately painted arabesques, cameos, vases, antique figures and garlands of flowers against a silver background, framed by gilded and sculpted woodwork.

 

The room was made for the Queen by the same team of artists and craftsmen who also made the game room; the design was by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751-1829); the wood panelling was sculpted by Laplace, and painted by Michel-Hubert Bourgeois and Louis-François Touzé.

 

Eight figures of the Muses were made in plaster by Roland; the ornate mantle of the fireplace was made by Jacques-François Dropsy, and decorated with glided bronze works by Claude-Jean Pitoin.

 

The mahogany parquet floor, decorated with the emblems of the Queen, was made by Bernard Molitor, and finished in 1787. The painted ceiling, by Jean-Simon Berthélemy, shows Aurora with a group of angels.

 

The furnishings were designed for the room by Jean-Henri Riesener, using the finest materials available; mother of pearl, gilded bronze, brass, satin and ebony. Some of the original furnishings remain, including the cylindrical desk and the table, which were made between 1784 and 1789.

 

The two armchairs are copies of the originals made by Georges Jacob which are now in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, while the footstool is the original.

 

The Throne Room of Napoleon (former bedroom of the King)

 

The Throne Room was the bedroom of the Kings of France from Henry IV to Louis XVI.

 

In 1808 Napoleon decided to install his throne in the former bedroom of the Kings of France in the location where the royal bed had been. Under the Old Regime, the King's bed was a symbol of royal authority in France and was saluted by courtiers who passed by it. Napoleon wanted to show the continuity of his Empire with the past monarchies of France.

 

The majority of the carved wood ceiling, the lower part of the wood panelling, and the doors date to the reign of Louis XIII. The ceiling directly over the throne was made at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.

 

Louis XV created the portion of the ceiling directly over the throne, a new chimney, sculpted wooden medallions near the fireplace, the designs over the doors, and the fine carved woodwork facing the throne (1752–54).

 

He also had the ceiling painted white and gilded and decorated with mosaics, to match the ceiling of the bedroom of the Queen.

 

Napoleon added the standards with his initial and the Imperial eagle. The decoration around the throne was originally designed in 1804 by Jacob-Desmalter for the Palace of Saint-Cloud, and the throne itself came from the Tuileries Palace.

 

The chimney was originally decorated with a portrait of Louis XIII painted by Philippe de Champaigne, which was burned in 1793 during the French Revolution. Napoleon replaced it with a portrait of himself, by Robert Lefèvre. In 1834, King Louis-Philippe took down Napoleon's picture and replaced with another of Louis XIII.

 

The Council Chamber

 

The Council Chamber, where the Kings and Emperors met their closest advisors, was close to the Throne Room. It was originally the office of Francis I, and was decorated with painted wooden panels showing following designs of Primatice, the virtues and the heroes of antiquity.

 

The room was enlarged under Louis XIV, and the decorator, Claude Audran, followed the same theme.

 

The room was entirely redecorated between 1751 and 1754 by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, with arcades and wooded panels showing the virtues, and allegories of the seasons and the elements, painted by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Carle van Loo.

 

The painter Alexis Peyrotte added another series of medallions to the upper walls depicting floral themes, the sciences and arts. The five paintings on the vaulted ceiling were the work of François Boucher, and show the seasons and the sun beginning its journey and chasing away the night.

 

A half-rotonda on the garden side of the room was added by Louis XV in 1773, with a painted ceiling by Lagrenée depicting Glory surrounded by his children.

 

The room was used as a council chamber by Napoleon I, and the furnishings are from that time. The armchairs at the table for the ministers are by Marcion (1806) and the folding chairs for advisors are by Jacob-Desmalter (1808).

 

Apartment of the Pope and of the Queen-Mothers

 

The apartment of the Pope, located on the first floor of the wing of the Queen Mothers and of the Gros Pavillon, takes its name from the 1804 visit of Pope Pius VII, who stayed there on his way to Paris to crown Napoleon I the Emperor of France.

 

He stayed there again, involuntarily, under the close supervision of Napoleon from 1812 to 1814. Prior to that, beginning in the 17th. century it was the residence of the Queen Mothers Marie de' Medici and Anne of Austria.

 

It was also the home of the Grand Dauphin, the oldest son of Louis XIV. In the 18th. century it was used by the daughters of Louis XV, and then by the Count of Provence, the brother of Louis XVI.

 

During the First Empire it was used by Louis, the brother of Napoleon, and his wife Queen Hortense, the daughter of the Empress Josephine. During the reign of Louis-Philippe, it was used by his eldest son, the Duke of Orleans.

 

During the Second Empire, it was occupied by Stephanie de Bade, the adopted niece of Napoleon I. It was restored in 1859–1861, and used thereafter for guests of high rank. It was originally two apartments, which were divided or joined over the years depending upon its occupants.

 

The Grand Salon, the Antechamber to the Bedroom of the Queen-Mother (Mid-17th. century)

 

The Salon de Reception was the anteroom to the bedroom of Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV. It features a gilded and sculpted ceiling divided into seven compartments, representing the sun and the known planets, along with smaller compartments for military trophies.

 

The room was created in 1558 by Ambroise Perret as the bedroom of Henry II in the pavilion des Poeles, a section of the Château that was later destroyed. Anne had it moved and decorated with her own emblems, including a pelican. The wood paneling in the room is probably from the same period.

 

The decor of the bedroom dates largely to the 1650's; it includes grotesque paintings in compartments on the ceiling, attributed to Charles Errard; richly carved wood paneling featuring oak leaves and putti; and paintings over the doors of Anne of Austria costumed as Minerva and Marie-Therese of Austria costumed as Abundance, both painted by Gilbert de Sève.

 

The bedroom was modified in the 18th. century by the addition of a new fireplace and sculptured borders of cascades of flowers around the mirrors added in 1784. During the Second Empire, painted panels imitating the style of the 17th. century were added above the mirrors and between the mirrors and the doors.

 

The Gallery of Diana

 

The Gallery of Diana, an eighty-metre (242 feet) long corridor now lined with bookcases, was created by Henry IV at the beginning of the 17th. century as a place for the Queen to promenade. The paintings on the vaulted ceiling, painted beginning in 1605 by Ambroise Dubois and his workshop, represented scenes from the myth of Diana, goddess of the Hunt.

 

At the beginning of the 19th. century, the gallery was in ruins. In 1810 Napoleon decided to turn it into a gallery devoted to the achievements of his Empire. A few of the paintings still in good condition were removed and put in the Gallery of Plates.

 

The architect Hurtault designed a new plan for the gallery, inspired by the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, featuring paintings on the ceiling illustrating the great events of Napoleon's reign.

 

By 1814 the corridor had been rebuilt and the decorative frames painted by Moench and Redouté, but the cycle of paintings on the Empire had not been started when Napoleon fell from power.

 

Once the monarchy was restored, King Louis XVIII had the gallery completed in a neoclassical style. A new series of the goddess Diana was done by Merry-Joseph Blondel and Abel de Pujol, using the painted frames prepared for Napoleon's cycle.

 

Paintings were also added along the corridor, illustrating the history of the French monarchy, painted in the Troubador style of the 1820's and 1830's, painted by a team of the leading academic painters.

 

Beginning in 1853, under Napoleon III, the corridor was turned into a library and most of the paintings were removed, with the exception of a large portrait of Henry IV on horseback by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse. The large globe near the entrance of the gallery, placed there in 1861, came from the office of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.

 

The Apartments of Napoleon

 

In 1804 Napoleon decided that he wanted his own private suite of apartments within the Palace, separate from the old state apartments. He took over a suite of six rooms which had been created in 1786 for Louis XVI, next to the Gallery of Francis I, and had them redecorated in the Empire style.

 

The Emperor's Bedroom

 

Beginning in 1808, Napoleon had his bedroom in the former dressing room of the King. From this room, using a door hidden behind the drapery to the right of the bed, Napoleon could go directly to his private library or to the offices on the ground floor.

 

Much of the original decor was unchanged from the time of Louis XVI; the fireplaces, the carved wooden panels sculpted by Pierre-Joseph LaPlace and the sculpture over the door by Sauvage remained as they were.

 

The walls were painted with Imperial emblems in gold on white by Frederic-Simon Moench. The bed, made especially for the Emperor, was the summit of the Empire style; it was crowned with an imperial eagle and decorated with allegorical sculptures representing Glory, Justice, and Abundance.

 

The Emperor had a special carpet made by Sallandrouze in the shape of the cross of the Legion of Honor; the branches of the cross alternate with symbols of military and civilian attributes.

 

The chairs near the fireplace were specially designed, with one side higher than the other, to contain the heat from the fire while allowing the occupants to see the decorations of the fireplace.

 

The painting on the ceiling of the room was added later, after the downfall of Napoleon, by Louis XVIII. Painted by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, it is an allegory representing The clemency of the King halting justice in its course.

 

The study was a small room designated as Napoleon's work room. In 1811 he added the camp bed, similar to the bed he used on his military campaigns, so he could rest briefly during a long night of work.

 

The salon of the Emperor was simply furnished and decorated. It was in this room, on the small table on display, that the Emperor signed his abdication in 1814.

 

The Theatre

 

Concerts, plays and other theatrical productions were a regular part of court life at Fontainebleau. Prior to the reign of Louis XV these took place in different rooms of the palace, but during his reign, a theatre was built in the Belle-Cheminée wing. It was rebuilt by the architect Gabriel, but was destroyed by a fire in 1856.

 

It had already been judged too small for the court of Napoleon III, and a new theatre was begun in 1854 at the far eastern end of the wing of Louis XIV. It was designed by architect Hector Lefuel in the style of Louis XVI, and was inspired by the opera theatre at the palace of Versailles and that of Marie-Antoinette at the Trianon Palace.

 

The new theatre, with four hundred seats arranged in a parterre, two balconies and boxes in a horseshoe shape, was finished in 1856. It has the original stage machinery, and many of the original sets, including many transferred from the old theatre before the fire of 1856.

 

The theatre was closed after the end of the Second Empire and was rarely used. A restoration began in 2007, funded with ten million Euros by the government of Abu-Dhabi. In exchange, the theatre was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan.

 

It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014. The theatre can be visited, but it no longer can be used for plays because some working parts of the theater, including the stage, were not included in the restoration.

 

The Chinese Museum

 

The Chinese Museum, on the ground floor of the Gros Pavillon close to the lake, was among the last rooms decorated within the Chateau while it was still an imperial residence.

 

In 1867, the Empress Eugenie had the rooms remade to display her personal collection of Asian art, which included gifts given to the Emperor by a delegation sent by the King of Siam in 1861, and other objects taken during the destruction and looting of the Old Summer Palace near Beijing by a joint British-French military expedition to China in 1860.

 

The objects displayed in the antechamber include two royal palanquins given by the King of Siam, one designed for a King and the other (with curtains) for a Queen. Inside the two salons of the museum, some of the walls are covered with lacquered wood panels in black and gold, taken from 17th. century Chinese screens, along with specially designed cases to display antique porcelain vases.

 

Other objects on display include a Tibetan stupa containing a Buddha taken from the Summer Palace in China; and a royal Siamese crown given to Napoleon III.

