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-Here you have the other session that I made in Ibiza with Juan and Cora. It was in the Migjorn Suites Hotel because we stayed there three nights.
-Aquí os dejo la otra sesión que realizé en Ibiza con Juan y Cora, fue en el hotel Migjorn Suites ya que nos quedamos allí tres noches.
Model: Juan Paramio and Coraima Seda
MUA: Cora
Styling: Pablo Ronald
Photographer: Pablo Ronald
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The Vasa Museum is a wonderful place to visit but as the ship is kept in semi darkness it is difficult to photograph. It is a beautiful ship , made of Japanese Oak, with some incredible carvings, particularly on the stern. Its sinking in Stockholm Bay , without a shot being fired, must have been an amazing tragedy to witness . It lay on the bed of Stockholm bay for 333 years.
Vasa is a Swedish warship built 1626-1628. The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into its maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. It fell into obscurity after most of its valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. After it was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor, it was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions. Vasa was built top-heavy and had insufficient ballast. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, it was allowed to set sail and foundered only a few minutes after it first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze. The impulsive move to set sail was the result of a combination of factors: Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who was leading the army on the continent on the date of its maiden voyage, was impatient to see it join the Baltic fleet in the Thirty Years' War; at the same time, the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to discuss the ship's structural problems frankly or to have the maiden voyage postponed.
The ship was one of the biggest and most heavily armed at that time and was a symbol of Gustavus Adolphus's expansion plans as he was at war with Poland at the time . He was a dab hand at playing the " Papist" card and had the Swedish people whipped up into a religious frenzy. The ship was due to take on supplies further down the Stockholm bay but because it was so top heavy without the supplies and ballast only sailed a very short distance before it topped over and sank.
Tonnage:1210 tonnes displacement
Length:
Sparred Length: 69 m (226 ft)
Between perpendiculars 47.5 m (155.8 ft)
Beam:11.7 m (38 ft)
Height:52.5 m (172 ft)
Draft:4.8 m (16 ft)
Propulsion:Sails, 1,275 square m (13,720 sq ft)
Crew:145 sailors, 300 soldiers
Armament:
64 guns, including:
24-pounders—48
3-pounders—8
1-pounders—2
howitzers—6
Right my little group of wildlife loving flickrites – iv got some dragonfly related questions!
I was really trying to get some pics of them at the weekend and went to two reserves – and it is difficult! In fact got quite disenchanted by how tricky i found it! Iv mentioned it on a couple of people’s streams recently as i have even more respect for other people's shots of them now as it’s so hard!
I saw a lot of the small blue damselflies, and some red and green ones – they seemed to settle quite a lot so these weren’t too bad. These were mostly flying around in pairs – with the male leading the female around by the head
Then there were some smaller red dragonflies that settled a couple of times – but usually on the floor or on some other un-natural looking background!
Then there were these huge ones flying about – a gentleman told me they were brown, and common, hawkers. They were buzzing about frantically and i was surprised at how loud they were, you could hear their wing as they flew around your head – but they whenever they got close to each other the noise intensified and they sounded like little helicopters! A couple looked like they were scrapping in mid-air!
Round and round and round they went never stopping! Where do they get all this energy! And what’s it all about? Are they displaying for a female?
The whole time i was there this is the only time one stopped, and i got this shot! Not a natural back ground but at this stage i took what i could get! This is a flag in the marsh, by the pond he was circling.
You can’t really see from this photo, as he was flapping away – but his wings were really tatty! Im guessing he was more of a fighter than a lover!
Back to the question then – i was watching one of the big ones (probably a brown hawker) and still amazed by their aerial ballet, i had just started to say “look he’s chasing that butterfly . . .” when he grabbed it!! He then flew about all over the place carrying it!! (i was a cabbage white i think)
I tried to tell myself that he was actually giving the butterfly a nice little ride, like they do on cartoons like Antz, but i fear this wasn’t the case!
Do dragonflies hunt butterflies?
PLEASE NO GROUP INVITES OR AWARDS WITH FLASHY BADGES
Ok so it all started when I was born - literally. My parents were young when they had me, just 19 years old. My grandparents got guardianship of my brother and I when I was about three years old. My family has a history of mental illness on both sides, so I was "doomed" naturally. Schizophrenia, bipolar, manic depression, all disorders someone in my family was diagnosed with. My maternal grandmother is manic depressive, and things were very difficult growing up because it wasn't addressed. She didn't believe in therapy and thought that nothing was wrong. Therapy was only for "messed up" people, and she had an extreme stigma about it. There are so many instances of verbal and emotional abuse towards my grandfather, my brother, my mother, and myself. But if you spoke up, it was even worse, you wouldn't dare speak up against it. It was always better to endure it and hope the next day would be better. She was, and still can be, very unpredictable. You'd think everything was dandy, until it wasn't. Things could switch in a moment into a screaming, "you-don't-care-about-me-how-come-no-one-cares-for-me" mess. I never wanted someone to ever go through that, or to feel like they couldn't speak up. I was often the one to speak up, so my grandmother and I would fight often. Hence, the anxiety, people-pleasing, wanting to always keep the peace mindset that I have as an adult. She's always needed help for her mental health, but you can't make someone do something they don't want. If they won't address what's hurting, things can't progress.
My grandfather, my grandmother, my brother, and I tried going to group therapy once. It didn't go well, and was entirely unproductive in creating any change. The time was spent with my grandmother asking why she was always the bad guy and how no one ever talked about how they hurt her, and essentially made for a bad time for awhile at home. I did go to counseling in school for awhile, but it was in a group setting so it wasn't as exclusive as going to one-on-one therapy. As a teenager, I did got to therapy for a little bit, but I stopped going because my therapists kept leaving for other practices. And I felt like I was "fine". Plus, what good does it do when you live somewhere that's always stressful and you feel like you can't really talk about your feelings anyways? I didn't want that for my life, ever. I knew that I wanted to be different. I was always sad as a kid that I didn't live with my parents. I never had an answer when people asked me why I didn't live with them, honestly I still am not sure completely why I didn't and I'll be 29 this year .
My mother ended up having a drug addiction problem when I was in sixth grade. My mother is also bipolar, although I don't know exactly when this was discovered. My grandmother hated my dad, for whatever reason. So I just had no pull in my desire to want to live with a parent. My mother had always been around, and she lived with us and my grandparents at times. I saw my dad on the weekends and holidays. In the beginning of her addiction, my grandparents got emergency custody of my brother Jacob. So now they were raising three kids. When my mother made the decision to get clean from heroin, I was about 11 (I think, not sure of my exact age). I loved her so much, and I'll always remember driving down the road with her one day as she was crying and saying "I love you, you know I do, right?" I was the one sitting with her in the bathroom while she went through withdrawal. It was hard to see my mother so sick. I stayed by her side and slept in the same room as her at night because I was so happy she was back home. I also went to NA and AA meetings with her. I liked the cookies and snacks they'd have. I really had no business being around so much adult information at my age, but as I see it I was the support in my mother's recovery, because everyone else was just mad at her. Naturally, it makes sense that as an adult my mother uses me as support often. She's better now and has been clean for over 10 years.
Eventually, I did get the chance to live with my father and my step-mom the summer before seventh grade. For whatever reason, my grandmother had a moment and agreed to let me live with them. I was ecstatic! I remember hopping onto the computer and instant messaging my step-mom on AIM. I lived with them from the beginning of seventh grade to halfway through my freshman year of high school. Living there was such a change from what I was used to; more routine and structure, more "normalcy". I moved back in with my grandparents halfway through my freshman year of high school. Around that time is when my father was really starting to struggle with his mental health (that I know of). There was one night I remember he got so angry that my step-mom and I went in the basement with our dog. He'd torn off the keyboard holder from the computer desk, ripped the sliding door off the track, and threw the board into the pool. He wasn't going to hurt us and I think we knew that, but he was just SO aggressively upset. I remember he left and that night I woke up to the sound of him crying in the bathroom pleading to God. He got diagnosed bipolar around that time. I didn't leave because he was struggling, but because I felt like me being there was too stressful and I missed being with my grandparents. Things were still the same when I moved back in, it's like I never left. I think part of me is always going to feel guilty for leaving my brothers there, even though getting out made such a change in me.
I met a junior boy, C is what we will call him, when I moved back. He was my second boyfriend. I'd only dated one person when I lived in Leominster, and it wasn't for long. I didn't really know much about dating, or sex, or how any of it worked really. I feel like I just figured out a lot of it on my own, leading to many poor decisions. Part of the issue is that my grandmother believed that any talk of sex, birth control, or even asking to be on birth control would automatically lead to pregnancy. And most of what I saw growing up was not-so-healthy relationships. C broke up with me shortly after I made the decision to have sex with him, through a note, passing me in the hallway to lunch. One of my first poor decisions, and it got worse because my grandmother found out about it and threatened to bring him to court for statutory rape. For whatever reason I thought that having sex with someone meant love. I don't know where I came up with that, but it was what I thought mattered. And I also couldn't stand to be alone, I somehow put all my worth in being with someone else.
A few boyfriends later, I met P at a little music release basement party for a mutual friend. We were a hit instantly, and I completely ignored all of my friends when they told me the next morning to not get involved with him. Another poor decision. We became boyfriend and girlfriend. I was with him for 3 years almost. We smoked a lot of pot, he skipped a lot of college, he would call out of work to stay with me. My grandmother would call me out sick from school so I could spend a week with him at his dorm in Boston. He practically lived at my grandparent's house with me at one point. It was very toxic. We were very clingy to one another and I had no freedom. I couldn't even really hang out with my friends if he wasn't there too. He didn't like when I colored my hair without asking. One time, I dyed it black without asking and he screamed at me for a good hour through the phone. My friend that was with me had to answer the phone at one point and tell him to stop calling. All my worth and who I was was determined by him. I wanted to stretch my ears but didn't because he got upset and told me that I only wanted to do that so I could fuck his friends. He was extremely emotionally and verbally abusive, narcissistic if you will. And he needed help with mental health, yet another non-believer of therapy in my life, and meds would just make you a zombie so forget that.
When I got to college, P had failed out of New England Institute of Art and ended up at The Mount with me. This was problematic. We had a lot of the same classes and friends. I ended up getting very close to another guy, A, who showed interest in me being who I wanted. I remember being told by A that I was being treated like property. I wasn't happy with P anymore, but I didn't know how to leave. I ended up cheating, which is absolutely against my morals. P found out because A was angry I wouldn't leave P and told him everything. It was a nasty breakup and there was a lot of fighting. We had all the same friends and so there was some division and tension. I failed out of college because I skipped classes so I wouldn't have to see him. But even after the breakup, P found a way to always be involved in my business.
While I was dating P, I stopped talking to my father for about a year. My father was trying to look out for me in a particular circumstance and went to P's house on his lunch one day to talk with him. I was a dumb teenager so I chose my boyfriend over my father. During that year my father tried to commit suicide. I only found out because of someone anonymous on the internet. My father did not succeed and is much better these days.
After P, I had a lot of small relationships. I was trying to find myself and who I wanted to be. I stretched my ears. I went to a lot of shows, and I did get to live with my mother by the way, when I turned 18. Things were hard and she didn't exactly like who I was. A lot of criticism for my boyfriends, who I dated, who my friends were. Because I was already an adult, her trying to parent me didn't exactly mesh. I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. I was very stressed all the time. I lost my best friend after P, but I also was so caught up in myself I didn't see how awful of a friend I was. She even ended up dating P for a few years, and that was very hard for me. I never took accountability. I was an anxious mess, that couldn't just be by herself. A lot of my relationships felt like I was a "light" for the other person who was looking to fill a void or get over someone else. And even knowing that so many times, I'd just stay sometimes because I was "needed".
Eventually, I would meet my now husband Joe a year (roughly) after P. Joe and I were best friends first. We knew each other first, and hung out as friends first. He would drive from Dracut to Athol almost every day, that's like 2 hours just to get to me, then 2 hours home. We would sit in my room and watch Friend Zone on MTV (how fitting, right?) One day we found ourselves just casually holding hands. This was new for me. I didn't see it coming. Our relationship crept up and blossomed instead of my usual just jumping into a relationship. Joe was the only one to ever stand up to P and tell him he didn't have a place in my life anymore. The only person where I never doubted if I was just filling a void from someone else. Joe cared about my interests and what I enjoyed, and has continued to throughout our 9 year relationship. He showed me what being valued as myself was like. This is love. And I am grateful, because he gives me space to figure out who I am and change if I feel like it.
The lesson from this is that I finally learned that I was enough as me. I didn't have to try to be anyone's ex, I didn't have to try to be anyone but myself. I learned that I had value as a person, and that I could be who I wanted, because I WANTED to be that person. I could be a light in someone's life, without putting out my own light. I learned that my body was not the only thing someone should want in a relationship, and that sex does not mean love. And most importantly, I learned that I didn't need to fill a void in someone, or try to have someone to fill a void in myself. Things don't work that way. You cannot fix a person, you can only be there for them. As far as mental health goes, my intention was always to break the cycle and take care of myself. I knew it from very early in my life. I mentioned that I stopped going to therapy for awhile. Two years ago I did start going to counseling again. After having our second child, I realized that I was really struggling and things were getting hard, I felt like I was falling apart inside. I couldn't cope strictly by myself. Last year I was diagnosed as bipolar 2. My counselor knew a bit sooner than when he told me, but I respect his reasoning. When he diagnosed me, he said that he did not tell me right away when he knew, because he knew that I would have been devastated, since he knew I did not want to be like my family. But I am not like my family. I love my family, and they are not bad people, they just needed help. I am the change in the cycle. I wanted better and I am creating better. I want my children to know stability and that mental health is as important as physical health. I am still working at being better every day, I will always have to, that's okay. I am open, I am accepting of myself, I know healing isn't linear. In healing, I have learned forgiveness.
500mm lenses are difficult things to aim, especially when the thing you're trying to find is against a featureless background, and almost impossible if the thing is moving fast, such as a bird in flight. Like a big telescope they need some kind of sighting aid. A red dot gun sight with no magnification is very good, because it allows you to look with both eyes open and see a red dot projected on your target (an optical illusion, not a laser beam :-).
They're designed to clamp onto a gun sight wedge mount, so some kind of adapter is required. I played with the hot shoe mount, but it was too flexible -- the sight needed re-zeroing at every mount, and was easily knocked out of calibration. The degree of precision required to aim the central focus sensor at the target via the dot also made parallax error a problem on the hot shoe. So I decided to mount it directly on the lens. Least parallax error, plus the geometry of the lens barrel and the sight mount naturally lines it up with the lens. To protect the lens barrel I glued the sight clamp to a cardboard tube slightly too small, slit open to provide a sprung grab on the lens body. The slit also handily accommodates the focus hold button on the lens barrel.
It works amazingly well! It's now trivially easy to aim the lens at anything very quickly indeed, including birds in flight. Getting the lens to lock focus on a bird is a bit trickier. Without bothering to zero the sight carefully I found that If the flying bird occupies at least 1/10th of the image the AF manages to lock focus quite soon. But tiny birds, or distant birds, often fail to lock just using the red dot sight, and if you drop to viewfinder or live view the view becomes so narrow the bird is easily lost. So experiments with careful calibration and technique are required.
But initial results are very encouraging! This has suddenly become a VERY much more useful and easily used lens! Although having a gun sight on top of it does reduce one of the advantages of a 500mm reflex lens -- it doesn't look like a long lens, so people are less nervous of it than a foot long lens with a dinner plate objective.
DSC05979X
Difficult focus through the wire fence!!
Marwell:
(www.marwell.org.uk/zoo/explore/animal-stars/amur-tigers)
Amur Tigers at Marwell
Nine-week-old tiger triplets make their debut!
Our stripey trio were born to mum, ‘Milla’ on 21 May in the privacy of a behind the scenes den and you can now spot them venturing out into their paddock.
Tigers are easily distinguishable by their striking coats and reddish-orange fur. Their throat, belly and chest is typically white and there is often a white spot on the back of their ears.
Each tiger has a unique stripe pattern making it easily identifiable when being tracked by researchers in the field. It also helps us to tell our male and female tigers apart.
Blending into the environment is an essential skill when stalking and ambushing prey so tigers rely on their stripes for camouflage. Unlike other cat species, they love a good swim so on a hot (or even cold) day you might find them taking a dip in their pond!
The most difficult thing in this picture were books. For this selfie I brough all available books from my home. It's almost half of the picture. The other difficult thing was make books stand. It was not easy. But nevertheless I'm glad that this picture done)
Photograph for project malstra.ru
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Hmm. This is a little more difficult without notes, flickr! I think sometimes that since last summer you're trying really hard to drive us all away.
But I digress.
A list will do! I'm into lately: bright brights on dark backgrounds, scrappy low volume, pale pink, different shades of green mixed together, rosy tones, turquoise, farmer's wife blocks, sampler style quilts, repetitive geometric patterns (especially churn dash or single girl, which I think would be wonderful miniaturized), flea-market-fancy-pink, the high contrast in photo #7, and the cool effect of faux gingham in photo #10. I know that these don't all necessarily go together and some are mutually exclusive, I hope, partner, that you'l just take this as a list of things I'm into and run with it in whatever direction you feel inspired. Thank you for making me something -- I'm sure I'll love it!
1. Putting the puzzle together, 2. Single Girl Quilt, 3. 2 pillow shams for swap, 4. Flea Market Fancy Love, 5. Vintage Saucers, 6. week two hundred & forty one, 7. Quilt meeting Leiden Januari 2013, 8. Inspiration photo for the Zinnia quilt, 9. # 47 Homemaker, 10. gingham-like patchwork
It's difficult to tell from this photo, but for many years Ashton's buses were a mix of dark blue, off-white and - in a bed below the windows on each deck - scarlet red. It was very patriotic! But costs were high, especially in time and labour needed to apply this elegant colour scheme, and in the mid 1950s the scheme was changed to the 'peacock' blue and cream that lasted until the town's transport department passed to SELNEC in November 1969.
Number 20 was built in Lancashire and operated in Lancashire all its life. It was a Leyland 'Titan' TD5 with bodywork by the same company. It was new to Ashton in 1939 and worked hard through the war years and into the postwar period, until at last it came out of service and finally crossed just over the border into Cheshire to a Dukinfield scrap dealer.
20 looks hard-worked in this photo, which was taken just outside the town's main fire station. This building, and the smaller building at the right, still stand but adapted for other uses - at the time of writing the shop on the far right is no longer a joiner and builder but a seller of window blinds called 'Panache'. We at the Museum think that word applies to this rather elegant bus!
The Museum of Transport Greater houses postwar Ashton trolleybus number 80, recently repainted into this red, white and blue colour scheme, so it can still be enjoyed today.
If you'd like to know more about the Manchester Museum of Transport and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.gmts.co.uk.
The internet has made churchcrawling easier, and so some churches that prooved difficult to see inside can be contacted and visits arranged.
Over the years, several have taken a couple of years or more to see inside: Thannington, Hinxhill, Preston and Betteshanger just off the top of my head. But most difficult have been Barming.
We first visited here one Good Friday over a decade ago, one of several along the valley that were either closed or had services on. Since then I have been insde Mereworth and Waterningbury, but each time we went past Barming, it has been closed.
Then a few weeks ago, a friend posted pictures from inside, and told me he had arranged a visit from their website. I did the same, though one visit a few weeks back had to be postponed, a few weeks later I was back, hoping to meet a warden at ten.
It was at least a fine sunny and warm spring morning, perfect for snapping the churchyard and finding yet more details on the body of the church to record.
St Margaret sites halfway between the River Medway and the old high road out of Maidstone, and once might have been a separate village from Maidstone, but is now just a suburb of the town. The church sits down a dead end lane, and is really a wonderful location overlooking the valley to East Farleigh on the other bank.
