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Managed to make it to London Pride again, with my pal sisyphus007. This time I hired a Canon 85mm f/1.2L II lens, an absolute brick that was in itself a workout to carry round. Was perhaps a bit too ambitious in my determination to shoot with as wide an aperture as possible. When I hit the right focus point it was sharp, but I did find the focussing to be a little cumbersome.
As ever, the day was characterised by fun, happiness and laughter. The participants were, without fail, delighted to be photographed. Hopefully they all enjoyed the day !!
Haytor Rocks
Dartmoor is a moor in southern Devon, England. Protected by National Park status as Dartmoor National Park, it covers 954 km2 (368 sq mi).
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous Period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The highest point is High Willhays, 621 m (2,037 ft) above sea level. The entire area is rich in antiquities and archaeology.
Dartmoor is managed by the Dartmoor National Park Authority, whose 22 members are drawn from Devon County Council, local district councils and Government.
Parts of Dartmoor have been used as military firing ranges for over 200 years. The public is granted extensive land access rights on Dartmoor (including restricted access to the firing ranges) and it is a popular tourist destination.
Dartmoor includes the largest area of granite in Britain, with about 625 km2 (241 sq mi) at the surface, though most of it is under superficial peat deposits. The granite (or more specifically adamellite) was intruded at depth as a pluton into the surrounding sedimentary rocks during the Carboniferous period, probably about 309 million years ago. It is generally accepted that the present surface is not far below the original top of the pluton; evidence for this includes partly digested shale xenoliths, contamination of the granite and the existence of two patches of altered sedimentary rock on top of the granite. A considerable gravity anomaly is associated with the Dartmoor pluton as with other such plutons. Measurement of the anomaly has helped to determine the likely shape and extent of the rock mass at depth.
Dartmoor is known for its tors – hills topped with outcrops of bedrock, which in granite country such as this are usually rounded boulder-like formations. More than 160 of the hills of Dartmoor have the word tor in their name but quite a number do not. However this does not appear to relate to whether or not there is an outcrop of rock on their summit. The tors are the focus of an annual event known as the Ten Tors Challenge, when around 2400 people aged between 14 and 19 walk for distances of 56, 72 or 88 km (35, 45 or 55 mi) between ten tors on many differing routes.
The highest points on Dartmoor are on the northern moor: High Willhays, 621 m (2,037 ft), and Yes Tor, 619 m (2,031 ft). The highest points on the southern moor are Ryder's Hill, 515 m (1,690 ft), Snowdon 495 m (1,624 ft), and an unnamed point, 493 m (1,617 ft) at between Langcombe Hill and Shell Top. The best-known tor on Dartmoor is Haytor (called Hey Tor by William Crossing), 457 m (1,499 ft).
Dartmoor is known for its myths and legends. It is reputedly the haunt of pixies, a headless horseman, a mysterious pack of "spectral hounds", and a large black dog, among others. During the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, the moorland village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor was even said to have been visited by the Devil.
Many landmarks have ancient legends and ghost stories associated with them, such as the allegedly haunted Jay's Grave, the ancient burial site of Childe's Tomb, the rock pile called Bowerman's Nose, and the stone crosses that mark former mediaeval routes across the moor.
A few stories have emerged in recent decades, such as the "hairy hands", that are said to attack motorists on the B3212 near Two Bridges; and the "Beast of Dartmoor", a supposed big cat.
Dartmoor has inspired a number of artists and writers, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventure of Silver Blaze, R. D. Blackmore, Eden Phillpotts, Beatrice Chase, Agatha Christie, Rosamunde Pilcher, and the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fictional 1994 Quidditch World Cup final between Ireland and Bulgaria was hosted on the moor.
(Wikipedia)
Dartmoor [ˈdɑːtmʊə(r)/-mɔː(r)] ist eine Hügellandschaft auf einem etwa 954 km² großen Granitmassiv in der englischen Grafschaft Devon, dessen vornehmlich Moor und Heide tragenden Verebnungsflächen von einer Vielzahl sogenannter Tors (flache Wiesenhügel mit Granitfelsbildungen bis zu 10 Metern Höhe) überragt werden, die teilweise bis auf über 600 Meter ansteigen. Im Dartmoor-Gebiet finden sich zahlreiche Reste bronzezeitlicher Wohnstätten, Feldsysteme und Steinkreise. Charakteristisch sind außerdem die so genannten Clapper bridges aus dünnen Granitplatten.
Dreißig Prozent des Gemeindelandes ist baumloses Moor in Höhen über 366 Meter, dessen dicke Torfschicht fähig ist, große Wassermengen zu speichern. In einigen Gebieten wird die Heidelandschaft durch regelmäßiges Abbrennen erhalten. Naturliebhaber interessiert das Dartmoor vor allem als südlichst gelegener Nationalpark mit feuchtem, aber mildem Klima. Hinzu kommen einige attraktive Waldgebiete, zum Beispiel das Yarner Wood National Nature Reserve oder das Gebiet der Becky Falls mit einem hübschen Wasserfall. Drei dieser Wälder stammen wahrscheinlich noch aus der Zeit, als das ganze Areal zum königlichen Jagdgebiet gehörte. Einer davon könnte Wistman's Wood sein. Er liegt nördlich von Two Bridges und ist wegen seines seltsam verkrüppelten Bewuchses touristische Attraktion seit mehr als einem Jahrhundert. Bemerkenswert ist außerdem die reiche Flora mit Farnen und Flechten.
Im Parkgebiet gibt es eine große Auswahl an malerischen Flussläufen und imposanten Wasserfällen. Das Wasser des zum National Trust gehörenden Lydford Gorge zwängt sich zum Beispiel durch einen schmalen Spalt und wirbelt von da hinab in The Devil's Cauldron. Bemerkenswert ist auch der am Westrand des Parks befindliche Wasserfall The White Lady, ein 30 Meter hoher Vorhang aus weißem Wasserschaum. Im Dartmoor-Gebiet gibt es nur wenige Wiesen- und Weideflächen mit einer im Frühling blühenden Flora. In den Monaten August und September färben gelber Ginster und violettes Heidekraut die Landschaft.
Für Wanderer, vor allem für solche, die sich auf das Lesen von Karten verstehen, sind die Möglichkeiten immens. Die vom Park-Ranger-Service betreuten Wege addieren sich zu einer Gesamtlänge von 740 Kilometer. Außerdem ist auch das Moorland selbst der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich.
Die karge Moorlandschaft von Dartmoor beflügelte immer wieder in besonderer Weise die Phantasie von Schriftstellern. Der Dichter N. T. Carrington aus Plymouth schrieb 1826 das Poem Dartmoor, das in dem Jahr um ein Haar den Preis der Royal Society of Literature gewonnen hätte, wäre es nicht verspätet eingereicht worden. König Georg IV. war so angetan von dem Werk, dass er dem Poeten 50 Guineas anweisen ließ.
Eine schöne Beschreibung der Region gab R. D. Blackmore 1881 in einer seiner weniger bekannten Novellen, Christowell, a Dartmoor Tale.
Überaus populär geworden ist der 1898 begonnene, die ganze Region einschließende Romanzyklus von Eden Phillpotts.
Am effektvollsten setzte wahrscheinlich Sir Arthur Conan Doyle die Kargheit und die oft mystische Stimmung der Dartmoor-Landschaft in seinem Detektiv-Thriller Der Hund von Baskerville ins Bild. Dartmoor ist außerdem der Ort der Handlung in der ebenfalls aus seiner Feder stammenden Kurzgeschichte Silver Blaze, die sich um Sherlock Holmes und Dr. Watson dreht.
Sabine Baring-Gould durchstreifte, seinem ausgeprägten Hang zum Übersinnlichen folgend, in jungen Jahren allein die karge Dartmoorlandschaft.
Im Zuge der Edgar-Wallace-Filme der 1960er Jahre entstand 1964 der deutsche Kriminalfilm Das Wirtshaus von Dartmoor nach dem Roman von Victor Gunn (eigentlich Edwy Searles Brooks; 1889–1965). Die „Dartmoor-Aufnahmen“ des Films entstanden allerdings in West-Berlin.
Das Geheimnis von Sittaford von Agatha Christie (im original The Murder at Hazelmoor, 1931) handelt in einem fiktiven Ort Sittaford am Rande des Dartmoors.
Der Band Fünf Freunde im Nebel der populären Jugendbuchautorin Enid Blyton spielt ebenfalls im Dartmoor. Eine große Rolle spielen dabei die verlassene Eisenbahn und die immer noch vorhandenen Schienenwege. Auch Fünf Freunde und das Monster im Moor spielt im Dartmoor; in dieser Folge wird auf das im Dartmoor populäre Letterboxing eingegangen.
Der vierte Roman der David-Hunter-Reihe von Simon Beckett, Verwesung, spielt teilweise im Dartmoor.
Auch der Roman Im Schatten des Dartmoor von Jenny-Aline Veitinger hat diese Gegend zum Schauplatz.
(Wikipedia)
Pictures of some of the gardens in the grounds of the Castle.
Come and enjoy Herstmonceux Castle Gardens & Grounds, set within 300 acres of carefully managed woodland with themed formal gardens to the rear, the 15th century moated castle embodies the history of medieval England and the romance of renaissance Europe.
Starting at the front of the castle, visitors have the perfect opportunity to take some photographs before walking around to Chestnut Tree Walk and heading towards Chestnuts Tea Room and the Visitors Centre where you can refresh yourself, learn a little about the history of the castle and relax before taking a gentle stroll around our formal gardens.
As you head through the themed gardens you will work your way towards the woodland trails where you can enjoy a peaceful stroll and take in the carefully managed flora and fauna of the estate. Discoveries such as Woodhenge, 300 year old Chestnut Trees, the Folly and Secret Garden as well as our Lake and Moat Walk all add to the escapism of everyday life.
www.herstmonceux-castle.com/explore-gardens-grounds/
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Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex
Grade l listed.
List Entry Number: 1272785
Statutory Address 1: Herstmonceux Castle, Herstmonceux Park
Listing NGR: TQ6463810388
National Grid Reference: TQ 64652 10335
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 24/04/2020
TQ 61SW 13/406
HERSTMONCEUX HERSTMONCEUX PARK Herstmonceux Castle, with attached bridges to north and south and causeway with moat retaining walls to west.
GV I Castle/country house. c1441 (when licence to crenellate was granted) for Sir Roger Fiennes; further embellished mid C16 for Baroness and Lord Dacre; altered mid-late C17 for Lord Dacre; part demolished 1776-1777 for Robert Hare; restored and rebuilt early C20, mostly 1911-1912, for Lieutenant Colonel Claude Lowther and 1930s for Sir Paul Latham.
Red brick in English bond with some blue header diaper work; stone dressings; plain tile roofs. Square on plan with inner courtyard, this originally divided into four courts and containing Great Hall, but these and the internal walls of the castle demolished C18; south range and south ends of east and west ranges restored by Lowther, the remainder restored by Latham. Two storeys with attic and basement in parts; five x four wide bays with tapering polygonal towers at corners and between bays, taller at angles and centre. Built and restored in C15 style: exterior has one-light or two-light windows, some transomed; courtyard has more wider windows and some with cusped or round-headed lights; four-centred-arched or segmental-arched moulded or chamfered doorways with C20 studded board doors; tall plinth with moulded offset; moulded string below embattled parapet with roll moulded coping; rainwater pipes with decorative initialled heads; stacks with ribbed and corniced clustered flues; steeply-pitched roofs with roll-moulded coping, some with hipped ends.
