A ballast train at work near Stirling North.

Are you stressed out by the demands of skin care? Do you tire of the same old useless treatments in an effort to get younger, fresher-looking skin? You shouldn’t be chasing your dreams, you should be obtaining them and that goes with skin care too. The following tips will help you learn...

 

healthwellnessandlifestyle.com/tips-for-maintaining-the-h...

The Breakers, the Gilded Age summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, is the most visited attraction in Rhode Island. Part of a 13-acre estate on the seagirt cliffs, it maintains a commanding position facing east overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, the home was constructed between 1893 and 1895 at the then-astronomical cost of more than $7 million.

 

The Breakers Mansion, regarded as the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages", served as a symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial preeminence. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad. His grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885. That same year he purchased the Breakers, a wood-framed mansion from Pierre Lorillard IV. After it burned down in 1892, Vanderbilt commissioned Hunt, in what would be his last project, who directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a new 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo, with Beaux Arts and Victorian elements, inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin. Allard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture, Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters, and Ernest Bowdtich, a Boston engineer, landscape artist, and student of Frederic Law Olmsted, designed the grounds.

 

Vanderbilt insisted that The Breakers be made as fireproof as possible. Steel trusses support the masonry and exterior Indiana limestone blocks. The enormous heating plant was set beneath the caretaker’s cottage and joined to the house by a wide tunnel. The finished floors are of marble, tile, terrazzo, and mosaic.

 

The 250 foot by 120 foot dimensions of the five-story mansion are aligned symmetrically around a central Great Hall. Hunt based the Hall on the concept of rooms grouped around an open courtyard or cortile, but covered them as a concession to climate. He did, however, maintain the structured symmetry, with rooms of the first and second floors opening onto a 45-foot high central space. The walls of the Hall are made of carved Caen limestone from the coast of France and adorned with plaques of rare marbles ranging from the pink marble of Africa to the greens of Italian origin. Elaborately carved pilasters decorated with acorns and oak leaves support a massive carved and gilt cornice which surrounds a ceiling painted to depict a windswept sky. On the ceiling are four blue-green medallions bearing the acorn and oak leaf, a Vanderbilt family symbol representing strength and longevity.

 

A rounded bay projects from the South wing, accommodating the huge oval Music Room inside and overlooking the South Parterre. The ocean-facing East façade joins the north and south wings with a two-story arched loggia in the Palladian manner—the lower one with a vaulted mosaic ceiling and the upper painted to resemble canopies against the sky. The spandrels of the loggia arches are decorated with figures of the four seasons of the year. The wall between the Hall and the loggias is almost entirely of glass, affording a view of the ocean from inside.

 

The Main Entrance is approached through by 30-foot high wrought iron gateways, which are part of a 12-foot-high Genoese-style limestone and iron fence that borders the property on all but the ocean side. The gateway was crafted by the William Jackson Company and topped with elaborate scrollwork, including the acorn and oak leaf family symbol surrounding the initials of Cornelius Vanderbilt. A gravel drive leads to the large porte-cochére of the northwest facade. Flanking the entrance drive are four bronze lamp posts, decorated with molded figures executed by Henri Bonnard of New York, mounted on three-foot limestone pedestals with 4-globed bronze standards 13 feet high.

 

The "Cottage,", located between the side gate and the main house was used as a children's playhouse. A good example of Victorian architecture on a small scale, it was built by Robert Swain Peabody and John Goddard Stearns, the architects of the original Breakers House, whose Queen Anne Revival style elements were in keeping with the original design.

 

Cornelius Vanderbilt died from a cerebral hemorrhage caused from a second stroke in 1899 at the age of 56, leaving the Breakers to his wife, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt. She outlived her husband by 35 years and died at the age of 89 in 1934. In her will, The Breakers was given to her youngest daughter Gladys. An ardent supporter of The Preservation Society of Newport County, she opened The Breakers in 1948 to raise funds for the Society. In 1972, the Preservation Society purchased the house from her heirs. Although the mansion is owned by the Society, the original furnishings displayed throughout the house are still owned by the family.

 

The Breakers National Register #71000019 (1971)

Bellevue Avenue Historic District National Register #72000023 (1972)

Interstate 10 (I-10) is the major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. In the U.S. state of Texas, it runs east from Anthony, at the border with New Mexico, through El Paso, San Antonio and Houston to the border with Louisiana in Orange, Texas. At just under 879 miles (1,415 km), the stretch of Interstate 10 crossing Texas, maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, is the longest continuous untolled freeway under a single authority in North America, a title formerly held by Ontario's Highway 401. Mile marker 880 (and the corresponding exit number) near Orange are the highest numbered mile marker and exit on the Interstate Highway System or, for that matter, on any freeway in North America.

 

Texas alone contains more than a third of the interstate's entire length. El Paso, near the Texas-New Mexico state line, is 785 miles (1,263 km) from the western terminus of I-10 in Santa Monica, California, making it closer to Los Angeles than it is to Orange, Texas, 857 miles (1,379 km) away. Likewise, Orange, on the Texas–Louisiana state line, is only 789 miles (1,270 km) from the eastern terminus of I-10 in Jacksonville, Florida.

 

Leaving San Antonio, I-10 again passes I-410 and Loop 1604. I-10 is known as the 90th Infantry Division Memorial Highway on this stretch east of San Antonio. I-10 and US 90 continue their concurrency until they diverge in Seguin. They continue from there on to Houston nearly paralleling each other with short stints of overlaps along the route.

 

In Houston, from the western suburb of Katy to downtown, I-10 is known as the Katy Freeway. This section was widened in 2008 to as many as 26 total lanes, counting the six lanes of the access road, which are not limited-access and therefore technically not part of the freeway itself, but are directly adjacent. Between the West Beltway and the West Loop, the minimum lane count is 22 total lanes. In this section, the width is 24 lanes at multiple locations and up to 26 lanes east of Gessner Road (12 main lanes, 8 lanes of access roads, and 6 mid-freeway HOT/HOV lanes). From the Fort Bend county line to I-610, there is a minimum of four main lanes in each direction. The maximum number of undivided lanes at any point on the freeway is nine (though this includes one exit-only lane), in the eastbound direction approaching Antoine Drive; in the world, this is one of the widest sections of undivided highway in a single direction.The widest right-of-way, 556 ft (169 m), occurs at the Katy Freeway's intersection with Bunker Hill; at that point, the expansion plans called for six main lanes plus two toll lanes in each direction along with 10 lanes on the feeder/frontage roads. The actual striping after construction delineates 29 lanes including all 26 of the planned lanes plus an additional lane in each direction to enter or exit the toll lanes and one more turn lane on the eastbound feeder road.

 

Between I-610 and I-45 west of downtown, the Interstate contains at least five main lanes in each direction. Before 2008, this section had traditionally been the widest section of I-10 in the Houston area and the only one with a significant portion below grade. Starting in 2010, a project was started to widen the freeway, adding one extra main lane in each direction between Shepherd Drive and Taylor Street. In addition, the eastbound feeder road which ends at Studemont is being extended to Taylor Street. As I-10 travels through downtown, it junctions with I-45 and US 59, the future corridor of I-69 through Texas. Both interchanges feature left exits causing several lane shifts for through traffic. I-10 provides access to Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, and also runs through the campus of the University of Houston–Downtown.

 

The section east of downtown Houston is officially known as the "East Freeway," although it is widely known by locals as the Baytown East Freeway, or colloquially shortened to the Beast, due to a marketing push by Baytown, one of the largest cities in the Greater Houston Area.

 

In Beaumont, it is designated Eastex Freeway between both splits with US 69. Eastex is not to be confused with the designation for US 59 (Future I-69) in Houston.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_10_in_Texas

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

 

For periodical maintenance

If you would like to know little more about how my Strida is put on, please see followings:

 

Barewood:

www.flickr.com/photos/genuine_strida/5868915157/in/photos...

 

Comparison:

www.flickr.com/photos/genuine_strida/5869473250/in/photos...

 

Rubber splayed:

www.flickr.com/photos/genuine_strida/5956578142/in/photos...

106th Rescue Wing maintainers unfold the blades of an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter to prepare it for flight at Campo Grade, Brazil on August 21, 2022.

Airmen from the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing are participating in Exercise TÁPIO, a combined Brazilian and U.S. exercise taking place in Campo Grade, Brazil, Aug. 8-31, 2022. The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) sponsored joint exercise scenario involves irregular warfare against a paramilitary force. Participating U.S. Air Force personnel are conducting combat search and rescue and close air support operations alongside Brazilian forces to build partnerships and interoperability and increase partner nation capacity. The New York National Guard’s partner in the State Partnership Program is Brazil. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Maj. Michael O'Hagan, 106th Rescue Wing Public Affairs)

This one, probably partner of one "next door" preened itself (also for ages) on the next branch up.

Baddesley Clinton is not one the grandest of houses, nor is it filled with rare works of art, but having been owned by one family, the Ferrers, since the 16th century and maintained largely intact and original, it is a rare example of the average early-modern home of the lesser gentry. Unlike such mansions as nearby Coughton Court, Baddesley Clinton is relatively small, even cozy, and one can easily imagine the life of the people who lived here. It is best known for being the home of the Jesuit Henry Garnet for almost 14 years, and the existence of several priest hides conceived and built by Nicholas Owen.

 

The Clintons settled here in the thirteenth century, when it was called just Baddesley, and added their name to the place. They were responsible for the digging of the moat that you see above. It was eventually sold in 1438 to John Brome, a wealthy lawyer, and the Bromes built most of the east and west sides of the house.

 

John Brome was the Under Treasurer of England but a Lancastrian, and when Henry VI was deposed in 1461 by the Yorkist claimant Edward IV, Brome lost all of his court appointments. He later quarreled with John Herthill, Steward to Richard "the Kingmaker", Earl of Warwick, and Herthill murdered him in 1468 on the porch of the Whitefriars Church in London. Brome's second son, Nicholas, who inherited the estate, eventually avenged his father's murder by killing Herthill in 1471.

 

Nicholas Brome seems to have had a taste for violence. According to Henry Ferrers, a later owner of the house, it was soon after inheriting Baddesley Clinton that Nicholas 'slew the minister of Baddesley Church findinge him in his plor (parlour) chockinge his wife under ye chinne, and to expiatt these bloody offenses and crimes he built the steeple and raysed the church body ten foote higher". He was pardoned for this killing by both the King and the Pope. Nicholas seems also to have developed a taste for building, and is thought to have been responsible for the building of much of the earliest part of the house. Baddesley Clinton passed into the hands of the Ferrers family in 1517, through the marriage of Nicholas Brome's daughter, Constance, to Sir Edward Ferrers.

 

The most interesting of the Ferrers is Henry Ferrers (1549-1633), the great-grandson of Sir Edward Ferrers, and contemporary with the times of the Gunpowder Plot. He inherited the property in 1564, and lived through the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and James I, dying in the reign of Charles I. He carried out extensive building, including the wing that contains the Great Hall, as well as adding the Great Parlour above the existing entranceway. He also installed much oak paneling and mantels that are still there as well.

 

Henry Ferrers was an antiquarian, and spent a lifetime collecting historical information, much of which was later used by Sir William Dugdale in the 'Antiquities of Warwickshire'. This interest of his can be seen by the enormous amount of heraldic glass and devices throughout the house. He was trained in the law, and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1572. He may also have served a term as an MP for Cirencester in 1593.

 

After the death of Henry Ferrers, the fortunes of the Ferrers family fluctuated through periods of heavy taxation such as during the Civil War and in the early eighteenth century, followed by attempts by some generations to maintain and improve the property in better times. The last Ferrers in the direct male line, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884), was so poor that Lady Chatterton, the aunt of his wife Rebecca, and her husband, Edward Heneage Deering, had to come and live with him to share the expense. These two were only married because of a misunderstanding. It is said that Deering came to Lady Chatterly to ask permission to pay address to her niece, but she thought it was a proposal to her, and accepted. Deering, although she was old enough to be his mother, was too chivalrous to set the story straight!

 

The estate passed down through Marmion Edward Ferrer's nephew through several relatives, and it was Mr. Thomas Ferrers-Walker who eventually sold the house to the Government, after which it became part of the National Trust. The Ferrers Archive is kept at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

Henry Ferrers was also a devout Catholic, but a cautious one and was never convicted for recusancy. He must have been aware of the activities of the Vaux sisters, who rented the house from him in the 1590's in order to secretly shelter Father Henry Garnet and other priests, and to be able to conduct catholic services. Soon after they rented the house, Anne Vaux had Nicholas Owen build secret hiding places, including one created out of the sewer and the moat.

 

A spectacular raid on Baddesley in October 1591 was recorded both by Father John Gerard in his Autobiography of an Elizabethan, and also by Father Henry Garnet in a letter to his Jesuit superior, Aquaviva. Several priests, including Garnet and Gerard, as well as lay assistants had risen early and were preparing to leave the house, when it was surrounded and all the approach roads blocked by pursuviants. The stable-boys, knowing that so many horses saddled and ready to go would be suspicious, armed themselves with farm implements and blocked the pursuviants attempt at violent entry. This bought some time for those inside the house, as the pursuviants had to resort to requests, and led them to believe that the lady of the house had not yet arisen. Those outside had to wait patiently, albeit not quietly, while those inside were quickly hiding away the priests, Catholic vestments, and all other signs of the presence of a Catholic priest, including the overturning of their mattresses so that the pursuviants could not feel the warmth.

 

The priests stood in the hiding place in the moat, ankle-deep in cold water for over four hours while the pursuviants tore through the house, although their attempts at intimidation seemed to have far outweighed their skills in searching. Anne Vaux said "here was a searcher pounding the walls in unbelievable fury, there another shifting side-tables, turning over beds. Yet, when any of them touched with their hand or foot the actual place where some sacred object was hidden, he paid not the slightest attention to the most obvious evidence of a contrivance."

 

The searchers turned up nothing, and eventually left after being paid off by Anne Vaux with twelve gold pieces. As Gerard later said, "Yes, that is the pitiful lot of Catholics when men come with a warrant ... it is the Catholics, not the men who send them, who have to pay. As if it were not enough to suffer, they have to pay for their suffering."

 

You can still inspect these hiding places today, and we must say they are not for those who are claustrophobic or faint of heart. Until you actually see them, it is hard to imagine the cramped, damp, dark and tomb-like conditions these priests endured.

 

The first of these is a lath and plaster hutch in the roof above a closet off the bedroom in the gatehouse block. It measures six feet three inches by four feet, and is three feet nine inches high. It contains two wooden benches and is lined with fine hair-plaster.

 

In the corner of the kitchen, where a garderobe once existed, you can see through to the medieval drain where the hiding place used by Father Gerard and Father Garnet was located. At the time, this could only be accessed through the garderobe shaft in the floor of the Sacristy above. A hiding space beneath the floor of the Library was accessed through the fireplace in the Great Parlour, and can now be viewed from the Moat Room. It was in the Library Room that Nicholas Brome was said to have murdered the priest, and it is reputed to be haunted.

 

For an excellent account of the priest holes and the work of Nicholas Owen at Baddesley Clinton, the article Elizabethan Priest Holes : III - East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton, Hindlip by Michael Hodgetts, and published in Recusant History, is a must read.

 

The house itself consists almost entirely of building done by either the Bromes in the fifteenth century or by Henry Ferrers in the sixteenth, and although much repair and alteration work has been carried out inside the house, the panelling, fireplaces and heraldic glass throughout the house all date from the work of Henry Ferrers.

Originally quadrangular in shape, the property today consists of only three blocks, the east including the gatehouse and the Great Parlour, the south containing the Hall, and the west containing the kitchen. The gatehouse and kitchen wing are of grey sandstone, whereas the Hall, which was reconstructed in the 18th century, is of brick.

 

The crenellated gatehouse is one of the house's most interesting features. The lower part with the gun ports was built by Nicholas Brome in the late fifteenth century, and is thought originally to have had a drawbridge. The upper part was re-formed by Henry Ferrers to accommodate the Great Parlour. The brick bridge was built in the early eighteenth century, and the crenelations added in the nineteenth century. The massive carved oak door in the gatehouse leading through to the courtyard dates from Nicholas Brome.

 

The present owners are still undertaking restoration work to enable all the documented priest hides and trapdoors to be made available for viewing, this work includes part of the moat tunnel complex that is presently plugged in order to prevent midges from penetrating into the Sacristy and bedrooms

 

Baddesley Clinton, although still a private dwelling was sold to the Government and passed to the National Trust in 1980 and opened to the public in 1982.

 

The above was copied from "The gunpowder plot" website.

 

Great to place to visit. If only there had been some sun!

 

Seppeltsfield is more than just a place that is steeped in over 150 years of Australian wine history; this is a unique, living, breathing museum and probably the most historically important wine site in Australia

. The owners, Penfolds and then subsequently Southcorp are to be commended for not only leaving this site alone, but for wearing the cost of maintaining it. Since our visit, readers will know that Fosters now owns the operation. Reliable sources have informed me that no sooner was the ink dry on the deal the bean counters went to work seeing how they can best utilise this site. It is crucial that these accountants and business analysis not just look at a return on investment; if they have no social conscience and desecrate what is a national wine shrine that can never be replaced, they deserve, as a company, and as individuals to rot in hell.

   

Strong words indeed and this is no rant. Whilst many people will have tasted many of the fine Seppelt fortified wines, there is so much more to this place than what is found in the bottle. Yes, the bottles contents can be anything from good to the ultimate sensual wine experience, but it is what is behind the bottle that makes it so special and if Fosters screw with that, they will not only have raped the product, Fosters will have pillaged and plundered a unique part of our wine heritage that can never be replaced.

   

Our appointment was with the God Father and custodian of this unique enterprise, James Godfrey who is also known as the fortified wine maker but lets go back to the beginning.

   

Hop in the time machine and head back to 1851. It took forward thinking and guts to leave your homeland and venture off into the unknown in those times; even if things were not exactly rosy in the “old country”. Joseph Seppelt, an immigrant from Poland, was just such a person; he purchased land in the Barossa, named it after himself, and decided to grow a few grapes. In those times, families had to be as self sufficient as possible. None of this popping down to the supermarket for a few spuds and bit of rump steak; you wanted it and you either had to grow it, or barter for it, with your own produce, so old Joseph had a mixed farm. At that time, there wasn’t any such thing as “the pill” or synthetic condoms, so old Joe prolifically produced more than just grapes.

   

Now young Benno (with a name like that, it looks like the uniquely Australian way of bastardising and changing names started early ) was a pretty smart chip of the old block and wound up being “the main man” of the family. By 1878 he was doing his own thing, and had a radical idea. He went to the Mrs and said, “Hay Mrs S, we have mucho barrels of good port every year; why don’t we put down a barrel every year and leave it for a 100 years?”

   

Many people think about putting down a few bottles for their kids 21st but I told you Benno was a forward thinker like his old man; why settle for 21 years when you are dealing with top port? Much better to think long term, (they not worried about maximising quarterly stock market yields in those days;) let the great, great, great grandkids have something incredibly special to celebrate their family heritage.

   

And so a tradition was born. As time went on, it quickly became apparent that one barrel would not be enough, they needed extra material for topping up purposes so three barrels became the norm, at the end of 100 years there is only the one barrel left, the other two have replace thed evaporation from the "master" barrel, no wonder it has a syrupy consistency and concentrated flavour. Like all great traditions, it is continued today, long after the last family member has left the firm.

   

Benno was a pretty eccentric dude, none of your baseball caps, or even an Akubra for this guy. Like the American Express card of today, legend has it that Benno never left home without “it”; it being a violin and an umbrella. Even stranger, when you consider that he used to get around the place on the white horse, what a sight he would be galloping off to do the weekly shopping.

   

Benno’s eccentricity didn't end there. Towards the end of the 18th century, there was a severe economic depression and Benno’s philanthropy came to the fore. Workers mightn't have had the unions to stand up for them in those days, but those working for Seppelt didn't need one; old Benno didn't lay off a single worker. Workers decided that a good way of prettying the joint up was to plant a few trees (there were even greenies back then,) and they propagated the date palm seeds from the two trees next to the Homestead. By way of saying thanks, over a period of time, two trees became two thousand. If you visit Seppeltsfield, you will see most of them are still there today.

     

But Seppelt's is so much more than 100 year old port and date palm trees. Once we met James Godfrey and exchanged pleasantries, we hung a left out of the office, walked past the original Seppelt family home; then we were surrounded by elm trees and a rainforest like garden. We proceeded over the small bridge that spans the creek; up the hill, and finally the padlocks were removed from the huge, old, sliding winery door. If you ever drive past the south side of Seppeltsfield, you will notice a large, (frankly bloody ugly) old structure, painted in some revolting shade of “heritage yellow” that has been built on terraced levels. The design of this building is no accident and was a very practical and cunning bit of design work, especially so when you consider how long ago it was built.

   

Built way before there were modern fandangled conveniences like electricity, this working winery was designed to take advantage of the technology of the time, gravity, and when available, a bit of steam power and chain drives. Although the winery is no longer used, it could become fully functional again with ease, all the basic structure is there, and only some of the furnishings would be required.