The churchyard is filled with spring bulbs, and so in spring it is a riot of colour.
I saw the warden park her car, and walk towards me, so I get up from the bench near the porch to meet her, and than her warmly for opening up.
Unusually, I had read up on the church before my visit, and so was aware of the 14th century bench ends in the Chancel. They did not disappoint.
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An isolated church at the end of a lane above the River Medway. Norman origins are obvious - three windows in the east wall indicate the earliest work. The nave is also early and to this was added the fifteenth century tower with stair turret and needle-like spire. The north aisle was a nineteenth century addition and the chancel was restored by Sir Ninian Comper and represents some of his earliest work. Later generations have, unfortunately, undone much of his original design. The memorable feature of the church is the set of fourteenth century Rhenish carvings showing St Michael, Samson and Our Lord worked into bench ends in the chancel.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Barming
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BARMING.
CALLED in antient records, Bermelinge, lies the next parish to East Farleigh, on the opposite or northern side of the river Medway.
THE PARISH of East Barming lies on high ground, declining southward to the valley, through which the river Medway flows, being its southern boundary. It is situated opposite to East Farleigh, than which it has a far less rustic and more ornamented appearance. The soil like that is a fertile loam, slightly covering the quarry rock, from under which several small springs gush out, and run precipitately in trinkling rills into the Medway; it is enriched too with frequent hop and fruit plantations; the fields are in general larger, and surrounded with continued rows of lofty elms and large spreading oaks, which contribute greatly to the pleasantness of the place. The situation of it, as well as of the neighbouring parishes, from Maidstone as far as Mereworth, is exceedingly beautiful, the river Medway meandering its silver stream in the valley beneath, throughout the greatest part of the extent of them; the fertility of soil, the healthiness of air, the rich variety of prospect, adorned by a continued range of capital seats, with their parks and plantations, form altogether an assemblage of objects, in which nature and art appear to have lavished their choicest endeavours, to form a scene teeming with whatever can make it desirable both for pleasure and profit.
The high road from Maidstone to Tunbridge crosses the upper part of the parish of East Barming, over a beautiful, though small plain, called Barmingheath, part of which is in Maidstone parish, a little distance below which is a modern, and rather elegant seat, built by John Whitaker, gent. second son of Mr. Tho. Whitaker, of Trottesclive, since whose death it has come to his nephew, Thomas Whitaker, esq. of Watringbury; but Mr. William Rolfe resides in it. Farther on is the village of Barming, in which is a pleasant seat, called the Homestall, built about the year 1720, by Mr. James Allen, whose heirs are now entitled to the see simple of it; but by the foreclosure of a mortgage term, the possession of it became vested in Arthur Harris, esq. who kept his shrievalty here in 1746; his brother Thomas resided likewise here, and dying unmarried in 1769, gave this seat to Mrs. Mary Dorman for life; remainder to Mr. John Mumford, of Sutton-at-Hone, whom he made heir to the bulk of his fortune; she now possesses and resides in it. A small distance from hence is the seat of Hall-place; hence the ground rises to the coppice woods, part of which lie within this parish, and adjoin to a much larger tract northward. About a quarter of a mile on the other side of the road is the church, standing by itself among a grove of elms, the slight delicate white spire of which rising above the foilage of the grove, affords a pleasing prospect to the neighbouring country. From the above road the village extends southward down the declivity of the hill, almost to the river, over which there is a wooden bridge, built at the expence of the commissioners of the navigation. It is called St. Helen's bridge, from its contiguity to that manor, situated at a very small distance from it; about a mile from the village, close to the eastern boundary of the parish, adjoining to that of Maidstone, on the declivity of the hill, leading down to East Farleigh bridge, is the parsonage, lately almost rebuilt by the present rector, the Rev. Mark Noble, who resides in it, and by his judicious management and improvements has made this benefice, perhaps one of the most desirable in the diocese.
A few years ago several Roman urns, pieces of armour, and skeletons, were dug up within the bounds of this parish; the latter were no doubt belonging to those who fell in the skirmish between the Royalists and Oliverians at Farleigh bridge, in 1648; and the former serves to shew, that the Roman highway, a different one from the larger one of the Watling-street, and directing its course towards Oldborough, in Ightham, led near this place, of which more will be noticed hereafter.
THERE GROWS on Barming heath, the plant, Chamæmelum odoratissimum repens flore simplici, common camomile, in great plenty; and verbascum album vulgare five thapsus barbatus communis, great mul lein, or hightaper, more plentifully, and of a larger size than I have met with elsewhere.
THE MANOR of East Barming was given by king William the conqueror to Richard de Tonebrege, the eldest son of Gislebert earl of Brion, in Normandy, the son of Geffry, natural son of Richard, the first of that name, duke of Normandy, whence he bore the name of Richard Fitz Gilbert at his coming hither; (fn. 1) he was one of the principal persons who came into England with duke William, to whom he gave great assistance in that memorable battle, in which he obtained the crown of this realm. He had for that service, and in respect of his near alliance to him in blood, great advancements in honour, and large possessions both in Normandy and England, bestowed upon him; among the latter he possessed thirty-eight lordships in Surry, thirty-five in Essex, three in Cambridgeshire, three in Kent, one in Middlesex, one in Wiltshire, one in Devonshire, ninety-five in Suffolk, and thirteen burgages in Ipswich, of which Clare was one, besides others in other counties; accordingly, in the survey of Domesday, taken about the year 1080, being the 15th of the Conqueror's reign, this estate is thus entered under the title of, Terra Ricardi F. Gisleb'ti, the land of Richard, the son of Gislebert.
In Medestan hundred the same Richard (de Tonebrige) holds Bermelinge. Alret held it of king Edward (the Confessor) and then and now it was and is taxed at one suling. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two carucates and five villeins, with eight borderers, having five carucates. There are thirteen servants, and one mill of five shillings, and four acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs. In the time of king Edward it was worth four pounds, and afterwards 100 shillings, now four pounds.
This Richard Fitz Gilbert, at the latter end of the Conqueror's reign, was usually called Rich. de Tonebrige, as well from his possessing that town and castle, as from his residence there; and his descendants took the name of Clare, from the like reason of their possessing that honour, and were afterwards earls of Clare, and of Gloucester and Hertford. Of this family, as chief lords of the fee, Barming was afterwards held in moieties by Fulk Peyforer and Roger de Kent, each of whom held their part of the honour of Clare.
In the reign of king Edward II. the heirs of Lora Peyforer and those of Roger de Kent, being Thomas de Barmeling and Wm. de Kent, held these moieties as above mentioned; and in the 20th year of the next reign of king Edward III. John Fitz Jacob, Thomas and John de Kent, held these moieties of this estate, in East Barmeling, of the earl of Gloucester.
THE FORMER OF THESE MOIETIES, held by the family of Peyforer, seems to have comprised the MANOR of EAST BARMING, and to have been given afterwards to the Benedictine nunnery of St. Helen's, in Bishopsgate street, London, whence it acquired the name of ST. HELEN'S, alias East Barming manor, by the former of which only it is now called; with the above priory this manor remained till its dissolution, in king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it was surrendered into the king's hands, who, in his 35th year, granted his manor, called St. Elen's, among other premises, to Richard Callohill, to hold in capite by knights service, who that year sold it to Gabriel Caldham, freemason, of London; and he next year sold it to Tho. Reve, (fn. 2) whose grandson of the same name, in the 4th year of queen Elizabeth, levied a fine of it, and then passed it away by sale to Mr. Stephen Pearse, who some years afterwards alienated it to Sir Robert Brett, on whose death, without surviving issue, in 1620, (fn. 3) this manor came by will to Robert Lynd, esq. who bore for his arms, Argent a cross ingrailed gules; and he sold it to Sir Oliver Boteler, of Teston, in whose descendants it continued down to Sir Philip Boteler, bart. who died in 1772, s. p. and by will gave one moiety of his estates to Mrs. Elizabeth Bouverie, of Chart Sutton; and the other moiety to Elizabeth viscountess dowager Folkestone, and Wm. Bouverie, earl of Radnor; and on a partition afterwards made between them, this manor was allotted to lady Folkestone, who died in 1782, on which it came to her only son, the Hon. Philip Bouverie, who has since taken the name of Pusey, and he is the present owner of it.
This manor extends its jurisdiction over the whole of this parish; the antient house of it, as well as the dove cote, stood nearly at the foot of the hill near St. Helen's bridge; both have been pulled down not many years since.
THE OTHER MOIETY of the estate of East Barming, held by John Fitz Jacob and John de Kent, seems to have passed afterwards into the family of Fremingham; for John, son of Sir Ralph de Fremingham, of Lose, died possessed of it about the 12th year of king Henry IV. and leaving no issue, he by his will gave it to certain feoffees, who, in compliance with it, next year assigned it to John Pimpe, and his heirs male, for the finding and maintaining of two chaplains, one in the monastery of Boxley, and the other in the church of East Farleigh, to celebrate for the souls of himself, his wife, and others their ancestors and relations therein mentioned. From the family of Pimpe this estate came, in king Henry VIII.'s reign, to Sir Henry Isley, who by the act of the 2d and 3d of king Edward VI. procured his lands in this county to be disgavelled.
Being concerned in the rebellion raised by Sir Tho. Wyatt, in the 1st year of queen Mary, he was attainted, and his lands were consiscated to the crown, whence this estate was granted that year to Sir John Baker, the queen's attorney general, to hold in capite by knights service; (fn. 4) in whose descendants it continued down to Sir John Baker, bart. of Sissinghurst, of whom it seems to have been purchased in the reign of king Charles II. by Golding, who died possessed of it in 1674, and was buried in this church, bearing for his arms, A cross voided, between four lions passant guardant. His son, Mr. Henry Golding, gent. about the year 1700, alienated this estate to Nicholas Amhurst, gent. of West Barming, who died possessed of it in 1715; and his grandson, John Amhurst, esq. is the present possessor of it.
HALL PLACE is a reputed manor in this parish, the antient mansion of which is situated at a small distance westward of the present seat, and is little more than an ordinary cottage, serving as a farm house to a small parcel of land. It formerly gave both residence and surname to a family, written in antient deeds, At-Hall, who before the end of the reign of king Edward III. had alienated their interest in the greatest part of it to one of the Colepepers, of Preston, in Aylesford, and the rest of it to Clive; and this part was by John Clive, about the 7th year of king Henry IV. likewise conveyed to Colepeper, who in the 10th year of that reign passed away the entire fee of it to Sampson Mascall, whose family was originally of Mascall's, in Brenchley, and in his descendants Hall-place continued till the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was conveyed to Alchorne, whose ancestors were possessed of Alchorne in Rotherfield, in Sussex; in which name the fee of this estate remained at the time of king Charles II.'s restoration, but the use and profits of it were made over, for a long series of years, to Mr. Cook, of Stepney; and he, in 1656, alienated his interest in it to Mr. Rich. Webb, rector of this parish, who in 1667, gave it to his grandson, Richard Webb, gent. who, in 1726, conveyed it by sale to Mr. Peter Smart, who bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron between three pheons sable; about which time Christopher Smart, the poet, is said to have been born in this parish; at length, Mr. Peter Smart's widow, and their children, in 1746, passed away their interest in it to John Cale, esq. who resided here, and dying in 1777, was buried in this churchyard, having been a benefactor to the poor of this parish; and by his will he devised this, among the rest of his estates in this county, to the heirs of Tho. Prowse, esq. of Axbridge, in Somersetshire; in consequence of which his two daughters and coheirs became intitled to it; the youngest of whom married Sir John Mordaunt, bart. of Walton, in Warwickshire, and they became possessed of this estate in undivided moieties, and in 1781, joined in the sale of it to John Amhurst, esq. of Barnjet, the present owner of it.
CHARITIES.
THOMAS HARRIS, esq. of this parish, in 1769, gave by will, 5l. per annum for fifty years, 2s. of it to be given to the poor of this parish in bread, on each Sunday in the year, excepting Easter and Whitsunday.
JOHN CALE, esq. of this parish, in 1777, gave by will the sum of 200l. in East India annuities, the interest of it to be given to the poor yearly at Christmas, in linen and bread, vested in trustees, of the annual produce of 61.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Margaret, is a small building, consisting of one isle and a chancel, with an elegant spire steeple. The present rector, Mr. Noble, about twelve years ago, at his own expence, entirely repaired and ornamented the chancel; he gave likewise a new altar and pulpit cloth, and cushion; and the parishioners, followed his example, in the repair and ornamenting of the church itself; so that from being one of the most neglected, it is become equal to most of the neighbouring churches in those respects.
Walter, bishop of Rochester, in the reign of king Stephen, confirmed to the prior and canon of Ledes the patronage of the church of Barmyng, as it was granted to them by the lords of the soil, and confirmed to them by their charters.
Gilbert, bishop of Rochester, in the reign of king Henry II. granted to the prior and canons two shillings, to be received by them yearly, as a pension from this church, saving the episcopal right of the bishop of Rochester, &c. (fn. 5) The patronage of the church of Barming, together with this pension, remained part of the possessions of the above mentioned priory till the dissolution of it in the reign of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands. Since which, the patronage of this rectory has continued vested in the crown, but the above mentioned yearly pension of two shillings was, by the king's dotation charter, in his 33d year, settled on his new erected dean and chapter of Rochester, who are now intitled to it.
¶In the 15th year of king Edward I. the church of Barmelyng was valued at twelve marcs. It is valued in the king's books at 12l. 7s. 1d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 5s. 8½d.z The glebe land belonging to this rectory contains eighty-three acres.
Wat Mahathat是深受高棉影響的寺廟，由King Borommaracha I（1370-1377）建於1374年，被稱為大舍利寺，寺廟被緬甸軍摧毀，現在已是殘垣斷壁。但仍然能看出其宏偉的規模，在東南角可以找到破損的佛頭，彷彿從樹中長出來一樣。
歷史參考如下：
Wat Maha That or the “Monastery of the Great Relic” is located on the city island in the central part of Ayutthaya in Tha Wasukri sub-district. The temple is situated on the corner of the present Chikun Road and Naresuan Road. The monastery stood on thewest bank of Khlong Pratu Khao Pluak, an important canal, which has been filled up somewhere in the early 20th century. In ancient times the temple was likely fully surrounded by canals and moats. The structure has been registered as a national historic site by the Fine Arts Department on 8 March 1935 and is part of the Ayutthaya World Heritage Historical Park.
History
The exact date of the establishment of Wat Maha That is difficult to assess.
The Luang Prasoet version of the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya put its construction in 736 Chula Sakarat (CS) or 1374 of the Christian Era, during the reign of King Borommaracha I (r. 1370-1388), somehow 23 years after the establishment of Ayutthaya. The chronicles mention that the central prang had a height of 46 meter.
In 736, a year of the tiger, King Bòromracha I and the Venerable Thammakanlayan first erected the great, glorious, holy jeweled reliquary, towering one sen and three wa, to the east of the royal lion gable.
Later versions of the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya state that Wat Maha That was established by King Ramesuan (r. 1388-1395) after his attack of Chiang Mai in 1384 (746 CS). But this date is not corroborating with his period of reign.
Then the King went out to observe the precepts at Mangkhalaphisek Hall. At ten thum he looked toward the east and saw a Great Holy Relic of the Lord Buddha performing a miracle. Calling the palace deputies to bring his royal palanquin, he rode forth. He had stakes brought and pounded into the ground to mark the spot. The great holy reliquary which he built there was nineteen wa high, with a nine-branched finial three wa high, and named the Maha That Monastery. Then the King had the Royal Rite of Entering the Capital performed and festivities were held in the royal residence.
In general, historians bet on the two horses and take as granted that the construction of the monastery was started by King Borommaracha I and completed in King Ramesuan’s reign. In the second version the prang was 38 meter high with on top, a finial of 6 meter.
An earlier source (1), Jeremias Van Vliet, a chief merchant of the Dutch East India
Company in Ayutthaya, wrote in his “Short History of the Kings of Siam” in 1640, that it
was Prince U-Thong, the later King Ramathibodhi I, who built Wat Maha That.
Then Thao U Thong began to re-establish the city on the fifth day of the waxing fourth moon (in our reckoning being the month of March) in the Year of the Tiger and called it Ayutthaya. He also built three temples which are still considered to be the most important in the whole kingdom: the Nopphathat, the most holy; Ratchaburana, the same size and shape as the Nopphathat but not visited by the kings because of a prophecy that the first king who goes in there will die shortly thereafter; and Wat Doem still the foremost [monastic?] school. After Thao U Thong had built the aforementioned city, he had the entire population called together and declared himself king.
The chronicles mention that King Borommaracha II (r. 1424-1448) attacked Angkor in 1431 and had a large number of sacred images of oxen, lions and other creatures removed from the temples there. These images were brought to Ayutthaya and installed as offerings at Wat Maha That.
In 793, a year of the boar King Bòromracha II went and seized Nakhòn Luang. He then had his son, Prince Nakhòn In, ascend the royal throne of Nakhòn Luang. At that time the King then had Phraya Kaeo and Phraya Thai and all of the images brought to Ayutthaya.] [BCDF: The King then had Phraya Kaeo, Phraya Thai, and their families, as well as all the images of sacred oxen and all the images of lions and other creatures, brought along. When they reached Ayutthaya, the King therefore had all of the animal images taken and presented as offerings, some at the Phra Si Ratana Maha That Monastery and some at the Phra Si Sanphet Monastery.
Wat Maha That was one of the most important monasteries of the Ayutthaya kingdom, not only because it was the religious centre and enshrined relics of the Buddha, but also because of its proximity to the Grand Palace. It was a royal monastery and the seat of the Supreme Patriarch of the City Dwelling sect till the end of the Ayutthaya period - at par with the Supreme Patriarch of the Forest Dwelling sect, which had its seat at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon (called Wat Pa Kaeo in earlier times). Van Vliet wrote in 1638 in his “Description of the Kingdom of Siam” that from the highest ecclesiastic regents, namely the four bishops of the principal temples of Judia, “The bishop of the Nappetat (2) has the supreme dignity”
In the past, it was the venue of important royal ceremonies and celebrations. Van Vliet describes the splendor of yearly Royal procession to Wat Maha That on the occasion of Kathin, where the Ayutthayan Kings “made their offerings to the gods and prayed for the welfare of the country”. An excerpt from “The Description of the Kingdom of Siam” of 1638 can be read here .
Some sources state that during King Songtham’s reign (r. 1610/1611-1628) the prang fell in decay and the upper part of the main prang came down. Van Vliet although wrote in “The short History of the Kings of Siam” (1640) that the tower collapsed in the third year of King Prasat Thong’s reign (r. 1629-1656), thus being 1632.
In the third year of his reign the golden tower of the Nopphathat suddenly collapsed without a crosswind, thunder, or lightning. He had it quickly erected again, but before this tower was totally restored, the scaffolding (beautifully durably made of bamboo) also collapsed unexpectedly during a rain to consequence, strange omens were seen but were kept secret by the soothsayers.
Prasat Thong restored the stupa in 1633 and increased it considerably. The prang was raised to 44 meters and reached at that time, with its finial, a height of 50 m.
In 995 (1633 AD), a year of the cock, the King in His holy compassion had the holy stupa of the Monastery of the Great Relic, which had been destroyed earlier, restored. Originally the main section had been nineteen wa, with a sky trident spire of three wa, so the King said, “The original form was extremely squat. Rebuild it so it is a sen and two wa high but retain the sky trident spire so that together they equal one sen and five wa.” When it was built it looked conical and it was ordered that makha wood be brought and added to the brick and that mortar be taken and added to it. In nine months it was completed and a ceremony to dedicate it was ordered to be held on a grand scale.