South (entrance) elevation: three-storey central gate tower has tall recess containing wide, panelled door, window of two cusped, transomed lights above, and grooves for former drawbridge arms; on second floor two transomed windows of two round-headed lights flank coat of arms of Sir Roger Fiennes; flanking towers have gun ports at base, looped arrow slits, machicolated parapets with arrow slits to merlons, and towers rising above as drums. Projecting from gate tower is long bridge (mostly C20) of eight arches, that to centre wider and shallower, with cutwaters, stone parapet, and central corbelled embrasure with flanking tower buttresses.
North side: central gate towers formerly had rooms on lower floors, of which truncated walls and first-floor fireplace fragment remain; machicolated parapet; at left end of range C17 window openings with later eighteen-pane sashes. West side: attached causeway containing basement room and with three half-arched bridge on south side, walling returning as moat retaining walls; main range has a basement doorway with side-lights in chamfered embrasure.
East side: the second tower has C16 first-floor bow window; tall windows to central tower (which contains chapel); right half of range has older windows blocked and larger C17 replacement openings with later eighteen-pane sashes.
Courtyard: seven-bay arcade to north side and central corbelled stack with clock; three-bay 1930s Great Hall (now library) on west side with decorative tracery to windows and offset buttress; gable of former chapel on east side, has perpendicular tracery to window, a two-storey bay window and two crow-stepped gabled attic windows to its left; several doorways and a two-storey bay window to south side; hipped-roofed dormers; brick-lined well in south-west corner.
Interior: some original features survive, including fireplaces, privies, doorways, dungeon and brick-lined dovecote in south-east tower; other old features were brought in from elsewhere, including doors, fireplaces, panelling. In south range: porter's room has old fireplace and relocated linenfold door (found in cellar); reused traceried wood panelling in rebuilt dining room fireplace; stair hall has fine early C17 wooden stair (brought from Theobalds, Herts) with strapwork roundels between square vase balusters, elaborate relief decoration, and lion finials holding shields; at head of stair; elaborate doorcase of same period ribbed ceiling with pendant finials. Drummers Room has reused panelling, part dated 1697, with fluted pilasters and frieze and elaborately arcaded and fluted-pilastered overmantel. Green Room, on second floor, has restored fireplace with crests and beasts on hood; moulded beams and bosses; and reused traceried panel below courtyard window.
North range: very fine late C17 stair (brought from Wheatley Hall, Doncaster; possibly from the workshop of Grinling Gibbons) with baskets-of-flowers and pendant finials to newels, balustrades of open, leafy, scrollwork with flower roundels, and at head of stair two elaborately carved doorcases in similar style with shields in broken pediments. Former ball room has arched ceiling with decorative plasterwork; C17-style panelling; reused elaborately-decorated C17 wooden fireplace overmantel (from Madingley Hall, Cambs.) with two orders of caryatids and embossed panels.
East range: former chapel has reused C15 wooden screen (from France) set in west wall; former Drawing room has elaborate stone fireplace, 1930s in C16 style, and in ante room a reused richly decorated fireplace with griffins and portrait roundels. The C15 castle was well restored in the early C20 and the many fine features which were brought in at that time add to its importance.
Listing NGR: TQ6463810388
Sources
Books and journals
Calvert, D , The History of Herstmonceux Castle
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I, The Buildings of England: Sussex, (1965), 534-6
'Country Life' in 18 May, (1929), 702-709
'Country Life' in 7 December, (1935), 606-612
'Country Life' in 14 December, (1935)
Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 14 East Sussex,
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1272785
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Before 1066 Herst (meaning forest or wood) was the name of a prominent local Anglo-Saxon family and ownership of the family's estate passed into the hands of the victorious Normans. In 1131 the manor and estates were transferred to Drogo de Monceux, a great grandson of William the Conqueror . Drogo's son Ingleram married Idonea de Herst, thus founding the Herstmonceux line.
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Herstmonceux Castle Gardens and Grounds is a 300 acre estate including woodland, formal themed gardens and of course a 15th century moated castle.
Made from red brick Herstmonceux Castle is one of the earliest examples of a brick built building in England.
Read more about the history here:-
www.herstmonceux-castle.com/history/
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000231
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HERSTMONCEUX CASTLE AND PLACE
Heritage Category: Park and Garden
Grade: II*
List Entry Number: 1000231
National Grid Reference: TQ 64645 10713
Details
A C15 castle, surrounded by a medieval park with significant surviving landscape and archaeological features, additional C18 landscape and built features and with new and restored elements from the C20.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The origin of the park at Herstmonceux is unrecorded but it seems likely that it was in existence by the C12. The estate, including the park, passed to the Fiennes family in 1330 and in 1441 Sir Roger Fiennes applied for a licence to build the present castle and to enlarge the park. In 1449 the estate passed to Sir Roger's son who later became Lord Dacre. The Dacre family sold the estate to George Naylor in 1708 and in 1775 the Hare-Naylor family abandoned the Castle and moved into Herstmonceux Place, in the north-west corner of the park. The Castle was virtually dismantled and became a picturesque ruin in the park. The estate was sold to Thomas Reed Kemp in 1807 and purchased from him in 1819 for John Gillon. He sold it in 1846 to H B Curteis of nearby Windmill Hill Place from whom it passed by succession to Herbert Curteis. The Castle and surrounding park were sold off in 1911, with Herstmonceux Place and Windmill Hill Place becoming separate entities again. Herstmonceux Place was purchased by the James family and retained a significant area of the park. The Castle was partly restored by the new owner, Colonel Claude Lowther. He died in 1929 and in 1932 the Castle estate, plus Herstmonceux Place, was purchased by Sir Paul Latham. He completed the restoration of the Castle and, with his architect, Walter Hines Godfrey (1881-1961), restored and developed the gardens.
Latham sold the Castle and its park to the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1946 which erected a series of buildings to house the telescopes. Sir Paul Latham died in 1952 and in 1958 the remainder of the park was sold for agricultural use. Herstmonceux Place was sold and divided into apartments in 1960. In 1989 the Castle and its park were sold to a development company. The International Study Centre of Queen's University (Canada) subsequently purchased the estate and are the present owners. The Equatorial Telescope Group complex is run as a Science Centre.
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Herstmonceux Castle and park and Herstmonceux Place which together comprise the 148ha of the registered site lie just to the south of the A271 Hailsham to Battle road. The site is screened on its west side by a woodland belt along Church Road which runs south from the A271, past the west front of Herstmonceux Place to All Saints' church, which sits just outside the south-west corner of the park. To the west of Church Road and south-west of the park's southern boundary, hedged pasture merges into the flat, open landscape water systems of the Pevensey Levels. The east side of the site is bounded by Wartling Road and partly screened by Wartling Wood on its far side. Wartling village lies about 1km away across bordering farmland to the south-east. The northern boundary merges into farmland with small woods.
While the present east and west road boundaries of the park appear to be of early C15 origin and have remained unchanged since, the medieval park extended further to the south and also to the north and north-west, reaching the villages of Windmill Hill and of Gardener Street on the present A271. The estate had been reduced in size to about 160ha by the time a survey was made in 1570 (BM). The Castle is sited at the south end of a stream valley emerging from the very edge of the Weald onto the Pevensey Levels. The parkland rises to the north and east to sheltering wooded crests. To the north-west a high ridge separates the Castle from the site of Herstmonceux Place.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The present main entrance to the Castle and the park is from Wartling Road in the south-east corner, a drive running c 700m westwards before turning north to the Castle's west-facing entrance front. There is a second entrance in the south-west corner on Church Lane beside West Lodge, built by Godfrey in 1933, the drive from here, known by its post-war name of Flamsteed Road, probably serving as the Castle's principal entrance in the C15 and connecting it with All Saints' church. Both entrances and drives are recorded on the 1570 survey, together with a third gate, Cowper's Gate, on the north boundary north-west of Comphurst Wood. In the C15 the west and east gates were linked by a medieval road which survives (1990s) as a well-defined track lying to the south of the present main entrance drive, which follows a C20 alignment.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING Herstmonceux Castle (listed grade I) stands in the centre of the shallow valley, its principal front facing south. It is square in plan, constructed in the newly fashionable red brick, and is surrounded by two water-filled arms of a moat. It was built from 1441 and replaced the former manor house. Service buildings probably lay to the west on the site of the present C20, cottage-style lodges, one of which serves as a visitor centre and tea room. The present main entrance is on the west. The Castle was largely dismantled in 1777, leaving only its gatehouse and exterior walls intact, and was restored, although to a new interior lay-out, between 1911 and 1932, work from 1929 being carried out by the architect Walter Hines. The central, enclosed courtyard is laid to lawn and an axial flagged path lined by Irish yews, this design being part of Col Lowther's work between 1911 and 1929.
Herstmonceux Place stands on the north-west boundary of the park and commands extensive views over it to the south and east. It has an entrance front of c 1720. Samuel Wyatt enlarged and added two new elevations to the house for the Hare-Naylor family when they moved here in 1775.
East of the Castle, on higher ground, stands the six-domed, former Equatorial Group Telescope building, erected in 1958 by the Royal Greenwich Observatory. It forms a prominent landmark for a considerable distance to the south and west.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The area of formal gardens immediately around the Castle include the moat to the south and east and the extended walled garden to the north.
The present moat arms around the south and east sides of the Castle are part of what was presumably a complete square in the C15. An extension northwards from the eastern arm, into the stream valley to form a broad mere, may also be a C15 feature. The mere, which appears to have been restored by Latham, is now managed as a reed bed with the feeder stream running through two channels of open water southwards into the moat. The moat is recorded as already drained by the survey of 1570 and laid out with gardens by the late C18 (CL 1918). The moat was cleared and re-flooded in 1933 by Sir Paul Latham, the present southern arm having been extended to approximately double its original c 20m width by Col Lowther.
The rectangular walled garden (listed grade II) stretches some 200m from the north face of the Castle, over rising ground. A strong formal axis is maintained northwards through the three main compartments. The first, closest to the Castle, contains a central flagged path, laid in 1995 to replace the previous grass surface, which is flanked each side by five free-standing sections of clipped yew hedge. There are rectangular lawns to either side with a flagged perimeter path and herbaceous borders along the east and west walls. A central set of steps leads up to the second, 50m long compartment, at the mid-point of which the path encompasses a circular rose bed, replacing a former pool. There are lawns to east and west. The north wall enclosing this garden is pierced by a central loggia which gives access to the third compartment which is divided by yew hedges into three smaller enclosures. The central one, beyond the loggia, contains a former lily pool or swimming pool which is now laid out to a box parterre. To the west is the tennis court and to the east, a rose garden. The walled garden appears to have been laid out soon after the Castle was built, but was extended before the C17. In the C18 it was in use as a kitchen garden and orchard and was redesigned by Col Lowther with a central axis flanked by roses and with herbaceous borders along the east and west walls. The present (1990s) formal treatment and the addition of the northernmost compartment and loggia were the work of Walter Hines Godfrey in 1933-5.
North-east of the Castle, the extended moat arm is fed by the stream which runs southwards down the valley feeding a tiered chain of pools and dams en route. The stream is culverted through the valley or 'Temple Field', which is now managed as a meadow. The ponds, which have been (1990s) partially cleared from the silted condition they were in in the early C20, were most likely formed by clay digging for the Castle's bricks and may also have numbered among the four stew ponds referred to in the survey of 1570.