Mustafa İsmet İnönü (Turkish pronunciation: [isˈmet ˈinœny]; 23 September 1886 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman who served as the second president of Turkey from November 11, 1938, to May 22 1950, and as its prime minister three times: from 1923 to 1924, 1925 to 1937, and 1961 to 1965.

 

İnönü is acknowledged by many as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's right-hand man, with their friendship going back to the Caucasus campaign. In the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, he served as the first chief of the General Staff from 1922 to 1924 for the regular Turkish army, during which he commanded forces during the First and Second Battles of İnönü. Atatürk bestowed İsmet with the surname İnönü, the site of the battles, when the 1934 Surname Law was adopted. He was also chief negotiator in the Mudanya and Lausanne conferences for the Ankara government, successfully negotiating away the Sevre treaty for the Treaty of Lausanne. As his prime minister for most of his presidency, İnönü executed many of Atatürk's modernizing and nationalist reforms. İnönü gave the orders to carry out the Zilan Massacre.

 

İnönü succeeded Atatürk as president of Turkey after his death in 1938 and was granted the official title of Millî Şef ("National Chief" by the parliament. As president and chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), İnönü initially continued Turkey's one party state. Kemalist style programs continued to make great strides in education by supporting projects such as Village Institutes. His governments implemented notably heavy statist economic policies. The Hatay State was annexed in 1939, and Turkey was able to maintain an armed neutrality during World War II, joining the Allied powers only three months before the end of the European Theater. The Turkish Straits crisis prompted İnönü to build closer ties with the Western powers, with the country eventually joining NATO in 1952, though by then he was no longer president.

 

Factionalism between statists and liberals in the CHP led to the creation of the Democrat Party in 1946. İnönü held the first multiparty elections in the Republic's history that year, beginning Turkey's multiparty period. 1950 saw a peaceful transfer of power to the Democrats when the CHP suffered defeat in the elections. For ten years, İnönü served as the leader of the opposition before returning to power as prime minister following the 1961 election, held after the 1960 coup-d'état. The 1960s saw İnönü reinvent the CHP as a political party, which was "Left of Center" as a new party cadre led by Bülent Ecevit became more influential. İnönü remained leader of the CHP until 1972, when he was defeated by Ecevit in a leadership contest. He died on December 25, 1973, of a heart attack, at the age of 89. He is interred opposite to Atatürk's mausoleum at Anıtkabir in Ankara.

 

İsmet İnönü (born Mustafa İsmet) was born in 1886 in Smyrna (İzmir) in the Aidin Vilayet to Hacı Reşit and Cevriye (later Cevriye Temelli). Hacı Reşit was retired after serving as director of the First Examinant Department of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the War Ministry (Harbiye Nezareti Muhakemat Dairesi Birinci Mümeyyizliği). A member of the Kürümoğlu family of Bitlis, İnönü's father was born in Malatya. According to its members studying the ancestral background of the family, Kürümoğlus were of Turkish origin, while secondary sources refer to the family as of Kurdish descent. His mother was the daughter of Müderris Hasan Efendi, who belonged to the ulem and was a member of the Turkish family of Razgrad (present-day Bulgaria). In 1933 he visited Razgrad since the city's Turkish cemetery was attacked. İsmet was the family's second child; he had three brothers, including the family's first child, Ahmet Midhat, two younger brothers, Hasan Rıza and Hayri (Temelli), as well as a sister Seniha (Otakan). Due to his father's assignments, the family moved from one city to another.

 

İnönü completed his primary education in Sivas and graduated from Sivas Military Junior High School (Sivas Askerî Rüştiyesi) in 1894. He then studied at the Sivas School for Civil Servants (Sivas Mülkiye İdadisi) for a year. He graduated from the Imperial School of Military Engineering in 1904 as a lieutenant gunnery officer and entered the Military Academy to graduate as a first-rank staff captain on September 26, 1906. İnönü started his duty in the Second Army based in Adrianople (Edirne) on October 2, 1906, in the 3rd Battery Command of the 8th Field Artillery Regiment. As part of his platoon officer staff internship, he gave lessons in military strategy and artillery. Captain İsmet was also part of the Ottoman–Bulgarian commissions.

 

Through Ali Fethi (Okyar), he briefly joined the Committee of Union and Progress in 1907, which wished to overthrow Sultan Abdul Hamid II. During the 31 March Incident, he was on the staff of the Second Cavalry Division, which was mobilized to join the Action Army and marched on Constantinople (İstanbul) to depose Abdul Hamid II. Returning to Adrianople following the suppression of the mutiny, İnönü left the committee in the summer of 1909.

 

He won his first military victory by suppressing Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamiddin's revolt in Yemen. İsmet eventually became chief of staff of the force sent to suppress the rebellion and personally negotiated with Imam Yahya in Kaffet-ül-Uzer to bring Yemen back into the empire. For this, he was promoted to the rank of major. He returned to Constantinople in March 1913 to defend the capital from Bulgarian attack during the First Balkan War. İnönü was part of the Turkish delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Constantinople with the Bulgarians as a military adviser. He held a close relationship with Enver Pasha and played an active role in the reformation of the army.

 

İnönü began climbing the ranks during World War I, becoming lieutenant colonel on November 29, 1914, and then being appointed as the First Branch Manager of the General Headquarters on December 2. He was appointed chief of staff of the Second Army on October 9, 1915, and was promoted to the rank of colonel on December 14 December 1915.

 

Inönü married Emine Mevhibe Hanim on April 13, 1917, when he was 31 and she was only 20 (for she was more than ten years his junior whilst he was more than ten years her senior), three weeks before he left for the front to return home only after the conclusion of the Armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918.[13] Of which she later bore his three sons and one daughter. He began working with Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) Pasha as a corps commander on the Caucasian Front. İnönü was appointed to the IV Corps Command on January 12, 1917, upon the recommendation of Atatürk. He was recalled to Constantinople after a while and returned to take part as a corps commander of the Seventh Army. On May 1, he was appointed to command XX Corps on the Palestine Front, and then III Corps on June 20. He once again came into contact with Atatürk when he assumed command of the Seventh Army. İnönü's forces received the brunt of Edmond Allenby's attack on Beersheba that ended the stalemate on the Sinai front. He was wounded in the Battle of Megiddo and was sent back to Constantinople, where he held various administrative positions in the War Ministry during the armistice period.

 

After the military occupation of Constantinople on March 16, 1920, İnönü decided to escape to Anatolia to join the Ankara government. He and his chief of staff, Major Saffet (Arıkan) escaped Maltepe in the evening of March 19 and arrived in Ankara on April 9. He joined the Grand National Assembly (GNA), which was opened on April 23, 1920, as a deputy of Edirne. Like many others in the Turkish National Movement, he was sentenced to death in absentia by the Ottoman government on June 6, 1920. In May 1920, he was appointed chief of the general staff. The next year, he was appointed commander of the Western Front of the Army of the GNA, a position in which he remained during the Turkish War of Independence. He was promoted to the rank of Mirliva (to that extent, Pasha) after winning the First and Second Battle of İnönü. When the 1934 Surname Law was adopted Atatürk bestowed İsmet Pasha with the surname İnönü, where the battles took place.

 

İnönü was replaced by Mustafa Fevzi Pasha (Çakmak), who was also the prime minister and minister of defense at the time, as the chief of staff after the Turkish forces lost major battles against the advancing Greek Army in July 1921, as a result of which the cities of Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir were temporarily lost. During the war, İnönü's infant son İzzet died before his victory in Sakarya and this news was only delivered to him in the spring of 1922. His wife, Emine Mevhibe hid the news and the severity of his son's sickness due to the intensity of the war. He participated as a staff officer (with the rank Brigadier General) in the later battles, including Dumlupınar.

 

Chief negotiator in Mudanya and Lausanne

See also: Armistice of Mudanya and Treaty of Lausanne

After the War of Independence was won, İnönü was appointed as the chief negotiator of the Turkish delegation, both for the Armistice of Mudanya and for the Treaty of Lausanne.

 

The Lausanne conference convened in late 1922 to settle the terms of a new treaty that would take the place of the Treaty of Sèvres. İnönü became famous for his stubborn resolve in determining the position of Ankara as the legitimate, sovereign government of Turkey. After delivering his position, İsmet turned off his hearing aid during the speeches of British foreign secretary Lord Curzon. When Curzon had finished, İnönü reiterated his position as if Curzon had never said a word.

 

İsmet İnönü served as the prime minister of Turkey throughout Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's presidency, stepping down as prime minister for three months during Fethi Okyar's premiership and in the last year of Atatürk's presidency when he was replaced by Celal Bayar. İnönü therefore helped to execute most of Atatürk's reformist programs. It was his suggestion to make Ankara the capital of Turkey, which was approved by the parliament. İnönü was also an important factor in the proclamation of the Republic and the abolition of the Caliphate and Evkaf Ministry. He resigned from the premiership for health reasons on November 22, 1924 for Fethi Okyar, but since Okyar lost a vote of confidence from parliament due to the Sheikh Said rebellion, İnönü returned to the prime ministry.

 

İnönü immediately banned all opposition parties (including the Progressive Republican Party) and the press. Independence Tribunals were reestablished to prosecute the Kurdish rebels. In 1926, it allegedly came out that former members of the CUP attempted to assassinate Atatürk in the İzmir plot, which resulted in the remaining CUP leaders being executed. İnönü retired his military command in 1927.

 

While dealing with the Sheikh Said revolt, İnönü proclaimed a Turkish nationalist policy and encouraged the Turkification of the non-Turkish population. Following the suppression of the Sheikh Said rebellion, he presided over the Reform Council for the East, which prepared the Report for Reform in the East, which recommended impede the establishment of a Kurdish elite, forbid non-Turkish languages, and create regional administrative units called Inspectorates-General, which were to be governed by martial law. He stated the following in regards to the Kurds; "We're frankly nationalists, and nationalism is our only factor of cohesion. Before the Turkish majority, other elements had no kind of influence. At any price, we must turkify the inhabitants of our land, and we will annihilate those who oppose." Following this report, three Inspectorates-General were established in the Kurdish areas, which comprise several provinces. On the direct order of İnönü, the Zilan massacre of thousands of Kurdish civilians was perpetrated by the Turkish Land Forces in the Zilan Valley of Van Province on July 12 and 13, 1930, during the Ararat rebellion. Nation building was codified into law when a new settlement regime was enacted in 1934, resettling Albanians, Abkhazians, Circassians, and Kurds in new areas in order to create a homogeneous Turkish state.

 

İnönü was responsible for most of the reformist legislation promulgated during Turkey's one party period. The Hat Law and the closure of Dervish lodges were enacted in 1925; in 1928, the Turkish alphabet switched to being written with Latin characters, and in 1934, titles such as Efendi, Bey, and Pasha were abolished; and certain articles of religious clothing were banned, though İnönü was and still is popularly known as İsmet Pasha. 1934 was also the year that the Surname Law was adopted, with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk bestowing İsmet with the surname İnönü, the location where İsmet won the battles against the Greek army in 1921. He was also a proponent of replacing foreign loan words with "Pure Turkish" words.

 

İnönü managed the economy with heavy-handed government intervention, especially during the Great Depression, by implementing an economic plan inspired by the Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. In doing so, he took much private property under government control. Due to his efforts, to this day, more than 70% of land in Turkey is still owned by the state.

 

Desiring a more liberal economic system, Atatürk dissolved the government of İnönü in 1937 and appointed Celâl Bayar, the founder of the first Turkish commercial bank, Türkiye İş Bankası, as prime minister, thus beginning a decades long rivalry between Bayar and İnönü.

 

After the death of Atatürk on November 10, 1938, İnönü was viewed as the most appropriate candidate to succeed him and was unanimously elected the second president of the Republic of Turkey and leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP). He attempted to build himself a cult of personality by receiving the official title of Millî Şef, i.e., "National Chief".

 

One of his first actions was to annex in 1939 the Hatay State, which declared independence from French Syria. İnönü also wished to move on from one-party rule by taking incremental steps to multiparty politics. He hoped to accomplish this by establishing the Independent Group as a force of opposition in the parliament, but they fell short of expectations under wartime conditions. İnönü dismissed Bayar's government because of differences between the two on economic policy in 1939. İnönü was an avowed statist, while Bayar wished for a more liberal economy. Turkey's early industrialization accelerated under İnönü but the onset of World War II disrupted economic growth.

 

Much reform in education was accomplished during İnönü's presidency through the efforts of Hasan Âli Yücel, who was minister of education throughout İnönü's governments. 1940 saw the establishment of the Village Institutes, in which well-performing students from the country were selected to train as teachers and return to their hometown to run community development programs.

 

World War II broke out in the first year of his presidency, and both the Allies and the Axis pressured İnönü to bring Turkey into the war on their side. The Germans sent Franz von Papen to Ankara in April 1939, while the British sent Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen and the French René Massigli. On April 23, 1939, Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu told Knatchbull-Hugessen of his nation's fears of Italian claims to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum and German control of the Balkans and suggested an Anglo-Soviet-Turkish alliance as the best way of countering the Axis. In May 1939, during the visit of Maxime Weygand to Turkey, İnönü told the French Ambassador René Massigli that he believed that the best way of stopping Germany was an alliance of Turkey, the Soviet Union, France and Britain; that if such an alliance came into being, the Turks would allow Soviet ground and air forces onto their soil; and that he wanted a major programme of French military aid to modernize the Turkish armed forces.

 

The signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939, drew Turkey away from the Allies; the Turks always believed that it was essential to have the Soviet Union as an ally to counter Germany, and thus the signing of the German-Soviet pact undercut completely the assumptions behind Turkish security policy. With the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, İnönü chose to be neutral in World War II as taking on Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time would be too much for Turkey, though he signed a tripartite treaty of alliance with Britain and France on October 19, 1939, obligating Turkey's entry into the war if fighting spread to the Mediterranean. However, with France's defeat in June 1940 İnönü abandoned the pro-Allied neutrality that he had followed since the beginning of the war. A major embarrassment for the Turks occurred in July 1940 when the Germans captured and published documents from the Quai d'Orsay in Paris showing the Turks were aware of Operation Pike—as the Anglo-French plan in the winter of 1939–40 to bomb the oil fields in the Soviet Union from Turkey was codenamed—which was intended by Berlin to worsen relations between Ankara and Moscow. In turn, worsening relations between the Soviet Union and Turkey were intended to drive Turkey into the arms of the Reich. After the publication of the French documents relating to Operation Pike, İnönü pulled out of the tripartide pact signed with Britain and France and signed the German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship and the Clodius Agreement, which placed Turkey within the German economic sphere of influence, but İnönü went no further towards the Axis.

 

In the first half of 1941, Germany, which was intent on invading the Soviet Union, went out of its way to improve relations with Turkey as the Reich hoped for benevolent Turkish neutrality when the German-Soviet war began. At the same time, the British had great hopes in the spring of 1941 when they dispatched an expeditionary force to Greece that İnönü could be persuaded to enter the war on the Allied side as the British leadership had high hopes of creating a Balkan front that would tie down German forces, which thus led to a major British diplomatic offensive with Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden visiting Ankara several times to meet with İnönü. İnönü always told Eden that the Turks would not join the British forces in Greece, and the Turks would only enter the war if Germany attacked Turkey. For his part, Papen offered İnönü parts of Greece if Turkey were to enter the war on the Axis side, an offer İnönü declined. In May 1941 when the Germans dispatched an expeditionary force to Iraq to fight against the British, İnönü refused Papen's request that the German forces be allowed transit rights to Iraq. Another attempt by Hitler to woo Turkey came in February 1943, when Talaat Pasha's remains were returned to Turkey for a state burial.

 

Internal opposition to Turkish neutrality came from ultra-nationalist circles and factions of the military that wished to incorporate the Turkic-populated areas of the Soviet Union by allying with Germany. This almost erupted into a coup d'état against the government. Leading pan-Turkists including Alparslan Türkeş, Nihal Atsız, and Şaik Gökyay were arrested and sentenced time in prison in the Racism-Turanism trials.

 

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill traveled to Ankara in January 1943 for a conference with President İnönu to urge Turkey's entry into the war on the allied side. Churchill met secretly with İnönü inside a railroad car at the Yenice Station near Adana. By 4–6 December 1943, İnönü felt confident enough about the outcome of the war that he met openly with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference. Until 1941, both Roosevelt and Churchill thought that Turkey's continued neutrality would serve the interests of the Allies by blocking the Axis from reaching the strategic oil reserves of the Middle East. But the early victories of the Axis up to the end of 1942 caused Roosevelt and Churchill to re-evaluate possible Turkish participation in the war on the side of the Allies. Turkey had maintained a decently-sized army and air force throughout the war, and Churchill wanted the Turks to open a new front in the Balkans. Roosevelt, on the other hand, still believed that a Turkish attack would be too risky and an eventual Turkish failure would have disastrous effects for the Allies.

 

İnönü knew very well the hardships that his country had suffered during decades of incessant war between 1908 and 1922 and was determined to keep Turkey out of another war as long as he could. The young Turkish Republic was still re-building, recovering from the losses due to earlier wars, and lacked any modern weapons and the infrastructure to enter a war to be fought along and possibly within its borders. İnönü based his neutrality policy during the Second World War on the premise that Western Allies and the Soviet Union would sooner or later have a falling out after the war. Thus, İnönu wanted assurances on financial and military aid for Turkey, as well as a guarantee that the United States and the United Kingdom would stand beside Turkey in the event of a Soviet invasion of the Turkish Straits after the war. In August 1944, İnönü broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, and on January 5, 1945, İnönü severed diplomatic relations with Japan. Shortly afterwards, İnönü allowed Allied shipping to use the Turkish Straits to send supplies to the Soviet Union, and on February 25, 1945, he declared war on Germany and Japan. For this Turkey became a founding member of the United Nations.

 

The post-war tensions and arguments surrounding the Turkish Straits would come to be known as the Turkish Straits crisis. The fear of Soviet invasion and Joseph Stalin's unconcealed desire for Soviet military bases in the Turkish Straits eventually caused Turkey to give up its principle of neutrality in foreign relations and join NATO in February 1952.

 

Domestic policy

Maintaining an armed neutrality proved to be disruptive for the young republic. The country existed in a practical state of war throughout the Second World War: military production was prioritized at the expense of peacetime goods, rationing and curfews were implemented, and high taxes were put in place, causing severe economic hardship for many. One such tax was the Wealth Tax (Varlık Vergisi), a discriminatory tax that demanded very high one-time payments from Turkey's non-Muslim minorities. This tax is seen by many to be a continuation of the Jizya tax paid by dhimmis during Ottoman times, or Millî İktisat (National Economy) economic policy implemented by the Committee of Union and Progress regime three decades ago. It was only repealed in 1944 under American and British pressure.

 

A famous story of İnönü happened in a meeting in Bursa for the 1969 general elections. A young man yelled at him, "You let us go without food!" İnönü replied to him by saying, "Yes, I let you go without food, but I did not let you become fatherless," implying the death of millions of people from both sides of World War II.

 

For the Kemalists there was always a desire for Turkey to develop into a democracy. Before the Independent Group, Atatürk experimented with opposition through the Liberal Republican Party, which lasted three months before it had to be shut down when reactionaries threatened to hijack the party. In an opening speech to the Grand National Assembly on November 1, 1945, İnönü openly expressed the country's need for an opposition party. He welcomed Celal Bayar establishing the Democrat Party (DP), which separated from the CHP. However, due to the anti-Communist hysteria brought on by the new Soviet threat, new leftist parties were swiftly banned, and rural development initiatives such as the Village Institutes and People's Rooms were closed. Even with such pressure on the left, İnönü established the Ministry of Labour in 1945 and signed into law important protections for workers. Universities were given autonomy, and İnönü's title of "unchangeable chairman" of CHP was abolished.

 

İnönü allowed for Turkey's first multiparty elections to be held in 1946; however, the elections were infamously not free and fair; voting was carried out under the gaze of onlookers who could determine which voters had voted for which parties, and secrecy prevailed as to the subsequent counting of votes. Instead of inviting Şükrü Saraçoğlu to form another government, he assigned CHP hardliner Recep Peker to the task, who contributed to a polarizing atmosphere in the parliament. İnönü had to act as a mediator several times between Peker and Bayar, who threatened to have the DP walk from parliament if they didn't have some of their demands met, such as ensuring judicial review, secret ballots, and public counting for elections. On 12 July 1947 İsmet İnönü gave a speech broadcast on radio and in newspapers that he would stand equal distance from the government and opposition, prompting Peker's resignation.

 

Free and fair national elections had to wait until 1950, and on that occasion, İnönü's government was defeated. In the 1950 election campaign, the leading figures of the Democrat Party used the slogan "Geldi İsmet, kesildi kısmet" ("İsmet arrived, [our] fortune left"). CHP lost the election with 41% of the vote against DP's 55%, but due to the winner-takes-all electoral system, DP received 85% of the seats in parliament. İnönü presided over the peaceful transfer of power to the DP leaders, Bayar and Adnan Menderes. Bayar would serve as Turkey's third president, and Menderes would be its first prime minister not from the CHP.