Wat Maha That was restored again in King Borommakot’s reign (r. 1733-1758). Four porticos were added to the prang, which was restored at the same time as the royal vihara and the ordination hall. No evidence of restoration of the monastery could befound after. Obviously chedis, prangs, and viharns were added on several occasions in time. At the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, the monastery was set on fire in the Burmeseattack.
Wat Maha That housed before an unusual Buddha image of green stone believed to be made in the Dvaravati style (Mon) dating from 707 - 757 AD. A governor of Ayutthaya got this statue moved to Wat Na Phra Men during the reign of King Rama III, where it still resides in a small vihara next to the ubosot.
The main prang of Wat Maha That survived until the reign of King Rama V, as seen in a photograph taken in 1903, early 1904. On 25 May, 1904, at 0500 Hr in the morning, the main prang collapsed at the level of the niche. The prang fell further apart in 1911 during the reign of King Rama VI. The Fine Arts Department restored it partially. The symmetrical base with staircases on the four sides is all what remains of the once majestic prang.
Wat Maha That was certainly not exempted from looting. From its destruction in 1767 until its restoration by the FAD last century, the temple has been prone of severe looting and damage by illegal excavation.
From the collection of the aerial photograph Peter Williams-Hunt, who took pictures during reconnaissance missions of Royal Air Force in the 2nd World War, I choose two photographs to indicated the state of the ruins of Wat Maha That in the year 1946. It is obvious that quite a bit of restoration had been undertaken by the Fine Arts Department.
Excavations
In 1956 the Fine Arts Department started excavations at Wat Maha That. At first workers, found in the main chamber of the principal prang, half buried in the sand under the pedestal of the pagoda, a solid gold lion, sitting in a fish-shaped container decorated with a gilded motif and filled with other gold accessories.
At a later stage the smell of sandalwood oil hung in the air and the upper ventilation hole of the crypt was found. A shaft was discovered in September, when a vertical excavation from the floor of the relic chamber was performed.
Aphivan Saipradist recounts the story of one of the workers, Mian Youngpradit, digging for the crypt in its analysis as follows:
It was both exciting and tiring. We had only a crow bar and a basket. And we had to dig just a big enough hole to go through, layer by layer, until we reached the main crypt 17 meters underneath. We had to use a lantern. But the ventilation was so poor that breathing became more difficult. We had to lower leafy guava branches down the hole to help with the ventilation. The noise of the crow bar touching the stone in the tiny hole was heart wrenching. When it hit the box, the compressed air suddenly burst out of the tiny hole was so violent that it seemed like a big serpent jumping at us. If we had not been prepared, it could’ve killed us. That was how many crypt diggers were killed.
In the 17 m deep shaft a hollow stone pillar 3.20 m high with a lid buried in a cemented-brick pedestal was found. Five days were needed to remove it. On 30 August 1956 the stone container was opened in presence of authorities. The container was filled with a small stupa wrapped in a lead sheet containing relics, gold ornaments, a large quantity of bronze images, pewter votive tablets and other valuables.
Architecture
Wat Maha That as Wat Phra Ram, Wat Phutthai Sawan and the later built Wat Racha Burana follows the Khmer concept of temple construction. We find nearly identical, but earlier built structures at Angkor. Phnom Bakheng, Preah Rup, East Mebon, Baphuon and Ta Keo were all Temple Mountains, consisting of a central tower surrounded by four corner towers, forming a quincunx, the latter also often was surrounded by a courtyard and a gallery.
The design, architecture and decoration of a Khmer temple were modeled according to a series of magical and religious beliefs. Devotees moved from the mundane world to a spiritual one by walking along one of the four axes, each of which has a different astrological value. East, the direction of the rising sun, was auspicious, representing life and the sexual prowess of the male. Most of the Khmer temples were built with the entrance to the east, as this was the formal approach to most Hindu shrines. In general, however, west is considered inauspicious and represents death, impurity and the setting sun. North is also auspicious, while South has a neutral value. The Khmers adhered to the Hindu belief that a temple must be built correctly according to a mathematical system in order for it to function in harmony with the universe. The sanctuary or the abode of gods was built in the center of the city to imitate Mount Meru which the Khmersbelieved to be the center of the universe. The town layout, a square-shape, corresponded with the Mandala concept, arising from Hindu beliefs, which indicated the boundary of the universe.
All temples in the early period of the establishment of Ayutthaya were clearly Khmer styled, consisting primary of laterite structures (instead of sandstone) and bricks, enhanced with stucco. Wat Maha That consisted basically of a large central prang surrounded by four subsidiary prangs at the four inter-cardinal points, standing on araised square platform. The quincunx was surrounded by a courtyard and a roofed gallery, lined with a row of Buddha images. Typically for the Ayutthaya period is that often the gallery was penetrated by a monastic structure, being an ordination or an assembly hall, or even sometimes both. An exception to this was Wat Phutthaisawan.
The principal prang of Wat Maha That was constructed of laterite at the base. The top part of the stupa was of brick and mortar. Brick work at the four sides of the base indicates that the prang had porches in the cardinal directions, a feature not used in the Early Ayutthaya period (1351 - 1491). These porches could be reached by a staircase. Historians believe that these porches were added during the renovation of the temple done in 1633 during King Prasat Thong’s reign. Mural paintings of Buddhas in the different postures were found inside the prang. The prang stood until the beginning of the 20th century, but finally the brick part collapsed as unfortunately no preserving had been done since the fall of the city in 1767. Fifty years after its collapse a crypt was found containing relics of the Buddha inside the stupa.
The Vihan Luang or the Royal Assembly Hall of Wat Maha That stood east of the prang, orientated towards Khlong Pratu Khao Pluak. The rectangular structure was quite large, measuring 40 m by 20 m. The vihara had a front porch (east) which could be reached by tree staircases. There was also an entry into the hall from both sides. Behind the main pedestal were two exits leading down to the gallery. The multi-tiered roof of the viharn was supported by two rows of columns. The hall contained mural paintings of the Vessantara Jataka. Viharn Luang has undergone several restorations in the past as well as in recent times.
The ubosot or ordination hall was rectangular and stood west of the main prang. The hall had a double entry to the west and two exits on the sides near the main pedestal which contained the presiding Buddha image. The hall was surrounded by an inner wall (Th: kamphaeng kaew, literally Crystal Wall), forming an inner court which gave access to the gallery. Outside and around the ubosot were eight boundary stones or marker slabs (Th: bai sema) at the eight cardinal points in order to demarcate the sacred area of the Sangkha (Buddhist brotherhood). Two sets of marker slabs were found in this area. The first set was made of reddish stone measuring 1 m x 67 cm x 11 cm. The second set was made of fine greenish stone and had the characteristics of Sukhothai’s boundary stones, measuring 1.12 m x 72 cm x 8 cm. The stones are believed to have been made in 1374 CE during King Ramesuan’s reign.
Aphivan Saipradist writes in his analyses that the presiding Buddha images in the ubosot and vihara were large-sized stone sculptures that existed before the establishment of Ayutthaya. Also the stone Buddha images along the gallery he describes, as statues with big and peculiar robes, stout bodies in the Bayon style with sharp chins, considered older than Sukhothai period. He is although not clear about the origin of these statues and the question remains open if they were once looted from Angkor or at least modeled from Khmer war loot (See King Borommaracha II and Angkor above).
The northwestern prang of the temple is one of the few structures that still contain mural paintings from the early Ayutthaya period. The wall opposite the entrance shows a trace of a bell jar which normally accompanies a Buddha image, which however is missing. The left wall was adorned with the paintings of three rows of Buddhas, while the paintings on the right wall are almost completely vanished. The colors used were black, white and red.
Identical to other large temple sites, smaller pagodas and minor viharas were continually added, restored and reconstructed at the complex.
Saipradist states that the tradition of building pagodas to enshrine relics of the Buddha spread widely in time and that apparently there was a Royal decree issued to establish in each important city, a temple being the most important religious focal point for that area. As thus we see Wat Maha That or Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat established in Lopburi, Phitsanulok, Kamphaeng Phet etc.
Johannes Vingboons (c.1616 - 1670), a Dutch cartographer, created a painting named "Afbeldinge der stadt Iudiad Hooft des Choonincrick Siam" published in Vingboons Atlas around 1665. In this painting, Wat Maha That can clearly be discerned. Historians believe that the information to make this painting was collected during Van Vliet's time (1640) in Ayutthaya. On Vingboons map we see a large Khmer prang surrounded by four subsidiary stupa (the one behind the main prang is not visible) and a gallery; the Royal vihara and multiple satellite chedis. The kutis or lodging for the monks seems to be located behind the monastery walls. It was although not customary for the monks to be housed in stone structures, but the later could have been the Residence of the Supreme Patriarch.
Description of Wat Maha That by one of the Lankan Ambassadors to Ayutthaya in 1751 AD
On the twenty-first day of the solar month Kanya, being Sunday, three officers came in the morning and accompanied us in boats to the vihare called Maha Dhanvarama, in the district named Na pu than, that we might make offerings there to the Baddha and acquire merit, and also see the beauties of the place; and this is what we saw there. The place was a fertile stretch of level land enclosed by four walls, outside which ran four canals.
From the water-course to the east up to the gate there was a long covered passage of two stages. On entering at the gateway we saw on the four sides eight holy dagabas, so covered with gilding that they resembled masses of kinihiriya flowers. In the intervals were various images. Among them at the four sides were four buildings of two stages against the inner walls of which, and rising to the roof were large gilt images of the Buddha. Within the space enclosed by these were four handsome gilt dagabas with images interspersed. In the very centre of all was a dagaba richly adorned, with doors on the four sides fitted with stairs, up and down which we could ascend and descend. At the four, corners of the square base of the spire were four dragons with wings outstretched and meeting above; in the four panels were four images of gods adorned with all the divine ornaments, as well as images of the gods who preside at the four points of the compass, with their bands clasped overhead. In the intervals were images of door-guardians armed with swords, of rakshas with clubs and of bairayas with staves, while above the circular base of the spire were depicted in solid gold the sacred halo. On either side of the stair leading from the eastern gate ran two snakes, their bodies the size of palmirah palms; where they reached the ground their hoods were raised and renting on slabs of crystal; their open jaws and projecting fangs filledthe hearts of those who saw them with terror.
Starting from here there were ranged round the dagaba images of lions, bears, swans, peacocks, kinduras, deer, oxen, wolves, buffaloes, makaras, and door guardians armed with swords. Also, carrying palm fans, chamaras, sesat, triumphal chanks, and various offerings, with their hands clasped above their heads, were numerous images of Brahmas, Sakras, and the Sujama gods, all adorned with gold. In the hall to the east, with its eye: fixed on the dagaba, was an image of the Buddha supported on either side by images of the two great disciples with their hands clasped above their heads. Also there was another image of the lord as he was in life, begging for food with his bowl in his sacred hand. In another building, which was reached by a flight of steps, were various images of the Buddha and two figures of the Sacred Footprint with the auspicious symbols in gold. In a similar hall to the west were three images. Here was depicted in gold our lord reposing in lion fashion in his scented room, whilst Ananda Mahasami is approaching holding in his right hand a golden candlestick.
On the four walls was depicted the Vessantara birth-story, and next his birth in Thusita heaven, whence again he was begotten of King Suddhodana in the womb of Queen Mahamaya and was brought forth into the arms of gods, after which he made his Great Renunciation, and on his gleaming throne under the sacred Bo attained Buddha hood; and, seated on the White Throne of Sakraya, he preached his Abhidharma to the gods, and after receiving the offerings of the gods and Brahmas he descended by the divine stair to the Sakya city; - all this was pictured in gilt. Outside the great wall of the vihare were several preaching-halls: to the west of this was the residence of the Sanga Raja ; the dining and preaching-halls were adorned in diverse fashions with gilding. One room was hung with awnings and curtains embroidered with gold whilst the floor was covered with various precious carpets. There were vases arranged in rows filled with flowers, whilst above were hung circular lamps. On two thrones on either side were placed two priestly fans; the handles of these were made of elephants' tusks, the ivory of which was sawn very fine like the leaves of the kus-kus, and woven with red velvet and thin strips of gold and silver like rushes to form the leaf of the fan. Two holy priests stood on either side making obeisance to where the Sanga Raja was. Behind a curtain curiously embroidered with gold was a throne on which the Sanga Raja himself was seated. His face was screened by a fan of golden-hued bird's plumes which he held in his right hand. ... Surrounding this spot were several houses occupied by a vast number of priests and Samaneras, devotees of either sex who observe Dasasil, as well as a crowd of pious and courtly folk who provided daily offerings.
A difficult morning, whilst the temperatures remained good overnight in the mid to high teens a strong breeze developed. This made it particularly awkward in the morning trying to record the moths with many escaping before I could get any images even on the phone, in the end I was only able to confirm around a dozen different species and from these 4 new ones plus a Spurge Hawk-moth that was nearly overlooked.
You can see more of my moth images on my main website HM Wildlife Photography - Garden Moths or my other flickr account HM Wildlife
View On Black and Large for Contacts.
Take enough photos and you'll get one to work. The most difficult issue with a Rufus is when the sun hits their neck feathers. Given the right angle, yellow is reflected back at the lens and clips easily. So, the key is not to have them facing the camera when they are in the sun.
It’s difficult to improve upon a thoroughly considered $1.6 million hypercar, but McLaren has certainly given it one helluva crack. The marque’s special ops team (McLaren Special Operations) has just released a drool-worthy new theme for the McLaren Elva to one-up the original 804 hp roadster.
Inspired by Bruce McLaren’s superlight M1A, the reimagined Elva honors the marque’s storied racing history while showcasing all the latest automotive innovations. It’s an amalgamation of old and new and boasts impressive specs to boot.
A worthy muse, McLaren’s M1A was the quickest car on track at the Canadian Sports Car Grand Prix in 1964, smashing the lap record multiple times. The ferocious racer hit eye-watering speeds while exuding McLaren’s distinctive aesthetic beauty and has been artfully re-created thanks to this theme.
Sporting a sleek, black exterior, the roadster has Bruce McLaren’s iconic number 4 emblazoned on the rear quarter panels and silver-and-red racing stripes across the front bumper and rocker panels. Meanwhile, the Alcantara interior pairs jet black with plush burgundy upholstery.
While this one-of-a-kind Elva may take some design cues from the ‘60s, performance-wise it’s decidedly futuristic. Officially the lightest McLaren road car ever, the Elva boasts a bespoke carbon-fiber body and chassis, plus feather-light materials throughout. The land missile can soar from standstill to 60 mph in less than three seconds, thanks to a thundering 804 hp, twin-turbo V-8.
On top of that, McLaren claims the open-air dream machine, which has no roof, windshield or side windows, features the world’s first Active Air Management System. This ingenious design redirects airflow over the cockpit to create what the marque calls “a bubble of calm,” which means your hat should stay on even at menacingly high speeds.
The original McLaren Elva will be limited to just 399 examples and is expected to roll off the production line towards the end of this year. McLaren did not disclose exactly how many Elva M1As will be made but, hopefully, it won’t be too long before we see one flying through the streets.
Plumer planned to capture Gheluvelt Plateau in four steps, with an interval of six days between each to allow time to bring forward artillery and supplies, a faster tempo of operations than that envisaged by Gough in the planning before 31 July.[Each step was to have even more limited geographical objectives, with infantry units attacking on narrower fronts in greater depth. The previous practice of attacking the first objective with two battalions and the following objectives with a battalion each, was reversed in view of the greater density of German defensive positions the further the attack penetrated. Double the medium and heavy artillery was available than that used on 31 July. The method would ensure that more infantry was on tactically advantageous ground, having had time to consolidate and regain contact with their artillery, before they received German counter-attacks. The British began a desultory bombardment on 31 August and also sought to neutralize the German batteries with gas in the days before the attack, including gas attacks on the three evenings before the assault. Aircraft were to be used for systematic air observation of German troop movements to and on the battlefield, to avoid the failures of previous battles where too few aircraft had been burdened with too many duties in bad weather.
Like the attack of 31 July, nine British divisions from four corps were to participate on a front of approximately 10,000 yards. In late August destructive fire by the heaviest artillery began on German strongpoints and counter-battery began early in September, although hampered by poor visibility.
Elastic defence had been rejected by the Fourth Army Chief of Staff, Major-General von Lossberg, who believed that a tactical withdrawal by trench garrisons would disoganise the counter-attacking reserves, leading to the loss of the sector concerned and danger to flanking units. Lossberg ordered the front line of sentry groups (Postengraben) to be held rigidly; British attacks would exhaust themselves and then be repulsed by local German reserves or Eingreif divisions if needed. Lossberg also judged that there was little prospect of British attacks being delayed by their need to move artillery forward and build supply routes. The British had a huge mass of artillery and the infrastructure necessary to supply it with ammunition, much of it built opposite Flandern I in the period between the attack at Messines and 31 July.
Lossberg's methods had succeeded on the front of XIX Corps in 31 July and against II Corps on the Gheluvelt Plateau on 31 July and during August, although the counter-attacks had been stopped in their turn by British artillery fire, when they reached areas where observation and communications between British infantry and artillery had been restored.[18] Ludendorff later wrote that losses in the August battles had been unexpectedly high.[32] The pause in British operations in early September helped to mislead the Germans. General von Kuhl (Chief of Staff, Army Group Crown Prince Rupprecht) doubted that the offensive had ended but by 13 September had changed his mind. Despite Kuhl urging caution, two divisions, thirteen heavy batteries and twelve field batteries of artillery, three fighter squadrons and four other air force units were transferred from the German Fourth Army.[33] In the area about to be attacked, the Fourth Army had six ground-holding divisions backed by three Eingref divisions and 750 guns.