The Temple Field is enclosed by woodland and the folly in the style of a little C18 house at its north-east end was built by Sir Paul Latham to serve as an eyecatcher from his rooms in the Castle. South of the Castle are open, level lawns which replace the arena constructed by Col Lowther. Further south, the present pasture landscape is part of a medieval system of water meadows and reed-bed irrigation for which the earthworks survive. There are extensive views over the Levels.
From the south-west corner of the moat, fragmented, linear groups of sweet chestnut trees follow a course northwards for a distance of 820m to the dam below the pond in Comphurst Wood. The trees line the route of the medieval, northern approach to the Castle but are most likely to have been planted by Sir Thomas Lennard in the C17 (Rodwell 1989). Trees are being restored to sections of the route in 1997.
The present gardens of Herstmonceux Place are laid to lawn with surrounding belts of ornamental shrubbery and trees to the north and south. The terrace on the south-east front was added by the James family in the early C20 and commands extensive views over the park to north, east and south.
PARK The present parkland extends over rising ground to the north-west, north and north-east of the Castle. The open areas are entirely under arable cultivation and virtually none of the scatter of clumps on the north-western slopes shown on the 1st edition OS map surveyed 1873(5 survive in the 1990s. The northern slopes have no parkland trees at all, and only a few individuals are shown on the OS 1st edition. The early C15 manor house was surrounded by a deer park, the survey of 1570 describing the park as bounded by a park pale, laid one third to lawns with 'great timber trees' and stocked with fallow deer. John Norden's map of 1595 shows the oval paled enclosure of the park with a central lake and south-flowing stream. There are few records of the park in the C18 and C19 and by the time of the Tithe survey in 1839, considerable areas of land had already been disparked and laid out to fields.
The park contains a number of woodlands, the largest areas lying to the north-west and north and north-east of Temple Field. Plantation Wood (to the north-east) contains mature C19 rhododendron shrubberies, winding walks and a cascade and is probably of C18 origin although partly replanted and extended west and south in the C20 by the RGO for commercial forestry purposes. The mixed woodland to the north and north-west is also of mid C20 origin, the north-western block on the ridge between Herstmonceux Castle and Place replacing the probably C18 Egg Plantation.
REFERENCES
Country Life, 43 (2 March 1918), pp 214-21; (9 March 1918), pp 242-8; (16 March 1918), pp 270-3; 65 (18 May 1929), pp 702-9; 78 (30 November 1935), pp 566-72; (7 December 1935), pp 606-12; (14 December 1935), pp 630-5 I Nairn and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex (1965), pp 534-7 W Rodwell, Herstmonceux Castle, an Archaeological Assessment of the Park (1989) Garden History 17, no 2 (1989), pp 177-8
Maps Survey, 1570 (British Museum Add Mss 5679, fo.266) John Norden, Map of Sussex, 1595 W Gardner and T Gream, A Topographical Map of the County of Sussex..., 1" to 1 mile, surveyed 1795 Tithe map for Herstmonceux parish, 1839 (East Sussex Record Office)
OS Old Series, 1" to 1 mile, 1813 OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1875 2nd edition published 1899 3rd edition published 1910 OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1875 2nd edition published 1909
Description written: July 1998 Register Inspector: VCH Edited: March 2000
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/100023...
The BLM manages about 864,000 acres in its Medford district and some of that land includes portions of the famous Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT.
The 43-mile stretch of PCT in southern Oregon includes countless scenic views and well-known recreation points: Mount Shasta; Pilot Rock, Hyatt Lake; Soda Mountain Wilderness; and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, to name a few.
Hikers will also be able to experience a variety of natural environments, from wildflower meadows to old growth forests and rocky bluffs.
This photo was captured in the summer of 2015.
How to access the PCT on southern Oregon public lands managed by the BLM: www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/csnm/csnm-pct.php
Fossil Butte National Monument
Fossil Butte National Monument is a United States National Monument managed by the National Park Service, located 15 miles (24 km) west of Kemmerer, Wyoming, United States. It centers on an extraordinary assemblage of Eocene Epoch (56 to 34 million years ago) animal and plant fossils associated with Fossil Lake—the smallest lake of the three great lakes which were then present in what are now Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The other two lakes were Lake Gosiute and Lake Uinta. Fossil Butte National Monument was established as a national monument on October 23, 1972.
Fossil Butte National Monument preserves the best paleontological record of Cenozoic aquatic communities in North America and possibly the world, within the 50-million-year-old Green River Formation — the ancient lake bed. Fossils preserved — including fish, alligators, bats, turtles, dog-sized horses, insects, and many other species of plants and animals — suggest that the region was a low, subtropical, freshwater basin when the sediments accumulated, over about a 2 million-year period.
During the Eocene this portion of Wyoming was a sub-tropical lake ecosystem. The Green River Lake System contained three ancient lakes, Fossil Lake, Lake Gosiute, and Lake Uinta. These lakes covered parts of southwest Wyoming, northeast Utah and northwestern Colorado. Fossil Butte is a remnant of the deposits from Fossil Lake. Fossil Lake was 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 km) long from north to south and 20 miles (32 km) wide. Over the two million years that it existed, the lake varied in length and width.
Fossil Buttes National Monument contains only 13 square miles (8,198 acres (33,180,000 m2)) of the 900-square-mile (595,200 acres (2.409×109 m2)) ancient lake. The ancient lake sediments that form the primary fossil digs is referred to as the Green River Formation. In addition to this fossil-bearing strata, a large portion of the Wasatch Formation, river and stream sediments, is within the national monument. The Wasatch Formation represents the shoreline ecosystem around the lake and contains fossil teeth and bone fragments of Eocene mammals. Among these are early primates and horses.
Managed a couple of hours out this morning in very grey conditions before the rain started. Found some interest on Patsy's pool @ Titchwell
This single Greylag goose was roosting right infront of the blind @ Patsy's pool & was there yesterday as well
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva participates in a discussion with World Bank President David Malpass at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. on February 10, 2020. IMF Photo/Cory Hancock
Featuring:
-Henny Sender, Managing Director, BlackRock
-Antoine Dresch, Founding Partner, Korelya Capital
-John Kim, Managing Director, Carlyle Asia
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and the IMF delegation walking between meetings and bilaterals.
IMF Photo/Kim Haughton
20 September 2022
New York, New York, United States
Photo ref: KH220920053.jpg
managed a few hours out today with colin (tango 1221) on here ,who very kindly offered me a few hours out .we had a good laugh ,got some pics and brought me out of my misery ,new car purchased arriving monday all being well .
just sold the old one on e/bay for twice what i was offered as p/x as well .so very pleased
Somehow, we've managed to upload photos to our Flickr account for over ten years without showing a Yelloway coach in colour. We're pleased to correct this omission, as the Yelloway livery was one of the smartest and most distinctive to be seen on Britain's roads.
From fairly small beginnings in Rochdale, Yelloway grew to be one of the UK's premier coach operators. It was never a huge fleet, less than one hundred even at its height, but the stylish colour scheme was matched with elegance for the passenger, from reclining seats to immaculately-attired drivers.
This coach was new when photographed at the Blackpool Coach Rally in 1968: but it would keep its smartness throughout its career, as General Manager Hubert Allen would never tolerate a coach with his name on the side leaving the depot dirty. If you hired a Yelloway coach for your party you were getting something slightly above and beyond more 'mortal' coach companies.
It is all the sadder, then, that this immaculate reputation came crashing down so quickly. Hubert Allen wanted to retire and with the 1986 deregulation looming, he sold the business to a company whose promises to maintain Yelloway's standards came to nothing. Yelloway threw itself into stage carriage bus operation in 1986 with a large fleet of entirely disreputable crocks, which meant that the corporate eye was taken off the coaching side. Within three years the whole edifice had collapsed and was sold and the Yelloway name was dead - and its reputation badly tarnished.
A nearby coach operator has now revived the Yelloway name and colour scheme, on a smaller scale than the old business, but it has revived the tradition of excellence.
Among Hubert Allen's last acts before retiring was the renovation and donation of two coaches to the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester, to keep the name of Yelloway alive. They are still in the museum and still immaculate, as Hubert would have wished.
If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport and its collection of vintage buses and many documents, photos and other materials, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.
I managed to get myself out of the house for a few minutes yesterday in an effort to get some photos of the magnolia blossoms. It was a bit on the windy side and I didn't have my tripod with me but it was good to be out. If I can just kick this bronchitis in the hiny, I will be all set. :-)
DJ’s provide entertainment during the UN Climate Action Race to Zero | Resilience Forum Event at the Plaza Hotel hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies
IMF Photo/Kim Haughton
21 September 2022
New York, New York, United States
Photo ref: KH220921098.jpg
Just managed to keep my feet dry !
A seriously "bracing" brisk walk on the beach (Sunday 26-02-06) during a high tide and pretty rough sea at Walcott on the North Norfolk Coast.
Luckily the sun popped out before it set to give a nice glow on the tops of the breaking waves.
Slightly cropped and rotated :-)
I'm curious to know if anyone thinks I could/should have cropped more sky out of this? edit - I'll leave it thanks to you all for your comments :-)
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva meets with Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison at the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C
IMF Photo/KIM HAUGHTON
I finally managed to pay tribute to the insect I love the most. You might be surprised that it is not a moth, but a butterfly, namely the Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius). Sadly already rare it is in decline in many parts of Europe but fortunately protected by law in many countries including Germany.
I am lucky to live near an area with a small but stable population that has been existing presumably at least since the first people pursued viniculture there more than half a millennium ago.
I have been observing and documenting life stages of this remarkable species in detail since ten years now and it therefore has become the lepidopteran that I know better than any other. The good news is that – at least round here – it seems to benefit from an extended warm season and mild winters due to climate change. It is my heartfelt wish that this iconic species will one day thrive again and that more people will get the chance to gain insight into its beautiful and truly sweet life history.
That time I managed to walk two blocks in Durban.
//What a disaster
William Saunderson-Meyer says the floods just another blow to a province that was already on its knees
KwaZulu-Natal has declared a provincial state of disaster to try to cope with the devastating floods of the past week.
This is normally a temporary mechanism of which the primary purpose is to facilitate speedy national government assistance to hard-pressed provincial and local authorities. It also triggers the release of emergency funds from the National Treasury.
But in KZN’s case, they might as well make it permanent. This is a province that has been on its knees for some time and it ain’t getting up any time soon.
After all, KZN hasn’t even staunched the bloodied nose it suffered nine months ago. That’s when one wing of the African National Congress government — the Radical Economic Transformation followers of former president Jacob Zuma — tried to bury the other — the so-called reformists led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
KZN hasn’t even properly tallied the body blows it suffered then. The official estimates for the insurrection were 45,000 businesses affected, R50bn in economic damage, 129,000 jobs lost, and 354 killed.
These estimates are probably on the low side. For example, the number of people who were killed in the mayhem doesn’t include the many whose bodies were simply never found and counted.
And the true economic cost is incalculable. There’s been substantially increased emigration of minorities, cancelled investment, and the loss of international confidence in KZN as a safe tourist destination. In at least a dozen small, country towns, all the business infrastructure was destroyed, paradoxically by the very people who worked and shopped in those buildings.