 

For ten years, İnönü served as the leader of the opposition. In opposition, the CHP established its youth and women's branches. On June 22 June 1953, the establishment of trade unions and vocational chambers was proposed, and the right to strike for workers was added to the party program. The CHP formed an electoral alliance with the Republican Nation Party and Liberty party for the 1957 election, which was blocked by the DP government.

 

In the lead-up to the elections prepared for 1960, İnönü and CHP members faced regular harassment from the authorities and DP supporters, to the point where he was almost lynched several times. In 1958, the DP mayor of Zile declared martial law and mobilized the gendarmerie to prevent İnönü from conducting a rally in the city; a similar event happened in the city of Çankırı. In 1959, İnönü began a campaign tour that followed the same path he took thirty years ago as a Pasha from Uşak to İzmir and ended in victory for the Turkish nationalists. The DP minister of interior refused to promise protection to him. In Uşak, a crowd blocked İnönü from going to his podium, and he was hit in the head with a stone. Following his "Great Offensive," he flew to Istanbul, where he was almost lynched by a DP-organized mob on the way to Topkapı Palace. He was also banned from speaking in rallies in Kayseri and Yeşilhisar.

 

İnönü was banned from 12 sessions of parliament. This coincided an authoritarian turn of the Democrat Party, which culminated in a military coup.

 

The Turkish Armed Forces overthrew the government as a result of the military coup on 27 May 1960. After one year of junta rule in which the Democrat Party was banned and its top leaders executed in the Yassıada Trials, elections were held once the military returned to their barracks. İnönü returned to power as Prime Minister after the 1961 election, in which the CHP won the election. Right-wing parties have since continuously attacked İnönü and the CHP for their perceived involvement in the hanging of Prime minister Menderes, even though İnönü advocated for Menderes' pardoning.

 

İnönü's governments were defined by an effort to deescalate tensions between radical forces in the Turkish army wishing for extended junta rule and former Democrats that wished for amnesty. İnönü's CHP did not gain enough seats in the legislature to win a majority in the elections, so in an effort to create reconciliation, he formed coalition governments with the neo-Democrat Justice Party the New Turkey Party and the Republican Villagers Nation Party until 1965. Forming coalitions with DP successor parties, however, provoked radical officers into action. Colonel Talat Aydemir twice attempted to overthrow the government in 1962 and 1963 Turkish coup d'etat attempt. Aydemir was later executed for conducting both coups. Aydemir's 1962 coup had the most potential to succeed when İnönü, President Cemal Gürsel and Chief of Staff Cevdet Sunay were held up in Çankaya Mansion by the putschists. Aydemir decided to let the group go, which foiled the coup.

 

While in coalition with the far-right Republican Villagers Nation Party, İnönü renounced the Greco-Turkish Treaty of Friendship of 1930 and took actions against the Greek minority. The Turkish government also strictly enforced a long-overlooked law barring Greek nationals from 30 professions and occupations; for example, Greeks could not be doctors, nurses, architects, shoemakers, tailors, plumbers, cabaret singers, ironsmiths, cooks, tourist guides, etc., and 50,000 more Greeks were deported. These actions were taken because of the growing anti-Greek sentiment in Turkey after the ethnic conflict in Cyprus flared up again. With an invasion of the island imminent, American President Lyndon Johnson sent a memorandum to İnönü, effectively vetoing Turkish intervention. A subsequent meeting at the White House between İnönü and Johnson on June 22, 1964, meant Cyprus' status quo continued for another ten years. An event a couple years earlier also strained the otherwise amicable relationship İnönü held with Washington, namely the withdrawal of the nuclear-armed PGM-19 Jupiter MRBMs briefly stationed in Turkey, which was undertaken in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. While Washington withdrew the MRBMs, some B61 nuclear bombs are still stored in İncirlik Air Base.

 

İnönü's governments established the National Security Council, Turkish Statistical Institute, and Turkey's leading research institute, TÜBİTAK. Turkey signed the Ankara agreement, the first treaty of cooperation with the European Economic Community, and also increased ties with Iran and Pakistan. The army was modernized, and the National Intelligence Organization was founded. İnönü was instrumental in establishing CHP as "Left of Center" on the political spectrum as a new left-wing party cadre led by his protégé Bülent Ecevit became more influential. İnönü survived an assassination attempt from a Menderes supporter in 1964.

 

İnönü returned to the opposition after losing both the 1965 and 1969 general elections to a much younger man, Justice Party leader Süleyman Demirel. He remained leader of the CHP until 1972, when an interparty crisis over his endorsement of the 1971 military memorandum led to his defeat by Ecevit in the 5th extraordinary CHP convention. This was the first overthrow of a party leader in a leadership contest in the Republic's history. İnönü left his party and resigned his parliamentarianship afterward. Being a former president he was a member of the Senate in the last year of his life.

 

On December 25, 1973, İsmet İnönü died of a heart attack at the age of 87. The parliament declared national mourning until his burial. He was interred at Anıtkabir opposite Atatürk's mausoleum, on December 28. Following the 1980 coup, Kenan Evren transferred twelve graves from Anıtkabir, but kept İnönü's in place. İnönü's tomb took its present shape in January 1997.

 

Sinta (Greek: Σίντα; Turkish: İnönü or Sinde) is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus. The village was recorded as early as the early 13th century in papal documents.

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis". Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

Maintaining secure communications within a UN peacekeeping mission is an operational necessity. While it may look antiquated by today’s standards, the telephone exchange used by the Signal Corps of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) was considered high-tech back in 1973.

1 April 1973

Credit: UN Photo

 

Elena helps her student Ashley maintain good form in class

 

Created on the 9:15 AM train to work and inspired further by a pleasant conversation with a fellow (self-taught) artist at the Metra LaSalle station on Sat. Oct. 3

 

Prismacolor Premier watercolor colored pencils, Prismacolor Ebony graphite drawing pencil, Prismacolor illustration markers, Prismacolor double-ended art marker, Prismacolor Artgum eraser, Prismacolor Premier pencil sharpener

Blick Studios acid-free drawing pad

8 x 10

2015

Hippy Hollow (clothing-optional beach) in Austin, TX

Joe Palca, Science Correspondent, NPR, USA speaking during the Session "Maintaining Innovation" at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 20, 2017. .Copyright by World Economic Forum / Manuel Lopez

Maintaining the trackage in the Powder River Basin

Durga

------

 

In Hinduism, Durga one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress; is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having ten arms, riding a lion or a tiger, carrying weapons and a lotus flower, maintaining a meditative smile, and practising mudras, or symbolic hand gestures.

 

An embodiment of creative feminine force (Shakti), Durga exists in a state of tantrya (independence from the universe and anything/anybody else, i.e., self-sufficiency) and fierce compassion. Kali is considered by Hindus to be an aspect of Durga. Durga is also the mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya. She is thus considered the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Shiva's wife, goddess Parvati. Durga manifests fearlessness and patience, and never loses her sense of humor, even during spiritual battles of epic proportion.

 

The word Shakti means divine feminine energy/force/power, and Durga is the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother. Other incarnations include Annapurna and Karunamayi. Durga's darker aspect Kali is represented as the consort of the god Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing.

Durga Slays Mahishasura, Mahabalipuram sculpture.

 

As a goddess, Durga's feminine power contains the energies of the gods. Each of her weapons was given to her by various gods: Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandalu, Kuber's Ratnahar, etc.

 

According to a narrative in the Devi Mahatmya story of the Markandeya Purana text, Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight an asura (an inhuman force/demon) named Mahishasura. He had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds, and he could not be defeated by any man or god, anywhere. The gods went to Brahma, who had given Mahishasura the power not to be defeated by a man. Brahma could do nothing. They made Brahma their leader and went to Vaikuntha — the place where Vishnu lay on Ananta Naag. They found both Vishnu and Shiva, and Brahma eloquently related the reign of terror Mahishasur had unleashed on the three worlds. Hearing this Vishnu, Shiva and all of the gods became very angry and beams of fierce light emerged from their bodies. The blinding sea of light met at the Ashram of a priest named Katyan. The goddess Durga took the name Katyaayani from the priest and emerged from the sea of light. She introduced herself in the language of the Rig-Veda, saying she was the form of the supreme Brahman who had created all the gods. Now she had come to fight the demon to save the gods. They did not create her; it was her lila that she emerged from their combined energy. The gods were blessed with her compassion.

 

It is said that upon initially encountering Durga, Mahishasura underestimated her, thinking: "How can a woman kill me, Mahishasur — the one who has defeated the trinity of gods?" However, Durga roared with laughter, which caused an earthquake which made Mahishasur aware of her powers.

 

And the terrible Mahishasur rampaged against her, changing forms many times. First he was a buffalo demon, and she defeated him with her sword. Then he changed forms and became an elephant that tied up the goddess's lion and began to pull it towards him. The goddess cut off his trunk with her sword. The demon Mahishasur continued his terrorizing, taking the form of a lion, and then the form of a man, but both of them were gracefully slain by Durga.

 

Then Mahishasur began attacking once more, starting to take the form of a buffalo again. The patient goddess became very angry, and as she sipped divine wine from a cup she smiled and proclaimed to Mahishasur in a colorful tone — "Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I will kill you after drinking this, the gods themselves will roar with delight".[cite this quote] When Mahashaur had half emerged into his buffalo form, he was paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then resounded with laughter before cutting Mahishasur's head down with her sword.

 

Thus Durga slew Mahishasur, thus is the power of the fierce compassion of Durga. Hence, Mata Durga is also known as Mahishasurmardhini — the slayer of Mahishasur. According to one legend, the goddess Durga created an army to fight against the forces of the demon-king Mahishasur, who was terrorizing Heaven and Earth. After ten days of fighting, Durga and her army defeated Mahishasur and killed him. As a reward for their service, Durga bestowed upon her army the knowledge of jewelry-making. Ever since, the Sonara community has been involved in the jewelry profession [3].

 

The goddess as Mahisasuramardhini appears quite early in Indian art. The Archaeological Museum in Matura has several statues on display including a 6-armed Kushana period Mahisasuramardhini that depicts her pressing down the buffalo with her lower hands [4]. A Nagar plaque from the first century BC - first century AD depicts a 4-armed Mahisamardhini accompanied by a lion. But it is in the Gupta period that we see the finest representations of Mahisasuramardhini (2-, 4-, 6-, and at Udayagiri, 12-armed). The spear and trident are her most common weapons. a Mamallapuram relief shows the goddess with 8 arms riding her lion subduing a bufalo-faced demon (as contrasted with a buffalo demon); a variation also seen at Ellora. In later sculptures (post-seventh Century), sculptures show the goddess having decapitated the buffalo demon

 

Durga Puja

----------

 

Durga puja is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashthi , Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Bijoya Dashami. The dates of Durga Puja celebrations are set according to the traditional Hindu calendar and the fortnight corresponding to the festival is called Devi Paksha and is ended on Kojagori Lokkhi Puja

 

Durga Puja is widely celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tripura where it is a five-day annual holiday.In West Bengal and Tripura which has majority of Bengali Hindus it is the Biggest festival of the year. Not only is it the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout the State, but it is also the most significant socio-cultural event in Bengali society. Apart from eastern India, Durga Puja is also celebrated in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir, Karnataka and Kerala. Durga Puja is also celebrated as a major festival in Nepal and in Bangladesh where 10% population are Hindu. Nowadays, many diaspora Bengali cultural organizations arrange for Durgotsab in countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Singapore and Kuwait, among others. In 2006, a grand Durga Puja ceremony was held in the Great Court of the British Museum.

 

The prominence of Durga Puja increased gradually during the British Raj in Bengal. After the Hindu reformists identified Durga with India, she became an icon for the Indian independence movement. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the tradition of Baroyari or Community Puja was popularised due to this. After independence, Durga Puja became one of the largest celebrated festivals in the whole world.

 

Durga Puja also includes the worship of Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Saraswati and Kartikeya. Modern traditions have come to include the display of decorated pandals and artistically depicted idols (murti) of Durga, exchange of Bijoya Greetings and publication of Puja Annuals.

INVERNESS-SHIRE CONSTABULARY 1899-1900-1901

- The big picture!

(by Dave Conner)

 

This superbly done composite photograph shows the entire establishment of the Police Force for the County of Inverness between 1899 and 1901 (excluding the Royal Burgh of Inverness, which maintained its own Police from 1847 until 1968). Unfortunately the collage project was begun after the murder of Constable Thomas King in December 1898 so there is sadly no photographic record of the only officer of that force ever murdered on duty.

 

The Inverness-shire force had the largest establishment of any force in the Highlands & Islands, and even then each of the 61 Constables (of the 74 officers) had a huge area to patrol.

 

The original of this photograph is very large so I had to scan it in four pieces and then painstakingly edit them together on the computer to reproduce the image.

 

The original was presented to Chief Constable Alexander ("Alistair") McHardy in 1901, to commemorate his 35 years as a Chief Constable (1866-1882 of Sutherlandshire, and from 1882 onwards of Inverness-shire).

 

Mr McHardy had joined Aberdeenshire Constabulary (and apparently being "economical with the truth" about his age) in 1858 when - by his own later admission - he could only have been 17. This is revealed in Mr McHardy's own handwriting when setting up a replacement Personnel Register for the Inverness-shire force in 1883 - as the old book was becoming unwieldy with all the now irrelevant pages of those who has since left the force since the first book was created in 1858. In the huge leather-bound volume , he recorded his own details on Page 1 (well, being the Chief he was indeed "number 1") that he was born at Glen Lui, Braemar on 9th June 1839 and joined the Aberdeenshire Constabulary on 22nd March 1858 (which would have been around the time of its inception).

 

Although he did not go into much detail as to his subsequent career, I have researched away at it and finally managed to piece together more details of a meteoric rise through the ranks, which would put current Accelerated Promotion in the shade.

 

In July 1859 - with only 16 months police service - he moved to the Sutherland Constabulary at Dornoch on promotion to Sergeant (and Deputy Chief Constable). At that time the Chief Constable of Sutherland was one Peter Ewen, a native of Aberdeenshire and with previous service in the Banffshire and Aberdeen City police forces. Mr Ewan had been appointed on the recommendation of Sheriff Lumsden, the Sheriff Principal, who had a farm in Aberdeenshire and who had been tasked to consider the various candidates. Both Sheriff and Mr Ewan doubtless had many contacts in their home area and would have put out feelers there to find a Deputy, and young McHardy must have come highly recommended. His time in Sutherland was not to be long however, and when he moved south to another role, it comes as no surprise to find that his replacement also came from Aberdeenshire. George Bridgeford had also joined the Aberdeenshire force in 1858 - likely he and McHardy knew each other? Albeit there is a bit of gap between McHardy's departure and Bridgeford's arrival - possibly someone else was appointed in the interim but did not last the pace?)

 

So in May 1861 McHardy moved to Fife Constabulary, giving his age as 22 and retaining the Sergeant rank, being initially stationed at Force HQ at Cupar. On 16 November 1861, he was promoted to the rank of Inspector, and transferred to Kirkcaldy. Then on 14 February 1862 he was again promoted, this time to Superintendent - and Deputy Chief Constable - moving back to HQ in Cupar in the process.

 

After apparently doing a very good job of Acting Chief Constable for a period following the death of the Fife Chief Constable (but presumably not being considered for the vacant post, although the new incumbent praised him highly for the work he had done and kept him on as Deputy Chief Constable), Alistair McHardy successfully applied for the vacancy as Chief Constable of Sutherland, being appointed on 7th August 1866 - with 8 years service, of which had been at promoted rank. George Bridgeford, who had succeeded him as Sergeant and DCC, was still in post, and indeed would remain so as Deputy Chief right up until 1904.

 

In 1882 the matter of land was a serious one and there was much disruption in all the northern counties as crofters took a determined stand again their landowners. Chief Constable William Murray of Inverness-shire Constabulary - the largest county in Scotland - clearly saw the issue coming to a head. He thus intimated his intention to retire (he had been in post since 1858 and was likely of a mind that he was getting too old for all this hassle). Thus candidates were sought to become the new Chief Constable of Inverness-shire and on 2nd December 1882 Mr McHardy was appointed, a post which he held until his death at the age of 71 on 30th April 1911. He is interred in Tomnahurich Cemetery, Inverness, and his immense gravestone incorporates crossed golf clubs. Always a keen sportsman, and no mean competitor on the Highland Games field in his younger days, McHardy had likely "found" golf during his time in Fife, and was subsequently instrumental in the setting up of Dornoch and Inverness Golf Clubs. He was also called upon to design a number of golf courses in the Highlands.

 

The photographer who produced the collage of the Inverness-shire force's members also made a number of copies, some rather large and others much smaller. Presumably many officers wished a copy as a memento. It took 2 years (almost 3 in fact) in its compilation as it was necessary for each officer to pay a visit to a photographer for the individual shot. As many officers lived and worked in remote areas, opportunities to have such a photograph taken were infrequent to say the least.

 

The composite consists of 74 officers, namely:

Chief Constable McHardy,

his Deputy (Supt Hugh Chisholm, later Chief Constable of Sutherland),

four Divisional Inspectors (based at Inverness, Fort William, Portree, and Lochmaddy),

7 Section Sergeants, and

61 Constables who were based around the largest County in Scotland.

 

Within a year of McHardy's appointment to Inverness-shire, he had more than doubled the size of the force - 44 men when he took over - as he bolstered staffing levels to enable him to place a constable at more locations around the Western Highlands, and particularly in the Islands where land disturbance and was becoming a serious matter. By the item this collage photograph was produced however, the situation had been defused considerably and the force was able to reduce its numbers somewhat, albeit still almost double to the numbers McHardy had inherited.

 

Normal practice would of course have been a simple group photograph - but for the force covering the largest County in Scotland it was simply not possible to get everybody in one place simultaneously without involving most of the officers (especially those based in the Islands or remote parts of the Western Mainland) having to undergo a formidable amount of travel - and of course thereby denuding the County of police presence for up to a week.

 

Thanks to the clear photograph (where every officer is named in small text), and the survival of the complete set of Inverness-shire Constabulary Personnel Registers, I was able (mind you, it took a long time!) to compile a listing of all the officers in the photo - and where they were stationed (as at October 1900).

 

I almost managed to work out everybody's shoulder number too - but not quite, as some of the beards are obscuring the numbers!

 

So here's the list of everybody in the photo and where they were stationed.

 

Inverness-shire Constabulary: 1899-1900-1901 (Total: 74)

 

Surname, Forename, (and Rank + Station as at 10/1900)

 

MCHARDY Alexander, Chief Constable, INVERNESS

CHISHOLM Hugh, Superintendent, INVERNESS

BOYD Alexander, Inspector, PORTREE

CHISHOLM Alexander, Inspector, FORT WILLIAM

HENDERSON Donald, Inspector, LOCHMADDY

WEBSTER Keith, Inspector, INVERNESS

FRASER Simon, Sergeant, KINGUSSIE

MACCULLOCH John, Sergeant, DUNVEGAN

MACDONALD Colin, Sergeant, BEAULY

MACINNES William, Sergeant, FORT WILLIAM

MACLAREN Angus, Sergeant (12/99), INVERNESS

MITCHELL George, Sergeant, INVERNESS

PHILIP James, Sergeant, LOCHBOISDALE

AITKEN James, Constable, LAGGAN

ANDERSON John, Constable, NETHYBRIDGE

CAMERON Alexander, Constable, EDINBANE

CAMERON Ewen, Constable, ISLEORNSAY

CAMPBELL Donald, Constable, KNOYDART

CUMMING John, Constable, PORTREE

FRASER Donald, Constable, INVERGARRY

FRASER George, Constable, GAIRLOCHY

FRASER James, Constable, AVIEMORE

FRASER Peter, Constable, GLENELG

FRASER Thomas I, Constable, OBBE

GILLIES Donald, Constable, DAVIOT

GRANT Duncan, Constable, CLACHAN

GRANT Peter, Constable, INVERMORISTON

HIRD John, Constable, FORT WILLIAM

LAVERTON Joseph, Constable, DRUMNADROCHIT

MACARTHUR Malcolm, Constable, BENBECULA

MACBEATH Alexander, Constable, BALLIFEARY

MACDONALD Alexander, Constable, MALLAIG

MACDONALD Angus, Constable, LOCHMADDY

MACDONALD Duncan, Constable, ONICH

MACDONALD Ewen, Constable, DAVIOT

MACDONALD James, Constable, FORT WILLIAM

MACDONALD John, Constable, SPEAN BRIDGE

MACDONALD Thomas, Constable, STAFFIN

MACDONALD William, Constable, CANNICH

MACGRUER Thomas, Constable, FORT WILLIAM

MACGRUER William, Constable, PORTREE

MACKAY James, Constable, ERROGIE

MACKAY Robert, Constable, KINGUSSIE

MACKENZIE Donald, Constable, BROADFORD

MACKENZIE Evan, Constable, INVERNESS

MACKENZIE William, Constable, TARBERT

MACKINNON John, Constable, INVERNESS

MACLAREN Donald, Constable, NEWTONMORE

MACLAREN William, Constable, UIG

MACLENNAN Alexander, Constable, LENTRAN

MACLENNAN Donald, Constable, ARISAIG

MACLENNAN Duncan, Constable, MALLAIG

MACLENNAN Hugh, Constable, INVERNESS

MACLEOD William, Constable, CAMPBELLTOWN

MACMASTER Donald, Constable, BARRA

MACNIVEN John, Constable, BOAT OF GARTEN

MACRAE John, Constable, COLBOST

MACVICAR Alexander, Constable, DORES

MELVILLE Donald, Constable, PORTREE

MURCHISON William, Constable, GLENFINNAN

MURRAY Alexander, Constable, INVERNESS (appt 10/00)

ROSS John, Constable, BANAVIE

SHEARER Hugh, Constable, CARRBRIDGE

SINCLAIR Duncan, Constable, KINLOCHAILORT

SINCLAIR Neil, Constable, TOMATIN

SMITH John, Constable, TOMNACROSS

SUTHERLAND William, Constable, FORT AUGUSTUS

TAIT Sinclair, Constable, STONEYBRIDGE

YOUNG James, Constable, CARBOST

=-=-=-=-=-

BARRON John, Constable(ex), ERROGIE (Left 08/99)

CAMPBELL Alexander, Constable, HQ (apptd 06/01)

MACKENZIE John, Constable(ex), GLENFINNAN(Left 5/99)

MACKENZIE Murdo, Constable, Recalled to Army 10/98-8/02

WILKINSON Donald, Constable(Temp), BRIDGE OF OICH(to 06/01)

   

Baddesley Clinton is not one the grandest of houses, nor is it filled with rare works of art, but having been owned by one family, the Ferrers, since the 16th century and maintained largely intact and original, it is a rare example of the average early-modern home of the lesser gentry. Unlike such mansions as nearby Coughton Court, Baddesley Clinton is relatively small, even cozy, and one can easily imagine the life of the people who lived here. It is best known for being the home of the Jesuit Henry Garnet for almost 14 years, and the existence of several priest hides conceived and built by Nicholas Owen.