 

The salons are lavishly decorated with both Asian and European furnishings and art objects, including silk-covered furnishings and Second Empire sculptures by Charles Cordier and Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk. The room also served as a place for games and entertainment; an old bagatelle game and a mechanical piano from that period are on display.

 

In addition to the Chinese Museum, the Empress created a small office in 1868, the Salon of Lacquerware, which was also decorated with lacquered panels and Asian art objects, on the ground floor of the Louis XV wing. This was the last room decorated before the fall of the Empire, and the eventual transformation of the Chateau into a museum.

 

The Chapel of the Trinity

 

The Chapel of the Trinity was built at the end of the reign of Francis I to replace the old chapel of the convent of the Trinitaires. It was finished under Henry II, but was without decoration until 1608, when the painter Martin Freminet was commissioned to design frescoes for the ceiling and walls.

 

The sculptor Barthèlemy Tremblay created the vaults of the ceiling out of stucco and sculpture. The paintings of Freminet in the central vaults depict the redemption of Man, from the appearance of God to Noah at the launching of the Ark (Over the tribune) to the Annunciation.

 

They surrounded these with smaller paintings depicting the ancestors of the Virgin Mary, the Kings of Judah, the Patriarchs announcing the coming of Christ, and the Virtues.

 

Between 1613 and 1619 Freminet and Tremblay added paintings in stucco frames between the windows on the sides of the chapel, depicting the life of Christ. Freminet died in 1619, and work did not resume until 1628.

 

The Trinity chapel, like Sainte-Chapelle in Paris other royal chapels, had an upper section or tribune, where the King and his family sat, with a separate entrance; and a lower part, where the rest of the Court was placed.

 

Beginning in 1628, the side chapels were decorated with iron gates and carved wood panelling, and the Florentine sculptor Francesco Bordoni began work on the marble altar. The figure to the left depicts Charlemagne, with the features of Henry II, while the figure on the right depicts Louis IX, or Saint Louis, with the features of Louis XIII, his patron.

 

Bordoni also designed the multicolored marble pavement before the altar and on the walls of the nave. The painting of the Holy Trinity over the altar, by Jean Dubois the Elder, was added in 1642.

 

In the mid-17th. century the craftsman Anthony Girault made the sculpted wooden doors of the nave. while Jean Gobert made the doors of the tribune where the Royal family worshipped.

 

In 1741 the royal tribune was enlarged, while ornate balconies of wrought iron were added between the royal tribune and the simpler balconies used by the musicians and those who chanted the mass. In 1779, under Louis XVI, the frescoes of Freminet illustrating the life of Christ, which had deteriorated with time, were replaced by new paintings on the same theme. The paintings were done in the same style by about a dozen painters from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

 

Under Napoleon, the old tabernacle of the chapel, which had been removed during the Revolution, was replaced by a new one designed by the architect Maximilien Hurtault.

 

Beginning in 1824, the chapel underwent a program of major renovation and restoration that lasted for six years. The twelve paintings of the life of Christ were removed, as well as the gates to the side chapels.

 

During the Second Empire, the wood panelling of the side chapels was replaced. The restoration was not completed until the second half of the 20th. century, when the twelve paintings, which had been scattered to different museums, were brought together again and restored in their stucco frames. Between 1772 and 1774, a small organ made by François-Henri Cilquot was installed on the left side of the chapel, near the altar.

 

On the 5th. September 1725, the chapel was the setting for the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. Napoleon III was baptized there on 4 November 1810, and Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orleans, the son of King Louis-Philippe, was married there to Helene de Mecklembourg Schwerin on the 30th. May 1837.

 

The Gardens and the Park at Fontainebleau

 

From the time of Francis I, the palace was surrounded by formal gardens, representing the major landscaping styles of their periods; the French Renaissance garden, inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens; the French formal garden, the favorite style of Louis XIV; and, in the 18th. and 19th. century, the French landscape garden, inspired by the English landscape garden.

 

The Garden of Diana

 

The Garden of Diana was created during the reign of Henry IV; it was the private garden of the King and Queen, and was visible from the windows of their rooms.

 

The fountain of Diana was originally in the centre of the garden, which at that time was enclosed by another wing, containing offices and later, under, Louis XIV, an orangery. That building, and another, the former chancellery, were demolished in the 19th. century, thereby doubling the size of the garden.

 

From the 17th. until the end of the 18th. century, the garden was in the Italian and then the French formal style, divided by straight paths into rectangular flower beds centred on the fountains, and decorated with statues, ornamental plants and citrus trees in pots.

 

It was transformed during the reign of Napoleon I into a landscape garden in the English style, with winding paths and trees grouped into picturesque landscapes, and it was enlarged during the reign of Louis-Philippe. it was opened to the public after the downfall of Napoleon III.

 

The fountain in the centre was made by Tommaso Francini, the master Italian fountain-maker, whose work included the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.

 

The bronze statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt, with a young deer, was made by the Keller brothers in 1684 for another royal residence, at Marly. It is a copy of an antique Roman statue, Diana of Versailles, which was given by the Pope to King Henry IV, and which is now in the Louvre.

 

The original statue of the fountain, made by Barthelemy Prieur in 1602, can be seen in the Gallery of the Cerfs inside the palace. The sculptures of hunting dogs and deer around the fountain were made by Pierre Biard.

 

The Carp Lake, English Garden, Grotto and Spring

 

The lake next to the palace, with an area of four hectares, was made during the reign of Henry IV, and was used for boating parties by members of the Court, and as a source of fish for the table and for amusement.

 

Descriptions of the palace in the 17th. century tell of guests feeding the carp, some of which reached enormous size, and were said to be a hundred years old. The small octagonal house on an island in the center of the lake, Pavillon de l'Étang, was added during the reign of Louis XIV, then rebuilt under Napoleon I, and is decorated with his initial.

 

The English garden also dates back to the reign of Henry IV. In one part of the garden, known as the garden of pines, against the wing of Louis XV, is an older structure dating to Francis I; the first Renaissance-style grotto to be built in a French garden, a rustic stone structure decorated with four statues of Atlas.

 

Under Napoleon, his architect, Maximilien-Joseph Hurtault, turned this part of the garden into an English park, with winding paths and exotic trees, including catalpa, tulip trees, sophora, and cypress trees from Louisiana, and with a picturesque stream and boulders.

 

The garden also features two 17th. century bronze copies of ancient Roman originals, the Borghese gladiator and the Dying Gladiator. A path leads from the garden through a curtain of trees to the spring which gave its name to the palace, next to a statue of Apollo.

 

The Parterre and Canal

 

On the other side of the Château, on the site of the garden of Francis I, Henry IV created a large formal garden, or parterre Along the axis of the parterre, he also built a grand canal 1200 metres long, similar to one at the nearby château of Fleury-en-Biere.

 

Between 1660 and 1664 the chief gardener of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre, and Louis Le Vau rebuilt the parterre on a grander scale, filling it with geometric designs and paths bordered with boxwood hedges and filled with colourful flowerbeds.

 

They also added a basin, called Les Cascades, decorated with fountains, at the head of the canal. Le Nôtre planted shade trees along the length of the canal, and also laid out a wide path, lined with elm trees, parallel to the canal.

 

The fountains of Louis XIV were removed after his reign. More recently, the Cascades were decorated with works of sculpture from the 19th. century. A large ornamental fountain was installed in the central basin in 1817.

 

A bronze replica of an ancient Roman statue, "The Tiber", was placed in the round basin in 1988. It replaced an earlier statue from the 16th. century which earlier had decorated the basin.

 

Two statues of sphinxes by Mathieu Lespagnandel, from 1664, are placed near the balustrade of the grand canal.

A very essential item during the month of Ramadan

Hereford Cathedral, in Hereford Herefordshire. The current Hereford Cathedral dates from 1079 and is a Grade I listed building. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a mediaeval map of the world dating from the 13th century.

 

The cathedral is dedicated to two patron saints, namely Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Ethelbert the King. The latter was beheaded by Offa, King of Mercia in the year 792. Offa had consented to give his daughter to Ethelbert in marriage: why he changed his mind and deprived him of his head historians do not know, although tradition is at no loss to supply him with an adequate motive. The execution, or murder, is said to have taken place at Sutton, four miles (6 km) from Hereford, with Ethelbert's body brought to the site of the modern cathedral by 'a pious monk'. At Ethelbert's tomb miracles were said to have occurred, and in the next century (about 830) Milfrid, a Mercian nobleman, was so moved by the tales of these marvels as to rebuild in stone the little church which stood there, and to dedicate it to the sainted king.

 

Before this, Hereford had become the seat of a bishopric. It is said to have been the centre of a diocese as early as the 6th century. In the 7th century the cathedral was refounded by Putta, who settled here when driven from Rochester by Æthelred of Mercia. The cathedral of stone, which Milfrid raised, stood for some 200 years, and then, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, it was altered. The new church had only a short life, for it was plundered and burnt in 1056 by a combined force of Welsh and Irish under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, the Welsh prince; it was not, however, destroyed until its custodians had offered vigorous resistance, in which seven of the canons were killed.

 

Hereford Cathedral remained in a state of ruin until Robert of Lorraine was consecrated to the see (made Bishop) in 1079 and undertook its reconstruction. His work was carried on, or, more probably, redone, by Bishop Reynelm, who was next but one in the succession, and reorganised the college of secular canons attached to the cathedral. Reynelm died in 1115, and it was only under his third successor, Robert de Betun, who was Bishop from 1131 to 1148, that the church was brought to completion.

 

Of this Norman church, little has survived but the choir up to the spring of the clerestory, the south transept, the arch between the north transept and the choir aisle, and the nave arcade. Scarcely 50 years after its completion William de Vere, who occupied the see from 1186 to 1199, altered the east end by constructing a retro-choir or processional path and a Lady Chapel; the latter was rebuilt not long afterwards—between the years 1226 and 1246, during the Early English style—with a crypt beneath. Around the middle of the century the clerestory, and probably the vaulting of the choir, were rebuilt, having been damaged by the settling of the central tower. Under Bishop Aquablanca (1240–68), one of Henry III's foreign favourites, the rebuilding of the north transept was begun, being completed later in the same century by Bishop Swinfield, who also built the aisles of the nave and eastern transept.

 

I m not sure what kind of date it is, but really love it since I've been staying at a part of the middle east :)

featured: Michelle Paterock

 

Exhibition Dates: January 15 – 28, 2021 in the Artlab Gallery and virtually

 

Every few years, the Artlab Gallery at Western University hosts a Faculty and Staff exhibition. These exhibitions are important opportunities for fostering a sense of community in the Visual Arts Department: students are able to see their instructors and mentors at work, and colleagues have a chance to share in each other's research. 2020 was a year like no other, and so the Artlab is leaning into the present with a collective address to this moment of separate togetherness. "Distance makes the heart grow weak" invites faculty, staff and graduate students to speak to how they've been experiencing the last year. It prompts participants to explore and express how isolation has shifted our focus, our research and art practices, as well as our forms of connecting with one another. The exhibition is also an opportunity for participating artists and researchers to show flexibility (and inherently, optimism) despite the high strangeness we’re all currently experiencing. In this time of shared solitude—unable to walk down halls, knock on studio or office doors, and enjoy quick hellos and impromptu conversations—we'll quote Chris Kraus (quoting Søren Kierkegaard): "art involves reaching through some distance."

 

Organized by Dickson Bou and Ruth Skinner.

 

Participants: Cody Barteet; Sarah Bassnett; Dickson Bou with Charlie Egleston & Peter Lebel; Matt W. Brown; Andreas Buchwaldt; Brianne Casey; Jérôme Conquy with Kevin Heslop, Sachiko Murakami, Sile Englert & Ruth Douthwright; Ioana Dragomir; Meghan Edmiston; Soheila Esfahani; Sky Glabush; Anahí González; Philip Gurrey; John Hatch; Tricia Johnson; Iraboty Kazi; Shelley Kopp; Anna Madelska; Patrick Mahon; Jennifer Martin; Linda Meloche; David Merritt; Ana Moyer; Dong-Kyoon Nam; Kim Neudorf; Katie Oates; Sasha Opeiko with Martin Stevens; Michelle Paterok; Kirsty Robertson; Geordie Shepherd; Andrew Silk; Ashley Snook; Christine Sprengler; Michelle Wilson with Bridget Koza,Sophie Wu, & Azadeh Odlins; Jessica Woodward

 

The promotional graphic for "Distance makes the heart grow weak" cites the short film, "Extraordinary Measures," by Sasha Opeiko and Martin Stevens, featured in the exhibition.

 

Given Ontario's recent stay-at-home order, the exhibition will be released in a virtual format on Friday, January 15th. Throughout the course of the exhibition, Artlab will publish short video features from participating artists and researchers.

 

Visit the Artlab Gallery: www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/

 

Due to COVID-19 safety measures, the Artlab Gallery and Cohen Commons will be operating virtually. In-person visits are not permitted at this time. We will be posting exhibition documentation, videos, and virtual walk-throughs on the Artlab’s website.

 

www.uwo.ca/visarts/artlab/exhibition_archive/20202021.htm...

 

Artlab Gallery

JL Visual Arts Centre

Western University

London, Ontario, Canada

 

© 2021; Department of Visual Arts; Western University

Date giftboxes available for Ramadhan

If only this piece of brickwork could talk. Lots of things it could tell us. This was above the post box.

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China Ranch, Tecopa California

If you go, try the homemade date bread! www.chinaranch.com/

Toothpaste and orange juice, pools and cell phones, first dates and unfortunate run-ins with skunks, and artists and bodybuilders: these are a few things you wouldn’t really think go together, but the art of Patrick Brown disproves at least one of those pairs. Why spend your time in the gym when you could be like Patrick Brown and simply draw yourself a Bow-Flex body? We at Creative Tempest love Patrick Brown’s mastery in rendering the human form, and how, even when exaggerating it, he maintains a naturalness to it. Find out more at www.creativetempest.com

Some background:

The origin of Rescue Labors dates back to 1998, when both the Tokyo fire and police departments were called out for a high risk job when a fire broke out at the Tower City skyscraper under construction in Tama.

As the fire fighters dealt with the fire, the police's AV-98 Ingrams carried out a rescue of the personnel and dignitaries trapped high in the tower. The impressive potential of the Labors in this scenario led city officials to publish a tender for a dedicated fire-fighting Labor.

 

In 1999, a design competition was held, with three contenders. These were the ARV-99 Rescue Labor by Shinohara Industries (based on the AV-98 Ingram chassis of the police Labor), the CRL-98 “Pyro-Buster”, produced by Hishii Heavy Industries, and the SEE (Schaft Enterprise Europe) Type-8FF Rescue Labor.

 

The latter was a civil adaptation of the military Type-8 “Brocken” labor for the German Bundesheer (Army Forces). All designs offered sophisticated solutions and equipment for the fire-fighting job: Because the Rescue Labor works in high heat environments, the units were designed to be fire and heatproof to protect the pilot. To fulfill its main role of extinguishing fires, the Rescue Labors were to be equipped with a pair of water cannons, one on the forearm and one on its shoulders, fed by an internal tank and/or by an external source.

 

Additionally, the competition’s rescue Labors were to deal with hazardous chemical situations. A respective protection system had to be provided, too, as well as precise manipulator fingers for delicate handling.

Detecting life under harsh conditions, in any weather and at day and night, necessitated a complex sensor suite, including a telescopic camera boom.

 

Schaft Enterprise Europe’s Type-8FF was the most impressive design, standing more than 10 metres tall. It was also the most powerful – but also the most bulky type, since it was originally developed for more spacious European cities.

 

Beyond the standard requirements the “Florian”, how the Labor was unofficially dubbed (after the Christian patron saint of firefighters), offered a huge array of extra equipment, including an extendable hydraulic crusher, an extra CO2 tank, a high performance water pump (the Type-8FF could be operated as a water manifold when it was not directly involved in rescue duties), a powerful searchlight array and a winch.

 

Two prototypes were delivered to Japan and took part in the evaluation process, which encompassed both clinical trials as well as field tests that would prove the concepts and uncover strengths and weaknesses of the three designs.

 

In December 1999 the ARV-99 was chosen as primary Rescue Labor for the Tokyo Fire Department – and the rejection of SEE’s Type-8FF was even more bitter as the CRL-98 was ordered into production, too – only as a supportive vehicle, but it was also promoted to private/industrial fire-fighting units in the Tokyo region.

 

The “Florian” did not enter production for Japan, since it was deemed to be too large for the Japanese urban environment – but it was developed further for the European market, eventually entering rescue services in Germany, France and Great Britain.

 

A final, rather disturbing note is that it is uncertain where the two Type-8FF prototypes ended up. SEE took them back into custody after completion of the competition process in early 2000, but there has been no official record or documentation that the vehicles actually left Japan. Rumor has it that they are still on private SEE ground in the Tokyo region.

  

Technical Data:

Code name: Type-8FF "Florian"

Unit type: fire emergency labor prototype

Manufacturer: SEE (Schaft Enterprises Europe)

Operator: SEJ (Schaft Enterprises Japan), proposed to the Tokyo Fire Department

Rollout: April 1999 AD

Number built: 2

Accommodation: pilot only, in heat- and ABC-insulated cockpit in front torso

 

Dimensions:

Overall height 10,50 meters

Overall width 5.40 meters

Minimum revolving radius: 6.0 meters

 

Weight:

Standard 7.05 metric tons

Full 8.81 metric tons

 

Armor materials:

none

 

Powerplant:

unknown

 

Maximum weight lifting capacity:

4.00 metric tons

 

Equipment and design features:

Visual and acoustic sensors, range unknown

Highly articulated manipulator hands

White and IR searchlights

2x water cannon, mounted on shoulders and on right forearm

Extendable hydraulic crusher on left forewarm

Auxillary CO2 tank, mounted on backpack

Autonomous water turbo pump for in- and external operation

Winch (2.00 metric tons)

 

Fixed or optional armaments:

none

  

This model is a thorough conversion of a 1:60 "SEE Type-7 Brocken" IP kit from Bandai, and it is part of a Group Build at whatifmodelers.com under the theme "De-/Militarize it" (which still runs until the end of August 2015).

The mecha belongs into the Patlabor anime TV series. Anime is certainly not everyone's business, but it has a lot to offer.

The charm of the Patlabor universe is that these vehicles exist (these are no robots, except for rare cases there's a pilot inside) in everyday life. When the series was conceived in the 80ies it was a near-future setting in the nineties - SF, but VERY down to earth and "realistic".

The 'Labors', how these more or less humanoid vehicles are called, are special duty heavy machinery, e. g. for construction, loading, hazmat handling. They are also employed by the police (hence the title of the series, Patlabor, which circles around a police unit which fights labor crime) and by the military.

 

The Brocken is one of the dedicated military designs. It actually comes from Germany, hence probably the plate mail armor design. I am not certain if its name, Brocken, is the German word for hulk, or the mountain close to the inner German border in FRG/GDR times, because the Brocken was designed to patrol and protect this border - the Cold War was still part of the series' script!

 

There are actually firefighting Labors in the TV series, and the background story is built around the two types I am aware of. And in order to de-militarize the Brocken and change its look so far that the kit appears like a different vehicle, a lot of things had to be modified.

 

The head is completely new and supposed to remind of typical firefighter helmets. The cockpit section (in the breast) was changed, too, as well as the knee sections and different hands. Parts from other mecha kits (e. g. from a 1:72 Battroid VF-1 , a 1:100 Gerwalk VF-1, a 1:100 Destroid Phalanx, a 1:144 Gundam Zaku and even from an NGE EVA) were intergrated, but a lot of details were scratched.

For instance, the head with its sensor booms and the complex shape consists of ~30 pieces and putty, and the flashlights were completely scratched from clear sprue, styrene sheet and parts of PET toothbrush head protectors!

 

Having a dedicated duty, a lot of special equipment had to be integrated - in a fashion that it looks plausible and as an integral part, not just an add-on. Therefore, several light installations were added, two water cannons (one on the shoulder, one on the right forearm), a scratched winch, plus several protection bars all around the hull.

 

A CO2 tank was added on the back, plus a turbo pump installation that would drive the two water cannons and allow external water supply. An extandable hydraulic crusher on the right forearm was added, too, when knocking on the door simply does not meet the situation. Integrating the stuff into the hull meant much body work, and all the devices were meant to appear plausible and functional.

 

The paint scheme was simple: an all-red livery, inspired by typical German fire engines which wear RAL 3000 as official color. With some shading this eventually turned into a rather orange hue, but the Florian still looks like a fire fighting vehicle.

 

The yellow trim for a more international look was created with decals from several HO scale firefighting vehicle aftermarket sheets. Finally, after a black ink wash and some dry-painting, the kit received a coating with semi-matt acrylic varnish, and some pigment dust around the legs.

Dattes sans dates

Portugal, Algarve, Silves, octobre 2017

 

Dates whitout dates

Portugal, Algarve, Silves, October 2017

Dates at a date seller market near Madina.

Abydos dates back to the dawn of Ancient Egyptian civilisation when it was established as the cult centre of the god of the Netherworld Osiris and the burial site for a number of the earliest kings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abydos,_Egypt

 

Over the centuries several temples were constructed at the site on the edge of the desert, the Great Osiris Temple being at the heart of the god's cult but little remains of this structure. What visitors come to Abydos to see today are the far more substantial remains of the New Kingdom temples built by Seti I and his son Ramesses II.

 

Some distance to the north of the Temple of Seti I lies the much smaller temple of his son Ramesses II (who decided to add his own temple in addition to finishing his father's). This is much less well preserved than the main temple, with the walls only standing up to around three metres high, but much of the relief decoration of these lower courses remains, and much of the vivid colouring is beautifully preserved.

 

The temple is reached by exiting the main temple at the rear where the Osireon sits and turning right, walking a short distance across desert. An armed escort led the way for us, which was also helpful as the low-lying ruins are hidden from view by sand dunes until one is almost upon them.

 

A caretaker unlocked the gates and left us free to wander inside and enjoy the remaining relief decoration. Many of the scenes are tragically incomplete, with the upper parts (often including the heads of larger figures and further scenes above) missing, but what remains gives a good impression of the former richness of this smaller temple, and the surviving colour is extraordinarily rich. Most of this is concentrated in the sequence of chambers towards the rear of the temple.