Now the floods. The death toll is over 300 and still rising. Some 6,000 homes have been destroyed and road, water sewage and electrical infrastructure uprooted. As I write this, roaming mobs are opportunistically plundering container depots, stranded trucks, abandoned homes and vulnerable businesses, reportedly unhindered — as was the case during last year’s riots — by the police and army.
Naturally, no disaster is complete without a scapegoat. Ramaphosa, as is his style, was quick off the mark to finger the culprit — climate change.
“This disaster is part of climate change. It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” Ramaphosa told reporters while inspecting a devastated Durban. “We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.”
What balderdash. Whatever role climate change may or may not have played in the larger scheme of things, it’s nonsense to pin on it responsibility for the plight of KZN. That lies with the ANC government.
First, this was not an unforeseeable bolt from the heavens. The forecasters warned months back that this was likely to be an exceptionally wet summer because of the La Niña weather pattern that occurs every few years.
There are also historical precedents for extreme weather in KZN, which a prudent administration would have taken note of.
In 1984, Tropical Storm Domoina wreaked havoc in a swathe from Mozambique, through Swaziland to KZN. Although the current downpour is worse, the scale is nevertheless in the same ballpark.
This latest storm — as yet unnamed — dumped 450mm of rain on Durban in 48 hours. Domoina let loose 615mm in 24 hours on Swaziland and northern KZN.
But the true difference between those events, 38 years apart, lies in the lack of preparedness on the part of today’s authorities. In 1984 the SA Air Force deployed 25 helicopters to airlift people to safety. In the 2000 Mozambique floods, 17 SAAF helicopters rescued more than 14,000 people.
This time, according to a News24 report, the SA Police Service and the SAAF, combined, have been unable to put a single chopper in the air. The erosion of South Africa’s military means that of the SAAF’s 39 Oryx helicopters, only 17 are serviceable.
Durban-based 15 Squadron has not a single helicopter available for search and rescue — they are reportedly primarily used as VIP transport — but two SAAF choppers supposedly have been despatched from Gqeberha to help. The SAPS airwing has only one serviceable helicopter but “the pilot on duty has been booked off sick”.
Second, throughout the province, local government is also in a state of disaster and unable to do its job. The scale of the KZN impairment can be measured in the flood destruction of homes.
Some 4,000 shanties have been destroyed, many because officialdom was too lax to forbid building on the floodplain and against precariously unstable hillsides. Another 2,000 of the homes swept away were so-called RDP houses, shoddily built during the kickback-and-steal bonanza of the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme of the late 1990s.
In Durban, the eThekwini metro is bloated and inert. It carries a rates and services debt of R17bn, of which R1bn is owed by the national government.
Durban is also infamously corrupt. Former mayor Zandile Gumede — along with 21 co-accused — is facing fraud, corruption and money-laundering charges in connection with a R320m municipal tender.
Yet at the weekend, even as the rain was bucketing down, she won the ANC’s regional leadership contest hands-down, despite the party’s supposed “step-aside when accused” rule.
The ANC-aligned Ahmed Kathrada Foundation has no illusions about the party it supports. It issued a statement calling on the government to ensure that unlike the plundering of Covid-19 emergency relief funds, the KZN disaster funds were not stolen or misused.
Fat chance. The ANC has already announced that its parliamentary constituency offices in KZN would become “hubs for humanitarian support” and appealed for the donation of relief supplies. Watch the trousering by the ANC’s public representatives of anything that the public is dumb enough to leave with them.
It’s in KZN where the ANC’s brazen indifference to the law and antipathy towards the Constitution is at its most obvious and most destructive.
On Monday, Zuma's corruption trial once again failed to take off in the Pietermaritzburg High Court when he successfully blocked the process with another round of delaying legal actions. His lawyers also had some carefully threatening words for the judiciary in a separate Supreme Court of Appeal action.
They urged SCA President Mandisa Maya to reconsider the dismissal of his latest corruption prosecution challenges. They warned that last year’s deadly July unrest was “in part, traceable to a perceived erroneous and unjust judicial outcome” that put Zuma briefly in prison for contempt of court.
“When such conceived mistakes are committed, the citizens (wrongly) feel entitled to resort to self-help…”
Floods, fires and locusts are devastating but at least happen relatively rarely. The ANC, alas, is a seemingly unending plague.
The Great North Museum: Hancock is a museum of natural history and ancient civilisations in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
The museum was established in 1884 and was formerly known as the Hancock Museum. In 2006 it merged with Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum to form the Great North Museum. The museum reopened as the Great North Museum: Hancock in May 2009 following a major extension and refurbishment of the original Victorian building. The museum and most of its collections are owned by the Natural History Society of Northumbria, and it is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle University.
The museum is located on the campus of Newcastle University, next to the Great North Road, and close to Barras Bridge. The nearest Tyne & Wear Metro station is Haymarket, and there is also a bus station at Haymarket.
One of the Second World War air raid shelter openings into the Victoria Tunnel is beneath the grounds of the museum.
The collection of the Hancock Museum can be traced to about 1780 when Marmaduke Tunstall started accumulating ethnographic and natural history material from around the world. He then brought his collection from London to North Yorkshire. In 1790 Tunstall died, and George Allan of Darlington purchased Tunstall's collection; and later in 1823 it was acquired by the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. A wombat, which is still on display, is considered to be the earliest object in the collection. It was the first complete wombat specimen to reach Europe. In 1829 the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne (now the Natural History Society of Northumbria) was formed as a scientific offshoot of the Literary and Philosophical Society. Amongst the founding and early members of the Natural History Society were Joshua Alder, Albany Hancock, John Hancock, Prideaux John Selby and William Chapman Hewitson.
The museum opened on its current site in 1884 after the collection of the Natural History Society outgrew its small museum, located on Westgate Road, which opened in 1834. A major benefactor to the museum was William Armstrong who gave the then large sum of £11,500. Armstrong had also founded the College of Physical Science which later became part of Newcastle University. The museum was renamed in the 1890s, after the local Victorian naturalists, Albany and John Hancock. In 1959 the Natural History Society agreed with the University of Newcastle for the university to care for the building and collections, and since 1992 the university has contracted with Tyne & Wear Museums to manage the museum under a Service Level Agreement.
The Hancock Museum was closed on 23 April 2006 for refurbishment and did not reopen until 23 May 2009. It was completely refurbished and extended as part of the Great North Museum Project, at a cost of £26 million. Great North Museum project is a partnership between Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle City Council, the Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. The project was made possible with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund, TyneWear Partnership, One NorthEast, the European Regional Development Fund, Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Wolfson Foundation and The Northern Rock Foundation, as well as numerous other trusts and foundations. The building architects were Terry Farrell and Partners; Sir Terry Farrell is a native of Newcastle, and had previously been a student at Newcastle University.
The new museum includes new displays on natural history and geology, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, Romans and Hadrian's Wall, World Cultures and Pre-history. It also includes an interactive study zone, an under 5's space, and a digital Planetarium, as well as new learning facilities, a new temporary exhibition space, and a study garden. The new museum houses not only the Hancock Museum collections, but also those of the university's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum. The building that formerly housed the Museum of Antiquities was later demolished. The Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum Project, but is not relocating to the Hancock, and is remaining in Newcastle University's Fine Art Building.
In September 2008, the Great North Museum searched for a lookalike of the Emperor Hadrian, for a photo shoot, whose likeness would feature in a permanent display at the Hancock Museum. On 21 November 2008 the 'Be Part of It' campaign was launched, and it was announced that the Great North Museum: Hancock would be opening in May 2009. Athlete Jonathan Edwards is the patron of the 'Be Part of It' campaign. Other celebrity supporters of the museum include Sir Thomas Allen and Adam Hart-Davis. Donors to the campaign have the opportunity to have their name (or the name of a loved one) permanently included on a donor wall in the museum.
The Great North Museum formally re-opened on 23 May 2009. In August the museum announced that they had surpassed their expected annual target of 300,000 visitors. By August over 400,000 people had visited the reopened museum. On 6 November 2009 HM The Queen officially opened the Great North Museum. In 2009, the Great North Museum had over 600,000 visitors.
By August 2010, the reopened Great North Museum had welcomed its one millionth visitor.
Among the museum's permanent residents are a life-size cast of an African elephant; the Egyptian mummy Bakt-en-Hor (previously known as Bakt-hor-Nekht); a full size replica of a T-Rex skeleton; and Sparkie, Newcastle's famous talking budgie, who was stuffed after his death in 1962 and is now the subject of a new opera by Michael Nyman.
The full size cast of an African Elephant was built in the Living Planet gallery. The model was crafted by Zephyr Wildlife, who took a cast from an actual stuffed elephant at a museum in Bonn in Germany. To get the elephant into the museum a crane, from Bel Lift Trucks, had to be used. The full size model of a T-Rex dinosaur has been shipped from Canada, where it was built by a company called Research Casting International. It forms part of the display known as the Fossil Stories gallery. The T-Rex model was one of the first items to be placed in the new museum, due to its size. In 1908, the Manchester taxidermist Harry Ferris Brazenor mounted a "fine bison bull" for the museum.
Other exhibitions include 'Hadrian's Wall' looking at Roman life in the north of England, 'Natural Northumbria' focusing on the wildlife found in the northeast, 'Ancient Egypt' looking at the Ancient Egyptians and featuring the museum's two mummies, 'Ice Age to Iron Age' detailing the history of the British Isles over the past 12,000 years, 'World Cultures' featuring artifacts and displays from cultures across the globe, 'The Shefton Collection' with one of the most detailed collections of Greek artifacts in the UK and 'Explore' which is a more hands-on area of the museum and features regular interactive sessions.
There were live animals on display but these have now been withdrawn, as well as a conference area for corporate events and a fully provisioned learning suite for school visits.
The museum was entered into the 'long list' for the 2010 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries.
The interactive Bio-Wall features hundreds of creatures, that visitors will be able to investigate and find out where they live and how they survive in such extreme places as the Arctic and Desert. There is also a great white shark display, polar bear and giraffe specimens from the historic Hancock collections and a moa skeleton. Also between May and October 2019 the museum hosted Dippy the dinosaur as part of its UK tour.
Within the museum's archives are the nineteenth century botanical paintings by Margaret Rebecca Dickinson of plants from the Newcastle and Scottish Borders region.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.
A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.
Environmental changes
The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas
Legacy
During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.
Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton
This picture, and the others like it were taken through a moving train window, so a certain amount of pot-luck was involved.
I managed to capture this as the one on the left was preening itself and looked to me as if it was checking it's watch to see if it was feeding time yet.
Managed another month of daily fun with those wacky Hereios! No Explores, but I had a lot of fun!
Also kept up with two separate weekly groups, Fence Friday, Bench Monday, and a few Bokeh Wednesdays.
Experimented with my new 50mm, only to wind up quite frustrated with a crunchy, and occasionally jammed, focus ring. Took it in for repair or replacement yesterday, and have to wait six to eight weeks!!