 

The Clintons settled here in the thirteenth century, when it was called just Baddesley, and added their name to the place. They were responsible for the digging of the moat that you see above. It was eventually sold in 1438 to John Brome, a wealthy lawyer, and the Bromes built most of the east and west sides of the house.

 

John Brome was the Under Treasurer of England but a Lancastrian, and when Henry VI was deposed in 1461 by the Yorkist claimant Edward IV, Brome lost all of his court appointments. He later quarreled with John Herthill, Steward to Richard "the Kingmaker", Earl of Warwick, and Herthill murdered him in 1468 on the porch of the Whitefriars Church in London. Brome's second son, Nicholas, who inherited the estate, eventually avenged his father's murder by killing Herthill in 1471.

 

Nicholas Brome seems to have had a taste for violence. According to Henry Ferrers, a later owner of the house, it was soon after inheriting Baddesley Clinton that Nicholas 'slew the minister of Baddesley Church findinge him in his plor (parlour) chockinge his wife under ye chinne, and to expiatt these bloody offenses and crimes he built the steeple and raysed the church body ten foote higher". He was pardoned for this killing by both the King and the Pope. Nicholas seems also to have developed a taste for building, and is thought to have been responsible for the building of much of the earliest part of the house. Baddesley Clinton passed into the hands of the Ferrers family in 1517, through the marriage of Nicholas Brome's daughter, Constance, to Sir Edward Ferrers.

 

The most interesting of the Ferrers is Henry Ferrers (1549-1633), the great-grandson of Sir Edward Ferrers, and contemporary with the times of the Gunpowder Plot. He inherited the property in 1564, and lived through the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and James I, dying in the reign of Charles I. He carried out extensive building, including the wing that contains the Great Hall, as well as adding the Great Parlour above the existing entranceway. He also installed much oak paneling and mantels that are still there as well.

 

Henry Ferrers was an antiquarian, and spent a lifetime collecting historical information, much of which was later used by Sir William Dugdale in the 'Antiquities of Warwickshire'. This interest of his can be seen by the enormous amount of heraldic glass and devices throughout the house. He was trained in the law, and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1572. He may also have served a term as an MP for Cirencester in 1593.

 

After the death of Henry Ferrers, the fortunes of the Ferrers family fluctuated through periods of heavy taxation such as during the Civil War and in the early eighteenth century, followed by attempts by some generations to maintain and improve the property in better times. The last Ferrers in the direct male line, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884), was so poor that Lady Chatterton, the aunt of his wife Rebecca, and her husband, Edward Heneage Deering, had to come and live with him to share the expense. These two were only married because of a misunderstanding. It is said that Deering came to Lady Chatterly to ask permission to pay address to her niece, but she thought it was a proposal to her, and accepted. Deering, although she was old enough to be his mother, was too chivalrous to set the story straight!

 

The estate passed down through Marmion Edward Ferrer's nephew through several relatives, and it was Mr. Thomas Ferrers-Walker who eventually sold the house to the Government, after which it became part of the National Trust. The Ferrers Archive is kept at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

Henry Ferrers was also a devout Catholic, but a cautious one and was never convicted for recusancy. He must have been aware of the activities of the Vaux sisters, who rented the house from him in the 1590's in order to secretly shelter Father Henry Garnet and other priests, and to be able to conduct catholic services. Soon after they rented the house, Anne Vaux had Nicholas Owen build secret hiding places, including one created out of the sewer and the moat.

 

A spectacular raid on Baddesley in October 1591 was recorded both by Father John Gerard in his Autobiography of an Elizabethan, and also by Father Henry Garnet in a letter to his Jesuit superior, Aquaviva. Several priests, including Garnet and Gerard, as well as lay assistants had risen early and were preparing to leave the house, when it was surrounded and all the approach roads blocked by pursuviants. The stable-boys, knowing that so many horses saddled and ready to go would be suspicious, armed themselves with farm implements and blocked the pursuviants attempt at violent entry. This bought some time for those inside the house, as the pursuviants had to resort to requests, and led them to believe that the lady of the house had not yet arisen. Those outside had to wait patiently, albeit not quietly, while those inside were quickly hiding away the priests, Catholic vestments, and all other signs of the presence of a Catholic priest, including the overturning of their mattresses so that the pursuviants could not feel the warmth.

 

The priests stood in the hiding place in the moat, ankle-deep in cold water for over four hours while the pursuviants tore through the house, although their attempts at intimidation seemed to have far outweighed their skills in searching. Anne Vaux said "here was a searcher pounding the walls in unbelievable fury, there another shifting side-tables, turning over beds. Yet, when any of them touched with their hand or foot the actual place where some sacred object was hidden, he paid not the slightest attention to the most obvious evidence of a contrivance."

 

The searchers turned up nothing, and eventually left after being paid off by Anne Vaux with twelve gold pieces. As Gerard later said, "Yes, that is the pitiful lot of Catholics when men come with a warrant ... it is the Catholics, not the men who send them, who have to pay. As if it were not enough to suffer, they have to pay for their suffering."

 

You can still inspect these hiding places today, and we must say they are not for those who are claustrophobic or faint of heart. Until you actually see them, it is hard to imagine the cramped, damp, dark and tomb-like conditions these priests endured.

 

The first of these is a lath and plaster hutch in the roof above a closet off the bedroom in the gatehouse block. It measures six feet three inches by four feet, and is three feet nine inches high. It contains two wooden benches and is lined with fine hair-plaster.

 

In the corner of the kitchen, where a garderobe once existed, you can see through to the medieval drain where the hiding place used by Father Gerard and Father Garnet was located. At the time, this could only be accessed through the garderobe shaft in the floor of the Sacristy above. A hiding space beneath the floor of the Library was accessed through the fireplace in the Great Parlour, and can now be viewed from the Moat Room. It was in the Library Room that Nicholas Brome was said to have murdered the priest, and it is reputed to be haunted.

 

For an excellent account of the priest holes and the work of Nicholas Owen at Baddesley Clinton, the article Elizabethan Priest Holes : III - East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton, Hindlip by Michael Hodgetts, and published in Recusant History, is a must read.

 

The house itself consists almost entirely of building done by either the Bromes in the fifteenth century or by Henry Ferrers in the sixteenth, and although much repair and alteration work has been carried out inside the house, the panelling, fireplaces and heraldic glass throughout the house all date from the work of Henry Ferrers.

Originally quadrangular in shape, the property today consists of only three blocks, the east including the gatehouse and the Great Parlour, the south containing the Hall, and the west containing the kitchen. The gatehouse and kitchen wing are of grey sandstone, whereas the Hall, which was reconstructed in the 18th century, is of brick.

 

The crenellated gatehouse is one of the house's most interesting features. The lower part with the gun ports was built by Nicholas Brome in the late fifteenth century, and is thought originally to have had a drawbridge. The upper part was re-formed by Henry Ferrers to accommodate the Great Parlour. The brick bridge was built in the early eighteenth century, and the crenelations added in the nineteenth century. The massive carved oak door in the gatehouse leading through to the courtyard dates from Nicholas Brome.

 

The present owners are still undertaking restoration work to enable all the documented priest hides and trapdoors to be made available for viewing, this work includes part of the moat tunnel complex that is presently plugged in order to prevent midges from penetrating into the Sacristy and bedrooms

 

Baddesley Clinton, although still a private dwelling was sold to the Government and passed to the National Trust in 1980 and opened to the public in 1982.

 

The above was copied from "The gunpowder plot" website.

 

Great to place to visit. If only there had been some sun!

 

Senior Airman Nathan Tierney (left) and Staff Sgt. Eddie Evans return an aircraft after an in-flight emergency Dec. 10, 2009, at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Airman Tierney and Sergeant Evans are A-10 crash recovery technicians with the 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron maintenance flight. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Timothy Taylor)

Well maintained house in a Delta park. This was the home of New Westminster born actor Raymond Burr. House was moved to the park in order to preserve the history.

 

Disabled Army veteran, new farmer and owner-operator of Prado Recreation Inc. Ruben Llamas, leases more than 585 acres from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where his family and employees farm more than half of that and maintain the rest as a dog training facility, where the U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA Natural Resources and Conservation Service NRCS has helped him improve the health of the land and the profitability of the farm with the replacement of six new tractors, a loader, and technical assistance in the basin of the Prado Dam area, in Chino, CA, on Oct. 21, 2022. The facility is 36 miles east of Los Angeles, 11 miles south of Ontario, in what is known as the Inland Empire.

 

Sergeant Llamas served in the U.S. Army for 13 years as a Combat Engineer and a Scout. He was assigned to the U.S. Army 578th Brigade Engineer Battalion and the California Army National Guard 18th Calvery Regiment. He and his wife have six children; two are serving in the U.S. Army, one in the U.S. Coast Guard, and one is considering enlisting herself.

 

The basin’s range of environments and topography supports a wide variety of training grounds for sporting dogs, rescue tracking dogs, obedience training, and the ability to provide kennel facilities and the maintenance of waterfowl habitats and outdoor recreation areas. The farm fields of grasses and natural meadows provide nesting. Their seeds feed migrating birds near a hunting club and the broader wetlands. Hunting dog trainers use the forests, fields, meadows, ponds, and islands to train dogs to find game birds for hunters.

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls the approximately 4,500-acres Prado Dam area. Their lease is for more than 500 acres near the dam and Highway 71.

 

They purchased the business 16 years ago. The land ranges from farm fields to wetlands and woodlands. Three counties with about 15 million people surround the area.

 

The farm produces alfalfa, corn, and other forage crops for silage sold to local dairies. Winter crops are wheat, winter wheat, oats, and ryegrass. In the summer, they grow sorghum, corn, milo, and various types of grass. All the fields at different stages of growth are used for hunting dog training, as it provides cover for waterfowl and challenges to rescue dogs in training.

 

Ruben Llamas is a new farmer who wants to be as profitable as possible and develop his best practices. To help him, Llamas discovered the USDA Natural Resources and Conservation Service online at usda.gov. He called the nearest NRCS Field Office in Redlands, CA. District Conservationist Tomas Aguilar-Campos answered the phone and immediately helped him with the information and ways to begin networking. To better understand Llamas’s farm and conservation needs Campos went to see him at the farm in the Prado Dam basin. Llamas was hesitant to provide information to the government and work with them but decided to try it. He now compares his experience with USDA to be similar to a bank customer and their banker.

 

The business came with 40-year-old tractors that were unreliable, produced higher emissions, and were expensive to maintain. Thanks to the USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program EQIP and the USDA assistance with the application process, he qualified for the replacement of six tractors and a loader. Now, there is no problem operating any of them at any time. The robust and reliable equipment accomplishes twice the work in half the time and does it with 30 percent less fuel, says Llamas.

 

NRCS EQIP provides technical and financial assistance to producers to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits such as improved water and air quality, conserved ground and surface water, increased soil health and reduced soil erosion and sedimentation, improved or created wildlife habitat, and mitigation against drought and increasing weather volatility.

 

Equally as old were the irrigation systems. So, next, the pump and mainline, and distribution pipe needed improvement. To test the system Tomas and another specialist came to test the irrigation system. He recommended larger lines and a smaller pump for lower energy costs and better efficiency.

 

“The field representative, they’re always there, ready to help, says Llamas. With whatever question I have, they will help me.”

During the winter, the lower wetlands and farm fields become flooded with rainwater. The water attracts local and migratory birds. They come to eat, rest and leave the soil richer from their time there.

In the lowest field, seasonal flooding made it difficult to farm. Aguilar-Campos responded by asking a USDA soil specialist to examine the land. Compost was the recommendation, resulting in consistent farming and increased yields.

 

Because of the varying soils, Aguilar-Campos had a soil analysis performed. It showed that composting would help. The compost revitalized the soil to the point that certain crops needed 30 percent less water, and corn required 18 percent less water. Another result is that weed suppression has improved, so chemical use is down from an already sparing use.

 

Ruben Llamas says, “It’s been a really great relationship. I mean, I got seven pieces of equipment, so it’s been really, really good.”

 

For more information about EQIP, go to nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/eqip-environmental-quality-incentives

 

For more information about NRCS Conservation Practice 533 Pumping Plant please see efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/api/CPSFile/14941/533_NC_CPS_Pumping_Plant_2011

For more information about NRCS Conservation Practice 430, Irrigation Pipe, please see nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Irrigation_Pipeline_430_Overview_9_2020.pdf

 

For more information about NRCS Conservation Practice 443 Irrigation System please see nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Irrigation_System_Surface_And_Subsurface_443_Overview.pdf

 

USDA Media by Lance Cheung.

More squirrel shots from Centre Parcs, Sherwood Forest

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (July 18, 2020) The United States Naval Academy holds an Oath of Office Ceremony for the members of the Class of 2024, Companies 1-15. This year, Oath Day marks the beginning of a demanding and shortened four-week indoctrination period called Plebe Summer, intended to transition the candidates from civilian to military life. Before interacting with their first set of detailers, the plebes underwent a 14-day restriction of movement (ROM). During this time, training was conducted in the virtual environment; focusing on moral and mental development. For the Class of 2024, their time as plebes will look very different than years prior, and their experience will be marked by the challenges Naval Academy leadership faces to ensure safety while maintaining an effective training environment. As the undergraduate college of our country's naval service, the Naval Academy prepares young men and women to become professional officers of competence, character, and compassion in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class

Nathan Burke/Released)

“Inspiring women to be financially independent”

 

Shaku Atre is an exceptional speaker, with the reputation of capturing the attention of audiences and maintaining their interest while guiding her listeners painlessly through sophisticated material. Ms. Atre is the President of Atre Group Inc. which is a leading consulting, training, and publishing company specializing in Business Intelligence (BI), Data Warehouses and Big Data.

 

Before heading her present company, Ms. Atre was a Partner with Price Waterhouse Coopers. She also has fourteen years of experience in various fields with IBM. Ms. Atre completed Masters of Science, Suma cum Laude, in Statistics, University of Poona, India; Scholarship to University of Heidelberg, Germany, Applied Mathematics, Thesis on Astronomy. She is an acknowledged expert in the Data Warehousing and database field.

 

She has extensive practical experience in database projects, has helped a number of clients in establishing successful Data Warehouses and client/server installations, and has taught at IBM’s prestigious Systems Research Institute.

 

She has lectured on the subject to professional organizations in the USA and Canada, as well as in more than 35 countries around the world. Ms. Atre is frequently quoted in reputable publications such as Computerworld and Information Week. She has written an award-winning outstanding book on database management systems that has become a classic on the subject: Database: Structured Techniques for Design, Performance and Management, published by John Wiley and Sons, New York. The book has sold over 250,000 copies (not including its Spanish and Russian translations) and has been selected by several book clubs and leading universities including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, New York University, Stanford, and U.C. Berkeley as well as by the Moscow University. Her book Information Center: Strategies and Case Studies published by Atre International Consultants Inc., has also been very well received by the industry. Database Management Systems is another successful book authored by Ms. Atre. Her fourth book, Distributed Databases, Cooperative Processing & Networking was published by McGraw-Hill.

 

She has also authored a very well received book: Atre’s Roadmap for Data Warehouse/Data Mart Implementations published by Gartner Group, and is co-author of her latest BI book Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete Project Lifecycle for Decision-Support Applications published by Addison Wesley.

Chassis n° 12283

 

- Owned by Mr Fornas since December 2014

- Maintained by Ferrari specialists Dino Sport

- Engine rebuilt in August 2017 (bills and photographs available)

- 26,652 kilometres recorded

 

Bonhams : The Zoute Sale

Important Collectors' Motor Cars

The Zoute Grand Prix Gallery

Estimated : € 200.000 - 220.000

Sold for € 258.750

 

Zoute Grand Prix Car Week 2025

Knokke - Zoute

België - Belgium

October 2025

 

By the mid-1960s, 50 percent of all Ferraris produced were being built with four seats, and following on from the success of its first such model, the 250 GTE of 1960, Ferrari introduced the 330 GT 2+2 in January 1964. The newcomer's steel tube chassis was 2" longer in the wheelbase than that of its predecessor and featured independent front suspension and a live rear axle. Beneath the 330's more-spacious Pininfarina coachwork was a 300bhp, 4-litre V12 coupled to a four-speed overdrive gearbox. Its replacement, the 365 GT 2+2, was launched at the Paris Salon in October 1967. Sleekly styled in the manner of the limited edition 500 Superfast, the 365 GT 2+2 was the most refined Ferrari to date.

 

Based on that of the contemporary 330 GTC, the chassis was made up of Ferrari's familiar combination of oval and round steel tubing, and as well as featuring independent suspension all round (for the first time on a Ferrari 2+2) boasted Koni's hydro-pneumatic self-levelling system at the rear. Further refinements included mounting the engine and drivetrain in rubber bushes to insulate the car's occupants from noise and vibration, and offering ZF power-assisted steering and air conditioning as standard equipment. Developing 320bhp in its 365 GT incarnation, the well-proven 4.4-litre V12 engine was coupled to a five-speed gearbox, while the car's blistering performance - top speed 150mph, 0-60mph in 7.0 seconds - was restrained by Girling ventilated discs all round. A total of 800 cars had been completed by the time production ceased in 1971.

 

Endowed with fine handling and a supple ride, the 365GT 2+2 was rated by Car magazine as "the most civilised Ferrari yet". Impressed by the car's build quality, Car & Driver reckoned it, "prototypical of the new Ferraris where everything fits and falls together accurately, as needs must if Ferrari is to survive in the US market". The respected American motoring magazine found the overall effect to be "one of a very real and serious, ultra luxurious, high-speed touring machine," yet no compromises had been made in the handling department: the 365 GT 2+2 remained very much a driver's car in the traditional Ferrari manner. Road & Track agreed: "Out on the open road this car really comes into its own, as does any Ferrari; the power steering makes it seem light on its feet and the giant Michelin XVR tyres furnish high cornering power with little fuss."

 

This elegant Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 was purchased by Mr Fornas in December 2014 from the well-known French classic car specialist, Cecil Cars (see bills on file). Since purchase Mr Fornas has had the car regularly maintained by Ferrari specialist Dino Sport in Bezons, France (bills on file). At 23,410 kilometres the following components were replaced: rear shock absorbers; fuel pumps; fuel lines; electrical wiring (for the fuel pumps); and radiator fans. In September 2016, the gearbox was overhauled, and a new clutch installed. In August 2017, the engine was dismantled for a full overhaul, in the course of which new pistons were fitted, for a total of €46,781.96 (bills and photographic record on file). Also, some minor cosmetic work was undertaken by Cecil Car's workshop with some attention to the wiring. Since then, the car has been regularly maintained by Mr Fornas' local specialist. The current odometer reading is 26,652 kilometres. As well as the aforementioned documentation, the Ferrari comes with a detailed and copiously illustrated Rapport d'Expertise from Michel Gicquel, which was commissioned by Mr Fornas in November 2016. A wonderful opportunity to acquire a very well cared for example of this highly desirable Ferrari Gran Turismo.