Second Army
The 19th Division in IX Corps covered the southern defensive flank of the attack front against the German 9th Reserve and 207th divisions, on a 1,600 yards (1,500 m) front from the Comines canal to Groenenburg Farm on the west slope of the Bassevillebeek valley. The six attacking battalions of the 58th Brigade on the right and the 57th Brigade on the left and their supporting battalions had a difficult approach. The 58th brigade battalions had to make their way through the obstructions of Opaque Wood and Imperfect Copse and then at midnight it began to rain until 5:00 a.m.. Zero hour was decided according to the weather and the time of 5:40 a.m. was passed forward at 1:45 a.m. so all ranks had to lie quiet in the rain for more than three hours. Around dawn a heavy mist formed and at 5:40 a.m. the barrage began. On the right the short advance to the first objective (red line) was met with opposition from dug-outs south-west of Hessian Wood, Jarrocks Farm, Pioneer House and a small wood nearby. Heavy machine-gun fire was also encountered from Hollebeke Château and the railway embankment. The right battalion reached the objective on time but the two to the left had many casualties and lost touch with their flanking units and the barrage, until the pause on the red line (first objective) allowed them to reorganise, mop-up and regain touch with units which had lost direction. The third battalion on the left was still held up by Hessian Wood so a defensive flank was formed facing north.[35]
The 57th Brigade advanced to the red line with slight opposition on the right while the two battalions on the left had to cross an extremely boggy area which slowed them and stopped them from keeping up with the barrage. The delay resulted in them being caught by machine-gun fire from dug-outs near Top House while bunched up because of the heavy going. The red line (second objective) which here was little different to the first objective (green line) was reached and two platoons from each attacking company moved up ready to advance to the blue line (second objective) which began at 6:24 a.m. The second and final lines (red and blue) were contiguous on the right from Hessian Wood but the Germans defending the wood were still fighting when the advance was due to resume. Two companies of the right hand battalion had advanced after suffering many losses and then a platoon went to assist the centre battalion. A number of dug-outs were cleared 50 prisoners taken which enabled the centre battalion to get into the north end of the wood and gain touch with the left-hand battalion in the south-western corner. On the front of the 57th Brigade opposition at Wood Farm and Belgian Wood was overrun by a bayonet charge and the blue line (third objective) reached on time. During this advance machine-gun sections and a battalion liaison detachment of the 39th Division pushed forward to North Farm, which was captured with four machine-guns and 29 prisoners. At 8:10 a.m. the protective barrage lifted 200 yards (180 m) and patrols were sent forward to establish outposts and to clear the area of remaining German troops; Moat Farm and Funny Farm being mopped-up. Consolidation was begun despite machine-gun fre from Hollebeke Château, the green line (first objective) was dug-in and posts forward to the blue line (final objective) defended in depth by posts. A German counter-attack was attempted at 7:30 a.m. and "annihilated" by small-arms and artillery fire.[36]
In X Corps to the north the 39th Division on the right prolonged the southern defensive flank, from Groenenburg Farm northwards down the slope to the Bassevillebeek. The division suffered badly from German fire as it advanced 800 yards (730 m) to its objective, from hidden dug-outs in the area further north, which had already stopped the 41st Division. When the division reached its objective it swung back its left flank to link with the right hand brigade of 41st Division.[37] The main attack was made by X Corps and 1st Anzac Corps on a 4,000 yards (3,700 m) front on the Gheluvelt plateau. Steady pressure by the 47th Division had advanced the British front line near Inverness Copse a considerable distance, during the pause in large operations in early September, which made better jumping-off positions for the attack by I Anzac Corps.[21] The four divisions advanced behind a creeping barrage of unprecedented weight. The increased amount of artillery allowed the heavy guns to place two belts of fire beyond the two from the field artillery; a machine-gun barrage in the middle made five belts of fire, each 200 yards (180 m) deep in front of the infantry.[38] The creeping barrage started quickly, lifting 50 yards (46 m) every two minutes and this allowed the British infantry to surprise the German outpost garrisons while the Germans were still in their shelters, by looming out of the mist; after four lifts, the barrage slowed to 100 yards (91 m) every six minutes. Most German troops encountered were so stunned by the bombardment that they were incapable of resistance and surrendered immediately, despite few of the concrete pill-boxes and Mebu shelters being destroyed by the British artillery. In the few areas where the German defenders were capable of resisting, they inflicted heavy losses but were quickly outflanked in the mist. The new system of local reserves allowed the British to maintain momentum despite local checks.[39]
The 41st Division had to advance across the Bassevillebeek valley against the right of the German 9th Division and the left of the Bavarian Ersatz Division to capture Tower Hamlets spur. The advance was hampered by overnight rain, which affected the valley more than the plateau to the north. Fire from camouflaged German machine-gun nests in the valley caused confusion and delay in the British infantry and the barrage was lost. The Bassevillebeek stream in the valley was eventually crossed, with the 122nd Brigade struggling forward and the 124th brigade held up near the British front line, by numerous machine-guns in the Quadrilateral, fortifications in three ruined cottages inside a digging 400 by 100 yards (370 m × 91 m) at the south end of the spur. The Quadrilateral commanded the western approach to the spur and the rise north to the pill-boxes at Tower Hamlets. The left hand brigade of the division reached the third objective and threw back its right flank to the brigade on the right, which had advanced just beyond the second objective and then joined the left flank of 39th Division. Despite the failure to capture Tower Hamlets and parts of the two leading battalions of 124th brigade running away before being rallied, two dead and three wounded battalion commanders, the division defeated all German counter-attacks during the day.[40]
The 23rd Division was held up for a short time by a German strong point in Dumbarton Wood, which had been missed by the barrage and caused many casualties. Despite the delay and the difficulty of navigating through clouds of dust and smoke, caused by the barrage and the marshy ground north of Dumbarton Lake, the first objective was reached a few minutes after the barrage and consolidated along the source of the Bassevillebeek. 69th Brigade on the left managed to get through Inverness Copse but German troops emerged from cover and fired on the troops behind, as they moved up to attack the second objective, causing severe losses before they were killed or captured. The troops who had been severely reduced in numbers, following on through the copse, were still able to capture a line of German fortifications along Menin Road, north of the hamlet of Kantinje Cabaret. Of four tanks attached for the attack along Menin Road, one bogged early and the infantry advance was too swift for the other three tanks to keep up. One tank was knocked out on the road and the other two carried ammunition and equipment to the troops at the final objective.
The 1st Australian Division on the right of I Anzac Corps, advanced on a 1,000 yards front north of the Menin Road, with its right aimed at Fitzclarence Farm against part of the Bavarian Ersatz Division and most of the 121st Division. The Australians passed through Glencorse Wood, which had changed hands twice in August, quickly suppressing German resistance. The Germans at Fitzclarence Farm were kept under cover by rifle grenade fire, while other groups got behind and rushed the garrison, taking 41 prisoners. Infiltration was also used against German machine-gunners in concrete shelters in the sunken road in the north of the wood, who had caused many casualties. Close reserves worked behind the shelters and fought their way in and killed or captured the garrison. Nonne Bosschen was crossed by moving along the edges of shell craters, the second objective along the west edge of Polygon Wood being reached on time at 7:45 a.m. The Wilhelm (third) Line pill-boxes and Mebu shelters[Note 3] were captured quickly, while the German defenders were dazed by the bombardment and unable to resist.[43] Few accounts survive from the Bavarian Ersatz Division companies holding the ground either side of the Menin road, as they were quickly overwhelmed by the 23rd and 1st Australian divisions. Machine-gun fire was heard from the Albrecht (second) Line at 8:30 a.m. but by 9:00 a.m. the British were well on the way to the Wilhelm (third) Line.[44]
The 2nd Australian Division attacked with two brigades, one either side of the Westhoek – Zonnebeke road, against the German 121st Division, down the Hanebeek valley to the near bank. The German outpost garrisons were surprised and overrun. On the far side of the stream the advance overwhelmed the Germans who mostly surrendered en masse. Visibility began to improve to 200–300 yards (180–270 m) and on breasting the rise, machine-guns in Albert and Iron Cross redoubts in the Wilhelm (third) Line on Anzac House spur, the next rise to the east, were blinded by smoke grenades and the garrisons ran off. Further to the left, Anzac House, an important German artillery observation post overlooking the Steenbeek valley to the north, was captured as the garrison tried to engage the Australians by moving their machine-guns outside. As the divisions on the Gheluvelt plateau reached their second objective at 7:45 a.m. a breeze blew away the mist and revealed the magnitude of their achievement. The British had carried the defences which had held them up through August and had gained observation all the way to Broodseinde.[45]
No German counter-attacks were mounted in the two hours that the British spent consolidating the second objective, as the creeping barrage stood for fourteen minutes in front of the second objective, then advanced 2,000 yards (1,800 m) before returning to the new British front line and then advancing again to lead the British troops to the third objective. German counter-attacks were stopped before they reached the new British outposts. The German artillery only managed to fire a disjointed and sparse barrage, which did little to obstruct the troops ready to advance to the third objective as they moved up but snipers and long-range machine-gun fire began to harass the troops consolidating the second objective. Local operations were mounted to stop sniping, using the methods that had been so successful earlier in the morning, leading to Black Watch Corner at the south-west of Polygon Wood and Garter Point east of Anzac House and other strong-points being captured.[46]
At 9:53 a.m. the barrage resumed its forward movement towards the third objective, another 300–400 yards (270–370 m) away. The 23rd Division had to fight forward through pill-boxes hidden in ruined cottages along the Menin Road, concrete shelters in Veldhoek and a hedgerow in front of it, before the German garrisons retreated. The left brigade was held up by a dozen pill-boxes in the Wilhelm (third) Line until noon, which caused the division many losses but the ground at the final objective proved to be dry enough for the troops to dig in.[47] The two Australian divisions reached the third objective in half an hour, finding the Germans in those strongpoints not subdued during the halt on the second objective as stunned as those met earlier in the day. Strafing by eight German aircraft, (one of which was shot down by ground fire) and some shelling by German artillery caused minor losses as the Australian divisions consolidated captured trenches and shell holes in their new front line.[47]
Fifth Army[edit source | editbeta]
Frezenberg Ridge, September–October 1917.
The British Fifth Army attacked on the left of the Second Army, V Corps on the right to capture the Wilhelm (third) Line, XVIII Corps in the centre, to finish the capture of the line from Schuler Farm to Langemarck and then advance 500–800 yards (460–730 m) east towards Poelcappelle; XIV Corps formed the northern flank with 20th Division. V Corps had more field guns than the I Anzac Corps to the right and fewer heavy guns so only three barrage belts were possible. A creeping barrage by 18-pdr field guns was to move at the same speed as that of the Second Army. 18-pdr and 4.5-inch howitzer fire were to comb the area in front of the creeping barrage, from 100–400 yards (91–370 m) deep and a neutralizing barrage by 6-inch howitzers and 60-pdr guns was to sweep ground 450–1,200 yards (410–1,100 m) in front of the creeping barrage. Artillery not needed for counter-battery fire was to put standing barrages on the most dangerous German positions, like Hills 37 and 40 and the German assembly areas in the dips behind Zonnebeke and Gravenstafel.[48]
9th and 55th Divisions of V Corps were to attack on fronts of 1,800 yards (1,600 m) over ground held by the right of the German 121st Division and the 2nd Guards Reserve Division, which had also changed hands twice in August. The large numbers of strong-points, pill-boxes and fortified farms east of the Hanebeek and Steenbeek streams were mostly intact, despite numerous attempts to smash them with artillery fire. The artillery brought to the Ypres salient in September went to the Second Army so the Fifth Army adopted a new infantry formation, where moppers-up were reorganised into small groups of up to half a platoon, moving with the leading assault waves to capture specific strong-points and then garrison them. XVIII Corps adopted the same practice, which became standard in the Fifth Army soon after the battle.[49]
The 9th Division was confronted by the morass of the Hanebeek valley, where the stream had been choked by frequent bombardment and turned into a swamp and water-filled shell-holes. Both brigades sent two battalions forward to the first objective and leap-frogged two more through them to take the final objective. Hanebeek Wood on the right was barraged with smoke and high-explosive shell rather than shrapnel, except for a lane along which a company was able to move behind the wood. When the artillery fire moved beyond the wood it was rushed from both directions and captured with fifty prisoners and four machine-guns. The South African Brigade on the left did the same thing at Borry Farm. In the mist the strong points were easily overrun except for four pill-boxes around Potsdam House, which were eventually attacked on three sides and captured, after inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers. Delays caused by machine-gun nests dug in along the Ypres–Roulers railway did not stop the division reaching the first objective as the barrage began to creep forward again at 7:08 a.m.[50] At 7:08 a.m. when the 9th Division began the advance to the final objective, the right hand brigade found only minor opposition. The South African Brigade on the left was badly hit by German machine-gun fire from Hill 37, as delays to the 55th Division meant that it was well short of the hill. The South Africans managed to capture Bremen Redoubt and Waterend House in the Zonnebeek valley and extend a defensive flank back to the first objective.[51]
To the north of 9th Division the 55th Division began the day understrength, after the losses of 31 July. Replacements had arrived slowly and 1,000 soldiers were left out of the battle having arrived too late to be trained for the attack. German artillery and machine-gun fire from Reserve Regiment 91 of the 2nd Guards Reserve Division hit the infantry with intense fire as the attack began. The mist worked to the Germans' advantage in this part of the front, because the depleted British units missed several German strong points and dug-outs, from which the Germans were able to stop the British support waves from moving up. The advanced troops realising this either halted or turned back and lost the barrage. The difficulties of the division were made worse at 7:08 a.m. when the scheduled advance to the final objective coincided with the dispersal of the mist. Reserves were pushed forward around 10:00 a.m. from 166th Brigade, which allowed the 165th and 164th Brigades to take the first objective around Gallipoli Farm and the Schuler Galleries in front of Schuler Farm by mid-day. Fighting at Hill 35 continued and the Germans regained Hill 37 with a counter-attack. Machine-guns were placed in the Schuler Galleries and nine were dug in near Keir Farm, which were able to stop German counter-attacks from making any more progress. In the afternoon the rest of the reserve brigade was able to capture Hills 35 and 37, which dominated the Zonnebeke spur. The right of the division established touch with the 9th Division but the centre and left of 55th Division were 500 yards (460 m) short of the final objective.[52]
XVIII Corps was to advance onto the Gravenstafel and Poelcappelle spurs, held by the German 36th Division since 8 September. The divisions had to assemble east of the Steenbeek between St Julien and Langemarck in low ground which was still muddy and full of flooded shell-holes despite the better weather. The 58th Division objective was 1,000 yards (910 m) ahead, among German strong points on the west end of Gravenstafel spur. As a frontal attack here had failed, the division feinted with its right brigade, while the left brigade made the real attack from the flank. The feint captured Winnipeg cross-roads, as the main attack by three battalions one behind the other, captured Vancouver Farm, Keerselaere and Hubner Farm. The next two battalions passed through and turned right half way up the spur, to reach Wurst Farm on a tactically vital part of the spur at the same time as the barrage. Nearly 300 prisoners and fifty machine-guns were taken and outposts were established to the left overlooking the Stroombeek valley. The division ascribed the success to the excellence of their training, an excellent creeping barrage and smoke shell, which had thickened the mist and blinded the German defenders and that gas shell barrages on the German reinforcement routes had depressed German morale.[53]
51st Division further north, had the same task on Poelcappelle spur. The division advanced with one brigade on a 1,400 yards (1,300 m) front. The Germans in the Wilhelm (third) Line were ready for them and fought until they were almost annihilated in new machine-gun nests that they had dug in front of their front line, which had avoided the worst of the artillery bombardment. The division was able to reach the final objective in sight of Poelcappelle village. By these advances XVIII Corps got observation of Poelcappelle and up the Lekkerboterbeek and Lauterbeek valleys, the capture of which allowed British artillery to move forward of the Steenbeek.[54]
20th Division on the right of XIV Corps, had to form the northern defensive flank of the offensive, on a front of 1,400 yards (1,300 m) from Poelcappelle spur to the Ypres – Staden railway. Two brigades attacked with two battalions each. The German Wilhelm (third) Line, here known as Eagle trench, was held as determinedly as that part in the 51st Division sector ("Pheasant trench") despite a bombardment from Livens Projectors (which fell behind the German trench and illuminated the British infantry as they advanced). By the end of the day the division was still short of the first objective, except on the left next to the railway.[55]
The British offensive had captured most of the German outpost zones to a depth of about 1,500 yards (1,400 m). As the ground was captured it was prepared for defence, in anticipation of counter-attacks by the German Eingreif divisions. Captured German machine-gun nests and strong points were garrisoned and wired with German barbed wire found in the area. The final objective became the outpost zone and the second objective the main line of resistance, a chain of irregular posts using shell-holes concealed by folds of the ground and reverse slopes, avoiding trenches which attracted German shell fire. Communication between the infantry and artillery was established with runners, messenger dogs and pigeons. Wireless transmitters and power buzzers were set up at brigade headquarters and artillery observation posts, one for each artillery group. Engineer and pioneer units began to dig in telephone lines, which took until the afternoon of 21 September.[56]
Air operations[edit source | editbeta]
Hannover CL.II
Observing and reporting on German counter-attack movements was made a duty for all aircraft and patrol areas were given to II and V Brigades and the Ninth Wing to patrol. "Hostile Tactical Maps" were issued, showing German assembly points and the likely routes to them and towards the front line. II Brigade covered the Second Army front east to the Roulers–Menin railway. The area was divided into three sectors, each with a counter-attack patrol of two fighters, maintained for eight hours after "zero-hour", flying below 500 feet and using the special maps, to attack any German units they caught on the move and to drive off German low-flying aircraft. On return they were to telephone a report direct to the Second Army Report Centre at Locre, similar arrangements being made for the Fifth Army. Ninth Wing aircraft were to patrol at low altitude east of Zarren–Oostnieukerke–Menin beginning two hours after the start of the attack, to harass German reinforcements. Corps squadrons were to maintain counter-attack patrols on their Corps fronts, calling for immediate artillery fire and warning British infantry by smoke signal. Not all of these measures were possible on the day due to the weather, because it had rained on 19 September and was misty next morning. Air operations commenced as soon as the mist cleared at 8.00 a.m.[23] German aircraft attempting to intervene during the battle suffered from the presence of anti-aircraft guns near the front line, a Lewis gunner of a pioneer battalion in the 19th Division, shooting down a German aircraft in flames at 1:30 p.m.; the feat was repeated next day and several German formations were broken up by ground fire.[57]
German Fourth Army counter-attacks[edit source | editbeta]
Reproduction of captured German trench map, 20 Sept 1917.