I took an online lighting course this month. It was okay, but just okay. Also did some gardening and managed to avoid working too much. So it was a good month!! :)
1. No Dignity, 2. T is for trust, 3. Eyestalks on Ice Cream, 4. Big Purse: I never trusted her for a minute, she said. Her purse was way too big., 5. Rosie Peculiah was unaware that there was a "best by" age on pigtails, 6. Just cut it into three pieces., 7. Fred sleeps despite kitty attack and falling photo equipment, 8. Lights on Grouse Mountain, 9. The Party's Over, 10. Zelda strides past the giant 100, unaware that it accurately predicted the number of consecutive rainy days Vancouver was about to experience., 11. "I've just noticed - your eyes match the spinach in your teeth." -- Barry Cryer, from British show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, 12. Porla believed that a hat was simply not a hat unless it was adorned by three mackerel, 13. Agnes could not contain her glee at accidentally having hit "stop recording" during her husband's hockey game., 14. It's Later Than You Think, 15. Oatmeal, raisins, apple, coffee, 16. Sudeepta wondered whether one day she would regret having added a little more than masala to her husband's stew., 17. Ballena prefers primary colors while near the waterfront, to ensure that nearsighted harpoonists don't mistake her for a whale., 18. Happy International Jugglers Day (Don't Give Up Your Day Job), 19. A Clockwork Ant, 20. Adventures of Flower Girl, 21. Happitty Birthday, George!, 22. Looking back, 23. Happy Birthday Shakespeare!, 24. Wall of Vegetation, 25. Still Life With Cowgirl, 26. Zelda prepared for her first Happy Fish Bicycle Club Bloody Mary by stripping to her skivvies, so as not to ruin her clothes with profuse sweating., 27. I got the moves like Jagger, 28. Two Ukuleles, No Waiting (Happy Birthday to Xavier and his lovely wife partner, and belated congratulations to Maudie and Julie!), 29. Starting the day with a smile, 30. Silence
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
VENICE BIENNALE / VENEZIA BIENNIAL 2013 : BIENNALIST
www.emergencyrooms.org/biennalist.html
Biennalist is an Art Format by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel debating with artistic tools on Biennales and other cultural managed events . Often those events promote them selves with thematics and press releases faking their aim . Biennalist take the thematics of the Biennales very seriously , and test their pertinance . Artists have questioned for decade the canvas , the pigment , the museum ... since 1989 we question the Biennales .Often Biennalist converge with Emergency Room providing a burning content that cannot wait ( today before it is too late )
please contact before using the images : Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel 1@colonel.dk
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In 2013 Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel is represented at the Malives pavilion at the Venice Biennale and then went further and received hospitality at the Zimbabwe pavilion with the Emergency Room Mobile
www.emergencyrooms.org/biennalist.html
Meanwhile Thierry Geoffroy is in Copenhagen the work about todays emergencies continue at the gallery Marianne Friis on the
ULTRACONTEMPOARY WARM UP Wall established for this occasion since 6sept 2013
thierrygeoffroy.blogspot.dk/2013/09/colonel-s-warm-up-wal...
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lists of artists participating at the Venice Biennale :
Hilma af Klint, Victor Alimpiev, Ellen Altfest, Paweł Althamer, Levi Fisher Ames, Yuri Ancarani, Carl Andre, Uri Aran, Yüksel Arslan, Ed Atkins, Marino Auriti, Enrico Baj, Mirosław Bałka, Phyllida Barlow, Morton Bartlett, Gianfranco Baruchello, Hans Bellmer, Neïl Beloufa, Graphic Works of Southeast Asia and Melanesia, Hugo A. Bernatzik Collection, Ștefan Bertalan, Rossella Biscotti, Arthur Bispo do Rosário, John Bock, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Geta Brătescu, KP Brehmer, James Lee Byars, Roger Caillois, Varda Caivano, Vlassis Caniaris, James Castle, Alice Channer, George Condo, Aleister Crowley & Frieda Harris, Robert Crumb, Roberto Cuoghi, Enrico David, Tacita Dean, John De Andrea, Thierry De Cordier, Jos De Gruyter e Harald Thys, Walter De Maria, Simon Denny, Trisha Donnelly, Jimmie Durham, Harun Farocki, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Linda Fregni Nagler, Peter Fritz, Aurélien Froment, Phyllis Galembo, Norbert Ghisoland, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi, Domenico Gnoli, Robert Gober, Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj, Guo Fengyi, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Wade Guyton, Haitian Vodou Flags, Duane Hanson, Sharon Hayes, Camille Henrot, Daniel Hesidence, Roger Hiorns, Channa Horwitz, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, René Iché, Hans Josephsoh, Kan Xuan, Bouchra Khalili, Ragnar Kjartansson, Eva Kotátková, Evgenij Kozlov, Emma Kunz, Maria Lassnig, Mark Leckey, Augustin Lesage, Lin Xue, Herbert List, José Antonio Suárez Londoño, Sarah Lucas, Helen Marten, Paul McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Marisa Merz, Pierre Molinier, Matthew Monahan, Laurent Montaron, Melvin Moti, Matt Mullican, Ron Nagle, Bruce Nauman, Albert Oehlen, Shinro Ohtake, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Henrik Olesen, John Outterbridg, Paño Drawings, Marco Paolini, Diego Perrone, Walter Pichler, Otto Piene, Eliot Porter, Imran Qureshi, Carol Rama, Charles Ray, James Richards, Achilles G. Rizzoli, Pamela Rosenkranz, Dieter Roth, Viviane Sassen, Shinichi Sawada, Hans Schärer, Karl Schenker, Michael Schmidt, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Tino Sehgal, Richard Serra, Shaker Gift Drawings, Jim Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons e Allan McCollum, Drossos P. Skyllas, Harry Smith, Xul Solar, Christiana Soulou, Eduard Spelterini, Rudolf Steiner, Hito Steyerl, Papa Ibra Tall, Dorothea Tanning, Anonymous Tantric Paintings, Ryan Trecartin, Rosemarie Trockel, Andra Ursuta, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Stan VanDerBeek, Erik van Lieshout, Danh Vo, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Günter Weseler, Jack Whitten, Cathy Wilkes, Christopher Williams, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Kohei YoshiyUKi, Sergey Zarva, Anna Zemánková, Jakub Julian Ziółkowski ,Artur Żmijewski.
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other pavilions at Venice Biennale
Andorra Artists: Javier Balmaseda, Samantha Bosque, Fiona Morrison
Commissioner: Henry Périer Deputy Commissioners: Francesc Rodríguez, Ermengol Puig, Ruth Casabella
Curators: Josep M. Ubach, Paolo De GrandisAngola Artist: Edson Chagas Commissioner: Ministry of Culture
Curators: Beyond Entropy (Paula Nascimento, Stefano Rabolli Pansera), Jorge Gumbe, Feliciano dos Santos
Argentina Artist: Nicola Costantino Commissioner: Magdalena Faillace Curator: Fernando Farina
Armenia Artist: Ararat SarkissianCurator: Arman Grogoryan /AustraliaArtist: Simryn Gill Commissioner: Simon Mordant Deputy Commissioner: Penelope Seidler Curator: Catherine de Zegher /AustriaArtist: Mathias Poledna ,Curator: Jasper Sharp /AzerbaijanArtists: Rashad Alakbarov, Sanan Aleskerov, Chingiz Babayev, Butunay Hagverdiyev, Fakhriyya Mammadova, Farid Rasulov /Commissioner: Heydar Aliyev FoundationCurator: Hervé Mikaeloff
Bahamas Artist: Tavares Strachan Commissioner: Nalini Bethel, Ministry of Tourism Curators: Jean Crutchfield, Robert HobbsDeputy Curator: Stamatina Gregory/BangladeshChhakka Artists’ Group: Mokhlesur Rahman, Mahbub Zamal, A. K. M. Zahidul Mustafa, Ashok Karmaker, Lala Rukh Selim, Uttam Kumar Karmaker. Dhali Al Mamoon, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Gavin Rain, Gianfranco Meggiato, Charupit School/Commissioner/Curator: Francesco Elisei. , Curator: Fabio Anselmi./BahrainArtists: Mariam Haji, Waheeda Malullah, Camille Zakharia /Commissioner: Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Culture /Curator: Melissa Enders-Bhatiaa/BelgiumArtist: Berlinde De Bruyckere
Commissioner: Joke Schauvliege, Flemish Minister for Environment, Nature and Culture .Curator: J. M. Coetzee ,Deputy Curator: Philippe Van Cauteren /Bosnia and Herzegovina
Artist: Mladen Miljanovic .Commissioners: Sarita Vujković, Irfan Hošić
Brazil Artists: Hélio Fervenza, Odires Mlászho, Lygia Clark, Max Bill, Bruno Munari
Commissioner: Luis Terepins, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo,Curator: Luis Pérez-Oramas ,Deputy Curator: André Severo
CanadaArtist: Shary Boyle /Commissioner: National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada ,Curator: Josée Drouin-Brisebois/Central AsiaArtists: Vyacheslav Akhunov, Sergey Chutkov, Saodat Ismailova, Kamilla Kurmanbekova, Ikuru Kuwajima, Anton Rodin, Aza Shade, Erlan Tuyakov
Commissioner: HIVOS (Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation)
Deputy Commissioner: Dean Vanessa Ohlraun (Oslo National Academy of the Arts/The Academy of Fine Art)
Curators: Ayatgali Tuleubek, Tiago Bom
Scientific Committee: Susanne M. Winterling
ChileArtist: Alfredo JaarCommissioner: CNCA, National Council of Culture and the Arts Curator: Madeleine Grynsztejn
ChinaArtists: He Yunchang, Hu Yaolin, Miao Xiaochun, Shu Yong, Tong Hongsheng, Wang Qingsong, Zhang Xiaotao
Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) ,Curator: Wang Chunchen
Costa Rica Artists: Priscilla Monge, Esteban Piedra, Rafael Ottón Solís, Cinthya Soto
Commissioner: Francesco EliseiCurator: Francisco Córdoba, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (Fiorella Resenterra)
Croatia Artist: Kata Mijatovic ,Commissioner/Curator: Branko Franceschi.
CubaArtists: Liudmila and Nelson, Maria Magdalena Campos & Neil Leonard, Sandra Ramos, Glenda León, Lázaro Saavedra, Tonel, Hermann Nitsch, Gilberto Zorio, Wang Du, H.H.Lim, Pedro Costa, Rui Chafes, Francesca Leone ,Commissioner: Miria ViciniCurators: Jorge Fernández Torres, Giacomo Zaza
CyprusArtists: Lia Haraki, Maria Hassabi, Phanos Kyriacou, Constantinos Taliotis, Natalie Yiaxi, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Jason Dodge, Gabriel Lester, Dexter Sinister /Louli Michaelidou
Deputy Commissioners: Angela Skordi, Marika Ioannou/Curator: Raimundas Malašauskas
Czech Republic & Slovak RepublicArtists: Petra Feriancova, Zbynek Baladran ,Commissioner: Monika Palcova, Curator: Marek Pokorny /DenmarkArtist: Jesper Just in collaboration with Project ProjectsEgypt
Artists: Mohamed Banawy, Khaled Zaki
EstoniaArtist: Dénes Farkas ,Commissioner: Maria Arusoo ,Curator: Adam Budak
FinlandArtist: Antti Laitinen , Commissioner: Raija Koli , Curators: Marko Karo, Mika Elo, Harri Laakso
FranceArtist: Anri Sala ,Curator: Christine Macel
GeorgiaArtists: Bouillon Group,Thea Djordjadze, Nikoloz Lutidze, Gela Patashuri with Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, Gio Sumbadze/Commissioner: Marine Mizandari, First Deputy Minister of Culture Curator: Joanna Warsza
GermanyArtists: Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar, Santu Mofokeng, Dayanita Singh Commissioner/Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer /Great BritainArtist: Jeremy Deller ,Commissioner: Andrea Rose , Curator: Emma Gifford-Mead
Holy SeeArtists: Lawrence Carroll, Josef Koudelka, Studio Azzurro ,Curator: Antonio Paolucci
Hungary , Artist: Zsolt Asztalos , Curator: Gabriella Uhl
Iceland , Artist: Katrín Sigurðardóttir ,Commissioner: Dorotheé Kirch
Curators: Mary Ceruti , Ilaria Bonacossa/IndonesiaArtists: Albert Yonathan Setyawan, Eko Nugroho, Entang Wiharso, Rahayu Supanggah, Sri Astari, Titarubi
Deputy Commissioner: Achille Bonito Oliva , Assistant Commissioner: Mirah M. Sjarif
Curators: Carla Bianpoen, Rifky Effendy
IraqArtists: Abdul Raheem Yassir, Akeel Khreef, Ali Samiaa, Bassim Al-Shaker, Cheeman Ismaeel, Furat al Jamil, Hareth Alhomaam, Jamal Penjweny, Kadhim Nwir, WAMI (Yaseen Wami, Hashim Taeeh)
Commissioner: Tamara Chalabi (Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture)Curator: Jonathan Watkins.