Alice Gast, President, Imperial College London, United Kingdom; W. Patrick McCray, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; L. Rafael Reif, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA; Martin Stratmann, President, Max-Planck Institute, Germany; Andrew Thompson, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Proteus Digital Health, USA and Joe Palca, Science Correspondent, NPR, USA speaking during the Session "Maintaining Innovation" at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 20, 2017. .Copyright by World Economic Forum / Manuel Lopez

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, a type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).[6] The disease was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province, and has since spread globally, resulting in the ongoing 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.[7][8] Common symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.[9] Other symptoms may include muscle pain, sputum production, diarrhea, sore throat, loss of smell, and abdominal pain.[4][10][11] While the majority of cases result in mild symptoms, some progress to viral pneumonia and multi-organ failure.[7][12] As of 2 April 2020, more than 998,000[5] cases of COVID-19 have been reported in more than two hundred countries and territories[13], resulting in over 51,300 deaths.[5] More than 208,000 people have recovered.[5]

 

The virus is spread mainly through close contact and via respiratory droplets produced when people cough or sneeze.[14][15] Respiratory droplets may be produced during breathing but the virus is not generally airborne.[14][16] People may also contract COVID-19 by touching a contaminated surface and then their face.[14][15] It is most contagious when people are symptomatic, although spread may be possible before symptoms appear.[15] The virus can survive on surfaces up to 72 hours.[17] Time from exposure to onset of symptoms is generally between two and fourteen days, with an average of five days.[9][18] The standard method of diagnosis is by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) from a nasopharyngeal swab.[19] The infection can also be diagnosed from a combination of symptoms, risk factors and a chest CT scan showing features of pneumonia.[20][21]

 

Recommended measures to prevent infection include frequent hand washing, social distancing (maintaining physical distance from others, especially from those with symptoms), covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or inner elbow, and keeping unwashed hands away from the face.[22][23] The use of masks is recommended for those who suspect they have the virus and their caregivers.[24] Recommendations for mask use by the general public vary, with some authorities recommending against their use, some recommending their use, and others requiring their use.[25][26][27] Currently, there is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19. Management involves treatment of symptoms, supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures.[28]

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)[29][30] on 30 January 2020, and a pandemic on 11 March 2020.[8] Local transmission of the disease has been recorded in many countries across all six WHO regions.[31]

 

I have passed Marylebone many time, either in a taxi or underneath on the Tube, and have always meant to go in. And with a morning spent in the area last month, I walked over Euston Road to find all three doors open, and a good number of people coming and going.

 

From the outside it could be a City Wren church, inside it has lots of space and a fine painted chancel.

 

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

 

St Marylebone Parish Church is a place of active and engaged Christian witness, set at the very heart of central London. With a history stretching back nearly 900 years, those of us who worship here continue seek to offer God worship that has long been renowned for musical and liturgical excellence and to serve the diverse community in which we are set.

 

For more than 30 years, St Marylebone, just a few metres from Harley Street, has pioneered the work of Christian healing and, as well as being home to the internationally respected St Marylebone Healing and Counselling Centre, which offers low-cost analytical psychotherapy and spiritual direction, the Crypt at St Marylebone also houses an innovative NHS doctor’s surgery - the Marylebone Health Centre. Our work is enhanced by maintaining close and active links with some of medicine’s Royal Colleges and through our provision of chaplaincy to The London Clinic and King Edward VII’s Hospital.

 

St Marylebone has a flourishing Young Church, which complements our two schools: The St Marylebone Church of England School, an Outstanding Academy, National Teaching School and Maths Hub, and The St Marylebone Church of England Bridge School, a Free Special School working with secondary school age students who have speech, language and communication difficulties. Alongside our two schools St Marylebone works closely with the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Westminster, providing chaplaincy services to both, and also with Regent’s University.

 

As a parish church in the Diocese of London, we share a vision of a Church for this great world city that is Christ-centred and outward looking. By God’s grace we seek to be more confident in speaking and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, more compassionate in serving others with the love of God the Father and more creative in reaching new people and places in the power of the Spirit.

 

Construction of the present church was first considered in 1770. A site was given in Paddington Street and plans were prepared by Sir William Chambers, Architect to the King, but the scheme was abandoned and the land purchased for a burial ground. In 1810-11 the present site was secured, and it was intended that this building should be another Chapel of Ease supporting the work of the nearby Parish Church.

 

Plans were prepared by Thomas Hardwick, who was a pupil of Sir William Chambers, and the foundation stone was laid on 5 July 1813. Later, it was decided to enlarge the building and make it the Parish Church; the present tower was erected, the front widened, and the gigantic Corinthian-columned Portico built. A vaulted crypt extended under the whole area of the church, with extensive catacombs under the west side.

 

These catacombs were bricked up in 1853, and in the mid-1980s, with due authority, the coffins were removed from the crypt for reinternment at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey and the crypt was transformed into the present-day Healing and Counselling Centre, Sacrament Chapel, Jerusalem Chapel and NHS Marylebone Health Centre.

 

The present parish church, opened in February 1817, is the fourth known parish church building to serve this parish.

 

The first, established sometime in the early 12th century, was dedicated to St John the Evangelist and was the parish church of the manors of Tyburn and Lisson (Lillestone); it stood on what is now Oxford Street, on a site near Stratford Place. Indeed, it is thought that the open courtyard of Stratford Place is the graveyard of the first parish church.

 

By 1400, St John's had fallen into disrepair and was demolished; a new parish church was built opposite Tyburn Manor House (now the site of the Duchess of Devonshire Wing of The London Clinic). The site of this parish church and its successor church (is now the Old Church Memorial Garden at the north end of Marylebone High Street); Francis Bacon was married in this Church on the 11th May 1606.

 

In 1740, a new parish church was built on the same site and here you will find buried one of the founders of Methodism, Charles Wesley, along with other members of his family. He is commemorated by an obelisk memorial. Here it was that Lord Byron was christened, and here Lord Nelson attended services and, on the 3rd May 1803, brought his daughter by Lady Hamilton (who had herself been married here) to be baptised. This parish church was associated with many famous figures and the interior was used by William Hogarth for the ‘Marriage of the Rake’ in his ‘Rake’s Progress’ cycle of paintings. Some of the many memorials that crowded its walls, including a memorial to the cupbearer to Ann of Denmark and Queen Henrietta Maria, may be seen in the present parish church’s stairways, to which they were transferred when the old parish church was demolished (following damage in World War II) in 1949. Other people connected with this building include: James Figg, James Gibbs, Edmond Hoyle, John Rysbrack, John Allen, James Ferugson, Alan Ramsay, Stephen Storace, the dukes of Portland and Caroline Watson.

 

The present parish church was originally built (at a cost of some £80,000.00) without its fine Roman Renaissance style frescoed apse; this was added in 1884 by Thomas Harris. The original position of the altar was in what is now the Choir, just below the cross built into the ceiling. This altar (before which Robert Browning married Elizabeth Barrett in 1846) can be seen in the Holy Family Chapel. Above it hangs the painting of the Holy Family donated to the new parish church by Benjamin West, PRA (1738 -1820).

 

The parish church of 1817 is reputed to have sat 3,000 people and, above the present gallery, a second gallery (the remains of which can be seen either side of the organ) wrapped around three sides of the building.

 

The present organ, one of the finest recital instruments in the country, was built by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria and was commissioned in July 1987; it was a joint venture between the parish church and the neighbouring Royal Academy of Music. The organ pipes, which can be seen at the ends of the first floor galleries, belong to earlier instruments.

 

Charles Dickens and his family lived for many years next door to the parish church in Devonshire Terrace. He brought his son here to be baptised and the ceremony is described in his novel Dombey and Son.

 

Bomb damage sustained during World War II destroyed the stained glass windows and also the Georgian roof. Fragments of the destroyed windows were collected and set in the windows you see today.

 

The fine crystal chandeliers were relocated here in 1968 from the old Council Chamber in St Marylebone Town Hall when the Borough of St Marylebone merged with other metropolitan boroughs of Middlesex to form the City of Westminster.

 

A fine collection of memorials adorn the walls of the parish church; many of them belonging to colonial administrators and governors and members of the East India Company

 

St Marylebone Parish Church has always had a fine musical tradition and today the professional choir of ten voices is supported by the Director of Music, the Assistant Director of Music and an Organ Scholar. Sir John Stainer wrote his Oratorio Crucifixion for the choir in 1886 and it has been performed every year since.

 

The Browning Room, which commemorates the marriage of the poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett here on 12th September 1846, has a stained glass window gifted by The Browning Society of Winnipeg. Two fine brass bas reliefs of the poets can also be found in this room.

 

The fine apse, the mahogany benches and choir stalls together with the gilded English baroque decorative scheme all date from the mid-1880s and were designed by Thomas Hardwick. Work begun in 1884 and a memorial stone laid by Mrs Gladstone can be seen on the outside wall of the apse. The decoration of the apse was carried out by Edward Armitage, RA; his decorative scheme once included murals between the great windows on the gallery level but these were painted over in the late 1940s.

 

A Christian place of worship has served his part of central London for 900 years. Every London parish church north of Oxford Street, to the east of the Edgware Road and to the west of Cleveland Street, has been ‘planted’ by the Rector and Wardens of this parish. In 2016, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the parish church a grant of nearly £4 million to help complete an ambitious programme of works that will repair the ravages of time, extend the crypt and help tell the story of St Marylebone from rural hamlet to urban metropolis. St Marylebone, by God’s Grace, continues its work of Changing Lives and Shaping Community.

 

The Revd Canon Stephen Evans, Rector

 

www.stmarylebone.org/index.php?option=com_content&vie...

 

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

 

St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near Oxford Street. The church there was demolished in 1400 and a new one erected further north. This was completely rebuilt in 1740–42, and converted into a chapel-of-ease when Hardwick's church was constructed. The Marylebone area takes its name from the church. Located behind the church is St Marylebone School, a Church of England school for girls.

 

The first church for the parish was built in the vicinity of the present Marble Arch c.1200, and dedicated to St John the Evangelist.

 

A new, small church built on the same site opened in April 1742. It was an oblong brick building with a small bell tower at the west end. The interior had galleries on three sides. Some monuments from the previous church were preserved in the new building.In 1818 it became a chapel-of-ease to the new parish church which superseded it .[4] It was demolished in 1949, and its site, at the northern end of Marylebone High Street is now a public garden.[5]

 

Charles Wesley lived and worked in the area and sent for the church's rector John Harley and told him "Sir, whatever the world may say of me, I have lived, and I die, a member of the Church of England. I pray you to bury me in your churchyard."[citation needed] On his death, his body was carried to the church by eight clergymen of the Church of England and a memorial stone to him stands in the gardens in High Street, close to his burial spot. One of his sons, Samuel, was later organist of the present church.

 

It was also in this building that Lord Byron was baptised in 1788, Nelson's daughter Horatia was baptised (Nelson was a worshipper here), and Richard Brinsley Sheridan was married to Elizabeth Ann Linley. This is also the church in which the diplomat Sir William Hamilton married Emma Hart (Amy Lyon), later the lover of Admiral Horatio Nelson.[citation needed] The architect James Gibbs was buried there in 1751.[6] The crypt was the burial place of members of the Bentinck family, including William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (died 1809)

 

Construction of a new church was first considered in 1770, with plans prepared by Sir William Chambers and leadership given by the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Portland (owners of much of the area, by now a wealthy residential area to the west of London that had outgrown the previous church), but the scheme was abandoned and the land donated for it in Paddington Street purchased for a burial ground.

 

In 1810–11[citation needed] a site was secured to build a chapel-of-ease on the south side of the new road near Nottingham Place.[8] facing Regent's Park.[9] Plans were drawn up by Chambers's pupil Thomas Hardwick [10] and the foundation stone was laid on 5 July 1813. When construction was almost complete, it was decided that this new building should serve as the parish church, and so alterations were made to the design. On the north front, towards the new road, a Corinthian portico with eight columns (six columns wide, and two deep at the sides), based on that of the Pantheon in Rome, replaced the intended four-column Ionic portico surmounted by a group of figures. A steeple was built, instead of a planned cupola.[11] No changes were made to the design of the interior, but plans to build houses on part of the site were abandoned.[12]

 

Entrance to the church from the north is through three doorways beneath the portico, each leading into a vestibule.[13] There are arched windows above the outer doorways. A blank panel above the central one was intended to house a bas-relief depicting Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Hardwick's church was basically rectangular in plan, with two small extensions behind the entrance front, and two wings placed diagonally flanking the far end (the liturgical east),[14] which originally housed private galleries equipped with chairs, tables and fireplaces.[15][16] Two tiers of galleries, supported on iron columns ran around three sides of the church.[17] The organ case was immediately above the altar screen; in the centre of the organ case was an arched opening with a "transparent painting" by Benjamin West, of the angel appearing to the shepherds. Other church furniture included a large pulpit and reading desk and high box pews.

 

The steeple, placed over the central vestibule, rises around 75 feet (23 m) above the roof (and thus about 120 feet (37 m) above the ground).[18] It is in three storeys;the first, square in plan, contains a clock, the second circular in plan, has twelve Corinthian columns supporting an entablature, while the third is in the form of a miniature temple raised on three steps and surrounded by eight caryatids, with arched openings between them. The whole structure is topped by a dome and weathervane.[19]

 

The vaulted crypt, extending under the whole church, with extensive catacombs under the west side was used for burials until being bricked up in 1853. Since 1987, following the reinterment of the 850 coffins it previously contained at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, it has housed a healing and counselling centre.

 

The church was completed in 1817, at an overall cost of £80,000.

 

A local resident was Charles Dickens (1812–1870), in Devonshire Terrace, whose son was baptised in this church (a ceremony fictionalised in "Dombey and Son"). Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett were married in this phase of the church in 1846 (their marriage certificate is preserved in the church archives). The church was also used in location filming for the 1957 film recounting their story, The Barretts of Wimpole Street.[20]

 

Composer Sir John Stainer wrote an oratorio specifically for the choir at St Marylebone; The Crucifixion was first performed in the church on 24 February 1887, which was the day after Ash Wednesday. It has been performed annually at the church ever since, usually on Good Friday.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Marylebone_Parish_Church

 

Baddesley Clinton is not one the grandest of houses, nor is it filled with rare works of art, but having been owned by one family, the Ferrers, since the 16th century and maintained largely intact and original, it is a rare example of the average early-modern home of the lesser gentry. Unlike such mansions as nearby Coughton Court, Baddesley Clinton is relatively small, even cozy, and one can easily imagine the life of the people who lived here. It is best known for being the home of the Jesuit Henry Garnet for almost 14 years, and the existence of several priest hides conceived and built by Nicholas Owen.

 

The Clintons settled here in the thirteenth century, when it was called just Baddesley, and added their name to the place. They were responsible for the digging of the moat that you see above. It was eventually sold in 1438 to John Brome, a wealthy lawyer, and the Bromes built most of the east and west sides of the house.

 

John Brome was the Under Treasurer of England but a Lancastrian, and when Henry VI was deposed in 1461 by the Yorkist claimant Edward IV, Brome lost all of his court appointments. He later quarreled with John Herthill, Steward to Richard "the Kingmaker", Earl of Warwick, and Herthill murdered him in 1468 on the porch of the Whitefriars Church in London. Brome's second son, Nicholas, who inherited the estate, eventually avenged his father's murder by killing Herthill in 1471.

 

Nicholas Brome seems to have had a taste for violence. According to Henry Ferrers, a later owner of the house, it was soon after inheriting Baddesley Clinton that Nicholas 'slew the minister of Baddesley Church findinge him in his plor (parlour) chockinge his wife under ye chinne, and to expiatt these bloody offenses and crimes he built the steeple and raysed the church body ten foote higher". He was pardoned for this killing by both the King and the Pope. Nicholas seems also to have developed a taste for building, and is thought to have been responsible for the building of much of the earliest part of the house. Baddesley Clinton passed into the hands of the Ferrers family in 1517, through the marriage of Nicholas Brome's daughter, Constance, to Sir Edward Ferrers.

 

The most interesting of the Ferrers is Henry Ferrers (1549-1633), the great-grandson of Sir Edward Ferrers, and contemporary with the times of the Gunpowder Plot. He inherited the property in 1564, and lived through the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and James I, dying in the reign of Charles I. He carried out extensive building, including the wing that contains the Great Hall, as well as adding the Great Parlour above the existing entranceway. He also installed much oak paneling and mantels that are still there as well.

 

Henry Ferrers was an antiquarian, and spent a lifetime collecting historical information, much of which was later used by Sir William Dugdale in the 'Antiquities of Warwickshire'. This interest of his can be seen by the enormous amount of heraldic glass and devices throughout the house. He was trained in the law, and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1572. He may also have served a term as an MP for Cirencester in 1593.

 

After the death of Henry Ferrers, the fortunes of the Ferrers family fluctuated through periods of heavy taxation such as during the Civil War and in the early eighteenth century, followed by attempts by some generations to maintain and improve the property in better times. The last Ferrers in the direct male line, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884), was so poor that Lady Chatterton, the aunt of his wife Rebecca, and her husband, Edward Heneage Deering, had to come and live with him to share the expense. These two were only married because of a misunderstanding. It is said that Deering came to Lady Chatterly to ask permission to pay address to her niece, but she thought it was a proposal to her, and accepted. Deering, although she was old enough to be his mother, was too chivalrous to set the story straight!

 

The estate passed down through Marmion Edward Ferrer's nephew through several relatives, and it was Mr. Thomas Ferrers-Walker who eventually sold the house to the Government, after which it became part of the National Trust. The Ferrers Archive is kept at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

Henry Ferrers was also a devout Catholic, but a cautious one and was never convicted for recusancy. He must have been aware of the activities of the Vaux sisters, who rented the house from him in the 1590's in order to secretly shelter Father Henry Garnet and other priests, and to be able to conduct catholic services. Soon after they rented the house, Anne Vaux had Nicholas Owen build secret hiding places, including one created out of the sewer and the moat.

 

A spectacular raid on Baddesley in October 1591 was recorded both by Father John Gerard in his Autobiography of an Elizabethan, and also by Father Henry Garnet in a letter to his Jesuit superior, Aquaviva. Several priests, including Garnet and Gerard, as well as lay assistants had risen early and were preparing to leave the house, when it was surrounded and all the approach roads blocked by pursuviants. The stable-boys, knowing that so many horses saddled and ready to go would be suspicious, armed themselves with farm implements and blocked the pursuviants attempt at violent entry. This bought some time for those inside the house, as the pursuviants had to resort to requests, and led them to believe that the lady of the house had not yet arisen. Those outside had to wait patiently, albeit not quietly, while those inside were quickly hiding away the priests, Catholic vestments, and all other signs of the presence of a Catholic priest, including the overturning of their mattresses so that the pursuviants could not feel the warmth.

 

The priests stood in the hiding place in the moat, ankle-deep in cold water for over four hours while the pursuviants tore through the house, although their attempts at intimidation seemed to have far outweighed their skills in searching. Anne Vaux said "here was a searcher pounding the walls in unbelievable fury, there another shifting side-tables, turning over beds. Yet, when any of them touched with their hand or foot the actual place where some sacred object was hidden, he paid not the slightest attention to the most obvious evidence of a contrivance."

 

The searchers turned up nothing, and eventually left after being paid off by Anne Vaux with twelve gold pieces. As Gerard later said, "Yes, that is the pitiful lot of Catholics when men come with a warrant ... it is the Catholics, not the men who send them, who have to pay. As if it were not enough to suffer, they have to pay for their suffering."

 

You can still inspect these hiding places today, and we must say they are not for those who are claustrophobic or faint of heart. Until you actually see them, it is hard to imagine the cramped, damp, dark and tomb-like conditions these priests endured.

 

The first of these is a lath and plaster hutch in the roof above a closet off the bedroom in the gatehouse block. It measures six feet three inches by four feet, and is three feet nine inches high. It contains two wooden benches and is lined with fine hair-plaster.

 

In the corner of the kitchen, where a garderobe once existed, you can see through to the medieval drain where the hiding place used by Father Gerard and Father Garnet was located. At the time, this could only be accessed through the garderobe shaft in the floor of the Sacristy above. A hiding space beneath the floor of the Library was accessed through the fireplace in the Great Parlour, and can now be viewed from the Moat Room. It was in the Library Room that Nicholas Brome was said to have murdered the priest, and it is reputed to be haunted.

 

For an excellent account of the priest holes and the work of Nicholas Owen at Baddesley Clinton, the article Elizabethan Priest Holes : III - East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton, Hindlip by Michael Hodgetts, and published in Recusant History, is a must read.

 

The house itself consists almost entirely of building done by either the Bromes in the fifteenth century or by Henry Ferrers in the sixteenth, and although much repair and alteration work has been carried out inside the house, the panelling, fireplaces and heraldic glass throughout the house all date from the work of Henry Ferrers.