 

Abydos is one of Egypt's most important sites, both historically and artistically and will richly reward the visitor.

 

One of the main reasons for coming to Dudley was to see the ruins of the Priory in Priory Park.

 

There was a bit of a light sprinkle of snow in Dudley, so was a bit cold.

 

Priory Park is near The Broadway.

 

These are the ruins of Dudley Priory, or as it was once known St James's Priory. It dates to the 12th century, and was destroyed in the 1530s during the Reformation.

 

Dudley Priory

 

Dudley Priory is a dissolved priory in Dudley, West Midlands, England. The ruins of the priory are located within Priory Park, alongside the Priory Estate, and is both a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade I listed. The ruins received this status on September 14, 1949.

 

The priory was founded in 1160 by Gervase Paganel, Lord of Dudley, in memory of his father. It was established as a dependency of the Cluniac Priory of Much Wenlock and was dedicated to Saint James. The priory was built from local limestone, quarried from Wren's Nest. A bull was issued by Pope Lucius III and the possessions included the Church of St. Edmund, Church of St. Thomas and the churches of Sedgley and Northfield with the chapel of Cofton Hackett. In obedience to a papal mandate in 1238, the bishops of Worcester, Coventry and Lichfield came to an agreement as to the bounds of their respective dioceses whereby it was decreed that the town of Dudley, with its churches and appurtenances, should belong to Worcester, while the castle and priory should remain under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. The priory was dissolved in 1395, but refounded as a denizen priory soon after.

 

The priory was enlarged after being founded. A surviving piece of one of these enlargements is an archway to Lady Chapel area of the Priory, built in the 14th century, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is believed that the Lady Chapel was constructed by the Sutton family.

 

The priory was closed by King Henry VIII in the 1530s as part of the nationwide Dissolution of the Monasteries. Following the dissolution, the priory was granted to Sir John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland in 1540. Following his execution, the buildings fell into disrepair and became ruinous. In the 18th century, part of the ruins of the church had been used by a tanner, a thread manufacturer, and for grinding glass and polishing steel. The surrounding area became industrialised. The nearby pools were drained and in 1825, Priory Hall was constructed.

 

In 1926, Dudley County Borough council purchased Dudley Priory and the surrounding rural land (approximately a third of which existed within Sedgley, prompting the borders to be altered) as part of plans to develop a new residential area. Dudley Priory was incorporated into the new Priory Park which served the new Priory Estate that was developed between 1929 and 1939 mostly with council housing to rehouse people from town centre slums.

 

In 1939, archaeologist Rayleigh Radford put stone lines in the grass to mark out the walls of rooms and cloisters in the priory. Rayleigh Radford also excavated medieval tiles which are now exposed at the surface.

 

Grade I listing

 

Founded 1160 as a dependency of the Cluniac Priory of Much Wenlock. Limestone

rubble. Some fragments of the conventual church remain with some exposed tiled

pavements. Foundations of claustral buildings. AM.

 

Priory Ruins, Dudley - Heritage Gateway

 

A path to the Priory Ruins.

(silky fowl, fish maw, water chestnuts, goji berries, dates, lotus seeds, white back black fungus, sweet apricot kernels, ginger, rice wine, salt)

Moon diameter: 3.476km

Venus diameter: 12.103km

@dates farm, Medina

A juvenile stops by for some ripe palm dates.

Filled with cheese. mmm.... delicious! Off to a good start.

St Peter on the Wall, Bradwell on Sea, Essex

 

From the St Peter on the Wall website:

 

Our history starts nearly 1400 years ago when Cedd arrived in what we now call Essex.

 

Key Events and Dates

 

653 AD The arrival of St Cedd.

654 Cedd founded a Celtic style community at Othona, built his Cathedral of St Peters on the foundations of the Roman fort and was consecrated Bishop of Essex. In fact Cedd's Cathedral was built where the gatehouse of the fort had been - so it was built on the wall of the fort - hence the name - Saint Peter-on-the-Wall.

664 Cedd died of the plague at Lastingham in October. Soon after the death of Cedd, Essex was taken into the Diocese of London and St Peter's became a minster for the surrounding country.

1068 The Chapel became the property of the Benedictine monastery of St Valery on the Somme.

1391 The Chapel was sold to William of Wykeham.

1750 For many years it was used as a barn for the storage of grain and shelter of cattle.

1920 Restored for use as a Chapel.

 

The Early History

 

1300 years ago there were people working in Ireland and Scotland to spread the Christian faith. In Ireland, Patrick had established many monasteries and from there Columba had come to Iona, a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland, to establish a monastery and many other Christian centres.

 

From Columba's monastery, a man called Aidan was sent from Iona at the invitation of King Oswald of Northumbria to set up a monastery at Lindisfarne on the north-east coast. It was also to be a school where Anglo-Saxon boys could be trained to become priests and missionaries. It was in this school that Cedd and his brothers Caelin, Cynebil and Chad learnt to read and write in Latin, and learnt to teach the Christian faith.

 

The four brothers were all ordained as priests and two of them, Cedd and Chad, later became bishops. Cedd's first mission was to go to the midlands, then called Mercia, at the request of its ruler, King Paeda, who wanted his people to become Christians. Cedd was so successful that when King Sigbert of the East Saxons (Essex) asked for a similar mission, it was Cedd who was sent.

 

So in 653 Cedd sailed down the east coast of England from Lindisfarne and landed at Bradwell. Here he found the ruins of an old deserted Roman fort. He probably first built a small wooden church but as there was so much stone from the fort he soon realised that would provide a much more permanent building, so he replaced it the next year with the chapel we see today! Cedd modelled his church on the style of churches in Egypt and Syria. The Celtic Christians were greatly influenced by the churches in that part of the world and we know that St Antony of Egypt had built his church from the ruins of a fort on the banks of a river, just as Cedd did on the banks of the River Blackwater in Essex (then known as the River Pant).

 

Cedd's mission to the East Saxons was so successful that the same year he was recalled to Lindisfarne and made Bishop of the East Saxons. His simple monastery at Bradwell would, like those at Iona and Lindisfarne, have been at the same time a church, a community of both men and women, a hospital, a library, a school, an arts centre, a farm, a guest house and a mission base. From there he established other Christian centres at Mersea, Tilbury, Prittlewell and Upminster.

 

Cedd often visited his northern childhood home and in 659 was introduced to King Ethelwald who asked him to establish a monastery in Northumbria. Cedd chose a site at Lastingham as it was wild and seemed fit only for wild beast, robbers and demons. Again this was exactly how St Antony of Egypt chose his sites. In 664, while at his monastery in Lastingham, Cedd caught the plague. As he lay dying 30 of his monks from Bradwell came to be with him. They too caught it and one young boy survived and returned to Bradwell.

 

A Modern History (the Chapel 2007 report)

 

The world it seems, never ceases to beat a path to the ever-open door of the Chapel. 'Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest', as Thomas Chilsholm's hymn has it, the Pilgrims come. Each with their own story, each with their own gift of thankfulness to bring on their pilgrimage or with their burden of care to lay down here in this Holy Place. Some of them we meet by design - more and more groups want a 'guided' tour with a brief talk about the history and significance of this place. Others we meet by accident - wandering in when we are at the Chapel or encountering them somewhere on the road.

 

We keep a book at the chapel in which we invite visitors and pilgrims to record their names, when they came, where they came from and a brief comment. On one sample page of thirty-six entries are listed a diversity of places as far apart as Southend, Basildon, Perth West Australia, Danbury, Italy, Pitsea, Middelburg North Carolina, Dorking, Newport Pagnall, Apla Samoa, Cyprus and Venezuela. Their comments range across 'Peaceful', 'Beautiful', 'Wonderful', 'Amazing!', 'Impressive', 'Moving', 'Very Quaint', 'Beautifully Scerene', 'An Oasis of peace and more in a frantic world', 'Exudes the centuries of worship and peace', 'Never fails to amaze', 'What a surprise', 'Big!' 'Impresionante!' 'Holy', 'A proper place to worship.' and 'Yummy!' Few fail to be moved in some way by their visit here.

 

The Chapel year is underpinned by the Eucharist celebrated there at 08.00 on Wednesday mornings followed most weeks by breakfast at the Othona Community. This regular underpinning sustains many and varied activities: School visits, parish pilgrimages and confirmation groups, students of Architecture and Anglo-Saxon history. Chelmsford Cathedral Choir and the Cathedral 'walkers' make their annual visit to the chapel as do the Pleshey 'walkers' and the Choir from St Mark with St Margaret Plumstead Common.

 

The year unfolds with our Good Friday Walk of Witness following the Pilgrim Route from St Thomas Bradwell-on-Sea to St Peter's Chapel, walking the Stations of the Cross down the Chapel Track and finishing with a service in the Chapel. We gathered in the thickest mist we had seen all year at 05.30 on Easter Day to kindle the Paschal Fire and to celebrate that 'Christ was Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

 

The Chapel was the backdrop for the Annual Bradwell Pilgrimage on 7th July 2007 when Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor encouraged us all with his thoughts about Spiritual Ecumenism. Pilgrims were invited to leave behind a prayer card with their details and prayer concerns. Some 700 responded, some cards contain one name, some as many as 35! and all these people, places and concerns have been remembered throughout the year at our regular Wednesday service.

 

A wide and exciting variety of Summer Evening Services followed in July and August. The Chapel resounded to many voices of prayer and worship from the stately measured tones of formal Choral Evensong to Christian new wave. A film crew were present at the last Summer Evening Service, gathering material for a forthcoming magazine programme about contemporary life in the British countryside.

 

Innovations this year included the Parish Animal Service which was attended by 40 people, 10 dogs, 2 horses and a gerbil! The Chapel was the focus for a Deanery Mother's Union Quiet Day in September and continues to be the local Spiritual Home of the Othona Community with whom we work closely.

 

The 'season' ends with a Eucharist for St Cedd on the evening of the last Sunday in October. The Chapel is flooded with light and expectation at the Parish carol service on the evening of the Sunday before Christmas with once again more than 200 of us braving the elements to join our voices with those of the Angels and hear the Christmas story unfold.

 

We are all too aware of the depth of need and distress of an increasing number of people who arrive at the Chapel looking for answers to life's problems. Given the limited resources available to us, we are considering what further things might be done to provide information or support for these people.

 

As ever, tribute must be paid and thanks given to the band of local volunteers from Bradwell Parish and the Othona community for their hard and unsung work of cleaning, grass cutting, flower arranging, ensuring supply of books and publications, preparing for services, welcoming groups and individuals, providing refreshments, answering queries, tracking down lost property - and lost visitors! Thanks also to the Chapel Committee which cares for the fabric and finances of the Chapel.

 

Revds Margaret and Laurence Whitford, Chaplains, St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea. March 2008

Kelmscott Manor

 

A limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in Oxfordshire. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing.

 

It was the country home of the writer, designer and socialist William Morris from 1871 until his death in 1896.

 

When Morris first saw the Manor in 1871, he was delighted by this 'loveliest haunt of ancient peace' and signed a joint lease for the property with his friend and colleague Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelite artist.

 

Morris drew great inspiration from the unspoilt authenticity of the house's architecture and craftsmanship, and its organic relationship with its setting, especially its garden

 

After his death, his wife Jane purchased the house, and his daughter, May, spent much of her adult life here.

 

The Manor contains an outstanding collection of the possessions and works of Morris, as well as of his family and associates including William Benson, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Philip Webb.

 

The collection includes furniture, original textiles, pictures and paintings, carpets, ceramics and metalwork.

 

Jane Morris’s Bedroom

 

Originally called the ‘Chamber over [the] Parlour’.

 

The bedspread was designed and embroidered by Jane.

 

The watercolour by the bed was painted by a 15-year-old May Morris whilst on holiday at Naworth Castle, the Cumbrian home of George and Rosalind Howard.

 

Howard (later the 9th Earl of Carlisle) had met Morris in the mid 1860s and became a close friend and patron.

 

www.sal.org.uk/kelmscott-manor

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelmscott_Manor

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Morris

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Morris

Shields' own plump medjool dates stuffed with jalapeño, bleu cheese, and prosciutto, wrapped in bacon, and finished off with a shallot demi glace and balsamic reduction.

The oldest document pertaining to the use of masks in Venice dates back to 2nd May 1268. In the document it is written that it was forbidden for masqueraders to practice the game of the "eggs". From the early 14th century onwards, new laws started to be promulgated, with the aim of stopping the relentless moral decline of the Venetian people of the day. This restrictive carnival legislation started with a decree on 22nd February 1339 prohibiting masqueraders from going around the city at night. A decree that helps us understand just how libertine the Venetians of the day were, is that of the 24th January 1458 which forbade men from entering convents dressed as women to commit "multas inhonestates"! In a similar vein, the decree of 3rd February 1603 is interesting in that it attempted to restore morality in the convents.

 

Masqueraders were banned from entering the nuns’ parlous – it had been the convention to sit in the parlous and talk to the nuns. Frequently, decrees were promulgated prohibiting masqueraders from carrying arms or any instrument which could cause harm, or other decrees which forbade masqueraders from entering churches. This obligation was extended to the townsfolk who were not allowed to enter churches wearing "indecent attire". 1608 was an important year, the 13th August to be precise, when a decree from the council of 10 was issued declaring that the wearing of the mask throughout the year posed a serious threat to the Republic. To avoid the terrible consequences of this immoral behavior, every citizen, nobleman and foreigner alike, was obliged to only wear a mask during the days of carnival and at official banquets.

 

The penalties inflicted for breaking this law were heavy – for a man this meant two years in jail, 18 months’ service to the Republic galley-rowing (with ankles fettered) and not only that, a 500 lire fine to the Council of 10. As for women, they were whipped from St Mark’s all the way to Rialto, then held to public ridicule between the two columns in St Mark’s. They were banned from entering the territory of the Venetian Republic for 4 years and had to pay the 500 lire fine to the Council of 10. 50 years after the decree of 1608, the Council of 10 published a proclamation on the 15th January reaffirming the ban on wearing masks and bearing arms.

 

It was further prohibited to enter holy places wearing a mask and it was expressly forbidden to wear religious clothes with a mask. In the same decree the use of drums was banned before midday, and even dancing of any description was prohibited outside of the carnival period. Seeing that many Venetian nobles used to go gambling wearing a mask to avoid their creditors, in 1703, masks were banned all year round from casinos.

 

Two different decrees (1699 and 1718) saw the prohibition of wearing a mask during Lent and other religious festivals which took place during carnival. In 1776, an act introduced to protect the by now forgotten "family honor", forbade all women from going to the theatre without a mask and cloak. After the fall of the Republic, the Austrian government forbade the use of masks for both private parties and elite parties (e.g., la Cavalchina della Fenice) . The Italo-American government was more open but now it was the Venetians who were being diffident. Venice was no longer the city of carnival, but just a little imperial province without personal liberty. During the second Austrian government it was once again permitted to wear masks.

 

I posted a note about the need for good/innovative calendars up on GDO and got two great examples.

 

Thanks @cangeceiro for the link to the Indianapolis Museum of Art's Calendar and all of the details you provided about building it!

4227FM dates from May 1964 and is a fine example of a Bristol Lodekka with Gardner 6LW engine and an Eastern Coach Works 60 seat body. The vehicle was new to Crosville, Chester in may 1964. Seen taking part in the 2024 Chatsworth Bus Rally.

The Kurdish empire / 'Aryan Gods' of the Mitanni (medes) Treaties

 

"This kingdom was simultaneously known under three names: Hittite,Mitanni, Hurri and Hanigalbat. All three names were equivalent and interchangeable," asserted Michael C. Astour.

 

Hittite annals mention a people called Hurri, located in north-eastern Syria (Western Kurdistan). A Hittite fragment, probably from the time of Mursili I, mentions a "King of the Hurri," or "Hurrians." The Assyro-Akkadian version of the text renders "Hurri" as Hanigalbat. Tushratta, who styles himself "king of Mitanni" in his Akkadian Amarna letters, refers to his kingdom as Hanigalbat.

 

Although Kurds have inhabited their highlands for several millennia BC, their prehistory is not very well known.[1] The earliest known evidence of a unified and distinct culture in the Kurdish mountains dates back to the Halaf culture of 8,000-7,400 years ago. This was followed by the Hurrian period (in Mesopotamia and Zagros-Taurus mountains) which lasted from 6,300 to about 2,600 years ago. The Hurrians spoke a language which was possibly part of the Northeast Caucasian (Alarodian)

The Hurrians spread out and eventually dominated significant territories outside their Zagros-Taurus mountainous base. However, like the Kurds, they did not expand very far from the mountains. As they settled, the Hurrians divided into a number of clans and subgroups, founding city-states, kingdoms and empires with eponymous clan names. These included the Gutis, Kurti, Khaldi, Nairi, Mushku, Mannaeans (Mannai), Mitanni, Urartu, Lullubi and the Kassites among others.

appears in2rock inscriptions, 1east,1west of Kordion, &"Mita of Mushki"is mentioned in Assyrian texts dating to 717,709,&the 670s B.C.Greek historical,legendary&mythical stories about Midas preserved in both texts &art—relate that he had the ears of an ass & as a gift from the gods,everything he touched turned to gold.One legend claims that a man named Midas or his father Kurdios began the royal Phrygian dynasty,thus fulfilling an oracle;both names continued to alternate as royal names

 

-oldest aryan texts in Kurdistan ( northern Syria)

 

-oldest wheels & carts found in near east in Kurdistan (northernSyria)

 

-the similarities of the halaf iculture with the indic culture

 

-the huge stuff written in Gamkrelidze&Ivanov's book about proto iranonessic/indo-european homeland being in Anatolia north Kurdistan, Migration of Indo-Aryans from their hoemland in Kurdistan (Northeastern Anatolia Northwestern Iran/Elam) to Central Asia/India

 

-oldest swastika( 6000-5000 B.C)in hurrian city

 

The earliest written evidence for an Indo-Aryan language is found not in India,but in Kurdistan (northern Syria) in Hittite records regarding one of their neighbors, the Hurrian-speaking Mitanni. In a treaty with the Hittites,the king of Mitanni, after swearing by a series of Hurrian gods, swears by the gods Mitrašil, Uruvanaššil, Indara,& Našatianna, who correspond to the Vedic gods Mitra,Varuṇa, Indra,& Nāsatya (Aśvin)Contemporary equestrian terminology, as recorded in a horse-training manual

a native Hurrian-speaking population about the 15th-16th centuries BC, Indo-Aryan charioteers were absorbed into the local population and adopted the Hurrian language.[59]

 

However, Brentjes (as cited in Bryant 2001:137) argues that there is not a single cultural element of central Asian, eastern European, or Caucasian origin in the Mitannian area and associates with an Indo-Aryan presence the peacock motif found in the Middle East from before 1600 BC and quite likely from before 2100 BC

In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni (between Suppiluliuma and Matiwaza, ca. 1380 BC), the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, & Nasatya (Ashvins) are invoked. Kikkuli's horse training text (circa 1400 BC) includes technical terms such as aika (eka, one), tera (tri, three), panza (pancha, five), satta (sapta, seven),na (nava, nine), vartana The numeral aika "one" is of particular importance because it places the superstrate in the vicinity of Indo-Aryan proper as opposed to Indo-Iranian

 

The Mitanni were an Indo-European (Hurrian) people whose kingdom in northern Mesopotamia flourished from about 1600 (Second Intermediate Period) until it was conquered by the Hittite King Suppiluliumas during the reign of Akhenaten. At its peak, the empire stretched from Kirkuk (ancient Arrapkha) and the Zagros mountains in western Iran in the east, through Assyria to the Mediterranean sea in the west. Its center was in the region of the Khabur River, where its capital, Wassukkani

Kurdias (Kurdius was the name of at least two members of the royal house of Phrygia.The best-known Kurdias was reputedly the founder of the Phrygian capital cityKurdium,the maker of the legendary Kurdian Knot ( Griy Kurdi ) , & the father of the legendary King Midas who turned whatever he touched to gold. The various legends about this Kurdias& Midia imply that they lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC.kurdia & his son media both names continued to alternate as royal names

Kurdian knot at one time the Phrygians were without a king. An oracle at Telmissus (Makri) (the ancient capital of Phrygia) decreed that the next man to enter the city driving an ox-cart should become their king.A peasant farmer named Kurdias drove into town on an ox-cart. His position had also been predicted earlier by an eagle landing on his cart, a sign to him from the gods, and on entering the city Kurdias was declared king by the priests. Out of gratitude,his son Midas dedicated the ox-cart

The cuneiform group hu-u-ur researchers of the ancient inscriptions (H. Winkler, E. Meyer, E. Waydner, Forer, Waysbakh) read har, others – hur (B. Hrozni, A. Ungnad). Researcher connects the form har with the name Arians, and language of Hurries consider as an the old Arian language. Later in the text found in the capital of the Hittites Hattusas the form hurlili was read as hurri. Thus was rejected the viewpoint which accepted the form harri and considered Hurrians as Arians. In scientific

Between the 12th & 9th centuries Phrygia formed the western part of a loose confederation of peoples (identified as“Mushki”in Assyrian records) that dominated the entire Anatolian peninsula.This early civilization borrowed heavily from the Hittites,whom they had replaced, and established a system of roads later utilized by the Persians.About730 the Assyrians detached the eastern part of the confederation,& the locus of power shifted to Phrygiaproper under the rule of the legendary king Mida

The most famous of the Phrygian kings is a man called Midia by the Greeks and Mita by the Assyrians. He ruled in the last decades of the eighth century B.C. One of the large royal buildings uncovered at Kordian was probably his palace. Today Midia is known primarily from Greek historical records, but the name also appears in two rock inscriptions, one east, one west of Kurdian, &"Mita of Mushki"is mentioned in Assyrian texts dating to 717, 709,& the 670s B.C. Greek historical,

 

Kurdistan Workers' Party Abdullah Öcalan (Kurdish: APO / LO APO/ APOLO) European Union Kurdish Garden eden in Kurdistan / Zagros Mountains adam and eve Kurdish History- Kurdish Luwian-Hittite language Freedom Fighters PKK HPG anatolia kurdistan PJAK YJA STAR Guerrilla Peshmerge of the PKK (Kurdish Freedom Fighters) Kurdistan Workers' Party Kurdish freedom fighters aryan race he Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe The history of the ancient Kurdish Aryans ancient zagros touros History of the Kurdish Aryan Race Proto indo European Aryan Race Kurdish Kurden Kurde Koerd Kurdische Aryen Ari Kurgan, Mediterranean and Nordic Core of the Kurds median the origins of the Indo-European languages and genes awastika in Kurdistan the undead Aryan nation

Zagros anatolia the Kurds GutiansSarmatians Alans Scythians Medes Mitanni Hurrians Hittits 8000 years older than pyramids Gobekli Tepe, Human's First yet Known Temple in Northern Kurdistan Girê Navokê Garden (Kurds) of eden, Anahita Temple ancient temple of goddess Anahita in Kangawar Median/Medes Mada medo Mazdanimsm avesta Ahura Mazda tausi melek Kingdom of Commagene Nemrut (KomaGeli Nemrud), Kingdoms of Mesopotamia Hurrian Empire of Mitanni hurrian empire Mitanni (Hittite cuneiform KURMi-ta-an-ni, also Mittani Mi-it-ta-ni) Anatolia kurd Hittites History of the Hittite aryan ari arier Caucasian zagros zagrosian race Indo-European languages List of Indo-European Taurus Mountains zagros Euphrates and Tigris Mesopotamia languages The swastika sun Aryanization Aryan paragraph yazidi yeziden tausi melek ezidi ezda azda mithras sun fire kurmanc kirmanshan kermanshah Anatolians ( kurdish Hatti Hittites, Luwians) Indo-Iranians (Iranians Indo-Aryans kurdish Tocharians Koordistan Homeland Society Religion Corduene, Gorduene, Cordyene, Cardyene, Gordyaia, Korduene, Girdiyan, Korchayk ,russian russia Archaeological kurdish Slavic peoples kurden Kurds Kurgan culture Yamna culture Abashevo Afanasevo baden Andronovo bearke Terramare Lusatian lorestan lor gord kord kurd Elam Khuzestan Gutian people kurdish Hurrian Hurro Urartian ararat empire mitanni Hittite Elamite Zagros Mountains tauros language avesta Russians Ukrainians Belarusians Rusyns Kurdistan Ukraine ukranian kurdish Kura-Araxes culture early trans-Caucasian culture Maykop Catacomb garden gondiyo,kardokh, Gordyene, Kardukh, Gordukh,Garden Uratian, Hethits, Karduk, Cyrtii, Gordyene, kardokhio Huravat - Sarasvat - Aruvat - Harahvaiti - Harvat - Aurvat - Harauvatiš- Harauvatija - Harauvatim - Harauvat - Harahvat - Horohvat - Arivates - Horvathos - Hrovatoi - Crvat - Harvat - Horvat - Hrvat Poles Czechs Slovaks Silesians Moravians Kashubians Sorbs Serbs Bulgarians Croats Bosniaks Slovenes Macedonians Montenegrins Ahnenpass Aryan Games Neolithic Anatolia mesopotamia Amesha Spentas Yazatas Ahuras Daevas Angra Mainyu Zerdüştlük /Mazdaism Avesta Gathas Vendidad Ahuna Vairya cross Kurgan hypothesis Proto-Indo-European Urheimat Nordic race Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazda ahle haq yaresan yarsan Zarathustra Proto-Indo-Europeans Amesha Spentas · Yazatas Ahuras · Daevas Avesta Gathas · Yasna Vendidad · Visperad Yashts · Khordeh Avesta Ab-Zohr The Ahuna Vairya Fire Temples Dēnkard · Bundahišn God the Son Book of Arda Viraf Book of Jamasp Story of Sanjan Angra Mainyu Archaeology Architecture Anthropology Humanities Zurvanism Tawûsê Melek Yazidi peacock angel Yazdânism Yârisânism, Yazidism, and Chinarism/Ishikism (Ishik Alevism Ahl-e Haqq Kakkai yaresan yarsan yarsanim Sultan Sahak sorani gorani lori laki baxtiyari lorestan kurdsitan Calendar · Festivals Marriage Eschatology human evolution to cultural evolution Indo-Iranians Avesta Avestan Zoroastrianism Old Avestan hypotheses Zoroastrians in Iran Parsis Zoroaster Iranis Persecution of Zoroastrians Indo-Aryan migration Mitanni Aryavarta Ariana Hittite cuneiform Hittite language Sanskrit Indo-European Hattians Hittites sumerian gutian History of the Hittites Syro--Hittite states Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Kermanshah kirmanshah kirmanshan krmanshan kirmanjan kirmanc kurmanc kormanj kordmanj kurdmanj kirmancki kurmancki ziwan ziman ahura mazda tausi melek dirok cirok dengbej danbej dengbej, dengbij mey ûdûk bilur blur lavjebêj dengbêjî dovend gond dilan halarpke daf def davol dohol u zurna zurne ararat zap sipan oramar koye dersim taurus shingal Achaemenid,sassanid,Hurrian,Uraratu,Mitanni,Luwian,Hatti Hittites hattusa, Parthian kharezmia sumerian someri gutian Corduene Gorduene, Cordyene, Cardyene, Carduene, Gordyene, Gordyaea, Korduene, Korchayk, Gordian Kird Gird Kirdi kirdki Kur kurdi kordi kordestan Kardokh zeugma commagene Mezrabotan mesopotamia anatolia aryan race urmiye Kermanshah Kirmanshan Zagros Toros Euphrates tigris munzur van ararat sipan cudi zap ezidi azidi yezidi yarsan yaresan alevi ahle haq kirmanj kurmanj kormanj kirmanc kirmanjan kurdmanj kirmanciye zazaki dilimki kirdiki kelhuri kalhori sorani gorani hawrami hawramy lori luri laki badini lo lo le le Göreme Gorame Kurti, Karda, Karduk, Gord, Kord, Cardakes, Cyrtii Kardukh Gordukh, Kortukh Gortai-kh..kingdom of Gutians: inkişuş Zarlagab Şulme Silulumeş Inimabakeş Igeşauş Yarl-agab ibate Yarl-angab Kurum Apil-kin La-erabum irarum ibranum Hablum Puzur-Suen Yarlaganda Tirigan.. kingdom of comagene (komageli) nemrud: Sames I , Arsames I , Xerxes , ptolemaeu, Ptolemaeus, Sames II Theosebes Dikaios , Mithridates

Address: 33-37 Wardour Street, London W1.

Dates: 1957 to 1967.

Capacity: 400.

Current Use: Branch of O’Neills Irish theme pub.

 

Jeff Kruger began a modern Jazz club in 1952 in the basement of the Mapleton Hotel in Coventry Street. After a series of temporary homes in 1977 Kruger starting renting a basement in Wardour Street. From 1962 another club occupied the first floor upwards in the same building - the Whisky A G Go (which with a new owner and name change to the WAG Club in 1981 lasted until 2001 and the conversion into an O’Neills). Johnny Dankworth, Ronnie Scott and Tony Kinsey played here. Joe Harriott was in the house band. From 1958 late Friday and Saturday nights were given over to another promoter Rik Gunnell and the All Niter Club. As with the Marquee, Rhythm and Blues increasingly took over from Jazz. Jimmy Reed played here. Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were residents in 1962-66. Band like the Animals, Spencer Davis and Them were also booked. By the late 1960s musical tastes has changed and the underground predominated. Kruger changed over to new clubs. First the Pink Flamingo in 1967 and then the Temple in 1969. Bands like Van Der Graaf Generator, Edgar Broughton Band and Barclay James Harvest played here then.

 

This photo of the Flamingo Club is on the internet: www.nickelinthemachine.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/t....

 

Image found online with no source, copyright to original photographer.

The church today dates from the late 15th century, although it replaced an earlier building.

It is thought that the original church was ruined after the sack of the town in 1461. However, other churches were little damaged, so a more likely reason is that it was neglected by the nuns who owned it at the time.

The present church was built in the 1480s.

 

There is a western tower, clerestoried nave with north and south aisles which clasp the tower, chancel with north and south chapels, and south porch. The church is built in limestone ashlar with lead roofs.

 

Externally, the nave and chancel have embattled parapets, the windows are late Perpendicular.

The tower is of four stages and has an embattled parapet with pinnacles. A spire was intended but never built. The tower is very similar to that of Saint John's church nearby.

 

The south porch has two storeys, the upper one is now a Chapel, accessible by a narrow spiral stairway.

 

It is probable that the plan of the nave follows that of the earlier building, as the aisles are fairly narrow.

They have arcades of four bays with slim piers and angel corbels holding shields with the Arms of 15th century Bishops of Lincoln. The north aisle at its eastern end terminates at a 19th century arch which was built when the Burghley Chapel was extended.

There was a western Gallery in the nave until the late 19th century.

The font is octagonal with a window tracery design, from the early 14th century, and is probably from the earlier church.

 

The chancel was altered with the installation of the tomb of William Cecil in 1598. The north chapel was extended to accommodate his monument.

The chancel arch has remains of entrances to a Rood screen which was probably removed in the late 16th century.

In 1865 the Burghley Chapel was extended on its north side and a further arch was inserted at the eastern end of the north aisle which blocked the entrance to the Rood loft stairway.

The south Chapel is occupied by the organ, but originally housed the Guild of St Martin.

 

The church has three large monuments, the largest is that to William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598), once described as "one of the finest examples of its kind in existence", probably by Cornelius Cure. William's parent's monument is located nearby. There is also a large monument to John Cecil, fifth Earl of Exeter and his wife, of white marble with semi-reclining and standing figures either side.

There are numerous other wall tablets throughout the church.

 

The church was refurbished in 1844 by Edward Browning, and has low box pews in the nave. There are further box pews and choir stalls in the chancel which also has geometric patterned tiles.

 

There are five windows containing reset mediaeval glass including much from Tattershall church. The windows were assembled by Peckitt of York in 1759/60, with several incorporating rather garish patterned glass. The east window is of five lights with reset glass from the second half of the 15th century and Shields from the 16th century.

 

The organ is a two manual by Bevington from circa 1889.

During our walk we crossed over what I was told was the very first all aluminium bridge. It was littered with graffiti that a lot of it dated back to the mid fifties of which is when the bridge was built.

 

Body \\ Nikon D7000

Lens \\ Lens Baby Sweet 35

Opening Reception: Saturday April 25, 2015, 6 PM – 10 PM

Exhibition Dates: April 25 – May 9, 2015

 

Modern Eden Gallery is excited to present the third curated exhibition by photojournalist Michael Cuffe, Editor in Chief of the international arts documagazine Warholian. This exhibition brings together over 65 artists from a range of styles and mediums to interpret beloved childhood narratives in their own unique styles. Iconic books such as Clifford the Big Red Dog, Goodnight Moon, The Cat in The Hat, and many more have been fantastically recreated with creative approaches and from adult perspectives.