IrelandArtist: Richard MosseCommissioner, Curator: Anna O’Sullivan
Israel , Artist: Gilad Ratman , Commissioners: Arad Turgeman, Michael GovCurator: Sergio Edelstein
ItalyArtists: Francesco Arena, Massimo Bartolini, Gianfranco Baruchello, Elisabetta Benassi, Flavio Favelli, Luigi Ghirri, Piero Golia, Francesca Grilli, Marcello Maloberti, Fabio Mauri, Giulio Paolini, Marco Tirelli, Luca Vitone, Sislej Xhafa ,Commissioner: Maddalena Ragni
Curator: Bartolomeo Pietromarchi /Ivory Coast Artists: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Tamsir Dia, Jems Koko Bi, Franck Fanny
Commissioner: Paolo De Grandis , Curator: Yacouba Konaté
Japan ,Artist: Koki Tanaka ,Curator: Mika Kuraya
KenyaArtists: Kivuthi Mbuno, Armando Tanzini, Chrispus Wangombe Wachira, Fan Bo, Luo Ling & Liu Ke, Lu Peng, Li Wei, He Weiming, Chen Wenling, Feng Zhengjie, César MeneghettiCommissioner: Paola Poponi ,Curators: Sandro Orlandi, Paola Poponi /Korea (Republic of)Artist: Kimsooja
KosovoArtist: Petrit Halilaj ,Commissioner: Erzen Shkololli ,Curator: Kathrin Rhomberg
KuwaitArtists: Sami Mohammad, Tarek Al-Ghoussein
Commissioner: Mohammed Al-Asoussi ,Curator: Ala Younis /Latin AmericaIstituto Italo-Latino Americano
Artists:Marcos Agudelo, Miguel Alvear & Patricio Andrade, Susana Arwas, François Bucher, Fredi Casco, Colectivo Quintapata (Pascal Meccariello, Raquel Paiewonsky, Jorge Pineda, Belkis Ramírez), Humberto Díaz, Sonia Falcone, León & Cociña, Lucía Madriz, Jhafis Quintero, Martín Sastre, Guillermo Srodek-Hart, Juliana Stein, Simón Vega, Luca Vitone, David Zink Yi. /Harun Farocki & Antje Ehmann. In collaboration with: Cristián Silva-Avária, Anna Azevedo, Paola Barreto, Fred Benevides, Anna Bentes, Hermano Callou, Renata Catharino, Patrick Sonni Cavalier, Lucas Ferraço Nassif, Luiz Garcia, André Herique, Bruna Mastrogiovanni, Cezar Migliorin, Felipe Ribeiro, Roberto Robalinho, Bruno Vianna, Beny Wagner, Christian Jankowski ,Commissioner: Sylvia Irrazábal ,Curator: Alfons Hug
Deputy Curator: Paz Guevara /Latvia Artists: Kaspars Podnieks, Krišs Salmanis ,Commissioners: Zane Culkstena, Zane Onckule ,Curators: Anne Barlow, Courtenay Finn, Alise Tifentale
LithuaniaArtist: Gintaras Didžiapetris, Elena Narbutaite, Liudvikas Buklys, Kazys Varnelis, Vytaute Žilinskaite, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Jason Dodge, Gabriel Lester, Dexter SinisterCommissioners: Jonas Žokaitis, Aurime Aleksandraviciute Curator: Raimundas Malašauskas /LuxembourgArtist: Catherine LorentCommissioner: Clément Minighetti Curator: Anna Loporcaro /MexicoArtist: Ariel Guzik ,Commissioner: Gastón Ramírez Feltrín ,Curator: Itala Schmelz
Montenegro ,Artist: Irena Lagator Pejovic .Commissioner/Curator: Nataša Nikcevic
The Netherlands ,Artist: Mark Manders
Commissioner: Mondriaan Fund ,Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti
New Zealand Artist: Bill Culbert ,Commissioner: Jenny Harper ,Deputy Commissioner: Heather Galbraith ,Curator: Justin Paton /Finland: ,Artist: Terike Haapoja ,Commissioner: Raija Koli ,Curators: Marko Karo, Mika Elo, Harri Laakso
Norway:Artists: Edvard Munch, Lene Berg
Curators: Marta Kuzma, Pablo Lafuente, Angela Vettese
Paraguay Artists: Pedro Barrail, Felix Toranzos, Diana Rossi, Daniel Milessi ,Commissioner: Elisa Victoria Aquino Laterza
Deputy Commissioner: Nori Vaccari Starck , Curator: Osvaldo González Real
Poland Artist: Konrad Smolenski Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska Curators: Agnieszka Pindera, Daniel Muzyczuk
Portugal Artist: Joana Vasconcelos Curator: Miguel Amado
RomaniaArtists: Maria Alexandra Pirici, Manuel Pelmus Commissioner: Monica Morariu Deputy Commissioner: Alexandru Damia Curator: Raluca VoineaArtists: Anca Mihulet, Apparatus 22 (Dragos Olea, Maria Farcas,Erika Olea), Irina Botea, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Karolina Bregula, Adi Matei, Olivia Mihaltianu, Sebastian MoldovanCommissioner: Monica Morariu ,Deputy Commissioner: Alexandru Damian ,Curator: Anca Mihulet
Russia Artist: Vadim Zakharov ,Commissioner: Stella Kasaeva ,Curator: Udo Kittelmann
Serbia Artists: Vladimir Peric, Miloš Tomic .Commissioner: Maja Ciric
SloveniaArtist: Jasmina CibicCommissioner: Blaž Peršin ,Curator: Tevž Logar
South Africa Commissioner: Saul Molobi ,Curator: Brenton Maart
Spain Artist: Lara Almarcegui , Commissioner/Curator: Octavio Zaya
Switzerland Artist: Valentin Carron Commissioners: Pro Helvetia - Sandi Paucic and Marianne Burki
Curator: Giovanni CarmineVenue: Pavilion at Giardini
Syrian Arab RepublicArtists: Giorgio De Chirico, Miro George, Makhowl Moffak, Al Samman Nabil, Echtai Shaffik, Giulio Durini, Dario Arcidiacono, Massimiliano Alioto, Felipe Cardena, Roberto Paolini, Concetto Pozzati, Sergio Lombardo, Camilla Ancilotto, Lucio Micheletti, Lidia Bachis, Cracking Art Group, Hannu Palosuo
Commissioner: Christian Maretti Curator: Duccio Trombadori
Taiwan Artists: Bernd Behr, Chia-Wei Hsu, Kateřina Šedá + BATEŽO MIKILU Curator: Esther Lu
Thailand Artists: Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, Arin Rungjang
Curators: Penwadee Nophaket Manont, Worathep Akkabootara
Turkey Artist: Ali Kazma Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts Curator: Emre Baykal
Ukraine Artists: Ridnyi Mykola, Zinkovskyi Hamlet, Kadyrova Zhanna Commissioner: Victor Sydorenko
Curators: Soloviov Oleksandr, Burlaka Victoria
United Arab Emirates Artist: Mohammed Kazem /Commissioner: Dr. Lamees Hamdan Curator: Reem Fadda
Uruguay Artist: Wifredo Díaz Valdéz
Commissioner: Ricardo Pascale Curators: Carlos Capelán, Verónica Cordeiro
USA Artist: Sarah Sze Commissioners/Curators: Carey Lovelace, Holly Block
Venezuela Colectivo de Artistas Urbanos Venezolanos , Commissioner: Edgar Ernesto González Curator: Juan Calzadilla
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Encyclopedic Palace is curated by Massimiliano Gioni
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Other Biennales (Biennials ) : Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale
Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
Yes, that is MY wrist.
Yes, it is real.
I noticed I hadn't put a picture up of my tattoo I got a couple months ago. Tim has one up for me on his photo stream.
If you are not aware of where this quote is from it's, HARRY POTTER!
I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Like many of the fans, this series has changed my life. It was the first book series I read all the way through till the end. It was the first book series I laughed and cried through.
This is my second tattoo. My first one I got when I was 18. It is a cross with angel wings on my lower back. Not your typical "tramp stamp", but I wanted to wear my faith somewhere that I was able to share when I wanted too, and cover up when I wanted too. I actually forget that its there most days.
I love my wrist tattoo. And if you look closely, I had the tattoo artist put a lightening bolt somewhere in the image, to pay tribute to Harry. :)
*I want to pay credit to my awesome tattoo artist from Blue Lotus Salon on Madison Westside. Dana was awesome and very helpful in planning this simple tattoo. She made me feel comfortable, and I am in love with this tattoo!
If you are in the Madison area and looking for a place to get a tattoo. They have two locations. My cousin recommended them, and now I am too!
Follow the website: www.tattoomadison.com/home.html#
I finally managed to get hold of this Matchbox bus and wasn't sure I would like it. Matchbox have a long history of producing decent toy double decker buses so its obviously a disappointment that not only is this generic but that its also made mainly of plastic! The good news is that it is actually a decent representation of a modern looking U.K. double decker bus and the detailing isn't too bad. Time will tell if this will ever be available in the same amount of different liveries as say the Londoner or Titan models but at least there is now a modern looking "toy" bus for collectors and kids to buy which are relevant to what can be seen on our streets. Mint and boxed.
BLM California manages nearly 600 producing oil and gas leases covering more than 200,000 acres and 7,900 usable wells. Between 80% and 90% of all surface-disturbing activities related to oil and gas activities occur in the San Joaquin Valley on public lands administered by Central California District, Bakersfield Field Office. More than 95% of all Federal drilling occurs in established fields within the Kern County area of the San Joaquin Valley.
The oil and gas program in California is one of the more active in all of the western states, with 2013 onshore oil production figures ranking the State as the 3rd most productive state in the United States. In 2012, California was ranked as the 13th most productive natural gas producing state. BLM California is responsible for managing one of the most productive individual onshore leases in the lower 48 states, and four of the nation’s top seven producing oil fields are located in Kern County. As a general rule, California’s Federal production totals average approximately 8% -10% of California’s total oil and natural gas production.
Photo by John Ciccarelli , BLM.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Acte Two
A Chocolate Trét
The taller thief froze some sixth sense brought on by the many parties such as this attended by her, which had given her a sort of intuition about people and their curious behavior.
A figure, alone, swearing a swishing gown was directly approaching the taller thief.
The unseen stranger came up and placed a hand upon the taller thief’s sleek waist.
A warm figure slips up against her, and a body hot with lust is felt as a voice whispers….
“I thought you may have been eyeing me up in there. And here you are waiting. Did you like what you saw, sweetie?”
Even though she was far more used to males being the ones to boldly come on to her, the taller thief did not miss a beat. She leans back up against what she now realizes is the lady in blue satin and deliciously sparkly diamonds and sapphires. She had, without trying, managed to hook a wealthy one, and possibly a gullible twit by nature.
The taller thief played her prey, as a spider attracted an innocent jewel-coloured fly.
The taller thief turned and faced the lady whose heavily blue/violet mascara-lined eyes were wide with interest. The thief runs her hands along the scintillating slickly gown-covered sides of the lady in blue.
The wealthy young twit lady answered by brazenly running a hand along the thief’s tight-covered hinny
As the pair draw dangerously close,
The female thief placed her hand onto the sensuous feeling, pricey satin-covered waistline of the sapphire burdened lady, the thief’s long fingers dropping quickly down and also groped the lady’s round firm butt, nicely outlined by the tight-fitting blue satin gown she wore. The thief smiled, answering truthfully…
“I so ever did like, that’s a perfectly lovely dress you’re wearing. It looks very….provocative if I may say.”
The lady smiled, eyes half closing as the thief ran her fingers up her prey’s slick backside.
“My name is Cadie. What’s yours beautiful?”
The thief stroked her fingers back up the luscious blue gown, eying the captivating earrings glitting down from her earlobes, as she gave her the name she had given herself for the evening.
“My name is Rose darling one…”
Looking around, Cadie wrapped an arm along “Rose’s” waist pulling her close.
“Oh I love roses, what a pretty name.”
The thief smiled, her eyes wide with rapture over her thoughts.
“So do I ( and they have prickling catching Thorne don't they)the thief thought eyeing up the truly magnificent sapphires rippling fervently around the alluringly delicious lady's throat.
“Rose” ventured on
“They have very pretty roses in the gardens. Have you seen them?”
Cadie excitedly nodded, sending her earrings into a sparkling frenzy.
“They are beautiful.”
“Rose” tightened her web.
Yes, they are, and even prettier ones bathed in moonlight by the boat house.
I saw the boathouse from the gardens. but I did not go there. Seemed isolated and creepy. Sounds lovely enough though., of course one is with someone else…”
The door behind them opened and both lady’s hands went to their sides.
“Rose” looked around and leaned into the lady, murmuring with a conspiracist-type whisper
With two of us, it would be less creepy. More enchanting even. Perhaps we can meet there, later Cadie, if you can get away alone?”
Cadie looked thoughtful, as the thief called “Rose” had her eyes locked with a lusty gaze into Cadie’s own.
“I can, er will, certainly try.”
The grandfather clocked chimed eleven
“Rose” suggests…
Say after midnight? I need time to lose my friend.
Cadie looked apprehensive…
“Friend ?”
“Rose” reassured Cadie by tickling into the girl’s side.
“My cousin luv, it shouldn’t be hard. But I suggest we not be seen leaving together, a tryst should be done unnoticed. Don’t you agree my dear?”
Cadie blushed, then nodded and winked, leaving.
“Rose” watched with a broad smile as Cadie made her way down the stairs. Saying to the departing wealthy lady with the shimmering jewels.
“Definitely unnoticed…”
“Rose left after seeing Cadie move off. She located Emilee sitting next to a gent at the bar.
^^^^^^
Meanwhile, at the bar Emily was in a very animated conversation with a blonde-haired young gent named Gary, looking very handsome in a fitted suit. His hand was caressing her satin skirt-covered leg while telling her a story about his horses running a race. A heavy silver Rolex hung outlined on his tanned wrist, gleamed with an expensive call.
As Gary finished Emily placed a hand on his suit jacket.
“How exciting monsieur, your horses must be very quick to win so many races.
He chuckled, lifting his head to take a drink from his pint.
As he did do, Emily dipped her long fingers inside his jacket and smoothly extracted his fat billfold.
It was then a hand was placed on her shoulder. Emilee turned with an innocent look planted on her face, relieved inside to find her partner standing there.
“Rose” cheerfully greeted Emilee
“Hello, my cousin. Pardon the interruption, but could you please meet with me out on the balcony?”
Emily patted the gentleman on his shoulder.
“Pardon Mon chérie I find myself being called away. Later for that second dance please.”
The blonde-haired gentleman gave “Rose” a once over and grinned at Emilee
“Certainly cutie, see you in a bit then.”
Emilee got up and followed her partner. Glancing back she saw that her blonde gentleman friend had already found a new female conquest.
The two ladies went out on the balcony and found an isolated shadowy corner.
There were no tables and chairs on the balcony, so not many stayed there long. Soon the pair of thieves found themselves alone.
Emilee turned to her friend, her eyes with a questioning look. For she had wanted a go at that silver Rolex.
“Rose” happily squeezed her arm.
“I met a twit.”
Emilee asked curiously…
“A twit, luv? “
“Rose” glanced back at the ballroom as she answered…
“Yes, a twit, wearing the most beautiful diamonds and sapphires.”
Emily squealed with a happy pounce…
“Oooh delicious, That’s the best kind.”
“Rose” huddled close and explained what had happened, with Emilee hungrily listening to every word. A plan was then hatched, centered around the hapless Cadie and relieving her of the valuables and jewels she was wearing.
Now as they talked amongst themselves “Rose” kept watch around them to make sure they were not attracting anyone’s attention. They weren’t.
Emilee was titillated, excitedly asking a question.
“Ma chérie, do you think it is early to go there now?”
“Rose”, her eyes still looking around began to answer, then stumbled over her words, placing a startled hand to her throat.
“I…I….”
“Rose” had now froze for someone had attracted her attention. She looked at Emilee and whispered.
“Look carefully over my shoulder, do you see what I spy with my devious little eye?”
Both were watching a young lass of about 17 making her solitary way across the balcony.
She is breathtakingly elegant.
Attired in a far too wickedly lovely long satin dress of a rich hue of chocolate brown, the dress was embroidered with flickering rhinestones. Long chocolate brown satin gloves graced her hands up to her elbows. The shiny gown flows down along the girl's delightful well-endowed figure. And adorning that well-pointed figure is a rather healthy, (or could that possibly be said to be an unhealthy this evening ?) display of flickering diamonds that are undeniably, and quite expensively, real.
Emilee whispered with a happy smirk…
“How had neither of us spotted this one yet? “
The young lady’s happy smile was captivating and the jewels she wore were the perfect lure for a couple of thieves eager to land a coup de gras
The dazzling jewels the newcomer wore consisted of a very stunning silver necklace set with far too sparkly diamonds that cascaded down from her throat and dripped down the front of her chocolate satin dress. Her long silky hair was down held in place from her face by a pair of thin long diamond-encrusted silver fern leaf-shaped clips. Long silver earrings swung down freely in and out of her earlobes, both set with streams of cascading flickering diamonds. She was wearing elegant chocolate satin gloves to her elbows. Around her wrists sparkle twin wide diamond bracelets. From her fingers on her right hand sparkled a pair of diamond and citrine gemmed cocktail rings. Wrapped around her gown’s waistline was a ribbed brown satin sash, in the centre dangled a long diamond broach, diamonds forming a kite shape, with silver strings of diamonds dangling down from the slanted sides to the bottom point.
The girl was swishing towards the railing overlooking the gardens. She failed to notice the pair of female thieves watching her with sinister intent from the shadowy corner that hid them.
As they pair watched, Emily commented in a low murmur out of the side of her mouth.
“My what jewels that pretty thing is wearing. Be a pity if she met up with the wrong person.”
“Rose” answered her…
“Well, I do think it’s a pity how those far-to-brite jewels are detracting from how darling she looks in that luxurious satin dress.
As they watched the pretty thing, the girl meandered with whimsical elegance to the steps and going down, was soon lost to view.
Emily turned to “Rose” and said miserably…
“I would think with a sapphire twit in hand, our minds should only be there. So sad, no more lifting to be done tonight.
“Rose” turned with a sombre face and looked down into her partner’s sadly eager eyes…. Then she smiled with a wickedly endeared look at Emilee.
“A present given to one needs to be unwrapped…
You know, she is the spitting image of my niece Cecelia, who is not wearing jewels, don’t you think? I should go and tell her. And as I do, you should come up and also mistake her for Cecilia whom I’m talking with. Then we can help the poor lass to look much more like her? “
Emilee winks at her companion, giggling.
“She is the spitting image of Cecilia. That’s a lovely name for a niece that doesn’t exist. don’t you think? And so convenient that our “mistaken double” is allowed to be out wearing her good jewellery this fine evening while "safe" at home. “
The balcony is still deserted as the two hunting thieves quickly make for the stairs.
Reaching them they head down.
The prey in shimmering chocolate satin, is just moving off the last step. Her diamonds twinkled seductively along her figure as she meandered into the gardens.
Once they reach the bottom the two thieves nod to each other, splitting up.
“Rose” begins tracking the victim, her figure trembling with increasing excitement as her victim walks further along in the deserted gardens.
The girl spied a rabbit sitting still underneath a bench. She freezes in step as she watched the cute soft furry thing eating grass.
“Rose” spies Emilee by a fountain a ways off to the opposite side. The taller thief puts a finger to the side of her nose and nods in the unwary girl's direction.
“Rose” sneaks up behind the still unwary girl.. keeping her eyes on the satin sash wrapped around the victim's svelte waistline and tied with a neat little bow behind. The glittering, now unseen diamond broach attached to the front of the satin sash is her objective.
“Rose” reached the girl so focused on watching the hare, that she is unaware of being approached.
“Rose” speaks to the girl as she wraps her arms around her incredibly soft waist pulling her back in a hug at the same time, her fingers easily following the path of the satin sach to the valuable diamond broach.
“Cecelia, fancy meeting you out here.”
The rabbit scampered off as “Rose” spoke. She felt the girl jump in her arms, and her fingers used this to easily unclasp the startled wealthy young lady’s glittering broach.
The girl protested apologetically to the lady who held her from behind, her mind so befuddled it never occurred to her until much later when it was pointed out to her that there was no girl there who had been wearing a similar gown as hers. So it had all been a ruse by the pair to get her jewellry, so she was informed.
“My names not Cecilia miss, sorry.”
Holding the lifted broach clasped in her fist, “Rose” turned the girl around and stared into her victim's wide-open eyes.
“Rose” now apologizes. Placing a hand to her mouth, while her other goes behind her back, secreting the broach inside a hidden pocket.
“Oh. I’m ever so sorry, I thought you were my niece. How embarrassing. “
“Rose” then reached over and stroked the young lady’s sensuous brown chocolate satin gown, taking close inventory of the unwary young lady’s remaining jewellery as she continued with an easy truthful praise in her syrupy voice.
“Please forgive me my blunder, darling one, but my you are wearing the prettiest dress I’ve ever seen!”
The girl blushed, lowering her head, long diamond earrings falling out from her hair in twin cascading sparkles of flickering delight.
From the girl's flank, Emilee now approached.
Silently reaching the extraordinarily well-dressed young lady unseen from behind she takes hold of the girl’s arms pinning her in place, startling her.
From the young lady’s shiny backside, Emilee asks “Rose”…
. Is this your niece then? Hello Cecilia, let’s have a look at you.”
Emily turns the protesting girl to face her.
“I’m not her niece Cecilia!? My name is Lilly Abbotte miss, sorry. “
It’s now Emilee’s turn to study the girl under the pretense of making sure she is not Cecelia, taking in the girl's remaining valuables.
From behind her, “Rose” is tugging on her earlobe as she says to Emily from behind their victim, as she places her hands on either side of Heather’s sleekly covered sides, tickling the unsuspecting girl under her arms.
“But doesn’t Heather look exactly like Cecile, luv? Especially if her hair was up? Don’t you think?”
Emily lifted her hands to the now giggling girl's silky long red hair, lifting it and piling it up as “Rose” placed her hands on Lilly’s shoulders, relishing in the feel of expensive chocolate brown satin.
Emilee, looking into Heather's smiling
eyes, clasping her fingers upon the hapless young girl’s ears, squeals.
“Oh my, you are absolutely correct, Lilly you are as adorable as Cecilia.”
Meanwhile, from behind the high neckline of the girl’s scintillating gown, “Rose’s” fingers tingled as her fingers undid the now exposed clasp of the diamond necklace young Lilly was wearing. The flashy necklace loaded with precious diamonds was easily whisked from around her throat.
Emily winks, letting down the lass’s hair.
Without looking “Rose” knew Lilly was no longer wearing those long sparkling diamond earrings that had been playing peekaboo and out of her let-down red sheer mane of hair.
Emily complimented Lilly on her lovely satin dress as “Rose” let fingers stroke along her gown. Lilly turns her head to look back at “Rose” as Emily seizes hold of the victim’s hands turning her attention away from her, as she suddenly gasps
“Oh, mon Dieu, snake in the grass.”
Lilly jumps, looking down at her feet.
“Rose” grasps Lilly to her too, holding onto the girl's hand as all three are looking down at the grass around their feet. Emily at the same time uses her subterfuge to whisk off one of Lilly’s fancy heavily jeweled bracelets from the wrist of the startled girl's satin glove.
At the same time, “Rosé” is still holding Lilly’s gloved hand and gently caressing her fingers to comfort her, as she manages to rub off her two rings while the fruitless search is taking place.
Emily sighs…
“That was close. Méchante small and quick things, snakes.”
Buying into our ploy The girl gives us both hugs.
Rose is standing behind Emilee, who as Lilly hugs the French thief, her hands around Emilee’s waist , works off the unwary girl’s remaining diamond bracelet.
The pair then say adieu and move off.
Happily, Lilly then walks off, heading back to the manor house.
Emily sighs happily as they both watch her walk away.
“Definitely an improvement on her looks.”
“Rose nods in agreement.
“Though we left her with those lovely diamond hair clips. Pity we didn’t get them. And the sumptuous gown, I would have loved to just peel that off her “
Emilee just sighs.
As both thieves watch the swishing gowned Lilly reach the bottom of the stairs. Emilee, with a hand to her heart, turns to her partner.
“Ma chérie, I have thoughts, but they may be too daring, no?”
“Rose”, still watching Lilly, answers.
“You have wonderful thoughts my friend, what are they?”
Emilee looks up at her partner.
“When you meet your lushly sapphire-laden twit, would it not be delicious if you were wearing the necklace of Lilly’s, or is that too daring my friend?
“Rose” turns her head to look down into to bright dark gaze of the little French thief and solemnly says…
“Far too daring my little one.
“Rose’s” face then lights up with a wicked smile.
“So all the more reason to do so!”
They walk off into a corner of shrubs, a mostly hidden view allows them to watch the balcony and stairs.
“Rose” takes out from her hidden pockets all of her takings and hands them to Emilee. Keeping Lilly’s fancy diamond necklace, she placed it around her throat, where it lay down with dazzled magnificence along the front of her shiny dress. The diamonds dripped down to just above her breasts, tightly outlined by her party dress. Fleshy and full, “Rose’s” raised nipples and breasts now stood out with an even more provocative statement.
Emilee sighs with eager anticipation as she fondles the diamonds of the necklace her partner is wearing. She pulls out the stolen watch and looks at its face.
“It is now almost minuit , time now for me to go and prepare the ‘piégeage’, no!”
“Rose looked up from the necklace and glanced over towards the still-deserted balcony.
“Yes my dear one, time to set up the ‘entrapment’.”
To be continued.
Serena rocks her shark costume to the annual Halloween Bash. She dances sugar crazed into the night and enjoy's the fabulous light display and treats!
Veronica managed to land a spot in the mariachi band playing the maracas for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. She doesn't know much about music--or Mexico--but she couldn't miss the opportunity to wear that fantastic sombrero.
I found the sombrero at Hobby Lobby. It's meant for 18" dolls, but I'm loving it on Blythe! I couldn't leave the store without it. This Blythe is Bow Wow Trad. The maracas came in a set of Barbie musical instruments that my friend Susan gave me. Thanks Susan!
Managed a couple of hours in the shed today, I did a mock up of an idea for a child's gift, and I wanted something simple to cut, so I did my grandson the Derby County badge above, it's on A4 birch plywood with a backing of black sprayed birch plywood, I sprayed the backing before I started the cut, and it was dry ready to attach when I finished :-)
I managed to buy one of these first time around but couldn't resist getting a new one in 2015 thanks to WHSmiths and their eight year old Matchbox stock hanging on the pegs!
This VW Golf is definately a sobering reminder of how cheapened the Matchbox brand has come in recent years, with endless plastic generics and miserable ways of saving the slightest bit of money by ruining once great castings eg the Cadillac Ambulance. This has to be one of the nicer MK5 Golf models in my collection with its great detailing, glossy metallic finish and wearing some of my favourite Matchbox wheels.
Mint and boxed.
Managed to find a nest Bald Eagle and a couple of trees later was the mate keeping watch. It is a great find among 300,000 snow greese.
Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge
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Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva arrives to the Global Center on Adaptation.
IMF Photo/Eric Kampherbeek
5 September 2022
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Photo ref: 220905_0081_IMF_2000px.jpg
Managed to get a decent photo of the dog, for once. Just a crappy cameraphone shot to send back to its owner in Slovakia, but it turned out slightly better than expected.
We managed to entice E to come home for the weekend. She hasn't been away long but it is lovely to have her with us.
As the rain came down again, I just managed to grab this before a 211 invaded the bus-stop - which I hopped on until it stopped (as far as Westminster station - only 100 yards down the road, but it took 10 mins)
RE66 GXT
Mercedes-Benz 519CDi, EVM (Grand Tourer? C19F?)
Venture Tspt (Hearn), Hendon
Victoria Street, London
26 July 2016
We had a trip to Prague in January – for Jayne’s birthday - we don’t buy Christmas or birthday presents, we travel instead. We left snowy England for a very, very dull and grey Czech Republic. Yet again I was on a photographic downer looking at the weather forecast, grey is the colour that haunts me. Fortunately it was dull grey and not burnt highlight inducing bright grey.With the grey sky acting like a big diffuser I was going to have deep shadow and contrast to deal with. We had three very short spells of broken cloud which gave us a bit of sun and colour, which I managed to more or less anticipate so we managed to be in decent locations every time – generally somewhere high.
We had been upgraded to a five star hotel, apparently our original choice was flooded. We got compensation and five star hotel upgrade– a first for me. The Art Nouveau Palace has a beautiful interior, with beautiful rooms, the breakfast room was fantastic, as was the breakfast it has to be said. We were able to have an early breakfast so were out on foot just after eight. It was very cold – and dull! We spent the whole week well wrapped up. It drizzled for a day, but never really wet us, it snowed for a day, again we didn’t get wet and the snow didn’t settle. We walked 65 mile, spending plenty of time checking buildings and their interiors out – and coffee shop and bar interiors it has to be said. Although it was dull and sometimes wet I decided that the Camera was staying in my hands for the whole trip. Whenever I put it in my backpack for one reason or another I regret it.
Again, I didn’t look at any photographs of Prague before we got there, I like to just walk and discover, with the DK guidebook in my pocket (which is full of photos it has to be said). We like to get off the beaten track and see the grittier side of the places we visit – within reason! Prague has an incredible tram network, over 1000 trams – with many of them Tatra Eastern Bloc machines. The system seems chaotic but in reality it is incredible with one of the largest networks and highest usages in the world. The trams and cars frequently share the same road space with very little in the way of drama, none of the inexplicable and pathetic constant horn blowing one finds in many countries. Once it became apparent that buildings with a grey blanket as a background were going to be a bit un-inspirational I decided that the trams would be a good focal point instead. Where I have photographed one of the older trams against a background without clues it is easy to imagine that the photos were taken fifty years ago.
The train network also provided photo opportunities. The rolling stock ranges from old Eastern Bloc to very modern double decker’s and pendolinos. There are three stations although we visited the main station and Smichov. The main station interior is art deco and has been renovated by a private company. The exterior and the platforms are very rundown with a grim eastern bloc 1950’s feel –but it works! We discovered to our amusement that we could just walk across multiple lines, no health and safety, just keep your eyes open and don’t walk under a train – you’ll make a mess. Smichov station was grim, it didn’t help that it snowed all day and was grey and bitter. We felt like we were in a 50’s film set in Russia, broken concrete platforms and dereliction. With both stations there was another world underneath them. The underground Metro is running seamlessly and efficiently away beneath your feet. I didn’t have any problems taking photos anywhere but I was very open and obviously a tourist, I didn’t act covertly or suspiciously. There was only one occasion I was stopped and that was in a shopping centre – full of CCTV cameras filming everyone else!
We discovered old and beautiful- and very large- shopping centres hidden away in quite a few places. Brass framed windows and doors, shops thriving, there was a massive camera shop with thousands of second hand cameras, too much to look at. Many of the landmark buildings prevent photography, some make a small charge, some encourage it, the DK guide book gives a good indication regarding camera use. Nothing stops many people though, they just shoot away regardless, usually wanting a picture that includes their self. Prague is surrounded by low hills and has a fair few towers that you can pay a few pounds to go up, so viewpoints are plentiful. I think we visited most of them. I read about the Zizkov Tower, which looks like a Soviet rocket on the horizon and we headed straight for it - after crossing the rail lines! Set in a quiet residential area, there wasn’t a soul about. Two beautiful girls on reception and we parted with a few pounds, into the lift and were on the observation deck with no one else up there. There are fantastic views over the city, but! It is through two layers of not very clean glass so you go for the view rather than sharp panoramas. Still a fascinating place, with a nice café bar and very clean toilets – there are toilets everywhere, usually manned with a fee. Places are well staffed compared with home were three students are supposed to run a 20 screen multiplex cinema.
Graffiti was prominent, no matter how grand the monument, some moron would have daubed it. How do they get away with it in a 24 hour city centre with a strong police presence? The place is very clean, constantly being swept. What did surprise me, was that many buildings, that looked grand and built of stone, from a distance, were actually rendered with very low quality brickwork concealed. When restored the building look very impressive, others are missing the outer render from ground level to a fair height.
I need to cut this short really, I like to put a background story to the photos and although it would be better to individualise it to a specific photo or group of photos I don’t have the time to do that. I do try to give specific detail in the title bar after I have uploaded, this is time consuming enough although I’m pretty proficient at it by now. There are many things I would like to write that should be of interest to anyone thinking of going to Prague but I’ll have to let the pictures do the talking. As usual I am unlikely to be selective enough with my uploads, I’m not very good at leaving photos out so I just upload and be damned.