Originally quadrangular in shape, the property today consists of only three blocks, the east including the gatehouse and the Great Parlour, the south containing the Hall, and the west containing the kitchen. The gatehouse and kitchen wing are of grey sandstone, whereas the Hall, which was reconstructed in the 18th century, is of brick.

 

The crenellated gatehouse is one of the house's most interesting features. The lower part with the gun ports was built by Nicholas Brome in the late fifteenth century, and is thought originally to have had a drawbridge. The upper part was re-formed by Henry Ferrers to accommodate the Great Parlour. The brick bridge was built in the early eighteenth century, and the crenelations added in the nineteenth century. The massive carved oak door in the gatehouse leading through to the courtyard dates from Nicholas Brome.

 

The present owners are still undertaking restoration work to enable all the documented priest hides and trapdoors to be made available for viewing, this work includes part of the moat tunnel complex that is presently plugged in order to prevent midges from penetrating into the Sacristy and bedrooms

 

Baddesley Clinton, although still a private dwelling was sold to the Government and passed to the National Trust in 1980 and opened to the public in 1982.

 

The above was copied from "The gunpowder plot" website.

 

Great to place to visit. If only there had been some sun!

 

2012 二獎 / Second Place

 

王立俞 / 小小工作室

拍攝動機：

冰，可以將一生物完整保存，以此為出發點，保留住我們生活中必備的小事。

 

攝影心得：

必須失敗一次以上，才有找到成功的可能!

 

WANG, LI-YU / Little studio

Why I Took These Pictures：

Ice can preserve an entire organism intact. Taking photos means to preserve the small but essential things in our lives.

 

Winner’s Speech：Winner’s Speech:

Only through failure(s) can one find success.

  

Baddesley Clinton is not one the grandest of houses, nor is it filled with rare works of art, but having been owned by one family, the Ferrers, since the 16th century and maintained largely intact and original, it is a rare example of the average early-modern home of the lesser gentry. Unlike such mansions as nearby Coughton Court, Baddesley Clinton is relatively small, even cozy, and one can easily imagine the life of the people who lived here. It is best known for being the home of the Jesuit Henry Garnet for almost 14 years, and the existence of several priest hides conceived and built by Nicholas Owen.

 

The Clintons settled here in the thirteenth century, when it was called just Baddesley, and added their name to the place. They were responsible for the digging of the moat that you see above. It was eventually sold in 1438 to John Brome, a wealthy lawyer, and the Bromes built most of the east and west sides of the house.

 

John Brome was the Under Treasurer of England but a Lancastrian, and when Henry VI was deposed in 1461 by the Yorkist claimant Edward IV, Brome lost all of his court appointments. He later quarreled with John Herthill, Steward to Richard "the Kingmaker", Earl of Warwick, and Herthill murdered him in 1468 on the porch of the Whitefriars Church in London. Brome's second son, Nicholas, who inherited the estate, eventually avenged his father's murder by killing Herthill in 1471.

 

Nicholas Brome seems to have had a taste for violence. According to Henry Ferrers, a later owner of the house, it was soon after inheriting Baddesley Clinton that Nicholas 'slew the minister of Baddesley Church findinge him in his plor (parlour) chockinge his wife under ye chinne, and to expiatt these bloody offenses and crimes he built the steeple and raysed the church body ten foote higher". He was pardoned for this killing by both the King and the Pope. Nicholas seems also to have developed a taste for building, and is thought to have been responsible for the building of much of the earliest part of the house. Baddesley Clinton passed into the hands of the Ferrers family in 1517, through the marriage of Nicholas Brome's daughter, Constance, to Sir Edward Ferrers.

 

The most interesting of the Ferrers is Henry Ferrers (1549-1633), the great-grandson of Sir Edward Ferrers, and contemporary with the times of the Gunpowder Plot. He inherited the property in 1564, and lived through the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I and James I, dying in the reign of Charles I. He carried out extensive building, including the wing that contains the Great Hall, as well as adding the Great Parlour above the existing entranceway. He also installed much oak paneling and mantels that are still there as well.

 

Henry Ferrers was an antiquarian, and spent a lifetime collecting historical information, much of which was later used by Sir William Dugdale in the 'Antiquities of Warwickshire'. This interest of his can be seen by the enormous amount of heraldic glass and devices throughout the house. He was trained in the law, and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1572. He may also have served a term as an MP for Cirencester in 1593.

 

After the death of Henry Ferrers, the fortunes of the Ferrers family fluctuated through periods of heavy taxation such as during the Civil War and in the early eighteenth century, followed by attempts by some generations to maintain and improve the property in better times. The last Ferrers in the direct male line, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884), was so poor that Lady Chatterton, the aunt of his wife Rebecca, and her husband, Edward Heneage Deering, had to come and live with him to share the expense. These two were only married because of a misunderstanding. It is said that Deering came to Lady Chatterly to ask permission to pay address to her niece, but she thought it was a proposal to her, and accepted. Deering, although she was old enough to be his mother, was too chivalrous to set the story straight!

 

The estate passed down through Marmion Edward Ferrer's nephew through several relatives, and it was Mr. Thomas Ferrers-Walker who eventually sold the house to the Government, after which it became part of the National Trust. The Ferrers Archive is kept at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

Henry Ferrers was also a devout Catholic, but a cautious one and was never convicted for recusancy. He must have been aware of the activities of the Vaux sisters, who rented the house from him in the 1590's in order to secretly shelter Father Henry Garnet and other priests, and to be able to conduct catholic services. Soon after they rented the house, Anne Vaux had Nicholas Owen build secret hiding places, including one created out of the sewer and the moat.

 

A spectacular raid on Baddesley in October 1591 was recorded both by Father John Gerard in his Autobiography of an Elizabethan, and also by Father Henry Garnet in a letter to his Jesuit superior, Aquaviva. Several priests, including Garnet and Gerard, as well as lay assistants had risen early and were preparing to leave the house, when it was surrounded and all the approach roads blocked by pursuviants. The stable-boys, knowing that so many horses saddled and ready to go would be suspicious, armed themselves with farm implements and blocked the pursuviants attempt at violent entry. This bought some time for those inside the house, as the pursuviants had to resort to requests, and led them to believe that the lady of the house had not yet arisen. Those outside had to wait patiently, albeit not quietly, while those inside were quickly hiding away the priests, Catholic vestments, and all other signs of the presence of a Catholic priest, including the overturning of their mattresses so that the pursuviants could not feel the warmth.

 

The priests stood in the hiding place in the moat, ankle-deep in cold water for over four hours while the pursuviants tore through the house, although their attempts at intimidation seemed to have far outweighed their skills in searching. Anne Vaux said "here was a searcher pounding the walls in unbelievable fury, there another shifting side-tables, turning over beds. Yet, when any of them touched with their hand or foot the actual place where some sacred object was hidden, he paid not the slightest attention to the most obvious evidence of a contrivance."

 

The searchers turned up nothing, and eventually left after being paid off by Anne Vaux with twelve gold pieces. As Gerard later said, "Yes, that is the pitiful lot of Catholics when men come with a warrant ... it is the Catholics, not the men who send them, who have to pay. As if it were not enough to suffer, they have to pay for their suffering."

 

You can still inspect these hiding places today, and we must say they are not for those who are claustrophobic or faint of heart. Until you actually see them, it is hard to imagine the cramped, damp, dark and tomb-like conditions these priests endured.

 

The first of these is a lath and plaster hutch in the roof above a closet off the bedroom in the gatehouse block. It measures six feet three inches by four feet, and is three feet nine inches high. It contains two wooden benches and is lined with fine hair-plaster.

 

In the corner of the kitchen, where a garderobe once existed, you can see through to the medieval drain where the hiding place used by Father Gerard and Father Garnet was located. At the time, this could only be accessed through the garderobe shaft in the floor of the Sacristy above. A hiding space beneath the floor of the Library was accessed through the fireplace in the Great Parlour, and can now be viewed from the Moat Room. It was in the Library Room that Nicholas Brome was said to have murdered the priest, and it is reputed to be haunted.

 

For an excellent account of the priest holes and the work of Nicholas Owen at Baddesley Clinton, the article Elizabethan Priest Holes : III - East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton, Hindlip by Michael Hodgetts, and published in Recusant History, is a must read.

 

The house itself consists almost entirely of building done by either the Bromes in the fifteenth century or by Henry Ferrers in the sixteenth, and although much repair and alteration work has been carried out inside the house, the panelling, fireplaces and heraldic glass throughout the house all date from the work of Henry Ferrers.

Originally quadrangular in shape, the property today consists of only three blocks, the east including the gatehouse and the Great Parlour, the south containing the Hall, and the west containing the kitchen. The gatehouse and kitchen wing are of grey sandstone, whereas the Hall, which was reconstructed in the 18th century, is of brick.

 

The crenellated gatehouse is one of the house's most interesting features. The lower part with the gun ports was built by Nicholas Brome in the late fifteenth century, and is thought originally to have had a drawbridge. The upper part was re-formed by Henry Ferrers to accommodate the Great Parlour. The brick bridge was built in the early eighteenth century, and the crenelations added in the nineteenth century. The massive carved oak door in the gatehouse leading through to the courtyard dates from Nicholas Brome.

 

The present owners are still undertaking restoration work to enable all the documented priest hides and trapdoors to be made available for viewing, this work includes part of the moat tunnel complex that is presently plugged in order to prevent midges from penetrating into the Sacristy and bedrooms

 

Baddesley Clinton, although still a private dwelling was sold to the Government and passed to the National Trust in 1980 and opened to the public in 1982.

 

The above was copied from "The gunpowder plot" website.

 

Great to place to visit. If only there had been some sun!

 

Vellore Fort is a large 16th-century fort situated in heart of the Vellore city, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India built by Vijayanagara Kings. The Fort was at one point of time the headquarters of the Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara Empire. The fort is known for its grand ramparts, wide moat and robust masonry.

 

The Fort's ownership passed from Vijayanagara Kings, to the Bijapur Sultans, to Marathas, to the Carnatic Nawabs and finally to the British, who held the fort until India gained independence. The Indian government maintains the Fort with the Archaeological Department. During British rule, the Tipu Sultan's family and the last king of Sri Lanka, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha were held in as prisoners in the fort. The fort houses the Jalakanteswarar Hindu temple, Christian St. John's Church and a Muslim mosque, of which the Jalakanteswarar Temple is famous for its magnificent carvings. The first rebellion against British rule erupted at this fort in 1806, and it is also a witness to the massacre of the Vijayanagara royal family of Sriranga Raya.

 

HISTORY

PART OF VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE

Vellore Fort was built by Chinna Bommi Reddy and Thimma Reddy, subordinate Chieftains under Sadasiva Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire in the year of 1566 AD. Vellore Fort gained strategic prominence following the re-establishment of Vijayanagar rule with Chandragiri as their 4th capital after the Talikota battle. The Aravidu Dynasty that held the title of Rayas in 17th century resided in this fort, using it as a base in the battle of Toppur in the 1620s. This major battle took place for the claiming of the Raya title between two factions of the Raya family. Each faction was by their respective subordinates; the Nayaks of Tanjore, the Gingee and the Madurai taking sides to suit their interests.

 

The Rayas also had long-running battles with their longtime rivals, the Bijapur Sultans, and with the Nayaks of Madurai and the Gingee over non-remittance of annual tributes. In the 1640s, during the reign of Sriranga Raya III, the Fort was briefly captured by the Bijapur army, but was eventually recaptured with the help of the Nayaks of Tanjore.

 

During Sriranga Raya's reign in 1614, a coup broke out within the royal family and the reigning Emperor Sriranga Raya and his royal family were murdered by the rival factions of the Royal family, with the younger son Rama Deva Raya of the Emperor smuggled out from the fort by supporting factions of the emperor. These events led to the Battle of Toppur in 1616, one of the largest South Indian wars of the century.

 

In 1639, Francis Day of the East India Company obtained a small strip of land in the Coromandel Coast from the Chieftains of Vellore-Chandragiri regions to do trading, which is now in present day Chennai.

 

UNDER BIJAPUR (1656–1678)

In the 1650s, Sriranga allied with the Mysore and Tanjore Nayaks and marched south to attack Gingee and Madurai. His first stop was the capture of Gingee Fort, but Thirumalai Nayak of Madurai responded by requesting the Sultan of Bijapur to attack Vellore from the North to divert Sriranga's attention. The Bijapur Sultan promptly dispatched a large army and captured Vellore Fort. Subsequently, both the Madurai-Bijapur armies converged on Gingee, defeating the Vellore-Tanjore forces. After a melee, both the Forts ended up in the hands of the Sultan of Bijapur. The defeat also marked the end of the last direct line of Vijayanagara emperors. Within 20 years after this incident, the Marathas seized the fort from the Bijapur Sultans.

 

UNDER THE MARATHAS (1678–1707)

In 1676, the Marathas under Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj marched south to the Tanjore country, which had recently been attacked and captured by Chokkanatha Nayak of Madurai. That same year, Ekoji, the brother of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, took control of Tanjore, but was under threat from his immediate neighbours Madurai and Bijapur Sultans, based in Gingee and Vellore respectively. Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's army first captured the Gingee Fort in 1677, but left the task of attacking Vellore to his assistant and rushed to Deccan as his territories were being attacked by Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb. In 1688, after a prolonged fourteen-month siege, the Fort passed on to the Marathas. Shivaji's representative strengthened the fort's fortifications and ruled the area in relative peace.

 

UNDER THE MUGHAL ARMY (1707–1760)

In 1707, the year that Aurangazeb died, the Delhi Army under Daud Khan captured Vellore Fort after defeating the Marathas. The struggle for the Delhi throne empowered the Deccan Muslim governors to declare independence. In 1710 the recently established Nawab of Arcot under Sadat Ullah Khan followed suit. Dost Ali, the latter's successor in 1733, gifted the fort to one of his sons-in-law.

 

UNDER CONTROL OF BRITISH (1760–1947)

Following the decline of Madurai Nayaks, the revolt from people and coinciding with the emergence of the British on the Madras coast, the Nawab and his sons-in-law broke out into a feud over the title of Nawab. The Nawab was supported by the British and the rival claimants by the French resulting in the Carnatic Wars. The British Nawab's victory in the 1760s in the Battle of Plassey finally sealed the fate of the French in India and launched Britain's dominance of the Indian subcontinent. In addition, the British took possession of Vellore fort with relative ease and used the Fort as a major garrison until the Indian independence. In 1780, the fort was besieged by Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War, but the English garrison held out against Hyder Ali for over two years after which the siege was lifted.

Vellore Mutiny (1806)

 

In 1806 Vellore fort was used by the British to station two infantry regiments of the Madras Army plus four companies of an English regiment. The British Commander in chief of the Madras Army had prescribed a new round hat for the Madras sepoys to replace their turbans, plus the removal of beards, caste markings and jewelry. These measures were intended merely to improve the appearance of the Madras soldiers on parade but the sepoys considered them to be an offensive meddling with their religious beliefs. The situation was worsened by the fact that the hat included a leather cockade, made from cow hide.

 

On July 10, 1806, before sunrise, the Indian sepoys stationed in the fort attacked the European barracks there, and by late morning had killed about 15 Officers and 100 English soldiers and ransacked their houses. Some of the rebelling soldiers also urged the sons of Tipu Sultan to lead the campaign. The news quickly reached the colonel commanding the Cavalry Cantonment in Arcot, who reached the Fort with several squadrons of British and Indian cavalry. The mutineers, numbering more than 800, were scattered with heavy losses. By noon the mutiny was put down. The events lead to a court of inquiry by the British, who decided to shift the Tipu Sultan's family from Vellore to faraway Calcutta, in isolation.

The news of the Vellore Rebellion sent shockwaves to England. The Governor, Lord William Bentinck, and Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, Sir John Cradock both were recalled on this count. This was the first rebellion experienced in the fort by the British.

 

ARCHITECTURE

It is mentioned that "there is no such fort on the face of earth like the one in Vellore. It had a deep wet ditch (moat) where once 10,000 crocodiles swarmed, waiting to grab every intruder into this impregnable fort. It has huge double walls with bastions projecting irregularly, where two carts can be driven abreast". The fort was constructed in granite from the nearby quarries in Arcot and Chittor districts. It spreads over an area of 0.54 km2 and is located at an altitude of 220 m within a broken mountain range. The fort is surrounded by a moat which was once used as an additional line of defence in the case of an invasion. It includes an escape tunnel leading to Virinjipuram about 12 km away, which could be used by the king and other royals in the event of an attack, later disputed by Researchers of the ASI who found no evidence of existence of such passage. The fort is considered to be among the best of military architecture in Southern India and is known for its grand ramparts, wide moat and robust masonry.

 

The fort houses a Temple, a Mosque and a Church, the renowned Vellore Christian Hospital, and many other buildings that are now used as public offices. The Jalagandeeswarar Temple, dedicated to Jalagandeeswar, is noted for its sculptures, and speaks volumes of the exquisite craftsmanship of the highly skilled artisans of that period. The sculpture in the porch on the left of the entrance is a masterpiece appreciated by the connoisseurs of art and architecture. The temple was long used as an arsenal, and remained without a deity, although several years ago it was sanctified with an idol of Lord Shiva.

 

The Mosque inside the fort was constructed during the last Arcot Nawab's period. Presently, Muslims are not allowed to pray inside the fort mosque despite protest by several thousand people living in Vellore. Vellore's inhabitants believe that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is being discriminatory by stopping Muslims from Mosque while Hindus and Christians are not stopped from entering temple and church respectively. However, some refute the claims of the Muslims, as in the late 1980s, Muslims late by the Late Abdul Samad had given a commitment that the Muslims did not want to worship inside the Fort structure, in support of re-opening of the Jalagandeeswarar Temple. The local jamaath leadership was also against this move, and blamed fringe political organisations of whipping up communal dis-harmony. The Church inside the fort was constructed during the early British period (Robert Clive, East Indian Company). Muthu Mandapam is a memorial built around the tombstone of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last ruler of Sri Lanka.

 

ST. JOHN´S CHURCH, VELLORE FORT

St. John's Church, Vellore located inside the Vellore Fort was raised in 1846 by the Government of Madras for the officers and men of the East India Company military station. The church is named afer St. John the Evangelist. However, the church was never officially consecrated and hence not officially named as St. John’s Church. St. John's Church is the oldest standing church in the Vellore Diocese.

 

ROYAL PRISONERS

Vellore Fort has housed several royal captives over its history. After the fall of Srirangapatnam in 1799 and the death of Tipu Sultan, his family, including his sons, daughters, wife and mother (who was the wife of Hyder Ali), was detained in the fort. After the 1806 Sepoy Mutiny, the British transferred Tipu's sons and daughters to Calcutta. The Tombs of Bakshi Begum (died 1806), widow of Hyder Ali and Padshah Begum, Tipu's wife & sons, who died in 1834 are located with a kilometre to the eastern side of the Fort.

 

Vellore Fort also became the final destination for the last ruling monarch of Sri Lanka, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1798–1815). The king and his family were kept as prisoners of war at this fort for 17 years with his family. His grave can be found in the fort along with last raya kings of Vijayanagara Empire.

 

CULTURE

The Fort is situated in the centre of Vellore town opposite to the Old Bus stand. Vellore is on the Chennai-Bangalore highway and is 120 km from Chennai and 210 km from Bangalore. The nearest rail station is Vellore-Katpadi Junction, where all super fast trains stop. The nearest airports are Tirupati Airport, Chennai International Airport and Bengaluru International Airport. In 1981 the Post and Telegraph Department of India released a stamp commemorating the Fort, and in July 2006 a stamp marking the 200th anniversary of the Mutiny was released by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. This 13th-century fort was opened up to tourists and is now maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India. Government Museum is a multi purpose museum maintained by the Department of Museum Government of Tamil Nadu. Its treasures include ancient- and present-day curiosities relating to subjects such as anthropology, botany, geology, numismatics, pre-history, and zoology. Historical monuments of the erstwhile composite North Arcot district are gracefully depicted in the gallery. This museum is kept open on all days between 9.00 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. and 2.00 p.m and 5.00 p.m. except on holidays, and admission fee is INR 5/-.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Be back in 23 min. The story is getting written!

 

“Down the suers” built on board the asteroid rebel HQ-spacecraft built by the tech-wiz wonder-kid Cray the Space-plumber Morrianella is “maintaining” the pipes with her newly built robot Septic-3 also one of Cray’s creations…

 

- Mistress plumber!! Why do you seem so sad? Or is that bored I am programmed for over five million human emotions as well as plumbing, I am also here to help and aid you and even if I am only a few days old I am certified and approved to help and handle human emotions!

 

- ok butt-bot or whatever you name is, I will spill my content of my intestines in to you like a overgrown mutant Tri-phone spills his waste products down the suers of a crap-cruiser on orbit around a brown turd-star!!!

 

- oh Great Master Mistress!!!