 

FEATURED ARTISTS INCLUDE: Amandalynn, Jaclyn Alderete, Brianna Angelakis, Susanne Apgar, Paul Barnes, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, CIOU, Cory Benhatzel, Rick Berry, Pakayla Biehn, Zofia Bogusz, Brenton Bostwick, Robert Bowen, Jana Brike, Laurie Lee Brom, Valentina Brostean, Leilani Bustamante, C3, Adam Caldwell, Simona Candini, Steve Chmilar, Joshua Coffy, Michael Cuffe, Lara Dann, Lena Danya, Sheri DeBow, Jel Ena, Kohshin Finley, Ashton Gallagher, Jacqueline Gallagher, Lyrica Glory, Alec Huxley, Steve Javiel, Aunia Kahn, Tara Krebs, Marcos LaFarga, Marie Larkin, Kim Larson, Edith Lebeau, Chris Leib, Steven Lopez, Calvin Ma, Malojo, Megan Majewski, Kelly McKernan, Amy Minchew, David Molesky, Catherine Moore, Melissa Morgan, David Natale, Lori Nelson, Johannah O’Donnell, Richard James Oliver, Augie Pagan, PECA, Rich Pellegrino, Bradley Platz, Michael Ramstead, Joshua Roman, Isabel Samaras, Erika Sanada, Eve Skylar, Laura Startzman, Ania Tomicka, Daniel J. Valadez, Liz Vranesh, Helice Wen, Sandra Yagi, Hannah Yata, Trevor Young, and others.

 

The opening reception for “Storybook” will be held at Modern Eden Gallery on Saturday, April 25 from 6 –10 pm. Exhibition Curator, Michael Cuffe and select participating artists will be in attendance at the reception. The exhibition will be on display through May 9, 2015 and is free and open to the public.

 

For details and updates visit: www.moderneden.com/pages/storybook

I like a village called Bobbing; I mean who wouldn't?

 

Last week I made a list of churches I needed to visit, and so at the weekend singles out a local group and went, with Bobbing being one of them.

 

Bobbing is the next to last village before the A249 lepas over the Swale to Sheppy, and we had been near here last year when we called at Iwade.

 

But here I was again, looking for the church, down the old high road, with it climbing what counts for a hill in these parts, and the church standing on the crest of the rise. I pull in and see a large friendly "church open" sign.

 

A good sign.

 

Though heavily restored, plenty of interest inside. Including two fine wall monuments and some nice brasses.

 

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

 

Recently restored this church displays far more of interest than the rather severe exterior promises. The church dates from the fourteenth century and consists of nave, chancel, north aisle and west tower. The south chancel wall contains and outstanding square headed low side window which contains its original medieval ironwork, Next to it is a sedilia which has a small piece of carving from Canterbury cathedral Executed in Caen stone it depicts a Bishop and a priest. The Bishop is St Martial, first Bishop of Limoges. There are also some good brasses to Sir Arnold and Lady Savage. A late seventeenth century vicar of Bobbing was Titus Oates who plotted against the catholic supporters of the Stuart royal family, thus ensuring a place in English national history.

 

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

 

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

 

BOBBING.

LIES the next parish south-west ward from Milton last-described, at a very small distance northward from the high London road at Key-street.

 

THE PARISH of Bobbing lies almost the whole of it on the northern side of the high London road, nearly at the 39th mile stone. It is not an unpleasant situation, though at the same time it has not the character of being very healthy. It contains about seven hundred and eighty acres of land, of which forty are wood, the soil is in general poor, much of it on the high ground is either a gravel sand, or a mixture of clay, but in the lower parts, especially in the northern towards Milton, there is some good fertile level land. The high road runs along the southern boundaries of it, excepting at Key-street, where it extends some way up the Detling road; hence the hill rises to high ground, on which, about half a mile from the road, is the church, and close to the church-yard the ruins of Bobbing-court, with the few houses that compose the village on the other side of it. At a small distance from these ruins southward, on the brow of the hill, at the end of the toll of elms leading from the high road, Arthur Gore, esq. of the kingdom of Ireland, built on colonel Tyndale's land a few years ago, a small shooting seat, which has since been further improved by his cousin Sir Booth Gore, bart. of Sligo, in Ireland, being so created on August 30, 1760, and they both pretty constantly reside in it; the house commands the view of the London road, and a fine one southward beyond it; below the descent of the hill, northward from the church, is Bobbing-place, a low situation near the boundaries of this parish next to Milton.

 

At the south-west corner of the parish, on the London road, is a small hamlet of houses called Key-street, corruptly probably for caii stratum, or Caius's-street, though the ale-house in it, the sign of which seems to have arisen from the name of the street, has raised a notion of the street's taking its name from thence. Here is a large house lately erected by Mr. William Boykett, who resides in it.

 

In this street there was antiently a spital-house for the use of the poor and diseased.

 

About a mile southward from hence on the high road to Detling, there is a gravel pit of an unusual depth and length, the hollowing of which must have been the work of great labour and length of time, insomuch that if I may be allowed the conjecture, I should suppose it was made by the Romans, who took their materials from thence to make their road, which still remains visible from Key-street to Sittingborne, the quantity of gravel with which that way is raised, being only to be supplied from so large a place as this is.

 

There was formerly a quintin in this parish, the field in which it stood being still called from thence the Quintin-field.

 

There is an antient allowed fair here, held formerly on St. Bartholomew's day, now by alteration of the stile on Sept. 4, yearly, the profits of which belong to the lord of Milton manor.

 

THE PARAMOUNT MANOR of Milton claims over this parish, subordinate to which is the MANOR OF BOBBING, the mansion of which, called Bobbingcourt, was the antient residence of the family of Savage, or Le Sauvage, as they were called in French, who were of eminent account, and possessed good estates in this part of Kent; and Leland, in his Itinerary says, this manor had before belonged to the family of Molynes.

 

Ralph de Savage, the first owner of this manor, of the name whom I have met with, was present with king Richard I. at the siege of Acon, in Palestine. His descendants Sir John de Savage, Sir Thomas de Savage, of Bobing, and Sir Roger de Savage, were with king Edward I. with many other gentlemen of this county, at the siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland, in the 28th year of his reign, and were all honored there with the degree of knighthood.

 

Roger le Sauvage possessed this manor in the next reign of king Edward II. and in the 5th year of it obtained free-warren, and other liberties for his lands in Bobbynges, Middelton, Borden, Newenton, and Stokebury.

 

In the descendants of this family, who bore for their arms, Argent, six lions rampant, sable, three, two and one, which coat is still remaining on the roof of the cloysters of Canterbury cathedral, and in the chapter-house there, men of eminent degree in the times in which they flourished, whose burial place was within the north chancel of this church, this manor continued down to Arnold Savage, esq. who died s. P. in 1420, so that Eleanor his sister, who had been first married to Sir Reginald Cobham, by whom she left no issue, and was then the wife of William Clifford, esq. became his heir, as well in this manor as the rest of his possessions. The family of Clifford was descended from ancestors seated at Clifford-castle, in Herefordshire, as early as the beginning of Henry II.'s reign, several of whom were summoned to parliament, among the barons of this realm. At length Roger de Clifford, who married Matilda, daughter of Thomas de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and died anno 13 Richard II. leaving three sons, of whom Thomas was the eldest, from whom descended the Cliffords, earls of Cumberland; the Boyles, lords Clifford, of Lonsborough; Thomas, earl of Thanet, lord Clifford, and his daughter the lady Margaret Tuston, lady Clifford, married to Coke, earl of Leicester.

 

Sir William Clifford, the second son, died s.p. and Lewis Clifford, the third son, was a man of note in the military line, as well as in state affairs, and in the 6th year of Richard II. was made a knight of the garter. He died anno 4 Henry IV. leaving one son William, who as before-mentioned, married the sister of Arnold Savage, esq. and in her right became possessed of Bobbing manor, (fn. 1) a younger branch of which family had been settled at Bobbing-place, in this parish, some time before. The Cliffords, of Bobbing, bore for their arms, Chequy, or, and sable, a fess and bordure, gules, on the fess, a crescent argent, for difference, which coat they quartered with that of Savage. These arms of Clifford are on the roof of the cloysters of Canterbury cathedral, and in St. Margaret's church, in Canterbury, impaled with Savage. The first lord Clifford of this family, bore Chequy, or, and azure, a bendlet, gules, which the elder brethren kept as long as they continued; a second son turned the bendlet into a bend, and placed on it three lioneux, passant, or, from whom the Cliffords of Frampton are descended. Roger Clifford, second son of Walter the first lord, for the bendlet took a fess gules, which was borne by the earls of Cumberland, and others of that branch. Those of Kent added the bordure to the fess, and a crescent on it, for difference; and Sir Conyers bore the chequy, or, and sable, as appears by his coat of arms on an original picture of him, painted in 1595.

 

William Clifford, before-mentioned, was sheriff both in the 4th and 13th years of king Henry VI. and died in the 16th year of that reign, leaving two sons, Lewis, who succeeded him in his estates in this county, and John, who was ancestor to the lords Clifford, of Chudleigh.

 

Lewis Clifford, the eldest son, resided at Bobbing, court, whose son Alexander Clifford, esq. kept his shrievalty there in the 5th year of king Edward IV. and dying in the 10th year of Henry VII. left six sons, of whom Lewis Clifford, the eldest, succeeded him in this manor, and was sheriff in the 13th year of king Henry VII. He left by his first wife Mildred, daughter of Bartholomew Bourne, esq. of Sharsted, two sons, Nicholas, who was of Sutton Valence, and left a sole daughter and heir, married first to Harpur, and secondly to Moore, (fn. 1) and Richard.

 

Nicholas Clifford, esq. the eldest son, possessed this manor of Bobbing on his father's death, but removing to Sutton Valence, or Town Sutton, as it is now called. He sold it presently afterwards to Sir Thomas Neville, but Richard Clifford, esq. the younger son, repurchased it of him, and died possessed of it, being succeeded in it by his son George Clifford, esq. who resided at Bobbing-court in the middle of the reign of queen Elizabeth, and left seven sons and three daughter, of whom Henry Clifford, esq. the eldest son, succeeded him in this manor, which he afterwards alienated to his younger brother, Sir Conyers Clifford, and dame Mary his wife, the daughter of Francis Southwell, esq. of Windham-hall, in Norfolk, and had been married first to Thomas Sydney, esq. of this county, and afterwards to Nicholas Gorge, esq. Her third husband was Sir Conyers Clifford, of Bobbingcourt, above mentioned, who was governor of Connaught, in Ireland, and a privy counsellor of that kingdom, by whom she had two sons, Henry and Conyers. She survived him, and afterwards possessed solely this manor, to whom the entitled her fourth husband Sir Anthony St. Leger, master of the rolls in Ireland, and a privy counsellor there, who was third son of Sir Anthony St. Leger, of Ulcomb, lord deputy of Ireland. She had by him, who survived her, one son Anthony, and dying in 1603, æt 37, was buried in St. Patrick's church, Dublin. By her will she devised this manor, in equal shares, to her two sons Henry and Conyers Clifford, and her son Anthony St. Leger, afterwards knighted, and of Wiertonhouse, in Boughton Monchelsea. They quickly afterwards joined in the sale of it to Sir Edward Duke, of Cosington, in Aylesford, who not long afterwards passed it away by sale to Sir Richard Gurney, alderman of London, who was afterwards in 1641 created a baronet, being then lord-mayor, who bore for his arms, Paly of six, per fess, counter changed, or, and azure, (fn. 1) which coat was in allusion to that borne by Hugh Gorney, a Norman, created earl of Gorney by William Rusus, who bore Paly, six, or, and azure. He alienated it to his brother-in-law Henry Sandford, esq. who died possessed of it in 1660, bearing for his arms, Ermine, on a fess, gules, two boars heads couped, or. He left by her four daughters his coheirs, Christian; Angelica, married to Henry Thornhill, esq. Mary; and Frances, the latter of whom carried this manor in marriage to Sir George Moore, bart. who had been so created in 1665, being stiled of Maids Morton, in Buckinghamshire, bearing for his arms, On a fess, three fleurs de lis, between three mullets. He died possessed of it in 1678, and was buried in the north chancel of this church. He died s. p. leaving his widow surviving, and possessed of this manor, which she the next year carried in marriage to colonel Edw. Diggs, the fifth son of Thomas Diggs, esq. of Chilham-castle, who dying s. p she again married colonel Robert Crayford, governor of the fort of Sheerness, who survived her, and became possessed of this manor, which he afterwards, in the reign of king William, sold to Thomas Tyndale, gent. of North Nibley, in Gloucestershire, who was descended of a family originally settled in Northumberland, whence a descendant of it removed to North Nibley, which estate Thomas Tyndale sold on his purchasing this manor. His son William Tyndale, esq. who pulled down this mansion, and dying in 1748, was buried in the fouth chancel of Bobbing church; leaving no issue, he by will devised this manor in tail male to his collateral kinsman, the Rev. William Tyndale, rector of Coats, in Gloucestershire, whose son Thomas Tyndale, esq. of North Cerney, in that county, died in 1783, having married Elizabeth, third daughter of Charles Coxe, esq. of Gloucestershire, whom he left surviving, and by her one son, lieutenant-colonel William Tyndale, the present possessor of this manor, and a daughter Anne-Catherine. He bears for his arms, Argent, a fess, gules, between three garbs, sable.

 

The mansion of Bobbing-court, which was situated exceedingly pleasant, having a fine prospect on every side of it, stood almost adjoining to the fouth side of the church-yard. It has been many years since pulled down, but by the foundations remaining, the walls of the garden, and the out-offices belonging to it, which are yet standing, it appears to have been a building of a very considerable size.

 

There is a court baron regularly held for this manor.

 

BOBBING-PLACE was an antient seat in this parish, situated at the northern extremity of it, adjoining to Milton, which seems to have been the antient residence of the family of Clifford, before they became possessed of the manor and court of Bobbing, as heir to the Savages.

 

A younger collateral branch of them, in the person of Robert Clifford, esq. of Bobbing, a younger brother of Richard, bishop of Worcester and London, successively, kept his shrievalty in this parish, both in the 1st year of Henry IV. and in the 2d and 3d years of Henry V. in the 8th year of which he was knight of the shire with Arnold Savage. He died in 1422, and was buried in the cathedral of Canterbury.

 

It afterwards passed into the name of Gorham, and thence into that of Tuston, and in the reign of king Charles I. this seat was the property and residence of Sir Humphry Tuston, the second surviving son of Sir John Tuston, knight and baronet, of Hothfield, and next brother to Nicholas, first earl of Thanet. He resided at times both here and at the Mote, in Maidstone, and in 1641 was created a baronet. He died at Bobbing-place in 1659, and was buried in this church.

 

Sir John Tuston, knight and baronet, his eldest surviving son, resided entirely at the Mote, and dying in 1685, s. p. was buried in Maidstone church. By his will he devised this seat to trustees, to be sold for the payment of his debts, and they accordingly, in 1687, conveyed it by sale to major Thomas Cooke, of Faversham, who alienated it in 1692 to Mr. Thomas Sole, of Milton, shipbuilder. He married in 1688, Mary Cockin, of that parish, by whom he left Cockin Sole, esq. barrister-at-law and recorder of Queenborough, who resided here, where he died in 1750, leaving one son, and a daughter Catherine, who married first Mr. Nowell, and secondly John Constantine Jennings, esq. He was succeeded in this seat by his only son John Cockin Sole, esq. who kept his shrievalty at it in 1756, bearing for his arms, Argent, a chevron, gules, between three soles hauriant, proper, all within a bordure, engrailed of the second. He continued to reside here till he removed to Norton-court, near Faversham, and afterwards, in 1766, pulled down almost the whole of this seat, leaving of it only sufficient for a mean farm-house. After which he alienated it to Mr. Thomas Colley, who is rebuilding this seat, in which he intends to reside.

 

THERE is a small manor in this parish called UpPER TOES, which formerly belonged to the family of Bartholomew, of Oxenhoath, from which it has, in like manner as that estate, become the property of Sir William Geary, now of Oxenhoath, the present proprietor of it, and there is another small manor here called NETHER TOES, which formerly was the estate of the Barrows, and was given by the will of Mr. William Barrow, in 1707, among his other estates, for the benefit of the poor of Borden, in the trustees of which charity it is now vested.

 

Charities.

THOMAS WOLLETT, by will in 1688, gave to such poor as take no relief, lands and houses vested in the churchwardens and overseers, now of the annual produce of 1l.

 

MARY GIBBON gave by will in 1678, the sum of 50 l. for the purpose of putting to school poor children in this parish, now of the annual produce of 4 l. 5S.

 

The poor constantly relieved are about seven; casually ten.

 

BOBBING is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Bartholomew, consists of two small isles and two chancels, having a tall spire steeple at the west end of it, in which are five bells.

 

In the north chancel are several antient gravestones of the Savages and Cliffords, many of them entirely robbed of their brasses, and others only with remnants remaining, on one are the figures in brass of a man and woman, the former having the surcoat of Clifford, Chequy, a fess, with a bordure; a memorial for Sir George Moore, in 1678; a monument for Henry Sandford, esq. 1660, and Elizabeth his wife, with their two busts in white marble. In the south chancel, memorials for William Tyndale, esq. obt. 1748, and for Darell, son of Nathaniel Darell, governor of Sheerness in Charles the IId.'s reign In the south isle is a monument, having two busts of white marble on it, for Charles and Humphry Tuston, sons of Sir Humphry Tuston, of Maidstone, the former died 1652, the latter 1657, both unmarried; and memorials for Cobbes, Poole, and others.

 

The church of Bobbing was given by Henry III. in his 18th year, to the monastery of St. Mary and St. Sexburgh, in the Isle, of Shepey; which gift was confirmed by king Henry IV. in his 1st year, by his letters of inspeximus, (fn. 1) and it continued part of the possessions of it till the general dissolution of religious houses in the reign of king Henry VIII. in the 27th year of which, this nunnery was suppressed, as not being of the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds.

 

This church becoming thus vested in the crown, the king, in his 35th year, granted the rectory of it, with its appurtenances, to Thomas Green, to hold in capite by knight's service, who had been tenant of it at the dissolution, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.

 

He was usually stiled Thomas Norton, alias Green, being the natural son of Sir John Norton, of Northwood, in Milton, and bore for his arms, Gules, a cross potent, ermine, within a bordure, argent, and sable. He died in the 6th year of king Edward VI. leaving two sons, Norton Green, who left an only daughter and heir, married to Sir Mark Ive, of Boxsted, in Essex, and Robert Green, gent. who was of Bobbing.

 

¶Norton Green, esq. the eldest son, on his father's death, became possessed of the rectory of Bobbing impropriate, with the advowson of the vicarage; on whose death it became the property of Sir Mark Ive, in right of his wife, and he presented to it in 1607. His son John Ive, esq. died in king Charles the 1st.'s reign, leaving an only daughter Anne, then an insant. In the next reign of king Charles II. Sir George Moore, of Bobbing-court, owner of the manor of Bobbing, was possessed of this rectory, with the advowson of the vicarage. Since which it has remained in the like succession of owners as that manor, down to lieutenantcolonel William Tyndale, of Gloucestershire, the present possessor and patron of it.

 

In the year 1578, here were communicants one hundred and eighteen. In 1640 the vicarage of it was valued at sixty pounds. Communicants eighty-eight. There is no valuation of this vicarage in the king's books.

 

In the year 1186, the abbot of St. Augustine's monastery demised to the prioress of St. Sexburgh, in Shepey, the tithes of this parish, which belonged to them in right of their church of Middleton, at ten shillings per annum for ever, as has been more fully mentioned before under that parish.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp192-203

The High Street in Lymington.

 

Bellevue House dates to 1765. Was the home of the St Barbe family. Charles St Barbe - an influential businessman was a saltern owner, the first banker and five times mayor of the borough.

Francis Walsingham St Barbe was an early partner in the law firm of Moore and Blatch, founded 1797, who are the present owners of the property.

 

The building is Grade II* listed.

 

Bellevue House and Adjoining Former Stables, Lymington and Pennington

  

No 48 (Bellevue House) and adjoining former stables

SZ 3295

1/15

HIGH STREET

(south side)

Three piers, front railings, and gate to No 48 (Bellevue House)

 

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

 

1.

5235 HIGH STREET

(South Side)

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

No 48 (Bellevue House)

and adjoining former stables

SZ 3295 1/15 22.1 2.53.

 

II* GV

 

2.

C18 large house. Red brick with cornice and parapet. Hipped slate roof. 3 storeys,

5 windows, sashes with glazing bars. Centre doorway with fluted pilasters, pediment,

semi-circular fanlight and door of 8 fielded panels On each side of the main

portion of the house, and advanced from it to the street boundary, is a small ,

single storey wing. The east one containing 2 windows ltnl a blocked doorway in its

west face. The western one has 2 windows and a round arched door of 6 fielded panels

in its north face. Beyond this, is the coach house with pilasters flanking it and

pedimented gable end with a semi-circular panel in the tympanum.

 

The United Reform Church, the Old Manse and Nos 48 to 53 (Consec) form a group with

the railing and gate to No 48 and with No 77 opposite.

  

Listing NGR: SZ3254195537

  

This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.

 

Source: English Heritage

close up of a huge crop of dates. it looks like it will be a good year for dates. how many have you had?

This photo represents Arabic culture. I have taken it to the Saudi Club at Stevens Institute of Technology where it was dedicated to Dr.Mohammad A. Aleissa Royal (Saudi Arabian Cultural Attaché to the U.S.) and Mr. Azzam Al Gain (New York Saudi Consul General)

 

تم عمل هذي اللوحات ليتم عرضها و تقديمها في حفل لقاء اليوم المفتوح في نيوجيرسي عام 2012 بطلب من النادي السعودي في جامعة ستيفنس في نيوجيرسي. و تم اهدائها الى الملحق الثقافي السعودي في الولايات المتحدة الدكتور محمد العيسى و الى القنصل السعودي في نيويورك الاستاذ عزام القين.

The Known Health Benefits of Dates

 

1. Promoting Digestive Health, Relieving Constipation

 

2. Boosting Heart Health

 

3. Anti-Inflammatory

 

4. Reduced Blood Pressure

 

5. Reduced Stroke Risk

 

6. A Healthy Pregnancy and Delivery

 

7. Boosting Brain Health

 

Hetian country,south of Xinjiang

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