During the British infantry advances, German artillery managed a considerable amount of counter-battery fire, particularly from Zillebeke to Vebrandenmolen but this was not enough to stop the British artillery heavily bombarding German reserve battalions of the ground-holding (Stellungsdivisionen) divisions as they made futile attempts to counter-attack between 10:00 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. At 1:48 p.m. the British standing barrage in front of the new line ended. Air reconnaissance from zero hour by a contact aeroplane over each Corps area, to observe the progress of the British infantry and one counter-attack observation machine watching for German counter-attacks, revealed German Eingreif units advancing from Flandern III at Menin, Moorslede and Westroosebeek. During the day 394 wireless messages were received from British observation aircraft, about a third resulting in immediate artillery fire.[58]
After 3.00 p.m. approximately three German infantry battalions were reported north of the Menin Road moving up the Reutelbeek valley towards Polderhoek, a similar force with field artillery was seen moving west towards I Anzac Corps at Polygon Wood and Anzac spur and another was observed, descending from the Poelcappelle spur at Westroosebeek towards positions held by the Fifth Army. These troops were the leading regiments of three Eingreif divisions, 16th Bavarian from Gheluwe, 236th Division from Moorslede and 234th Division from Oostniewkirke. The 16th Bavarian Division counter-attack plan "Get Closer" (Näher heran) had been ordered at 5:15 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. the division advanced towards the area between Polygon Wood and Inverness Copse.[59] British medium and heavy artillery fired on the German units, which were forced to deploy and advance from cover. After considerable delay the survivors reached British machine-gun range as their artillery support overshot the British positions. Visibility was still exceptionally good, with the sun behind the British who were easily able to see all movement in front of them on the Gheluvelt plateau. The German force moving up the Reutelbeek valley into the area of 23rd and 1st Australian divisions was watched by the infantry for an hour, when at 7:02 p.m. a field artillery and machine-gun barrage fell on the Germans for an hour, stopping all movement towards the British positions, "16th Bavarian Division was a high quality formation, but all the skill and dash in the world stood no chance in the face of the torrent of fire the British artillery could bring to bear at the critical points".[60]
A similar barrage for forty minutes in front of 2nd Australian division on a regiment of the 236th Division advancing from Molenaarelsthoek and downhill from Broodseinde, stopped the counter-attack long before it came within range of the Australian infantry. On the southern edge of the plateau, German troops dribbling forward in the 39th Division area managed to reinforce the garrison at Tower Hamlets, then tried twice to advance to the Bassevillebeek and were "smashed" by artillery and machine-gun fire.[61]
In the Fifth Army area, from 800 yards (730 m) south of the Ypres – Roulers railway, north to the Ypres – Staden railway, many Germans were seen moving west down Passchendaele ridge around 5:30 p.m. into the area held by the 55th, 58th and 51st divisions. In the 58th Division area fire was opened on the Germans after half an hour, which forced the Germans to deploy into open order. When the Germans were 150 yards (140 m) from the first British strong point, the British defensive barrage arrived with such force that the German infantry "stampeded". No Germans were seen in the area until night when patrols occupied an outpost. On the 55th Division front "an extraordinarily gallant" German counter-attack by the 459th Reserve Regiment (236th Division) from Gravenstafel, on Hill 37 through Reserve Regiment 91, was stopped by artillery and enfilade fire by machine-guns at Keir Farm and Schuler Galleries.[62] A German attack down Poelcappelle spur at 5:30 p.m. towards the 51st Division had much better artillery support and although stopped in the area of the Lekkerboterbeek by 7:00 p.m., pushed the British left back to Pheasant trench (Wilhelm Line) before the British counter-attacked, pushing the Germans back to the line of the first objective, 600 yards (550 m) short of the final objective. By nightfall the German Eingreif divisions had been defeated.[63][Note 4] The British Official History records that the counter-attack divisions had been held back, waiting for another British advance.[66]
Aftermath[edit source | editbeta]
Casualties[edit source | editbeta]
British casualties 20–25 September are given by the British Official Historian as 20,255; 3,148 being killed, the 19th Division lost 1,933 casualties.[67] 3,243 prisoners were taken with "very heavy" losses of killed or wounded inflicted on the German defenders.[68][Note 5] The Official Historian's calculations of German losses have been severely criticised ever since.[70]
Subsequent operations[edit source | editbeta]
Minor attacks took place after 20 September as both sides jockeyed for position and reorganised their defences. In the Second Army area on 21 September, a 41st Division brigade attacked towards Bassevillbeek Copse, through extremely boggy ground by short rushes and consolidated posts on the Bassevillebeek. Several German counter-attacks in the afternoon were repulsed and at 7:00 p.m. a much larger German attack was dispersed by artillery and small-arms fire.[71] In the evening a German attack was made on Hill 37 against the 55th Division, taking some ground behind a heavy barrage, until a British counter-attack restored the position by 9:15 p.m. A German raid on posts of the 8th Division (II Corps) next day failed and in the X Corps area the 23rd Division and the 1st Australian Division (I Anzac Corps) re-took the front line. In the XVIII Corps area the 58th Division held Stroppe Farm and in the evening the 51st Division repulsed a big German attack from Poelcappelle with artillery and small-arms fire. The 20th Division repulsed a German attack at 6.30 a.m., then attacked Eagle Trench from both ends and captured it, despite fierce German resistance.[72] Crown Prince Rupprecht wrote in his diary for 23 and 24 September that the Germans could not allow the British to remain in control of the higher ground around Zonnebeke or the Gheluvelt Plateau and that counter-strokes during the next enemy attack must reach their objectives. The Fourth Army lacked reserves and needed time to meet another attack.[73]
A bigger German attack on 25 September, on a 1,800 yards (1,600 m) front, from the Menin Road to Polygon Wood, began as the 23rd Division was being relieved by the 33rd Division. A German bombardment from 20 heavy and 44 field batteries (nearly four times the usual amount for a German division) began at 5:15 a.m., part of which fell short onto the German infantry of two 50th Reserve Division regiments, which fell back until the bombardment began its creep towards the British positions. The German infantry advanced in the morning mist, either side of the Reutelbeek as the artillery boxed the British position opposite, which isolated it from its supports and prevented supplies of ammunition from being brought to the front line.[74] The German attack made little progress on the British right, lost direction in the gloom and veered north, joined with the German battalion there and reached Black Watch Corner, at the south-western extremity of Polygon Wood, which was lost during the Battle of Polygon Wood next day.[75]
Notes
you can guess :) yes, the most difficult tessellation from all three, so the name of creator is... Daniel Kwan
from 35 cm square of tant, quite good paper, but maybe EH would work better, but it seemed to me it is too thick to even try
collapsing was painful, because it has to be done all in almost the same time... so I was trying to close it each time little bit more and more and finally it started to work... quite incredible, it is same from both sides
Hagurosan Mountain
Hagurosan Mountain is a gently sloping mountain with an elevation of 414 meters, and lies between the Haraigawa River to the west and the Tachiyazawagawa River to the east.
Among the three Dewa mountains, the Shrines on Gassan and Yudono are far removed from civilization, and difficult to make pilgrimages to in winter due to the deep snows.
Because of this, at the summit of Hagurosan Mountain, Dewa Shrine was built as a great village shrine for Gassan and Yudonosan Mountains. This shrine has a magnificent temple to the gods of the three mountains and serves as the main shrine of the area.
From long ago, the main shrine flourished as a focal point for the "Haguro Shugendo" type of asceticism, and pilgrims still visit the area year-round.
Past the Suishinmon Gate are the precincts of the Dewa Sanzan Shrine. The precincts of the shrine extend over Gassan Mountain and continue all the way to far-off Yudonosan Mountain. The gate was originally dedicated as a Buddhist "Niomon" gate but during the Meiji separation of Shinto and Buddhist belief systems it was rededicated as a Shinto gate.
Leading down the Mamako Hill from the Suishinmon Gate is a holy bridge crossing the Haraigawa River. In the past, pilgrims to the three mountains would submerge themselves and perform ablutions in the Haraigawa River before climbing the mountain to complete their pilgrimage. The red lacquered bridge is provided a beautiful backdrop by the Suga Waterfall and rugged cliffs, making for a stunning scene.
Both sides of the two kilometer pilgrimage road to the summit are thick with ancient and seemingly melancholy cedar trees, ranging from three to six hundred years old. These trees have a dark and mysterious appearance even in full sunlight. The long stone staircase has in total 2,446 steps, and along the way are the "ichi-no-zaka", "ni-no-zaka" and "san-no-zaka" areas of steep climbing.
The left hand side of the entrance of the ichi-no-zaka area is surrounded by cedars, in which stands the five-story pagoda. Made entirely of wood, with a thin wooden-shingled roof and three space, five story construction, it is a graceful structure, as well as being the oldest of these magnificent pagodas in the Tohoku region (1966 National Treasure Designation). It is said that the construction was at the direction of Masakado Taira, and the rebuilding was directed by Emperor Chokei's footman Masauji Futo, the lord of Shonai and governor of Haguro.
Just beyond the "ni-no-zaka" area is a flat stone paved road that continues for some ways. Turning left at the entrance to the "san-no-zaka" area and continuing down the path leads to the Southern Valley. This road is notable for its old pines and cedars clinging to the cliff sides. The remains of the detached temple that haiku poet Basho Matsuo and his apprentice Sora Kawai stopped at during their pilgrimage to the north can be seen here. All that is left now is a portion of the stone foundation, but one can feel the shadow of the calm and peaceful garden that was once fed by the nearby pond.
Just past the three steep areas is the "Saikan" structure. It is the only pilgrim's lodging still extant on the mountain, and still operates as such for pilgrims to the three mountains. Lodgers can experience the monks' unique cuisine and get a feeling for what it was like to make a pilgrimage to the mountains in days past.
Past the red gate at the summit towards the left is the worship hall to the three gods. The shrine is the largest thatched-roof construction shrine in Japan, and is a splendid red-lacquered structure. The altar area is separated by a "mitomae" gateway and enshrines the deities of Gassan, Hagurosan and Yudonosan. There have been many fires at this temple, and the current shrine building is a reconstruction dating to 1818.
The pond in front of the shrine building is for washing one's hands, and has been revered as a holy pond since ancient times for not changing character in any season. It is called the "Mirror Pond" for the many copper mirrors that people have given it as offerings.
On the east side of the pond there is a gabled thatched-roof structure, the "kanezakura", or cherry blossom bell. This is the second oldest structure on the three mountains after the five-story pagoda. The inscription on the bell dates it to 1275, and following those at the Todaiji and Kongobuji temples it is the oldest and largest, and is registered as a National Important Cultural Asset.
The three mountains of Dewa have for many centuries been revered as places where the spirits of the ancestors find respite, and to this day memorial services to the dead are held. These ceremonies are held at the Raisenden, a five-room, laminate construction shrine building with eaves beneath the zigzag stitched gables. The Raisenden was rebuilt in 1983.
Within the mountain precincts there are many historical cultural assets which recall the affluence of elder days.
On Saturday 11 November, between 300,000 and 800,000 protesters marched from London's Hyde Park to the US Embassy in solidarity with Palestinians. Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman had insisted a few days earlier that all those marching to call for a ceasefire, compassion and justice were hate marchers and she pressured the police to ban it. Fortunately, common sense and the law prevailed, and the march was allowed to go ahead.
It was not just a reaction to the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, the escalating death toll and the blockade of essential supplies to the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the city and the surrounding strip.
It was also a determination to see an end to -
كما دعا المتظاهرون إلى إنهاء جميع العوامل الرئيسية التي تغذي الصراع.
1) An end to Palestinian suffering from 75 years of Israeli occupation. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since 1967 is officially recognised by the United Nations and most of the world despite the fact that the occupation is often ignored or sometimes even denied by Western media. As Amnesty International reports Israeli occupation has resulted in "systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there."
نهاية معاناة الفلسطينيين من 75 عاما من الاحتلال الإسرائيلي. إن الاحتلال الإسرائيلي للضفة الغربية والقدس الشرقية وقطاع غزة منذ عام 1967 معترف به رسميًا من قبل الأمم المتحدة ومعظم دول العالم على الرغم من أن وسائل الإعلام الغربية غالبًا ما يتم تجاهل الاحتلال أو حتى إنكاره في بعض الأحيان. وكما أفادت منظمة العفو الدولية، فإن الاحتلال الإسرائيلي قد أدى إلى "انتهاكات منهجية لحقوق الإنسان ضد الفلسطينيين الذين يعيشون هناك".
www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/06/israel-occupa...
2) An end to Palestinians living under a highly restrictive Apartheid regime as recognised by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and War on Want. Across the West Bank Palestinians are banned from driving on numerous roads that cross the region and as War on Want explains "Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are treated differently in almost every aspect of life: housing, education, health, employment, family life, residence and freedom of movement. Dozens of Israeli laws and policies institutionalise this prevailing system of racial discrimination and domination."
وضع حد للفلسطينيين الذين يعيشون في ظل نظام فصل عنصري شديد التقييد كما اعترفت به منظمة العفو الدولية وهيومن رايتس ووتش ومنظمة الحرب على العوز. في جميع أنحاء الضفة الغربية، يُمنع الفلسطينيون من القيادة على العديد من الطرق التي تعبر المنطقة، وكما توضح مؤسسة "الحرب على العوز" الخيرية، "يتم التعامل مع اليهود الإسرائيليين والفلسطينيين بشكل مختلف في كل جانب من جوانب الحياة تقريبًا: السكن والتعليم والصحة والتوظيف والأسرة". الحياة والإقامة وحرية التنقل.. عشرات القوانين والسياسات الإسرائيلية تضفي الطابع المؤسسي على هذا النظام السائد من التمييز العنصري والسيطرة.
waronwant.org/news-analysis/israeli-apartheid-factsheet?g...
3) An end to restrictions on movement. Across the West Bank there are some 650 Israeli military checkpoints through which only some Palestinians are allowed to pass, often with humiliating questioning and delays, so that they can travel to other towns whether to visit families, seeking medical treatment or for any other reason. In Gaza, travel is even more difficult and only a tiny minority with work permits have been allowed to cross the border - the rest have to remain in what is often described as the world's largest open air prison - the densely populated Gaza strip housing some 2.3 million people.
إنهاء القيود المفروضة على الحركة. يوجد في جميع أنحاء الضفة الغربية حوالي 650 نقطة تفتيش عسكرية إسرائيلية لا يُسمح إلا لبعض الفلسطينيين بالمرور من خلالها، مع استجواب وتأخير مهين، حتى يتمكنوا من السفر إلى مدن أخرى سواء لزيارة عائلاتهم أو طلب العلاج الطبي أو لأي سبب آخر. وفي غزة، يعد السفر أكثر صعوبة ولم يُسمح إلا لأقلية صغيرة من حاملي تصاريح العمل بعبور الحدود - أما الباقون فيجب أن يبقوا في ما يوصف في كثير من الأحيان بأنه أكبر سجن مفتوح في العالم - وهو قطاع غزة المكتظ بالسكان والذي يضم حوالي 2.3 نسمة. مليون شخص.
3) An end to the 16 years of siege imposed by Israel on Gaza which means that around 56% of children were suffering from anemia and only 4% had access to safe drinking water even before the outbreak of conflict this month.
إنهاء الحصار الذي تفرضه إسرائيل على غزة منذ 16 عاماً. ويعني الحصار أن حوالي 56% من الأطفال كانوا يعانون من فقر الدم وأن 4% فقط كانوا يحصلون على مياه الشرب الآمنة حتى قبل اندلاع النزاع هذا الشهر.
www.unicef.org/sop/what-we-do/wash-water-sanitation-and-h....
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4391478/
4) The never ending process of Israeli expansion across Palestinian land, including the demolition of 55,000 Palestinian homes since 1967, occurring on a near monthly basis as well as the cutting down of fields of olive trees and the ploughing up of Palestinian farms to make room for yet more illegal settlements subsidised by the Israeli government.
These settlements are illegal under international law, which rightly recognises the 1967 border. However, since 1967, Israel has constructed 250 of them across the West Bank in which over 633,000 Israelis live in subsidised and often luxurious housing with swimming pools and manicured lawns, an unimaginable privilege to the vast majority of Palestinians.
وضع حد للتوسع الإسرائيلي الذي لا ينتهي عبر الأراضي الفلسطينية، بما في ذلك هدم 55.000 منزل فلسطيني منذ عام 1967، والذي يحدث على أساس شهري تقريبًا، فضلاً عن قطع حقول أشجار الزيتون وحراثة المزارع الفلسطينية. وترتكب هذه الجرائم ضد الفلسطينيين لإفساح المجال أمام إقامة المستوطنات الإسرائيلية غير القانونية التي تدعمها الحكومة الإسرائيلية
ومن الواضح أن المستوطنات غير قانونية بموجب القانون الدولي، الذي يعترف بحق بحدود عام 1967. ومع ذلك، منذ عام 1967، شيدت إسرائيل 250 منها في جميع أنحاء الضفة الغربية، حيث يعيش أكثر من 633 ألف إسرائيلي في مساكن مدعومة وفاخرة في كثير من الأحيان مع حمامات سباحة ومروج مشذبة، وهو امتياز لا يمكن تصوره لجميع الفلسطينيين تقريبًا.
icahd.org/2020/03/15/end-home-demolitions-an-introduction/
www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/westbank_a0_25_06_202...
5) Never ending acts of settler terrorism against Palestinians. Western media rightly condemns occasional Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, including the appalling atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October. However, for years illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank have staged attacks against Palestinians, sometimes motivated sheerly by hatred, but often by the desire to inflict terror and to ethnically cleanse an area. The most recent incident was an attack on Wednesday 11 October in which masked settlers killed three Palestinian villagers and then killed a Palestinian father and son attending the funeral the next day.
وضع حد لأعمال الإرهاب التي يمارسها المستوطنون ضد الفلسطينيين. وتدين وسائل الإعلام الغربية عن حق الهجمات الفلسطينية العرضية على المدنيين الإسرائيليين، بما في ذلك الفظائع المروعة التي ارتكبتها حماس في 7 تشرين الأول/أكتوبر. ومع ذلك، ظل المستوطنون الإسرائيليون غير الشرعيين في الضفة الغربية لسنوات يشنون هجمات ضد الفلسطينيين، بدافع الكراهية في بعض الأحيان، ولكن في كثير من الأحيان بسبب التصميم على ترويع الفلسطينيين وتطهيرهم عرقيًا من منطقة ما. وكانت آخر الحوادث هي الهجوم الذي وقع يوم الأربعاء 11 تشرين الأول/أكتوبر، حيث قتل مستوطنون ملثمون ثلاثة قرويين فلسطينيين ثم قتلوا أبًا فلسطينيًا وابنه كانا يحضران الجنازة في اليوم التالي.
theintercept.com/2023/10/13/israel-settlers-gaza-palestin...
arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-dynamics-of-israeli-settler...
6) The division of Palestinian land by the separation wall. The 708 km Separation Wall, completed in 2005, was supposedly built to protect Israel from any Palestinians that might be able to enter the country without permission, but 85% of it runs up to 18 km inside the internationally recognised 1967 boundary ("Green Line"), frequently dividing Palestinians villagers from their farmland as well as running through the middle of farms and dividing arable land from key water supplies.
Some 10% of the West Bank now lies between the wall and the 1967 border, an area into which everyone, except Palestinians, is allowed entry. Not surprisingly, the International Court of Justice has issued an advisory opinion that the separation wall is a contravention of international law and in 2003 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding its removal by 144 votes to just 4. Analysts also fear that the wall acts as a de facto annexation of all the Palestinian land that lies to the west of it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier
7) The myth of Palestinian rejectionism. Western mainstream media usually maintains falsely that it is Palestinians that have constantly rejected a two-state solution, whereas the opposite is the case. Arab states and the Palestinians have frequently made clear their willingness to negotiate a future two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 frontiers, while Israel is committed to preventing any such solution and continuing its territorial expansion.
As early as 1976, Egypt, Syria and Jordan presented a two-state solution resolution to the UN Security Council based on the 1967 Green Line (in accordance with the international consensus) but it was vetoed outright by the United States, even though Washington at the time publicly acknowledged the illegality of all Israeli settlements across the Palestinian West Bank.
The same happened again in 1980.
Later in 1988, the PLO put forward their position in a declaration by the Palestinian National Council calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel with guarantees of security to both countries. However in May 1989, Israel's Likud-Labour coalition government made it crystal clear that they would not accept an "additional" Palestinian state between Jordan and Israel, regardless of what Jordanians, Palestinians or the rest of the world might think. The founding charter of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party still "flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan river."
8) The frequent killing by Israeli security forces of peaceful protesters, women, children, journalists and medics, including the assassination of renowned Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in May last year. In the nine months of 2023 prior to 7 October, 248 Palestinians, 40 of them children, had been killed by Israeli soldiers, but these deaths attracted almost no attention in the Western media. Palestinian lives have always been very cheap.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMIZTiN-TrE
9) The current refusal of Israel to allow any journalists into the Gaza Strip so they can see and report on, obviously at their own risk, the destruction and casualties and suffering of the civilian population.
10) An end to "administrative detentions" across the West Bank under which thousands of Palestinians have been detained without any right to be told under what charges they are being held, let alone any right to a free trial. As the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem explains
"Administrative detention is incarceration without trial or charge, alleging that a person plans to commit a future offense. It has no time limit, and the evidence on which it is based is not disclosed. Israel employs this measure extensively and routinely, and has used it to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time. While detention orders are formally reviewed, this is merely a semblance of judicial oversight, as detainees cannot reasonably mount a defense against undisclosed allegations. Nevertheless, courts uphold the vast majority of orders."
www.btselem.org/topic/administrative_detention
11) An end to Israeli soldiers controlling access to and frequently preventing Muslims from visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem [Al Quds], considered the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. On several occasions, Israeli troops and/or police have also attacked worshippers using batons, stun grenades and tear gas, igniting understandable anger across the Islamic World. Radical Israeli settlers also sometimes enter under the protection of Israeli security forces and some also perform Jewish rituals in contravention of current agreements about non-Muslims being allowed in, but only as visitors.
www.newarab.com/news/israeli-settlers-storm-aqsa-compound...
www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/3/12/israeli-police-assault-w...
Translink Ulsterbus (Armagh) 611
It's difficult to really go anywhere now without i4s cropping up left right and centre.
Here in Armagh Bus Depot i4 611 is noted beside Solar Rural 494, with the latter having just operated in from Dungannon. Possibly the best Solar Rural I've been on, but that's certainly not a prestigious accolade.
In relation to the i4 beside it, there has been a fair amount of discussion in recent times over their use. Depots like Coleraine & Armagh use theirs on daily service everyday - with Armaghs i4s particularly popular on the 40 (Armagh - Newry). However, others depots such as Foyle seem to have an aversion to using them on regular service runs.
Four of this type (618-621) are currently on loan to Ulsterbus Tours in Scotland, operating a Stenaline contract. 618 & 619 are usually based in Derry, with 620 & 621 normally allocated to Magherafelt depot.
611 was just in on a 65 from Portadown via Loughgall.
Vehicle Information:
Scania K320
Irizar i4
NFZ 9611
DP55F+8
Vehicle History:
New to Translink Ulsterbus in August 2013
Vehicle Location:
Armagh Bus Depot
Dungannon - 11.08.2014
Copyright © Mark Long 2014
Had a very difficult time trying to decide which of these photos to post... In the end, decided to post four and make a mosaic to tell the story. I couldn't begin to guess what the Hoverfly at the very tip of the flower petal was doing... but I focused in on him anyway and started snapping away. Once the photos were uploaded to the computer, it was easy enough to see that he was after each and every grain of pollen (tiny white granules on the petal) that the wind had blown along the face of the Balloon flower petal. View Large On Black
UPDATE: This and the two images on either side of it in the Gallery Show set are included in my upcoming gallery show, mounted as a triptych (this is the middle of the three in the triptych) to tell a story... (Other images that will be included are in the Gallery Show Feb 2010 set if you care to have a look... and if you enjoy photo blogs, mine has additional images you might enjoy.)
Note that I've been told to go back and mark my photos as mine to guard against the unscrupulous folks out there in the world around us... none of my Flickr friends/contacts fall into that category!
The longest serving Resident Commissioner from the Philippines and a protégé of Manuel L. Quezon, Pedro Guevara waged a difficult battle promoting Philippine independence while fighting congressional measures to curb territorial sovereignty and economic progress. Guevara acted for much of his career as the voice of the Philippine legislature in Congress in a low-key style of delivery that relied on prepared statements rather than fiery, impromptu speeches. Guevara began his career a stalwart proponent of independence, saying, “For 25 years I and my people have lived under the American flag. Yet wherever I go Americans take me for … some other Oriental. Americans know very little about us or our country, and they care even less than they know. To continue American control, under such conditions, is an injustice to the Filipinos.”1 But his perspective shifted in his final years as Resident Commissioner, and disagreements with his patron Quezon over the best path to independence led to his quiet retirement from politics.
Pedro Guevara was born on February 23, 1879, in Santa Cruz, Laguna Province, Luzon, Philippines. The son of Miguel Guevara and Maria G. Valenzuela, he attended local schools some 60 miles to the south of Manila. Guevara’s family sent him north to the capital to attend a finishing school, Ateneo Municipal de Manila, and then Colegio de San Juan de Letran. Guevara earned a liberal arts degree at the latter school in 1896, finishing at the head of his class. When the 1896 revolution broke out, Guevara fought the Spanish and earned the rank of lieutenant colonel for his service, including helping to lead Filipino forces in the Battle of Mabitac. In the Philippine-American War, he joined the insurrectionaries who opposed U.S. occupation forces, serving as aide and private secretary to General Juan Cailles, commander of Philippine rebels in Laguna Province. After the war ended, Guevara joined the Philippine constabulary, a paramilitary unit that maintained peace. After five years of service, Guevara returned to civilian life and, in a pattern reminiscent of others who later became Resident Commissioners, worked as a journalist. He became chief editor of Soberanía Nacional (National Sovereignty), a newspaper that championed Philippine independence, and also served as city editor for four other newspapers. During this time, Guevara studied at La Jurisprudencia, a Manila law school, and passed the bar in 1909. He married Isidra Baldomero, and the couple had one son, Pedro Jr.2
As with many other contemporary politicos—Isauro Gabaldon, Jaime de Veyra, and Sergio Osmeña among them—Guevara easily transitioned from being an editorialist to an elected public servant. His political career began in 1907, when he was elected as municipal councillor in San Felipe Neri, Rizal Province. Two years later he won election to the Philippine assembly, representing Laguna Province, and he was re-elected in 1912 to a second term. In 1916, under the provisions of the Jones Act, he was elected to the first of two terms in the Philippine senate, representing a district that included Manila and the provinces of Rizal, Laguna, and Bataan. He served in the senate until his election as Resident Commissioner. A well-respected jurist, Guevara chaired the Philippine delegation to the Far Eastern Bar Conference in Beijing, China, in 1921. A year later he joined a group of prominent Filipinos who traveled to Washington, DC, as part of the second Philippine independence mission.3
Upon Guevara’s return to the Philippines, senate president and Nacionalista Party powerbroker Manuel Quezon tapped his fellow senator to succeed Jaime de Veyra as Resident Commissioner. Domestic political jockeying momentarily complicated his nomination, however, when the insular government set a special election to fill the impending senate vacancy. Democrats put forward a nominee, but the Nacionalistas failed to produce a consensus candidate. Desperate to retain the seat, Quezon stalled by encouraging Guevara to remain in the senate until a suitable candidate could be found. The U.S. House of Representatives threatened not to seat the new Resident Commissioner so long as he held his Manila seat, forcing Guevara to resign and leaving Quezon to bargain with Governor General Leonard Wood on the timing of a special election. Nevertheless, the Filipino legislature elected Guevara as Resident Commissioner on February 17, 1923.4 He won re-election in 1925, 1929, 1932, and 1934 and served continuously until the position was reorganized under the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935.
When Guevara set off on the long voyage to Washington, DC, in August 1923, a “monster parade” accompanied him to his ship, the Associated Press reported. A marching band and military cadets joined the throng, with Guevara at its head wearing a barong, a long embroidered shirt that symbolized Filipinos’ wish for independence.5 Guevara arrived in the U.S. capital in mid-September, months before the 68th Congress (1923–1925) was set to convene in early December. Like his predecessors, he played the part of diplomat rather than legislator, in some measure because House Rules prevented him from holding a committee assignment or voting on final legislation on the floor. But he also seemed quite comfortable working the press and serving as a public advocate. In that aspect, he went to work immediately. Even before he claimed his seat, he weighed in on independence and growing tensions with the controversial Governor General Wood.
From the start, Guevara’s independence pitch was more nuanced than that of his colleague, Isauro Gabaldon, who demanded nothing short of immediate and unfettered self-rule. Guevara, the Los Angeles Times noted, “was the opposite of the agitator type,” and while journeying to Washington, he told Filipinos who met him during a brief layover in Honolulu that the key to eventual independence hinged on their ability to demonstrate “self-control” in overseeing their affairs. While he demanded a “final solution” to the Philippines’ status, he envisioned it ideally as a kind of protectorate system “with a localized responsibility, capable of bringing about the necessary harmony and co-ordination of the different departments of Government, for its efficient operations.”6 He admitted that Japanese and European encroachments might be a concern with full independence and, to that end, preferred “a protectorate from the United States.” But, given a choice between complete independence with no special grant of U.S. military protection or the ambiguous governance reasserted by U.S. officials after President Woodrow Wilson left office, Guevara had a clear choice: “We unquestionably stand for the former.”7
Guevara’s unhappiness with the current structure, like that of so many Filipinos, derived from the ambiguities of the Jones Act. On the one hand, the act granted the islands a greater role in self-rule, including a popularly elected senate. After several years, Manila officials believed that they had fulfilled the spirit and the letter of that legislation by creating a stable government. But, on the other hand, the governor general still was empowered to override the government and Filipino legislative initiatives “may be disregarded any time.” While Filipinos were blamed “for any inefficiency or failure” of governance, the governor general seemed to accrue all credit for what went right.8
The newest occupant of the governor general’s post, Leonard Wood, irritated matters by trying to reassert control over the islands. In July 1923, his actions provoked a mass resignation of Filipino politicos, including Quezon, from the governor general’s cabinet. Later that fall, when Secretary of War John Weeks sent a memorandum of endorsement to Governor General Wood, Quezon and Philippine house speaker Manuel Roxas ordered Guevara to visit Secretary Weeks to express their displeasure with Wood’s executive encroachments. Impatient for action, the territorial legislature then dispatched a special mission to Washington to request Wood’s recall and lobby for immediate independence.9 “We do not object to General Wood personally,” Guevara noted, trying to frame the issue as something larger than a personal spat, “but to the office which he occupies and the method of his appointment.”10 In Boston for a speech at the Harvard Union, Guevara told the Christian Science Monitor, “The struggle with General Wood is merely a small incident in the bigger fight for full self-government.”11
President Calvin Coolidge defended Wood and used subsequent annual messages to request that Congress grant the governor general more resources at the expense of the insular government.12 Despite the Coolidge administration’s clear efforts to reassert control over the islands, independence efforts percolated in Congress in 1924. In February, the special mission, accompanied by Guevara, testified before the Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Possessions to support S. 912, a bill authored by Chairman William King of Utah that authorized Filipinos to convene a constitutional convention. Once ratified and approved, U.S. military forces would withdraw within six months. Predictably, administration officials lined up against the bill. Secretary of War Weeks argued independence would precipitate a political collapse while the Navy’s Admiral Hilary P. Jones testified about the need to retain the Philippines to ensure U.S. strategic interests in East Asia. Governor General Wood echoed these sentiments in a telegram to the committee that Guevara and Gabaldon roundly condemned.13 War Department staff later asked the House Insular Affairs Committee to stall on its review of S. 912, effectively killing it.14
Insular Affairs Committee Chairman Louis Fairfield of Indiana submitted H.R. 8856 just as momentum on S. 912 waned. The House bill granted commonwealth status to the islands, allowed for a Filipino to be elected as governor general, continued a bicameral legislature, and also set out a judicial system. Controversially, however, it created a presidentially appointed post of U.S. commissioner empowered to veto legislation, contracts and the governor general’s executive actions, and to muster the armed forces of the Philippines. The commonwealth period would last for 30 years, after which Filipinos would vote in a plebiscite to maintain commonwealth status or to declare independence. Delegates from the independence mission supported the broad outlines of the Fairfield bill but balked at the 30-year commonwealth period and the notion of a commissioner with unchecked power. Though Fairfield was amenable to changing the bill, little support existed in Manila, and the chairman sidelined the entire effort.15 Later that Congress, Guevara attempted to revive interest in H.R. 8856. “The structure of our political institutions,” Guevara said, was built on a “weak base” of limited sovereignty. Emphasizing that Congress “has never been reluctant … in the prompt solution of those problems affecting the life, happiness, and prosperity” of its citizens, he asked the Rules Committee to send the bill to the House Floor, but it never resurfaced.16 Soon all momentum stalled as Congress adjourned for the presidential nominating conventions and the fall elections.17
A wave of negative propaganda designed to curb Philippine autonomy broke across the U.S. press in late 1924. From November 1924 to January 1925, the Washington Post published “Isles of Fear,” authored by Katherine Mayo, who trafficked in racist stereotypes and belittled the Philippines’ push for independence. Retentionists, including the Post editorial board, seized on the series and praised it for confirming their views.18 Guevara was one of a number of Filipino officials who refuted Mayo, publishing a response with Isauro Gabaldon in the Post. In a New York City speech, Guevara alleged Mayo’s work as one component of a “campaign of misrepresentation waged by the irreconcilable opponents of Philippine independence … for their own benefits or that of the interests they represent.” He stressed that Mayo’s portrayals failed to convey the true “life, culture, and spirit of a people or race.”19
Guevara also fought against attempts to separate parts of the Philippines from the insular government. In May 1926, Robert Bacon of New York submitted H.R. 12772 to create a separate province intended to resolve the “fundamental antipathy” between the Christian Filipinos in the Luzon and Visayan Islands and Muslim Filipinos, or Moros, in the Mindanao, Basilan, Palawan, and Sulu Archipelago. According to Bacon, the Moros were “an altogether distinct people from the Christian Filipinos … not only in language and religion but in physical type and mental outlook.”20 The first Philippine commission established a single province for Moro territory under the control of a military governor.21 Bacon’s bill enabled the governor general to make these appointments without the consent of the Philippine senate. He argued that the Moros were essentially a distinct people and that the insular government had made no real attempt to integrate them. Bacon’s underlying goal, however, seemed to be securing key natural resources in Moro lands—namely, rubber.22
Guevara responded to Bacon on the House Floor one month later. He dismissed the racial distinctions between Christian and Muslim Filipinos, saying that “differences in religion and civilization are the natural result of the political situation which the Filipino people have been forced to endure for the last 300 years” under foreign rule. Guevara admitted that the Moros had no representatives in the Philippine legislature, but under the Jones Act, only the U.S. Congress could grant that right. To resolve the issue, Guevara suggested an “amendment to the present organic law … which would enfranchise the Moros and permit them to elect their own legislators and governors with … the same freedom of choice as that now enjoyed by Christian Filipinos.” Guevara concluded, “Disintegration of … the Philippine Islands can serve no useful purpose.” Members of the Committee on Insular Affairs agreed, and Bacon’s bill never left committee.23
After four years of stalwart opposition to Wood and his policies, Guevara was presented with an opportunity to reset relations when the governor general died unexpectedly in August 1927. Guevara informed Manila that the Coolidge administration wanted suggestions about selecting a new governor general. The primary candidate was Henry L. Stimson, the former Secretary of War in the William H. Taft administration. President Coolidge asked Stimson to visit the Philippines to assess the effectiveness of the insular government. A retentionist himself, Stimson nevertheless proved amenable to all sides. Unlike Wood, Stimson honored Philippine sovereignty where it existed and treated Filipino colleagues with respect. With widespread support in Manila and Washington, President Coolidge nominated Stimson on December 13, 1927. When the Senate confirmed him four days later, Guevara praised the appointment, calling it “a new era for the islands [sic] government and people.”24
Despite this attempt to moderate relations with the insular government, President Coolidge continued to request more resources for the governor general’s office in his annual messages. In January 1928, Frank Willis, chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Possessions, submitted S. 2292. That bill proposed an increase in the salaries of 13 presidential appointees and directed $125,000 from Philippine internal revenue taxes toward hiring additional assistants and technical advisers. A companion bill (H.R. 8567) was submitted by House Insular Affairs Committee Chairman Edgar Kiess of Pennsylvania. These measures placed the appointments of technical advisers solely in the governor general’s hands. Another Willis bill, S. 2787, and its companion, H.R. 10074, proposed the appointment of governors for the Muslim and non-Christian provinces of the islands without the Philippine senate’s consent. Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis and Governor General Stimson testified in support of each of these bills to the dismay of Quezon, who coordinated with Senate allies to block their passage and asked other members to submit independence bills as substitutes. Guevara prepared for battle in the committee rooms.25
Guevara sparred with Chairman Kiess while testifying against H.R. 8567. Among his eight points of disagreement with the legislation, he argued that the Kiess bill would weaken the Jones Act by curtailing the Philippine legislature’s power to appropriate funds by eliminating the “functions of the departments and bureaus of the Philippine government.” Such an action would reinforce “the colonial nature of the system of government implanted in the Philippine Islands.” Frustrated by Guevara’s stonewalling, Kiess demanded to know why the Philippine legislature seemingly opposed any congressional action. Guevara answered, “We are opposed to any amendment to the Jones Act which will mean a backward step” in achieving Philippine sovereignty. After testifying for two hours, Guevara suffered a heart attack and was taken to a local hospital. He was scheduled to testify against S. 2292 before the Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs the next day, but Gabaldon took his place.26 Although S. 2292 and S. 2787 passed the respective committees of jurisdiction in both chambers, neither came to the House nor Senate Floors for a vote, and the House versions languished in committee.27
Guevara balanced expanding Philippine sovereignty with preserving its economy, particularly the sugar industry. In March 1928, beet sugar proponent Charles Timberlake of Colorado submitted H.J. Res. 214, a bill to reduce the duty-free importation of Philippine sugar from an unlimited number to 500,000 tons. Timberlake noted precedent for his legislation and argued that U.S. authorities “never contemplated forcing the American farmer into competition with tropical labor 7,000 miles across the Pacific.” Timberlake partially framed his legislation as preventing the Philippines from becoming “dependent on a single competitive export crop” in accordance with “the universally accepted principle of crop diversification.” Guevara asked Timberlake if it was fair for the United States “to send any of its products to the Philippine Islands without any limitations … while the Philippine Islands are … limited in the sending of their products” to the United States, but Timberlake dodged the question. Guevara countered with his standard proposal for independence, “May I suggest that the best remedy is to get rid of the Philippine Islands, and we are now ready to be gotten rid of by the United States.”28 The bill died when Governor General Stimson blasted it in the press.29
When the House adjourned in May 1928, Guevara remained in the United States. In June he joined Quezon at the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions to promote Philippine independence. At the Republican convention in Kansas City, Missouri, the pair successfully lobbied against the inclusion of a platform that called for limiting Philippine rights. In Houston, Texas, Guevara and Quezon, with an assist from Senator King, convinced Democrats to retain a platform calling for independence that echoed the 1924 platform.30 Isauro Gabaldon resigned in July 1928, leaving Guevara the sole Filipino Resident Commissioner for nine months just as the battle over sugar tariffs was heating up. In December 1928, the House Ways and Means Committee convened hearings on tariff readjustments in anticipation of President-elect Herbert Hoover’s request to revise the Tariff Act of 1922. A worldwide depression in sugar prices and the rise of an aggressive sugar lobby threatened the free trade privileges enjoyed by the Philippines since the enactment of that legislation.
Testifying before the committee in early 1929, Guevara started with a simple question that echoed his perpetual message: “[W]hile the Philippine Islands are under the American flag, will the United States be justified in imposing limitation on our present free trade?” Guevara reminded members that imposing trade restrictions was tantamount to “economic slavery, because while the United States is free to send to the Philippine Islands all her products and merchandise, we will not be free to export” the same products. When committee members asked Guevara repeatedly what the Philippines did to cultivate trade with neighboring countries, Guevara reiterated that U.S. tariff restrictions compelled nations to restrict trade against the Philippines as a territory of the United States.31
On March 7, 1929, President Hoover called an extraordinary session of Congress to consider proposals for agriculture relief and tariff revisions. In light of these initiatives, the Philippine legislature sent a special mission to Washington to negotiate tariff revisions. Arriving in April 1929, the mission was led by Philippine house speaker Manuel Roxas and senator Sergio Osmeña and joined by newly elected Resident Commissioner Camilo Osias.32
The next hurdle Guevara and the mission faced came in the form of H.R. 2667, submitted by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Willis Hawley of Oregon. It called for a revision of the tariff schedules. The bill passed the House without many changes that affected the Philippines. But led by beet supporter Chairman Reed Smoot of Utah, the Senate Committee on Finance offered amendments sharply increasing the duty on sugar and other products from the Philippines. In contrast to Osias’s fiery testimony, Guevara submitted a prepared statement to the committee in June 1929, again requesting equal treatment between the United States and Philippines. He once more leveraged the economic conflict to request independence. Retained as a territory, Guevara noted, the matter amounted to interstate commerce. Passing the amendments, however, “would place the United States in the same position of Great Britain in her dealings with the thirteen American Colonies which brought about their separation from the mother country.”33 Smoot’s amendments gained little traction before the committee reported the bill in September 1929.
When the bill reached the Senate Floor, fresh amendments spurred a renewed campaign for independence. Louisiana Senator Edwin Broussard again sought to increase the sugar duty, but also offered a path to independence. Some Senators balked when the independence issue crept into the tariff debate. Both amendments failed, but this opened the door for Guevara and Osias to once again campaign for the release of the Philippines. Guevara addressed the House on December 7 and again on December 13, each time stressing the economic argument for an independent Philippines. Despite rising sentiment and support from Democratic Members, Republicans in both chambers stood firm against independence.34 The final act, popularly known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff, became law in June 1930. It did not significantly affect Philippine exports, but neither did it feature the independence provisions Guevara and his colleagues had encouraged.35
Guevara carried forward his comparison of the islands to the American colonies as he continued his pleas for independence across the United States.36 In the summer of 1931, Quezon published a report postulating a 10-year trial period of autonomous government ending in a plebiscite. The report muddled the insular government’s official stance on independence. Quezon seemed to favor an American protectorate with only limited independence. The legislature instructed Guevara to continue to press for full independence and urged him weeks later to correct a Washington Post editorial which had presumed Moro opposition to independence.37 Guevara struggled to respond to this misinformation as Congress prepared to convene the 72nd Congress (1931–1933) in December 1931, and government leaders Osmeña and Roxas themselves traveled to Washington to make their case.
Despite the efforts of retentionists to portray the Philippines as deeply riven over the question of independence, supporters in Congress had grown plentiful enough by 1932 to advance a new bill for Philippine independence. Named for the chairman of the House Insular Affairs Committee, Butler Hare of South Carolina, the proposal, once approved by the insular legislature, would provide for an immediate constitutional convention followed by an eight-year schedule for independence. Speaker John Nance Garner of Texas rallied Democratic support and brought the bill to the floor under a suspension of the rules, limiting debate to 40 minutes.
During debate, Guevara proclaimed that this bill would “decide the fate of 13,000,000 people.” Describing prior legislative efforts as temporary fixes, Guevara deemed that the Hare measure embodied the “redemption of American pledges … and the fruition of our hopes for separate nationhood.” At the conclusion of Guevara’s unusually impassioned rhetoric, many Members rose in applause. With Guevara watching, the House approved the bill by a large majority, 306 to 47.38 The Hawes–Cutting bill, a competing Senate version of the Hare bill, led a conference committee to increase the window to independence to 10 years, but the final legislation was completed before the year was out.
Congress had passed the legislation over the stern objections of the Hoover administration, however, and President Hoover vetoed the bill on January 13, 1933. Wasting no time, the House overrode the veto that same day 274 to 94. After the vote, Guevara expressed “the gratitude of the Filipino people, which I say to both Republicans and Democrats for their altruistic stand on the … independence question.”39 The Senate followed suit on January 17 by a vote of 66 to 24, and the combined Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act became law.40
However, the Philippine legislature still had to approve the measure, and infighting there scuttled the bill. Guevara sided with his mentor Quezon, who feared a loss of influence, had the bill succeeded. After Quezon rallied the votes to reject the independence bill in the Philippine senate, Guevara accompanied him back to Washington to produce another independence bill.41
Throughout early 1934, Guevara and Osias occupied opposite sides of the Hare–Hawes–Cutting law debate. Whereas Osias publicly split from Quezon over rejecting the law in December 1933, Guevara lobbied for passage of another bill. In January 1934, Guevara submitted a concurrent resolution from the Philippine legislature rejecting the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act. He expressed his “profound gratitude” for Congress’s actions, but his “patriotic duty” compelled Guevara to take another course. Acknowledging that “many of the Members of this House voted … in the belief that my stand was an expression of the will of the Filipino people whom I represent,” Guevara subordinated his preference for the Hare–Hawes–Cutting bill to “the majority of the Philippine Legislature,” who rejected it.42
Quezon found a favorable climate for a new independence bill in Washington, where the new Franklin D. Roosevelt administration was eager to be done with the issue. Negotiations resulted in the Tydings–McDuffie Act (H.R. 8573, S. 3055), which granted independence and removed military bases from the Philippines while providing authorization to negotiate for a future U.S. naval presence. Guevara endorsed the bill as “the epitome and synthesis of America’s aim and purpose in the Philippines” and further ensured that this attempt at independence would meet approval in the Philippine legislature.43 The bill quickly passed both the House and Senate, and President Roosevelt signed it into law on March 24, 1934.44
Guevara involved himself little in negotiations over Tydings–McDuffie, focusing instead on the preservation of the Philippine economy. Days after passage of Tydings–McDuffie, Guevara protested a clause in H.R. 9790 that raised the price of coconut oil to 3 cents per pound. He cautioned that the price increase could “dynamite” approval of the new independence bill because the tax would exacerbate the “economic sacrifices of the Filipino people, which are already … unbearable” and cripple the nation’s prominent coconut industry. Guevara pointed out the “inconsistency” of Congress to pass “a new organic law and, before the President’s signature to it is dry, penalize the recipient with additional burdens and oppressive inflictions.” Guevara sent letters to President Roosevelt as well as six prominent Senators and submitted a public statement voicing his objections. Representative John McDuffie of Alabama echoed Guevara’s concerns and suggested that the tax violated the spirit of the independence measure that bore his name. Under this onslaught, the tax bill wallowed in committee, and the Philippine legislature approved Tydings–McDuffie in May 1934.45
Guevara’s next economic hurdle was a direct consequence of the national bank emergency and the devaluation of the dollar. Representative McDuffie introduced H.R. 9459 and Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland introduced S. 3530 to settle the resultant devaluation profit in the Philippine currency reserves, enabling the U.S. Treasury to transfer the balance to the Philippine insular government. While advocating for the bill, Guevara noted how the devaluation hurt the Philippines’ ability to collect duty rates and obtain full returns on railroad bonds. In two cases, Guevara estimated the Philippines lost about $13 million. Guevara appealed to his colleagues’ sense of fair play in restoring the funds. In a practical sense, the restoration of the funds would “forestall economic complications and … prevent financial debilitation” in a nation on the verge of independence. The Tydings bill passed the Senate easily and, after a vigorous debate in the House, passed on a 188 to 147 vote. President Roosevelt signed it into law on June 19, 1934.46
As early as June 1934, Guevara showed signs that he had wearied of Filipino politics, feeling that he had been buffeted by insular divisions one time too many. Reports emerged about Guevara advocating for a protectorate for the Philippines, claiming that full independence would lead to disaster. His political patron Quezon dismissed the claims. Guevara had also applied to be a delegate at the 1934 Philippine constitutional convention. In light of the rumored statements, Quezon threatened to pull his support for Guevara’s candidacy.47 However, the threat did not hurt Guevara’s prospects, as he was selected to the constitutional convention in July 1934 and was re-elected as Resident Commissioner one month later.48 The constitutional convention worked from July 1934 to February 1935 on a draft which President Roosevelt approved in March. Following a plebiscite, the Philippines was established as a commonwealth in May 1935.49
During his last term in the 74th Congress (1935–1937), Guevara continued to focus on preserving the economy and the security of the Philippines. He lobbied the House to relax tariffs in the Jones–Costigan and Revenue Acts of 1934. Guevara also began openly advocating for a protectorate system rather than complete independence, fearing that Japan was a “real menace to Philippine independence.” He relayed open threats made by a Japanese diplomat in Manila before asking the House to consider amending H.R. 3482, a bill pledging the commitment of U.S. military forces to Latin American countries, to include the Philippines. Richard Welch of California reminded the House that Guevara “was in favor of absolute independence” during debate over the Tydings–McDuffie Act. “I have not changed my mind,” Guevara replied, but he stated that he wished for “independence for the Filipino people, but not for the benefit of some other nation” to swallow it up. Guevara held no faith in the ability of a neutralization treaty to protect his nation after Japan’s decision to ignore the Kellogg–Briand Pact and leave the League of Nations. When Welch continued to needle Guevara, the Resident Commissioner countered, “[I]f reversing my opinion … will mean security for the Philippine Islands I will not hesitate to reverse my stand or my opinion.” H.R. 3482 did not pass, but a companion Senate bill (S. 707) added the Philippines to the protection list and it became law.50
In August 1935, Guevara returned to Manila to vote in the presidential elections, and he brought his protectorate proposal with him. In accordance with these views, he rescinded his support of the Tydings–McDuffie Act. Nevertheless, he endorsed Manuel Quezon’s campaign for president of the Philippine Commonwealth. In a newspaper interview at his home, Guevara stated his preference for a protectorate in the presence of Quezon and two other public figures, General Emilio Aguinaldo and Bishop Gregorio Aglipay, who were running against Quezon. Guevara claimed to have spoken with a number of Members of Congress “and it is my opinion that a … majority would favor the extension of American protection to the islands.” The reporter noted that in private Quezon reacted with “tacit approval.”51 Soon afterward, though, he blasted Guevara’s proposal in a public statement.52
One week after Quezon won the presidency in a landslide, Guevara announced his retirement from politics effective on October 1, 1935, even though his term as Resident Commissioner did not officially expire until February 14, 1936.53 After leaving office, he started a private law practice in Manila. The Philippines Free Press complimented his “long and distinguished career in government, culminating in his many years as Resident Commissioner in Washington.”54 Besides law, Guevara pursued a number of business interests and continued to advocate for a Philippine protectorate as a private citizen.55
On January 19, 1938, Guevara suffered a fatal stroke while arguing a case before the Philippine supreme court and died in Manila. Calling him “one of the dearest friends I have ever had,” President Quezon credited Guevara as a “devoted and very able public servant” who “stood his ground regardless of whether or not it affected him adversely politically.” Guevara was interred in the Cementerio del Norte in Manila.56
Footnotes
1Guevara quotation from “Filipinos Hoping For Protectorate,” 8 November 1923, Christian Science Monitor: 2.
2Congressional Directory, 74th Cong., 1st sess., 2nd ed. (Washington, DC; Government Printing Office, 1935): 129; “Death Strikes Guevara in Act of Pleading Case Before Supreme Court,” 20 January 1938, Manila Tribune: 1; “Pedro Guevara, Jr,” 22 November 1947, Washington Post: B2. Pedro Guevara Jr., was born circa 1903. “Filipinos Elect an ‘Independent,’ ” 7 March 1923, Christian Science Monitor: 1.
3Congressional Directory, 74th Cong.: 129 ; “Death Strikes Guevara In Act of Pleading Case Before Supreme Court”; Bernardita Reyes Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934 (Manila, PI: National Historical Institute, 1983): 37–38, 428.
4Frank H. Golay, Face of Empire: United States-Philippine Relations, 1898–1946 (Quezon City, PI : Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1997): 242–244; Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 67; Pedro Guevara certificate of election, (endorsed 24 February), Committee on Elections (HR68-AJ2), 68th Congress, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC; “Gabaldon, Guevara Re-elected,” 10 November 1925, Manila Times: 1; “Philippine Legislature Elects Commissioners,” 8 February 1929, Washington Post: 9; “To Represent Philippines Here,” 23 August 1934, Wall Street Journal: 5.
5Associated Press, “Manila Holds Huge Parade in Honor of New Agent to U.S.,” 12 August 1923, Chicago Tribune: 13.
6“Independence Haste Decried,” 12 September 1923, Los Angeles Times: 17; “Philippine Envoy Seeks Settlement,” 17 September 1923, New York Times: 19.
7“Filipinos Hoping for Protectorate,” 8 November 1923, Christian Science Monitor: 2.
8“Philippine Envoy Seeks Settlement.”
9Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 70–74.
10“Hart Defends Leonard Wood,” 9 November 1923, Boston Daily Globe: 24. See also “First Philippine Plea Is Given to President,” 16 December 1923, Washington Post: 14; Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 77.
11“Philippine Envoy Seeks Settlement.”
12Coolidge commented on the Philippines in his third, fourth, fifth, and sixth annual messages. See Gerhard Peters, “State of the Union Addresses and Messages,” in American Presidency Project, ed. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php.
13Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 91–92.
14Hearing before the Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Possession, Philippine Independence, 68th Cong., 1st sess. (11, 16 February and 1, 3 March 1924); Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 89–90.
15Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 101–102. The amended bill removed the independence plebiscite and reduced the probationary period to 20 years. Commonwealth officials would support the Philippine constitution instead of the U.S. Constitution and no one with military experience would serve as U.S. commissioner. Regarding executive and legislative branch powers, the power to muster the armed forces would remain with the U.S. President; the U.S. Supreme Court also would have jurisdiction over the Philippines.
16Congressional Record, House, 68th Cong., 2nd sess. (16 December 1924): 698.
17Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 99–105.
18Ibid., 122–124; “ ‘Isles of Fear’ to Present Truth About Philippines,” 28 November 1924, Washington Post: 10. The articles were compiled into a single volume, Katherine Mayo, The Isles of Fear: The Truth About the Philippines (New York : Harcourt, Brace, and Company: 1925). For biographical information about Mayo, see “Katherine Mayo, Writer, Is Dead,” 10 October 1940, New York Times: 25. For the Post’s supportive editorials, see “Conditions in the Philippines,” 7 December 1924, Washington Post: EF1; “Vetoing Seditious Propaganda,” 11 December 1924, Washington Post: 6; and “The Philippines As They Are,” 24 January 1925, Washington Post: 6.
19Congressional Record, House, 68th Cong., 2nd sess. (3 March 1925): 5348–5350, quotation on p. 5349. Gabaldon’s remarks about the Mayo articles are in Congressional Record, House, 68th Cong., 2nd sess. (3 January 1925): 1167–1173.
20Congressional Record, House, 69th Cong., 1st sess. (6 May 1926): 8831.
21Bonifacio S. Salamanca, The Filipino Reaction to American Rule, 1901–1913 (Hamden, CT: Shoe String Press, 1968): 113–117, 256n107.
22Golay, Face of Empire: 266–267.
23Congressional Record, House, 69th Cong., 1st sess. (26 June 1926): 12063–12066; Congressional Record, Index, 69th Cong., 1st sess.: 810.
24Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 181, 184–185; “Coolidge to Receive Filipino Legislators,” 22 September 1927, Washington Post: 1; “Stimson Named for Governor of Philippines,” 13 December 1927, Christian Science Monitor: 1; “Senate Confirms Morrow as Envoy,” 18 December 1927, New York Times: 23; Larry G. Gerber, “Stimson, Henry Lewis,” American National Biography 20 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999): 787–790; Congressional Record, House, 70th Cong., 1st sess. (21 December 1927): 916–917.
25Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 185–187.
26Hearing before the House Committee on Insular Affairs, Employment of Certain Civilian Assistants in the Office of the Governor General of the Philippine Islands, 70th Cong., 1st sess. (31 January 1928): 7, 19–20. Gabaldon described Guevara’s condition in Hearing before the Senate Committee on Territories and Insular Possessions, Appointment of Governors of the Non-Christian Provinces in the Philippine Islands, 70th Cong., 1st sess. (1 February 1928): 2; Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 187.
27Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 185–189; Congressional Record, Index, 70th Cong., 1st sess.: 531, 539, 706, 731.
28Congressional Record, House, 70th Cong., 1st sess. (22 March 1928): 5212.
29Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 188–189; Congressional Record, Index, 70th Cong., 1st sess.: 736.
30Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 189–190; “To Work For Philippines,” 6 April 1928, New York Times: 4. The 1924 and 1928 platforms are similar. See George Thomas Kurian, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Democratic Party, vol. 3 (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1997): 520–521, 531.
31Hearings before the House Committee on Ways and Means, Tariff Readjustment–1929: Vol. V, Schedule 5, Sugar, Molasses, and Manufactures of, 70th Cong., 2nd sess. (21–22 January 1929): 3288–3292. Guinn Williams of Texas made a similar statement on Guevara’s behalf, see Congressional Record, House, 70th Cong., 2nd sess. (24 January 1929): 2194–2197.
32Herbert Hoover, “Proclamation 1870—Requesting an Extra Session of Congress on Agricultural Relief and Tariff Changes,” 7 March 1929, in American Presidency Project, ed. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=22069 (accessed 12 February 2016); Churchill, The Philippine Independence Missions to the United States, 1919–1934: 198–201, 204–206.
33“Urges Wide Powers in Flexible Tariff,” 17 July 1929, New York Times: 11.
34“Haitian Policy of U.S. Praised and Condemned,” 14 December 1929, Chicago Daily Tribune: 10; Congressional Record, House, 70th Cong., 1st sess. (7, 13 December 1929): 261–262, 618–630; Golay, Face of Empire: 281–282.
35Hearings before the Senate Committee on Finance, Tariff Act of 1929 : Vol. XVII, Special and Administrative Provisions, 71st Cong., 1st sess. (12–13 June and 15–18 July, 1929): 260–262; Golay, Face of Empire: 278–282. Smoot–Hawley became law as Public Law 71-361, 46 Stat. 590 (1930).
36“Filipino Pleads for Freedom at Politics Parley,” 1 July 1930, Christian Science Monitor: 5; “Guevara Makes Plea for Filipino Freedom,” 28 October 1930, New York Times: 52; “Reasserts Filipino Stand,” 23 May 1931, New York Times: 8.
37Golay, Face of Empire: 296–298; Pedro Guevara, “Moros Declared to Favor Philippine Independence,” 20 September 1931, Washington Post: M7.
38“House Votes to Free Philippines in 1940; Stimson Is Opposed,” 5 April 1932, New York Times: 1; Congressional Record, House, 72nd Cong., 1st sess. (4 April 1932): 7401–7412, Guevara quotation on p. 7410.
39Congressional Record, House, 72nd Cong., 2nd sess. (13 January 1933): 1769.
The most difficult footpath?
My wife & I walked the Blencathra Wainwrights. Finishing on Blencathra, we descended Doddick Fell (one of the ridges on the south side of the mountain). This path is steep and rocky but has no great difficulty. At the bottom, direct access to the road (A66) is not possible and we had to follow the footpath (on the fell side of the open land boundary wall) eastwards towards Scales. I could see from the map that the path loops into the Scaley Beck valley.
Upon reaching this valley we encountered this steep, rocky and smooth step. We managed to get down by holding onto the fence as the rock was curiously devoid of good handholds. This put us onto a horizontal path which led in a few yards to a second, even steeper rocky step. This step was much steeper than the first and was about 15 feet high (high enough to do serious damage upon falling). To the left (facing downhill) was a vertical chimney absolutely oozing with water and slime; in the middle is an overhang; to the right was a vertical wall. Again the slabs above were curiously devoid of good hand holds. Hoping to get a better grip on the rock and fully expecting to be down in a minute, I removed my gloves in order to get a better grip and threw them down to the bottom. Bare hands didn't help at all and after lots of dithering, we climbed back to above the first step. A faint path leading higher into the valley seemed to offer a safer alternative. We followed this, heading for what appeared to be a more manageable slope, but this path soon petered out. As we battled further up through dense foliage, a walker appeared at the top of the corresponding Bad Step on the West Bank coming in the opposite direction. He had some difficulty in descending that step but did make progress. I realised that he would find my gloves and I tried to shout down to him, but he couldn't hear because of the water and he didn't look our way, so didn't see us. I was hoping that he would be stopped by the West Bank step because I knew that he would pick up my gloves.
The thick foliage and steep slope slowed us considerably and it took a while to reach the stream bed further up the valley. We now followed the stream down hill, back towards the path. Even here progress was difficult, with many rocky drops being encountered; at several places we actually had to wade in the water. After a long time we finally regained the path where it crosses the stream. There was no sign of the walker nor of my gloves, so presumably he'd climbed the step and picked up my gloves thinking that he might catch up with their owner (me).
My wife and I managed to ascend the rock step on the East Bank without too much difficulty; it's definitely easier than the West Bank step, although again, it might be intimidating to descend.
We finally got back to the car at Scales. I looked at the map, trying to decide where the lone walker might emerge onto the road. We drove to several possible locations but we never saw him (or my gloves) again. What was bizarre was that he was the only other walker we saw on that side of the mountain and at the very moment that I was (temporarily) separated from my gloves.
Has anybody else walked that path and encountered those Bad Steps? I would say that they are definitely the most difficult that I have encountered on a footpath.
Difficult lighting for my alpha without flash, especially since I was moving constantly. A camera, flash and intent to photograph here generates some scowls and not so friendly looks. At least that was my perception. As a result, low light photos of questionable quality. More documentary than high quality photos.
More in my set: "Wings and Waves 2012"
www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157631761170943/
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My photographs and videos and any derivative works are my private property and are copyright © by me, John Russell (aka “Zoom Lens”) and ALL my rights, including my exclusive rights, are reserved. ANY use without my permission in writing is forbidden by law.
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A note about my photographs in my Wings and Waves 2012 set: 2 conditions made taking ultra-sharp photographs very difficult – the first condition is that this air show is held at the beach, and a strong wind blowing in off of the ocean kept fogging my camera lens with salt spray, necessitating frequent cleaning – the second condition is that all of the pilots, including the jet pilots, used smoke, smoke, smoke...it hung in the air like a fog and you will see its effects in my photos. With those apologies, enjoy my photos of one of the best air shows around. Let’s fly!
The vast number of birds, both migratory and resident, enables anyone who enjoys the wonders of these winged friends a great experience whenever visiting Richard DeKorte Park, a quiet, almost hidden, sanctuary of wildlife, practically a stone throw away from Manhattan. The variety of bird and plant species is incredible, so if one is appreciative of such, then learning something new is pretty much the norm here. In addition, a wealth of insect species are present, each with its own unique traits that always keeps things interesting, and the furry, adorable critters such as the muskrats and groundhogs, to name a few, along with several kinds of turtles, including quite large snappers provide visitors endless opportunities to experience the fascinating world of nature. Seasonal changes do present fresh new looks . . . So, getting bored is difficult.
This view was from the World Trade Center 911 Memorial Platform during the morning, thus, the slight film in the air and the bluish tones. As you can see, the new FREEDOM TOWER is very near completion, ultimately to stand, officially, at 1,776 feet, which includes the antenna spire. The 911 double platform tribute, when seen from certain angles, draws the visitors into the past, as one cannot help but to also remember and feel the exact location of downtown Manhattan where the great TWIN TOWERS once adorned the landscape, a symbol of world trade and commerce. Regardless of how many visits my wife and I make to this spot, our hearts tighten from the horrific memories of that infamous day, for whenever looking to the east from where we reside, and during our drives into the great city of New York, between the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, the landscape would always have us in awe of its magnificence. After the recent historic Hurricane Sandy, massive damage was sustained throughout the region, and Richard DeKorte Park was also a sad victim of nature’s wrath. The simple grace and design of the 911 memorial platform had been terribly damaged; however, thankfully, the original concept and layout was restored, allowing, once again, for visitors to pay tribute to the thousands who lost their lives, while honoring the “Never Say Quit” resolve of the American people, powerfully reflected in this new, great landmark: THE FREEDOM TOWER.
Difficult to make out the registration on the Escort, and I haven't got time to try lots of permutations on DVLA, but pleasingly the Rover is still around. DVLA suggests it has just been taxed for another year. I'd happily drive that one around.
Nice timewarp shot for 2008, with no other cars or wheelie bins visible to spoil it.
Edit: MicraK10 has confirmed the van's registration as G879ADX, last taxed until May 2010.
On June 6, 2018 the 12th annual LAFD Merit Scholar Awards Ceremony honored the academic excellence and demonstrated leadership of 11 college-bound students.
The Merit Scholar Awards are cash grants, made possible through the Jean Perkins Foundation, of up to $30,000 ($7,500 per year while the student continues to be enrolled and making normal progress toward a college degree). To be eligible, a student must be the child or stepchild of an active or fallen LAFD sworn employee. The eligible student must be a high school senior or college freshman, who will be enrolled in the fall as a full-time student in an accredited college or university. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit. The single most important factor is academic achievement, but the all-civilian Selection Committee considered other relevant criteria, including personal character and extracurricular accomplishments.
This year’s awardees were students who demonstrated excellence in academic studies, good character, high moral standards, leadership, distinction in extra-curricular activities, personal accomplishments and a potential for future success. The LAFD Merit Scholarship Fund Board of Directors had the difficult task of selecting the top candidates from an extremely competitive pool.
The 2018 LAFD Merit Scholar Award Recipients are Simone Decker, daughter of Firefighter III/Paramedic Dieter Decker; Abigail Sedillos and Brady Sedillos, children of Captain I Leonard Sedillos;Teagan Wasserman, daughter of Firefighter III/Paramedic Curt Wasserman (all bio's provided below).
This year’s seven Runner-Up Award winners are to be congratulated for their outstanding merits. Each received a one time grant of $5,000. They are Mia Aguilar, Seth Aguilar, Nina Hernandez, Angelina Maldonado, Delanie McKeon, Derek Rueda, Anna Vidovich and Taylor Wasserman.
The winner of this year’s “Best Essay” award of $2,500, generously sponsored by the LAFD Foundation, is an impressive repeat winner, Nina Hernandez. Nina also received this award in 2017.
We would like to thank Mr. James Carroll III and Mr. Joe Connolly, Executive Board Members of the Jean Perkins Foundation and the LAFD Merit Scholarship Fund’s Board of Directors, Dick Barrett, John Anglin, G. Louis Graziadio III, Vicky Leck, Tom Mizo, Robert Nicholas and Molly Taylor for their dedication and support of our members and their children. We are also grateful to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation for their sponsorship of the “Best Essay” award and to the LAFD Sertoma Club, the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, LAFD Historical Society and the Los Angeles Firefighter’s Association and the Stentorians of City of Los Angeles who sponsored the awards reception.
The announcement for the 2019 competition should be posted early 2019 at www.lafd.org/scholarship.
2017 LAFD MERIT SCHOLAR AWARD RECIPIENT BIOGRAPHIES
Simone Decker is a senior from Quartz Hill High School (QHHS) and is the daughter of Firefighter III Paramedic Dieter Decker, assigned to Fire Station 75 (15 years LAFD). She will be attending George Washington University, majoring in Political Science. Simone has volunteered with the Union Rescue Mission and the Children’s Department at Barnes and Noble. Simone has become involved with the Interfaith Youth Leadership Initiative (IYLI) and serves as the Secretary of the LA County Chapter. IYLI promotes religious tolerance through education and interaction. Simone feels the program allowed her to understand religion in a different light and become friends with people form a huge variety of faiths. The program provides a space for youth to interact with one another, free from societal stereotypes or preconceived notions. Simone has interned for Assemblyman Tom Lackey during 2016-2017 and with Congressman Steve Knight, on Capitol Hill, in 2018. She is very active in on-campus clubs. She is currently Social Media Commissioner for the QHHS ASB, Cheer Squad Captain, Multicultural Club, a Bollywood founding member and dance performer, member of Key Club and author of Blog with The Odyssey Online. Simone is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) and was selected for the Award of Excellence from the National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists. Other awards include NSHSS Ambassador Award 2017-2018, Principal’s List Honor Roll 2014-2018, and Academic Excellence Awards 2014-2018 after receiving all “A” grades in honors/advanced courses. Simone graduates with a 4.9 GPA.
Abigail Sedillos is a graduating senior from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (PVPHS) and the daughter of Captain I Leonard Sedillos, assigned to Fire Station 80 (33 years LAFD). Abbie will be attending Northeastern University, Boston, MA, double majoring in Environmental Studies and Political Science on the Pre-Law track. Abbie has been volunteering since 2012 and believes in the power of service. She is dedicated to commu-nity service and actively volunteers at the National Charity League as a Big Sister/Little Sister coordinator. Abbie also volunteers in Blue Jackets, assisting with discharged patients and making deliveries within the Torrance Memorial Medical Center(TMMC): NOVAs of TMMC, which partners with high school volunteers to fundraise and support patient events. Abbie has received the Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award for volunteering over 120 hours a year and the National Charity League Ticktocked Service Award for volunteering over 100 hours a year. Abbie has participated in the following PVPHS clubs: Link Crew, PLUS Leadership, Teen Court and Principal’s Advisory Council. She participated as a sprinter on the PVPHS Track and Field Team, competing in the 100 and 400 meter, 4 x 4 and 4 x1 relays from 2014- 2016. Abbie’s awards include National Hispanic Scholar 2017, Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica 2016, National Honor Society 2016-2018, Science National Honor Society 2016-2018, California Scholarship Federation 2015 - 2018, and AP Scholar with Honors 2017-2018. Abbie graduates with a 4.7 GPA.
Brady Sedillos is a graduating senior from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (PVPHS) and the son of Captain I Leonard Sedillos assigned to Fire Station 80 (33 years LAFD). Brady will be attending Brown University majoring in Biological Sciences on the Pre-Med track. Brady’s inspiration and passion for Biological Sciences is due to his family trips to National Parks. Exploring the natural world and it’s workings while on those trips fueled his curiosity especially in his AP Biology Lab. Brady is a Blue Jacket and a NOVA volunteer at TorranceMemorial Medical Center (TMMC). He served as the Vice President and Social Chair of NOVA at TMMC. Brady is a Youth Leader at Saint John Fisher Catholic Church. He assists with meetings and mentors incoming classes. Brady competed on the PVPHS Swim Team CIF and Bay League, in the 200 meter IM, 2014-2017. He served on the Principal’s Advisory Council as a representative of the student body working to improve the school environment. Brady is a jury member of Teen Court 2014-2018, Peer Leadership Uniting Students (PLUS) 2016-2018, Model United Nations Team Under-Secretary-General of Logistics 2015-2018. Brady is a co-founder/vice president of the Go Toberman School Club, a Game of Thrones fan club. Brady also likes to play the ukulele. Brady’s awards and honors include: Model United Nations Conference Awards; 2016-2018, National Hispanic Scholar; 2017, National Honor Society; 2016-2018; Science and Math National Honor Society; 2016-2018 , and California Scholarship Federation; 2015 - 2018. Brady graduates with a 4.8 GPA.
Tegan Wasserman is a graduating senior from Edison High School (EHS) and the daughter of Firefighter III Paramedic Curt Wasserman assigned to Fire Station 99 (32 years LAFD). Teagan will be attending Wagner College, Staten Island, NY, in the five-year advanced Physician Assistant Program. Teagan is currently the Secretary of EHS’s Make a Wish Club, whose duties include raising money, planning and managing event logistics. In 2015, Teagan won Best Scientific Invention in Edison’s Worlds Fair. She continues to volunteer in EHS’s Innovation Lab, maintaining different projects including aquaponics system, fish breeding, etc. Teagan is a volunteer at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, helping in multiple areas, including the operating room and the Surgical ICU. Tegan is a water safety instructor at Aquatots Swim School. Teagan teaches kids 0-18 years old and works with kids with disabilities. Teagan has participated in the Modeled United Nations (MUN) 2014-2018. This year she traveled to the MUN conference host nation Greece, where they learned and debated different world topics. Teagan mentors freshman taking MUN Geography course, by counseling and critiquing their papers. Teagan has played Club/Academy Soccer 2007 - 2018 and played EHS Varsity Soccer during 2014-2017. She is a decorated Scholar-Athlete. Teagan was the CIF Sports Conference and the OCAD Women in Sports Conference Representative for Edison Women’s Soccer. Teagan is the recipient of Edison Character Coalition Award Perseverance winner 2017. Teagan graduates with a 4.6 GPA.
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I have wanted to visit Stone Chapel just outside of Faversham for some while, but parking here is very difficult.
Yesterday, with the plan to visit Newnham and Doddington, it seemed too good an opportunity to visit the ruin.
You can see the remains from the old A2, Watling Street, and doesn't look that much, but worth visiting for the project, I thought.
In fact, close up it appears to be part Roman or made with Roman remains, the nave walls on both side have layers of clearly Roman tiles.
I am currently reading an archaeological paper which doubts the conclusions reached on the English Heritage site.
It is a less travelled path across the fields to the copse with the ruins in front. The field had been left fallow, so was full of Annual Mercury, Common Groundsel and a few Shepherd's Purse.
Straight away the courses of red Roman tiles were obvious, and even to me, seemed to form a square. The rest of the church was built of flint, and is crumbling still. Not bad for ruins of a building abandoned in the 1530s.
Ferns grow out of the mortar, quite a rare ecosystem here in Kent.
The stone altar is still in situ in the Chancel, or what remains of it. A step leads down into the nave, and was worn with steps of nearly a thousand years of use.
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The Roman building was excavated during the 19th century and again in the 1960s and 1970s. It was found to be a roughly square structure with each side approximately 6 metres (17 feet) in length, built on a foundation raft of flints.
The walls are 1 metre (3 feet) thick and are constructed of square stone blocks with frequent courses of thin red bricks. The walls were reinforced with external buttresses, two of which survive, at the north-west and south-west corners of the building.
The original entrance is represented by a gap in the centre of the west wall, with the original sill – a slab of greensand stone – still in place. Internally the floor was constructed of 'opus signinum' (a hard waterproof concrete partly composed of, and coloured red with, crushed tiles) and the walls were decorated with red painted plaster.
This building has been interpreted as a Romano-British mausoleum, a tomb standing above ground. Mausolea were constructed to contain and mark high-status burials. They often served as family tombs, in which some form of ceremony could be performed when a new burial was placed in the monument. They are usually located within cemeteries but may also be found singly, associated with villas or in small groups.
The tradition of building mausolea in Britain began in the early 2nd century AD and continued until at least the 4th century. As there is no evidence of a villa or cemetery close by, it has also been suggested that the building was a Romano-British temple or small Christian shrine.
The Roman Watling Street, now the busy A2, runs adjacent to the field 100 metres (330 feet) south of the site.
It is thought that the Roman settlement of Durolevum was situated on the outskirts of Faversham, and that this mausoleum is all that survives above ground of that settlement. Excavations have revealed a further Roman building about 11 metres (36 feet) to the north-west.
Partially overlying the earlier Roman building, but making use of its surviving walls, are the ruins of a mainly flint-built medieval church, about 24 metres (78 feet) in length and up to 7.5 metres (25 feet) wide. There may have been an earlier timber-built Saxon church on the site.
The medieval builders used the Roman building as the chancel of the church, while the nave was built to the west. The nave and the chancel were extended in the 13th century. The church is surrounded by a roughly square graveyard, bounded by a flint wall, which survives in ruined form on the north-western side and elsewhere is marked in places by a low bank.
The church was abandoned by the 1530s.
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/faversham-stone-...
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STONE,
CALLED in antient Latin deeds Stanes, and now usually Stone near Faversham, to distinguish it from two other parishes of the same name in this county, is the next parish south-westward from Luddenham.
It is but a small obscure parish, hardly known to any one, tho' situated close to the north side of the London road, a little beyond the 45th mile-stone, between Beacon and Judde hills, whence it extends to the waters of the Swale, its northern boundary. It lies in a low flat country, what uplands there are are very good and fertile, but by far the greatest part of the parish is marsh land, at the beginning of which is the manor house of Elverton, beyond which there is a large tract of them, near two miles in length, as far as the Swale; much of the lower part of the parish belongs to the family of Brydges, of Wotton.
The manors of Selgrave and Copton, aliasHamme marsh, claim over different parts of this parish, but THE PRINCIPAL MANOR in it is ELWERTON, written in Domesday, Ernolton, and in antient deeds Eylwartone, by which name it was given by king Edmund, son of queen Ediva, to the monks of Christ-church, in Canterbury, for the use of their rectory, and it was confirmed to them in the time of king Stephen, and archbishop Theobals, in the shrievalty of Ralph Picot, to be possessed by them without any additional burthens to be laid on it.
In the year 1227, anno 12 Henry III. archdeacon Simon Langton, with the consent of his brother, the archbishop, conveyed to the monks of Christ-church all the tithes of Eylwarton, great and small, lying within the precincts of the chapelry of Stone, which at this time pass under the name of dominical or demesne tithes, i. e. the tithes of the demesne of the manor.
King Edward II. in his 10th year, granted to the prior and convent of Christ-church, free-warren in all their demesne lands which they possessed in Eylwarton, among other places, at the time of the charter granted to them by his grandfather Henry III.
Robert Harthbrand, who became prior of Christchurch in 1338, anno 13 Edward III. among other improvements which he made to the possessions of it, inclosed the marsh land, called Elwarton marsh, belonging to this manor.
In which state this manor seems to have continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st years of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, among the rest of the possessions of it, into the king's hands, where it did not remain long, for the king settled it, by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, on his new-created dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it now remains.
When this manor came into the possession of the dean and chapter of Canterbury, it was demised by them from time to time for three lives, at the old rent of thirty-two pounds. The Clarkes held it in the reigns of queen Elizabeth and James I. the Sidneys in the reign of Charles II. and till that of George II. after which it was held by the Tenisons, Anne, widow of Dr. Edward Tenison, bishop of Ossory, in Ireland, held it at her death in 1750. By her will she left her interest in it, after the death of Margaret, wife of Peter St. Eloy her daughter, to her grandson Thomas Tension, esq. afterwards of Sysonby, in Leicestershire, and he, in 1762, assigned it over to Samuel and William Smith, of London, merchants, who in 1774, again assigned their interest in it to Mr. John Waller, gent. of Faversham, the present possessor of it.
There was a chapel here, called the chapel of our Lady of Eylwarton.
THE BISHOP OF BAIEUX, at the time of taking the general survey of Domesday, was possessed of an estate at this place, which is thus described under the general title of his lands in it:
The same Ansfrid holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Ernoltun. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is three carucates. In demesne there is one, and eight villeins, with two carucates and an half. There are two salt-pits, and in the city of Canterbury one house of twentyone pence.
In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards forty shillings, now one hundred-shillings. This manor Burnod held of king Edward. Of this manor Rannulf held ten acres, which lie near the the city, and paid forty-two pence in the time of king Edward.
Four years after taking of the above survey, the bishop was disgraced, and all his estates were consicated to the crown; but how that above-mentioned has passed since, or who now possesses it, I have not been able to learn.
STONE is within the ECCLESIASTIAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.
The church was always accounted as a chapel to that of Tenham, as appears by the Black Book of the archdeacon of Canterbury, and was given and appropriated with that church, as an appendage to it, in 1227, by archbishop Stephen Langton, to that archdeaconry. In which state it continues at this time, the archdeacon being appropriator of it, and the great and small tithes of it, excepting those of Elverton as above mentioned, included in the lease granted by him of the parsonage of Tenham, by the description of the chapelry of Stone, belonging to it.
¶The church or chapel of Stone has been for a long time desecrated; the foundations of it yet remain on the north side of the field, on the north side of the high London road, in the vale between Judde and Beacon hills. The shire or bridle road from Faversham to the top of the latter hill, goes close by the north side of it.
The walls of it have several Roman bricks mixed among the flints. The church seems to have been about thirty-two feet long, and the chancel twenty-four, and about twelve feet broad. By the remains of a piece of wall, the tower seems to have stood between the church and the chancel.
IT IS REMARKABLE, that in the dotation-charter to the dean and chapter of Canterbury, under the great seal, anno 33 Henry VIII. the rectory and vicarage of Stone, near Faversham, is granted to them instead of that of Stone, in the isle of Oxney, which is totally omitted, through they have enjoyed the latter ever since under that charter.
Notoriously difficult to separate from Willow Tit. These days, we are advised to look for a small pale patch above the base of the Marsh Tit's bill for confirmation of identity. Not easily discernible in this image. Maybe the sunlight reflecting from the rest of the bill disguised it. The habitat, glossy cap and small "bib" (and the call, which I heard) did indicate Marsh Tit, though. Unfortunately, the fact that Willow Tits have now almost or completely disappeared from Hamshire made the identification easier.