 

- For a starter, Mr. turd-bot, don’t call me mister, master or mistress just call me Morry like me friends do…

Oh then we have number two: don’t speak so much you mouth-circuit has the same flow and consistency as a zoophone chef when he pukes his seven mouths down a porcelain-throne…

 

Then turd, eh Meant third: this ain’t no real suer, not even this turtle is real, that is another of Cray’s bots, it behaves nothing like a real suer-turtle… these pipes make no sense either, why would a y-junction be placed next to a 3” copper-pipe, ey tell me smart butt-droid???

 

…I mean I know Cray did these phone suers just to keep me occupied, he means well and this ships small crew and even smaller suer-system that has been optimized by cray in to a completely smooth 109% recycling system…

 

…but hey circuit-brain this is all fake, I cannot stand it… give me a giant federation emperor class cruiser to maintain that would be something wort working on, they have suers and piping that is so old and ancient that some of them was probably even in use during roman timed!!! You should see some of the creatures that live in those ancient pipes…

 

Some as huge as a bus and you can smack them over the nose with the monkey-wrench and not even their pore-mites would notice the force if the blow…

 

Now give me a dirty old cruiser with a crew that has got the flue and ancient piping, that would be something, this is just fake, fake and fake… failed therapy for a novice!!!

 

I am a master, a professional, a finely seasoned artisan, I won the crappy-galaxy plumbing competition 10 times in a row… take notes of that in your circuit-notepad!!!

 

The bot makes a look on his uni-eyed faceless face that looked like he was computing and processing the info and then uttered the following sentence from his voice-vocoder b+ model artificial voice:

 

- Yes Madam master, I understand I will do my best to work faster…

 

Later on at the evening Cray wondered how Morry could have broken another suer-bot, the third in a week???

   

CCI student Abraham Martinez runs and maintains the XPS (X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer) machine with the help of his mentor, Shuttha Shutthanandan. Abraham prepares and analyzes samples for a variety of researchers.

 

Terms of Use: Our images are freely and publicly available for use with the credit line, "Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory"; Please use provided caption information for use in appropriate context.

Recipe: Supernatural Brownies

NYTimes: Published: April 11, 2007

However, I would maintain that the best of both worlds is achieved only by the Supernatural Brownie, the one that made me a convert. It is an accidental creation by Mr. Malgieri, who (in a rare human moment for a pastry chef) once forgot to double the flour when baking his own fudge brownie recipe. Adapted from “Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers,” by Nick Malgieri (Morrow Cookbooks, 1998)

Time: About 1 hour

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, more for pan and parchment paper

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup dark brown sugar, such as muscovado

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup whole walnuts, optional.

1. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly. In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars and vanilla.

2. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour just until combined. If using chopped walnuts, stir them in. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using whole walnuts, arrange on top of batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.

Yield: 15 large or 24 small brownies.

Note: For best flavor, bake 1 day before serving, let cool and store, tightly wrapped.

 

The tallest North American bird standing as much as 5 foot tall, the Whooping Crane is an endangered species that is still struggling to come back from near extinction. In 1941, there were as few as 15 Whooping Cranes remaining in the wild, with only two surviving in captivity. Thanks to conservation efforts, as of February 2015, the total population was 603 birds, which included 161 held in captivity. The four that I encountered on August 27, 2016 are some of the 440 Whooping Cranes that still remain in the wild.

 

I had been chasing Whooping Cranes to photograph since I first began seeing reports of them in eastern Missouri earlier this year. In May I was at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area near Columbia, Missouri, photographing young eagles when I began to notice an unusual number of cars driving quickly through the conservation area towards one of the back lakes. Suspecting something was going on, I continued photographing the eagles hoping that whatever it was that the others were chasing, it would still be there by the time I made my way to the far end of the conservation area. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. By the time I arrived, everyone was getting back into their cars. Several people stopped me and told me that I had just missed four Whooping Cranes who had stopped for breakfast. They pointed in the direction of where the Whooping Cranes had flown, but I was unable to find any sign of them.

 

About 10 days ago (mid-August) I began seeing reports of four Whooping Cranes in Kaskaskia, Illinois. Kaskaskia is a very small farming community with a population of 14. Kaskaskia’s claim to fame is that, due to a flood in 1881 that caused a shift in the Mississippi River, the town actually sits on the Missouri side of the River, and is physically separated from the State of Illinois. The area (often called Kaskaskia Island) consists mostly of farm land (lots of corn) and low wetlands that are frequented by shorebirds (it’s a great place to find hundreds of egrets and herons).

 

After seeing several reports of the Whooping Cranes, I packed my gear very early last weekend and arrived in Kaskaskia before the sun rose. I began cruising the roads throughout Kaskaskia, focusing my attention on the area where the four birds had last been reported. I spent about three hours searching for the elusive Whooping Cranes before abandoning my efforts and crossing the river on the bridge at Chester to see if I could salvage my day with some other birds in southern Illinois.

 

Friday night (August 26, 2016) I couldn’t sleep at all. I had planned on waking up early to take a trip to Otter Slough near Dexter, Missouri, where I had seen reports of Avocets and Black-necked Stilts. When the clock read 2:00 a.m. and I still hadn’t fallen asleep, I decided I might as well pack my gear and get an early start to Otter Slough. I arrived just as the sun was coming up. Although I never did find the Avocets, I did find a small group of Black-necked Stilts to photograph.

 

Debating whether I should just go home and take a nap, or try one more spot to photograph, I decided to veer off I-55 and head back to Kaskaskia for one more try at finding the Whooping Cranes. I arrive in the small town around 10:30 a.m. I had lost the good morning light, but there was just enough cloud cover to soften the sun’s rays to avoid overly harsh photographs. I drove straight to the site of the last reported sighting that I had received just 2 days earlier on the Mo-Birds list-serve (an oxbow lake in a cornfield on Cemetery Lane). As I drove down the gravel road, I could see an SUV parked along the side of the road up ahead with a spotting scope on a tripod standing at the edge of the grass. Unless someone was watching the corn grow, I suspected that I had finally found my Whooping Cranes.

 

Bird watchers are always some of the friendliest people. As I pulled up one of the gentlemen waved me over and handed me his binoculars, pointing out several hundred yards to some white objects at the far end of the shallow oxbow lake surrounded by corn stalks. “Whooping Cranes?” I asked. “Whoppers,” he joked, referring to a report he had read on a list-serve that had misspelled the name. I looked through the binoculars and there they were - - four adult Whooping Cranes leisurely foraging in the shallow waters for food.

 

I quickly grabbed my camera with a 600mm lens and decided that since the birds were so far out, I would add a 2x teleconverter to the set up to provide maximum magnification. I walked to the edge of the oxbow lake and began shooting, being very careful to walk slowly and remain silent so as not to spook the endangered birds. As I did, the Whooping Cranes began slowly walking towards me. For a good 30 to 40 minutes, the Whooping Cranes kept wading closer and closer as I kept shooting. Eventually, they came so close that I had to remove the 2x teleconverter to keep them from overfilling the frame!

 

The Whooping Cranes ended up stopping within 40 feet or so of my location. I backed up several times to try to maintain my distance, but they clearly had little fear of humans (which is a problem for their survival). As you can see, all four birds are banded with radio transmitters on both legs (note the antenna). Although I’m sure these four have been reported many times by others over the past couple of days, I went ahead and reported their bands to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

 

These are incredible birds. They stood a good 4+ feet tall each and were peaceful and gentle. After they got a good look at me, and I got several hundred good photographs of them, they began to wade back in the direction they came. All-in-all, a pretty good photo day.

 

© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer.

 

The best way to view my photostream is on Flickriver: Nikon66's photos on Flickriver

TRANSVASCULAR FLOW MAINTAINS THE SMOOTH MUSCLE TONICITY OF VESSELS (arteriole).

 

LINK BOOK: www.amazon.com/author/carlos-paulo

 

AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH, FRENCH OR SPANISH !!

  

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Maintain grip on chain, use three finger handshake, forceful downward pressure on single strand

In 1953, the US Army issued a requirement for a general purpose helicopter that would be relatively simple to operate and maintain. Bell responded with its Model 204, which used a turboshaft powerplant rather than a piston engine, making it faster and more efficient. The Army liked the design and ordered it into production as the HU-1A in 1960, though this was quickly superseded by the HU-1B, with an extended fuselage that allowed for seven troops to be carried. The HU-1A designation was often read as "Huey," and the name stuck far more than its official one, even after the official designation switched to UH-1 after 1962.

 

The Huey would first see combat in Vietnam, and it became the symbol of that war: just the sound of the UH-1, which is distinctive, echoes that war. The UH-1 was central to the US Army's airmobile concept, which involved moving troops rapidly from point to point in Vietnam, in an attempt to catch North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. It was somewhat successful, in that American forces could concentrate quickly, move fast, and avoid ambushes along the way. The Huey was vulnerable as it approached the landing zone, and hundreds were shot down: the most dangerous job in the Vietnam War was arguably that of a Huey crewman. Weapons limited only by the crews' imagination were soon added to UH-1s. Vietnam-era slang reflected the Huey's job: a "slick" was a troop-carrying UH-1 with only door guns, while a "hog" was a gunship carrying rockets and heavier guns. Though vulnerable to ground fire and loud, the Huey turned in a superlative performance in Vietnam.

 

Over 16,000 UH-1s would be produced, and many are still in service, having seen action in every war since Vietnam, worldwide. It is only rivaled by the Russian Mi-8/17 Hip in use.

 

The identity of this Huey is a mystery. It is listed on numerous websites as 64-13914, a UH-1B, but it carries the tail number of 68-3019 and USAF Reserve markings, along with what remains of USAF 1980s-era Europe One camouflage--but on the tailboom only, while the fuselage looks to be faded US Army olive drab. The USAF never used the B model; their early Hueys were the UH-1F version. Given where the camouflage patterns differ, either this is 68-3019 partially repainted as 64-13914, or the tailboom of 68-3019 has been attached to the fuselage of 64-13914.

 

Assuming this is 64-13914, it has had quite the eventful career. Delivered to the US Army in 1966, it began its career attached to the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, but in 1967, it was transferred to the 129th Assault Helicopter Company at Tuy Hoa, South Vietnam. During its year in Vietnam, 64-13914 was hit four times by ground fire delivering troops to landing zones.

 

Following its Vietnam service, 64-13914 returned home and was then sent overseas again, this time to the 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in West Germany, where it would remain until 1972. As the Army was replacing its UH-1Bs with the UH-1H, 64-13914 was transferred to Fort Rucker, Alabama, where it was used as a training helicopter until 1977, when it was retired. It was then acquired by the state of Montana that year, and flown by the State Department of Lands until 1999, when it was retired for good. 64-13914 was then donated to the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana.

 

64-13914 (if this indeed that helicopter) has seen better days. Being on public display outdoors, it is subject to harsh Montana winters and thousands of people climbing into and on it. Though its paint job is faded and the helicopter is badly beat up on the interior, it is still more or less intact.

État de l’Unité, comté de Leer. Les bénéficiaires sont informés des procédures d'une distribution d'assistance alimentaire du CICR par largage aérien..

Unity State, Leer. Beneficiaries getting information about the procedures of an ICRC distribution of food delivered through an airdrop. .

People cue up from the early morning hours after being registered days before. Sometimes weather conditions change and delays occur of the airdrops. Before the Hercules plane takes off in Juba, the weather is checked. Communication with the staff on the ground is maintained to monitor the conditions..

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ICRC website, 12-06-2014 Operational Update No 07/2014.

South Sudan: Living conditions worsen sharply amid ever more pressing food needs.

To counter growing food insecurity, the ICRC and the South Sudan Red Cross have provided food supplies for around 250,000 people since the beginning of the crisis."The humanitarian situation is dire and could further deteriorate now that the rainy season has arrived. The rains disrupt the delivery of aid because roads become impassable and aircraft landing strips can turn to mud," said François Moreillon, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in South Sudan. "If security conditions in the country do not improve, and if access remains a problem, the food insecurity we are currently facing could be exacerbated and drag on for much longer.".

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Food has been distributed in Lakes, Unity, Upper Nile, Warrap, Jonglei, and Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal states. Since May, the ICRC has been using airdrops to bring in large quantities of food, seed and other essential aid. Staff on the ground are assessing needs and making the necessary preparations to take delivery of the aid being dropped at various sites. "Together with South Sudan Red Cross volunteers and the local community, they make sure that the aid is distributed fairly to those who need it most," explained Mr Moreillon. The last time the ICRC used airdrops to deliver aid was in 1997, in northern Afghanistan..

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Tens of thousands of people in Leer county, in the north of the country, have just received food and seed. Nymal (not her real name) is a widow with eight children. Her village, not far from a drop zone, was almost completely destroyed in the fighting. "It breaks my heart to see the destruction here," she said. "It will take a long time to rebuild everything that was destroyed. We are suffering because of the lack of food and medical care. I will give what I have received to my children." Her situation is similar to that of many people in the area. Nykouth (not her real name), the mother of six children, had to flee her home when she heard gunfire. Some weeks later, when she returned, she found her house burnt to the ground. Now she lives with her family under a tree. This is not the first time that she has seen violence in her town, but it is the first time that the destruction has been so extensive. "What happened this year is different," she said. "My kids will be so happy to see me bringing food home today.".

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"We are stepping up our food assistance in that area because it has one of the highest concentrations of displaced people, with many coming from Mayendit, Bentiu, Malakal and Koch, as well as the returnees from within Leer county itself," said Mr Moreillon. "We are focusing our efforts on the most isolated parts of the country, which have the least access to markets and the greatest concerns in terms of food security.".

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According to Asma Khaliq Awan, an ICRC relief coordinator, the situation is very serious. "It's heart-wrenching to see children storm into the drop zone and desperately pick up grains of sorghum left scattered on the ground after each distribution. It also speaks volumes about the problems in Leer." People who still have livestock are slaughtering them rampantly and generally have no seed reserves to plant. In a normal year, they would expect to harvest produce in October and November..

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A total of 294 metric tonnes of food for around 40,000 people and 60 metric tonnes of sorghum, okra, pumpkin, maize and cowpea seed have so far been airdropped to mitigate food insecurity and support the cultivation of crops during the planting season. Ground teams from the ICRC and the South Sudan Red Cross in Leer distribute the food and seed to people registered to receive it..

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The ICRC is constantly reminding the parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law. "We stress the obligation to grant unhindered access to humanitarian and medical workers and to show due respect for civilians and people who are wounded, sick, detained or surrendering," said Mr Moreillon. The ICRC welcomes any initiative that may improve the security environment and allow people to grow food and obtain improved access to basic services..

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Since the beginning of the latest emergency, in mid-December, in close cooperation with the South Sudan Red Cross the ICRC has:.

- performed almost 2,000 operations in 12 local health facilities, and provided medical supplies for 34 first-aid and other health-care facilities, as well as wound-dressing materials used in more than 5,000 cases by South Sudan Red Cross volunteers;.

- provided clean water for 230,000 people in displaced and other conflict-affected communities as well as in health and detention facilities in various parts of the country;.

- provided tents, cooking utensils and tarpaulins as emergency shelter for around 400,000 displaced people around the country;.

- visited more than 4,000 people held in various places of detention;.

- arranged for around 10,000 phone calls to be made from various camps to enable displaced people to contact family members.

Those vivid memories, and now have become the past.

“North Park” is a magnificent 42 room Queen Anne style mansion built on what is the most elevated section in the Borough of Essendon along Woodland Street. Still in remarkably original condition both inside and out, with its gardens well maintained, “North Park” is one of Melbourne’s grandest mansions and is representative of “Marvellous Melbourne”.

 

Built between 1888 and 1889 for Melbourne brewing magnate Alexander McCracken (1856 – 1915) and his family, the mansion was designed by architects Oakden, Addison and Kemp. The contract was let to builder D. Sinclair for £10,750. The foundations of the house are of bluestone and above that, the walls are faced with picked red Northcote bricks, relieved by dressing and bands. The residence is an excellent example of Federation Queen Anne style, as seen by the asymmetry in its design, terracotta ridge cresting, prominent gables and half-timbering to gables, and the tall chimneys. The entrance is central and reached by a wide flight of Malmsbury steps. The roof treatment is elaborate, with dormer windows, a steep central pavilion, cresting, and a widow’s walk. The roof of “North Park” still has its original imported Marseilles terracotta roof tiles made by the French company, Guichard Carvin de Cie, St Andrew. Apparently these unique tiles feature the firm's signature bee imprint on each one. Alterations and extensions were undertaken in 1906, including the complete redecoration of the interior to the design of Billing, Son and Peck. One magnificent edition to the house as part of the 1906 extension was a ballroom. It has a high domed, metal Arts and Crafts ceiling, Art Nouveau stained glass windows and French doors leading out into the garden to the estate’s ornamental fish pond, which is still as it was in 1900 when it was created. The ballroom was built by Alexander McCracken for the debut into society of his favourite daughter.

 

The estate grounds retain much of its original form, with a sweeping drive from the front gates on Woodland Street and the front of the house overlooking three curved terraces which are symmetrical about a central axis with the main towered entrance. The planting is a fine example of the Gardenesque style developed by John Claudius Loudon (1783 – 1843) in the early Nineteenth Century to display plants for their individual beauty. The grounds contain many mature trees which were planted when “North Park” was first constructed including; a pair of Himalayan Cedars, cypress trees, palm trees (almost as tall as the house itself) and a huge Moreton Bay Fig. All are surrounded by beds full of perennials which border a number of terraced lawns.

 

Alexander McCracken died at “North Park” in 1915. The mansion was sold to Harvey Patterson (1848 -1931), an executive of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, in the early 1920s. He and his wife lived there for a short while after his retirement. “North Park” was then purchased by the Society for Saint Columban in December 1923. It is them we have to thank for the house remaining in such excellent condition. Most of the rooms are still in-tact with original interior decoration and furniture.

 

When I visited and asked permission to photograph “North Park”, I was amazed by the completeness of the interior. It was almost like stepping back in time. The hallway still has its heavy Arts and Crafts wallpaper, tiled floor and original Victorian hall furniture. It is illuminated by a group of stained glass windows above the stairway is the glory of the house. Their theme is the golden age of ancient Greece. A smaller set of windows shows the golden age of ancient Ireland. I would dearly love to have photographed them, but that was not something the Father would have permitted.

 

Now owned and maintained by the National Trust, this engine house worked for about six years from 1860. The house itself contained a 30 inch pumping engine. The graceful chimney stack stands at the opposite corner from where the boiler house originally stood. A mound of clinker can still be seen to the left of the latter - now covered with vegetation. The mine itself was never particulary "prosperous" despite its name. It produced mostly tin, although the actual output is not recorded. The engine house was used by the BBC for the filming of 'Poldark' in the 1970s.

 

The image was taken from a DJI Phantom Vision 2 Plus quad-copter.

Remarkable duo in hill country of Sri Lanka ,Professor Ashley Halpe

 

It was one of the fashionable, calm but unusual houses situated in a fashionable quarter of the hill capital, Kandy. The house looked like a museum of the arts. As soon as I stepped into it with my able photographer, what I experienced first was the sight of enthusiastic students who had come to study choral music under Mrs. Bridget Halpe.

 

It was indeed a most suitable abode for such pursuits as music and literature. The house is set against a well-maintained garden and surrounded by tall green Atthika, Damunu, Haveri Nuga and other trees, providing an aura of serenity, while the veranda gives spectacular views of the Hantana range and Primrose Hill. There is no doubt that the cool fresh air that pervades the atmosphere would breathe fresh ideas and much needed artistic freedom into the enthusiastic students as well as visitors to this abode of the Halpes.

 

Brilliant career

 

After a brilliant career at the University of Ceylon/Peradeniya as Professor of English for thirty three years, Professor Ashley Halpe is now retired. But he and his wife Bridget are still leading quite a busy life contributing to all spheres of human activity.

 

"I attended De Mazenod College, Kandana, upto what we now call O/Ls and then I went over to St. Peter's as De Mazenod had no science teaching for the University Entrance - I was a science student then. I was admitted to the University of Ceylon in 1952. I was in the first batch that came to Peradeniya in 1952 - there were only nine hundred students on the Campus then! I graduated in 1956 and in the same year Bridget entered the University", said Professor Halpe reminding us of a golden era of his life and certainly of the University of Ceylon as it was then called .

 

"He came as an English lecturer and I was one of his students. That's how we met. We had a wonderful time in the campus as undergraduates. I must say we were not like present-day students. Campus was an exciting place and we took part in every possible activity", said Mrs. Bridget Halpe, of the kind of student life they had on the Peradeniya campus.

 

"In fact we were more comfortable in campus than in our homes", said Professor Halpe. "My father was a teacher with seven children. Much of my childhood was spent in Kandana. My father, though trained as a teacher of English, rapidly moved on to administration. He was interested in cadetting and was an officer, so during the war he volunteered for service.

 

For some time, he did administration for the army, and when he came out of that he became a government teacher. He was the Principal of the Havelock Town Senior School, now called Lumbini", he said.

 

Mrs. Halpe's father was a civil servant. Most of her childhood was spent in Colombo and in Galle. Her father, Victor Fonseka Abayakoon was in charge of elections in the Western and Southern provinces. Bridget had to change schools whenever her father was transferred.

 

As an infant she began her schooling at St. Mary's Convent Matara, then to Holy Family Convent Dehiwela and then in Galle she attended Sacred Heart Convent. She was one of the few who got direct admission to the University of Ceylon in 1956. She said that the university training instilled a sense of disciplined reading in her.

 

It was when she went to England that she began to discover her talents in music. While Professor Halpe did his PhD she turned to specialising in music, and in England she was intrigued by the vast horizon it presented. She did the LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music) in pianoforte performance, in London, while simultaneously taking the B.Mus courses in the University of Bristol. Since then her hobby has become her career; in fact she started her teaching career in England.

 

Mrs. Halpe has also been the President of the Kandy Music Society for many years. The society is a forum that provides an interactive platform for music of diverse traditions, Western, Sri Lankan and global. In the activities of this society, music is presented to the members and wider audiences.

 

Exuberant

 

Visiting musicians from various countries perform in Kandy, enriching cultural life and exposing local music lovers to diverse musical traditions. Every year the society holds a "Young Performers' Concert" to promote young talent in and around Kandy and a Choral Festival, to which all school choirs in and around Kandy are invited. These events are multicultural and are not confined to Western "Classical" music alone.

 

It should be mentioned here that Bridget Halpe has kept The Peradeniya Singers alive. The group started in 1953 as the University Singers under Robin Mayhead from the University of Cambridge and consisted of campus students.

 

This group as Peradeniya Singers, so named because it now includes many non-university people, continues to present many concerts annually.

 

Following the tradition of residential universities, they have always shared their lives with university students.

 

Their house became a centre for the meetings of different student societies, while Professor Halpe's work as University Proctor, Director of Welfare and with the Dramsoc constantly brought students into their lives, sometimes in the middle of the night! as ardent Catholics, the religion has had a profound influence on their lives and no doubt on the service they give to others.

 

Apart from numerous academic papers and articles to professional journals both local and international, Professor Halpe has translated major Sinhala literary works such as Martin Wickramasinghe's Madol Duwa and Viragaya into English, besides doing versions of several Sigiri Poems.

 

He has also served as Dean, Faculty of Arts, has been a visiting lecturer at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, Honorary Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge and twice Visiting Professor to the USA in the Fulbright Programme.

 

Genius in Fine Arts

 

He is also a critic and poet with three volumes of poetry to his credit. The government of Sri Lanka has conferred the titles of "Kalakeerthi" and "Vishvaprasadhini" on him, and the French government that of "Chevalier dans I'ordre des Palmes Academique".

 

A little known fact about him is that he is also a gifted painter whose works have been exhibited at the Sao Paolo Biennale in Brazil and at the Royal West of England Academy. He has also been active in theatre and has directed several productions for the University Dramsoc.

 

Both Halpes have contributed to the drama activities of the wider community eg. producing Twelfth Night in Sri Lankan costume, MacIntyre's Let's Give Them Curry and EMW Joseph's The foreign Expert with the Kandy Players.

 

They have frequently helped Kandy schools with their presentations at the Shakespeare Competitions and their productions won first place for Trinity College in 2003 while Trinity and Girls' High School were adjudged as the best outstation schools last year (2004).

 

Both Professor and Mrs. Halpe keep an open house for students, friends and family, always welcoming them and guiding and counselling whenever needed. It was evident from the gleaming eyes and the manner in which they spoke of the past that the duo had led a very good life.

 

by Ranga Chandrarathne ,Sunday Observer, 8 January 2006

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

As the Egyptian border was threatened by an Italian and German invasion during the Second World War, the Royal Air Force established more airfields in Egypt. The Royal Egyptian Air Force was sometimes treated as a part of the Royal Air Force, at other times a strict policy of neutrality was followed as Egypt maintained its official neutrality until very late in the war. As a result, few additional aircraft were supplied by Britain, however the arm did receive its first modern fighters, Hawker Hurricanes and a small number of Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks. In the immediate post-war period, cheap war surplus aircraft, including a large number of Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXs were acquired.

 

Following the British withdrawal from the British Protectorate of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, Egyptian forces crossed into Palestine as part of a wider Arab League military coalition in support of the Palestinians against the Israelis. During 1948–1949, Egypt received 62 refurbished Macchi C.205V Veltro (Italian: Greyhound) fighters. The C.205 was an Italian World War II fighter aircraft built by the Aeronautica Macchi. Along with the Reggiane Re.2005 and Fiat G.55, the Macchi C.205 was one of the three "Serie 5" Italian fighters built around the powerful German Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine.

The C.205 Veltro was a refinement of the earlier C.202 Folgore. With a top speed of some 640 km/h (400 mph) and equipped with a pair of 20 mm cannon as well as two 12.7 mm Breda machine guns, the Macchi C.205 had been highly respected by Allied and Axis pilots alike. Widely regarded as one of the best Italian aircraft of World War II, it proved to be extremely effective, destroying a large number of Allied bombers, and it proved capable of meeting fighters such as the North American P-51D Mustang on equal terms.

 

For the Egyptian order, eight C.205 and 16 C.202 were upgraded to C.205 standard in May 1948. In February 1949, three brand new and 15 ex-C.202, and in May another ten C.205 and C.202 each were brought to the Egyptian C.205 standard. This last contract was not finalized, though: Israeli secret services reacted with a bombing in Italy, which at the time was supplying both Israel and the Arab states, which, among others, destroyed Macchi facilities and damaged Egyptian C.205s still on order.

 

Only 15 completed Macchis were delivered to Egypt before the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, seeing brief combat against the Israeli Air Force. The new Veltros were fully equipped, while the Folgore conversions were armed with only two 12.7 mm Breda machine guns. They were the lightest series of the entire production, and consequently had the best performance, but were seriously under-armed. Some Veltros, equipped with underwing bomb racks were used in ground-attack sorties against Israeli targets.

 

This left the Egyptian air force with a lack of capable fighters, so that Egypt ordered nineteen additional Fiat G.55 fighters from Italian surplus stocks and searched for ways to remedy the situation, since the relations with Great Britain had severely suffered under the Arab-Israeli War. This led to the plan to build and develop aircraft independently and just based on national resources, and eventually to the Helwan HA-100, Egypt’s first indigenous combat aircraft – even though it was rather a thorough upgrade program than a complete new construction.

 

Opened in late 1950 to manufacture airplanes, the Helwan Aircraft Factory, located in the South of Cairo, took on the challenge to create a domestic, improved fighter from existing C.205 and C.202 airframes in Egyptian service and its Fiat engines still available from Italy. The resulting Helwan HA-100 retained most of the forward fuselage structure of the C.205 with the original engine mounts, as well as the wings, but measures were taken to improve aerodynamics and combat value. One of these was the introduction of a new (yet framed) bubble canopy, which afforded the pilot with a much better all-round field of view and also improved the forward view while taxiing. This modification necessitated a lowered spine section, and wind tunnel tests suggested a deteriorated longitudinal stability, so that the tail section was completely redesigned. The fin was considerably enlarged and now had a square outline, while the stabilizers were raised into an almost cruciform tail configuration and also enlarged to improve the aircraft’s responsiveness to directional changes. The wings were clipped to improve handling and roll characteristics at low to medium altitudes, where most dogfights in the Arab-Israeli War had taken place.

The HA-100 retained the license-built Daimler Bent DB 605 from Italy, but to adapt this Fiat Tifone engine to the typical desert climate in Egypt with higher ambient temperatures and constant sand dust in the air, the HA-100 received an indigenous dust filter, a more effective (and larger) ventral radiator and a bigger, single oil cooler that replaced the C.205’s small drum coolers under the engine, which were very vulnerable, esp. to ground fire from light caliber weapons. To gain space in the fuselage under the cockpit for new fuel tank, both radiator and oil cooler were re-located to positions under the inner wings, similar in layout to early Supermarine Spitfire Marks.

 

While the HA-100 left the drawing boards and an initial converted C.205 went through trials, relations with Britain had been restored and the official state of war with Israel ensured that arms purchases continued. This gave the REAF an unexpected technological push forward: In late 1949, Egypt already received its first jet fighter, the British Gloster Meteor F4, and shortly after some de Havilland Vampire FB5s, which rendered the HA-100 obsolete. Nevertheless, the project was kept alive to strengthen Egypt’s nascent aircraft industry, but the type was only met with lukewarm enthusiasm.

The first HA-100 re-builds were delivered to 2 Sqn Royal Egyptian Air Force at Edku (East of Alexandria) in mid-1951, painted in a camouflage scheme of Dark Earth and Middle Stone with Azure Blue undersides, using leftover RAF material from WWII. Later, REAF 1 Sqn at Almaza near Cairo received HA-100s, too. Eventually, around forty HA-100s were built for the REAF until 1952. The only export customer for the HA-100 was Syria: sixteen machines, rejected by the REAF, were delivered in early 1952, where they served alongside former RAF Spitfire F.Mk.22s.

 

The REAF HA-100s only had a short career, but they eventually faced frontline duties and fired in anger. This also marked their last deployments, which occurred during the early stages of the Suez Crisis in 1956.

Only about 15 HA-100s of REAF No. 2 Squadron were still in flying condition due to quickly worsening engine spares shortages, and the aircraft had, in the meantime, been hardwired to carry up to four “Sakr” unguided 122mm rockets on the underwing hardpoints. Due to their agility at low altitude, the HA-100s were primarily used for ground attacks and low-level reconnaissance duties. On their missions the aircraft still performed well, but at that time, all Egyptian aircraft had been stripped off of their camouflage and were operated in a bare metal finish – a poor decision, since the glinting airframes were highly visible both in the air and on the ground. Consequently, the vintage propeller aircraft became easy targets, resulting high losses, and the HA-100s were grounded. They were officially retired by April 1957, after the end of the Suez conflict, and scrapped.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 9,10 m (29 ft 10 in)

Wingspan: 10.01 m (32 ft 9½ in)

Height: 3.52 m (11 ft 6¼ in)

Wing area: 16.8 m² (181 sq ft)

Airfoil: root: NACA 23018 (modified); tip: NACA 23009 (modified)

Empty weight: 2.695 kg (5,936 lb)

Gross weight: 3.621 kg (7,975 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 4.100 kg (9,030 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Fiat RA.1050 R.C.58 Tifone (license-built Daimler Bent DB 605) V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston

engine with 1,100 kW (1,500 hp), driving a 3-bladed constant-speed propeller#

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 642 km/h (399 mph, 347 kn) at 7,200 m (23,600 ft)

Cruise speed: 400 km/h (250 mph, 220 kn)

Range: 950 km (590 mi, 510 nmi)

Service ceiling: 11,500 m (37,700 ft)

Time to altitude: 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in 2 minutes 40 seconds

Wing loading: 202.9 kg/m2 (41.6 lb/sq ft)

 

Armament.

2× 12.7 mm (.5 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns, 400 RPG, in the nose

2× 20 mm MG 151 cannon, 250 RPG, in the outer wings

2× underwing hardpoints for 160 kg (350 lb) each for bombs or four 122mm Sakr unguided rockets

  

The kit and its assembly:

This oddity was spawned from curiosity – when read about the lightweight Helwan HA-300 fighter from the early Sixties, I wondered when and how the Egyptian aircraft industry had started? I was even more curious because I had already attributed a what-if model, the purely fictional (and later) HA-410 fighter bomber, to Egyptian engineering. So, I researched Helwan’s origins, checked the time frame of its establishment and eventually came across the REAF’s post-WWII C.205 Veltros. What if there had been an indigenous update program…?

 

Consequently, this conversion’s basis is a C.205V kit from Delta 2. This kit is based upon a unique mold, quite similar to the later Italeri kit, but it is different and has some curious solutions. For instance, the landing gear struts are mounted into the wings with L-shaped attachment pegs – as if the landing gear is supposed to be retractable. Odd, but very stable. Another weird solution: the wing gun barrels are attached to the wings together with massive plastic wedges that fit into respective openings. Another quite rigid construction, even though it calls for trimming and PSR. Beyond these quirks, the kit is quite nice. It comes with a convincing mix of recessed panel lines and raised rivet heads. Some parts are a bit soft in shape, though, e. g. the cowling fairings, but overall I am positively surprised.

 

To change the aircraft’s look I did some conversions, though. The most obvious change is the new tail section, which was transplanted wholesale from a KP Yak-23 and had the C.205’s tail wheel attachment section transplanted from the Delta 2 kit. Originally, I wanted to move the whole cockpit forward, but then just replaced canopy and spine section with a clear part from a Hobby Boss MiG-15 and putty. Other, rather cosmetic changes include clipped wing tips to match the Yak-23’s square tail surfaces shape, and the C.205’s small elliptic stabilizers were replaced with tailored, slightly bigger parts from the scrap box. A bigger/deeper radiator and a different oil cooler replaced the original parts, and I placed them under the inner wings behind the landing gear wells. Both donors come from Spitfires, even though from different kits (IIRC, the oil cooler from an AZ Models Mk. V kit and the radiator from a FROG Mk. XIV). The flaps were lowered, too, because this detail was easy to realize with this kit.

  

Painting and markings:

The HA-100 received a contemporary camouflage, the RAF Tropical Paint Scheme consisting of Dark Earth and Middle Stone with Azure Blue undersides. The pattern was adapted from RAF Spitfires, and Modelmaster (2052 and 2054) and Humbrol (157) enamels were used, with a light overall black ink washing and some post panel shading. Being a former Italian aircraft, I painted the cockpit in a typical, Italian tone, a very light grayish green called “Verde Anticorrosione“, which was used during WWII on many interior surfaces – I used a mix of Revell 59 with some 45. The landing gear and the respective wells became aluminum (Humbrol 56), though.

 

One challenge became the characteristic black-and-white REAF ID bands on the wings. These were improvised with generic decal material from TL-Modellbau: on a 1 cm wide black band I simply added two white 2.5 mm stripes, for a very good result. Most other markings belong to an early REAF MiG-15, taken from a Microscale omnibus sheet for various MiG fighters. This provided the green-trimmed white fuselage band, the roundels and the fin flash, and a white spinner completed the REAF ID markings. Unfortunately the decals turned out to be brittle (ESCI-esque...) and disintegrated upon the first attempt to apply them, so I tried to save them with Microsol Decal Film, and this actually worked like a charm, even though the resurrected decals did not adhere well to the model's surface. The REAF 2 Squadron emblem comes from a vintage PrintScale Hawker Hurricane sheet, the white code letter on the fuselage came from an Xtradecal RAF codes sheet, and the black Arabic serials came from a Begemot sheet for MiG-29s.

 

The kit received some soot stains around the exhaust ports and the gun muzzles and was finally sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

  

Even though it’s just a modded Macchi C.205, the result looks …different. From certain angles the aircraft reminds a lot of a P-51D Mustang, like one of the lightweight prototypes? The Egyptian markings add a confusing touch, though, and while the bodywork is not perfect, I am happy with the result. The Yak-23 tail fits perfectly, and with the narrow wings the HA-100 also reminds a bit of the two-engine Westland Whirlwind?

Mainau [ˈmaɪnaʊ] (About this soundlisten) also referred to as Mav(e)no(w), Maienowe (in 1242), Maienow (in 1357), Maienau, Mainowe (in 1394) and Mainaw (in 1580) is an island in Lake Constance (on the Southern shore of the Überlinger See near the city of Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany). It is maintained as a garden island and a model of excellent environmental practices.[1] Administratively, the island has been a part of Konstanz since December 1, 1971, when the municipality of Litzelstetten, of which Mainau was part, was incorporated into Konstanz. Mainau is still part of Litzelstetten, now one of 15 wards (administrative subdivisions) of Konstanz.

 

The island belongs to the Lennart Bernadotte-Stiftung (eng. The Lennart Bernadotte Foundation),[2] an entity created by Prince Lennart Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, originally a Prince of Sweden and Duke of Småland.[3] It is one of the main tourist attractions of Lake Constance. Beside flowers there is a park landscape with views on the lake. There is a greenhouse as well with tropical climate and thousands of butterflies.

 

Mainau Bay is the location of their university's sailing club.

Mainau Island is a "flowering island" notable for its parks and gardens. Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden, created the island's arboretum, which now contains 500 species of deciduous and coniferous trees, many exotic and valuable, including fine specimens of Sequoiadendron giganteum (1864) and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (1952). The island also contains about 200 rhododendron and azalea varieties.

 

Due to the advantageous climate at the lake, palm trees and other Mediterranean plants can grow on the drop-shaped island. Because of its rich subtropical and partly even tropical vegetation, Mainau Island is also called "flowering island in the Lake Constance". Count Lennart Bernadotte, who died in 2004, liked to call his island "Blumenschiff" (engl. flower ship). He also described the famous destination as follows: "She is a coquettish little Lady, Mainau Island, who constantly demands much attention, even more love and ceaselessly new clothes." - Lennart Bernadotte. By "new clothes", he probably meant the blossoms, plants and flower-beds which are constantly renewed by the gardeners.

 

Apart from the historic buildings, the centerpiece of Mainau Island is the Arboretum with its 500 different types of rare and valuable broad-leaved trees and conifers, which was created in 1856 by grand duke Friedrich I. Among those is one of Germany's "oldest" dawn redwood trees (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). The tree, which originated from China, was planted on the island in 1952, when it was just 70 centimeters tall. Particularly mighty are some exemplars of the giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Their seeds came from California in 1853 and were planted on the island in 1864, which makes them one of the oldest of their kind in Europe. You can find the above-mentioned giant redwoods as well as Cedars, Dawn Redwoods and Tulip Poplars on the island. The Arboretum expands towards the north-west of the island.

 

Spring marks the beginning of the "Blumenjahr" (eng. Flower Year) with an exhibition of orchids. From March to May you can see several types of flowers in full bloom, like Tulips, Daffodils, Primroses, Forget-Me-Nots and Hyacinths. To show the full beauty of all these flowers the so-called „Frühlingsallee“ (eng. Spring Alley) was opened, which is a path across the island surrounded by beds of these plants. From May to June over 200 kinds of Rhododendrons and Azaleas are in full bloom. To the west of the "Comturey-Keller" you can find an Italian rose garden commissioned by Friedrich I. This rose garden is strictly geometric and consists of pergolas, sculptures and fountains. In general, over 1200 kinds of roses can be found on the island.

 

„Frühlingsallee“ leads to „Mediterran-Terrassen“ (eng. Mediterranean Terrace) where exotic plants such as palm families, agaves, cacti and bougainvillea are presented in pails during summer. Lake Constance and its surroundings as well as the Alps can be seen in a panoramic view from here. In July the blossoms of brugmansia and hibiscus are blooming on Mainau Island and in August the blossoms of passion flowers bloom.

 

On the southern end you can find “Südgarten” (eng. South Garden) where in autumn fields of dahlia with approximately 20,000 dahlia bushes and 250 varieties gleam from September until October. Spring and summer flowers such as different kinds of fuchsia are growing on the affiliated shore garden to the eastern side of “Südgarten”.

 

The “Bodenseerelief” (eng. Relief of Lake Constance) is a very popular photo motive. It is a relief with the picture of a flower which is changed by season. A small harbor with a landing place is situated to the northern side of Mainau Island. Excursion boats lay in here and another entrance to “Frühlingsallee” can be found here.

Until the Napoleonic mediatisations and secularisations of small German fiefs this island belonged to the Order of Teutonic Knights. It was later sold into private ownership. In 1853 Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden purchased the island as his personal property and used the palace built by the Teutonic Knights as summer palace. At the end of World War I Baden became a republic with the abdication of Grand Duke Frederick II, son of Frederick I. The former Grand Duke retained his private property including Mainau. When he died childless in 1928 the island passed to his sister Victoria of Baden, wife of King Gustaf V of Sweden. Upon her death two years later she bequeathed the island to her second son Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland and his descendants. In 1932 Prince Wilhem gave Mainau to his only child Lennart Bernadotte who owned it until 1974 when he transferred the island to a foundation. Count Bernadotte formed Enterprise Mainau GmbH in 1991 as a private enterprise to manage the island for the benefit of the Lennart Bernadotte-Stiftung. The Count remained active in managing Mainau until his death in 2004 but had appointed his second wife Sonja co-manager in 2001. Widowed, she and their children ran both the foundation and the management company until 2007. Since January 2007 Bettina Bernadotte, the eldest daughter of Lennart and Sonja, directs the Mainau GmbH as current manager, and since 2011 her brother Björn Bernadotte has joined her. In 1862, signs of an earlier population were discovered along the south banks of Mainau and soon exploited by domain administrator Walter: among the items were wedges, a potsherd, flint splinters, an axe and a muller. The pile dwelling settlement made up of six houses was uncovered in the 1930s and dated back to the Neolithic Age ( 3.000 b.c.). Lake-dwelling settlements of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age were located along the northern shore and the southwestern island along the shallow water zone.

 

More info and languages available at:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainau