Driving from Mongar to Trashi Yangtse / Tashiyangtse, via the bridge at Chazam, the Gom Kora / Gomphu Kora temple and the future hydroelectric dam.

 

Gom Kora is located 13km north of Chazam.

The correct name for the site is Gomphu Kora. Gomphu denotes a sacred meditation site of Guru Rinpoche and kora means 'circumambulation'. The Guru meditated here and left a body impression on a rock, similar to that in Kurjey Lhakhang in Bumthang.

 

Behind the goemba is a fantastical large black rock. It is said that Guru Rinpoche was meditating in a small cave near the bottom of the rock when a demon in the shape of a cobra suddenly appeared. The Guru, alarmed, stood up quickly, leaving the impression of his pointed hat at the top of the cave, and then transformed himself into a garuda, leaving the imprint of his wings nearby. The Guru then made an agreement with the demon to stay away until the end of his meditation. The contract was sealed with thumbprints, which are still visible on the rock. The serpent also left a light-coloured print, with his hood at the top of the rock.

A small sin-testing passageway leads from the cave to an exit to the side of the rock – you must move like a snake to get through the cave. Visitors also test their sin levels and rock-climbing skills by trying to climb up the side of the rock (the 'stairway of the dakinis'; female celestial beings) – only the virtuous can make it. Sometimes childless women carry a hefty holy stone around the kora path to boost their chances of conceiving.

Robert Sutton 2nd Baron Lexington 1662-1723 of Kelham Hall en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sutton,_2nd_Baron_Lexinton#/... sits back to back with wife Margaret Hungerford 1703 (in 1797 Thoroton said "they are not, I think, in the happiest position; a resting posture is not the best conceived for one of an active life, like that of lord Lexington's. Nor do I think their being placed back to back is agreeable with a life of mutual affection")

 

Robert was the son of Robert Sutton, 1st Baron Lexington 1668 flic.kr/p/NLigbu and 3rd wife Mary daughter of Sir Anthony Mayney of Linton

He was the grandson of Sir William Sutton 1611 of Averham and Susan Cony / Caney flic.kr/p/bjBiR1

He was the owner of Averham and Kelham manors

He m 1691 Margaret heiress of Sir Giles Hungerford of Colston / Coulston Wilts by Margaret daughter of Sir Thomas Hampson

Children

1. Willilam George 1697-1713 (his body brought back here for burial concealed in a bale of cloth).

2. Cornelia Leonora Margaretta 1695-1715

3. Bridget 1699-1734 m 1717 John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland d1779 eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke & Catherine Russell : Great grandson of John Manners 8th Earle of Rutland 1679 flic.kr/p/JpwnWy & Baptist Noel, Lord Viscount Campden 1683 flic.kr/p/Kvkvnp

 

His heir was his grandson Lord Robert Manners-Sutton 1722–1762 who added the name of Sutton when he inherited his grandfather's estates, However he died unmarried and the estates passed to his next brother Lord George Manners 1723-1783 who also adopted the name Manners-Sutton and m Diana Chaplin d1767 only daughter of Thomas Chaplin of Blankney, by whom he had 9 children

 

monument in marble by William Palmer, dated 1726

 

"The family of the Suttons has flourished in this county from immemorial. In the year 1251 Roland Sutton married Alicia one of the sisters and coheirs of Robert Lord Lexington. From this marriage issued in the 14th degree in direct line, Robert Sutton who in regard to his descent on the paternal side from the house of Sutton, which had given earles to Warwick and Leicester, and lords to the baronly of Dudley, and the maternal side from one of the coheirs of Robert Lord Lexington, and like wise in consideration of his steady loyality to his prince was created Lord Lexington of Averham in the 21st of King Charles the lst, upon his death which fell out October 135h 1668. He was succeeded in honour and estate by his only son Robert Lord Lexington, here interred who dying without issue male left his estate to his only daughter Bridget, Duchess of Rutland for life, afterwards to he second son the Lord Robert Manners, on condition that he take the arms and name of Sutton.

Here lyeth the body of Robert Sutton, Lord Lexington. The worthy descendant of great and illustrious ancestors. Gracefull in person, polite in behaviour, of conversation amiable. Prompted youthfull ardor he betook himself to arms, and served with reputation. In his riper years his superior genius shone out in clearest judgement united with candor and good nature, he understood and apply'd himself to business.

His whole conduct uncorrupt not adulterated by pride, hence recommended himself to 2 succeeding princes, and under different administration. King William brought him near his own person by constituting him one of the Lords of his bedchambers, then called him into his most important counsels, and sent him in quality of his envoy extraordinary to the courts of Vienna, Hanover and Zell, in a very nice conjuncture of affairs.

Her late majesty Queen Anne equally convinced of his great ability's, in the 1711 sent him embassador to Spain, where he occupied his commission with his usual skill and success and had this happiness in the discharge of public character that he was in the highest esteem at the courts where he resided at the same time that he possessed the fullest confidence of the princes whom he served. By his negotiations, King Philip was prevail'd upon to renounce all claim to the succession of ye crown of France and treatys of peace and commerce were happily concluded between the british and Spanish monarchy's. During his residence at Madrid he had ye misfortune to lose he dear only son, a youth of greatest hopes and this together with an ill state of health determined him to retire to private life. But the serenity he here expected was interrupted by the death of his eldest daughter which had been irreparable to him. Had he not enjoyed the signal felicity of seeing his other surviving daughter married to John Duke of Rutland, and observing in her all the accomplishments a tender parent could, with joyn'd to the prospect of a numerous issue from this union. To preserve the names of Manners and Sutton, and perpetuate the virtues of those noble family's he departed September 19th 1723 and such was the captivating and rare sweetness of his manners and conversation that he lived without enemy's, he died regretted by all that know him, particularly by his daughter Bridget who in filial gratitude to the most indulgent and best father, hath erected this monument.

Within this vault is deposited the body of Margaret, Lady Lexington, the virtuous and only wife of Robert Lord Lexington. She was daughter and heir to Sir Giles Hungerford of Colston in the county of Wilts, a family illustrious in the times of the saxon government and therefore suteably united to the ancient house of Sutton. Such were the beautyes of her mind and person that as she lived esteemed and reverenc'd, her memory will continue ever dear to posterity. She dyed April 1703. William George Sutton born at Vienna September 25th 1697 died at Madrid August 15th 1712, Cornelia Leonora Margaretta Sutton born at Vienna November 4th 1695 dyed October 18th 1715. Children of Robert and Margaret, Lord and Lady Lexington are likewise here interred"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sutton,_2nd_Baron_Lexinton- Church of St. Wilfrid, Kelham Nottinghamshire

Denzel was just a little too virtuous for a Black man, so his image had to be defiled...he still should have won an Oscar for 'Malcolm X'!

"The Right Honorable & noble Lord John Earle of Rutland, Lord Rosse of Hamelac Trusbott & Belvoir lieth here buried. Hee succeeded his brother Edward in this said erledome and baronies and therein lived until Saturday the 24 day of February the next following in the same year 1588 on which day he deceased at Nottingham from whence his corps was hither brought & buried on the 2 day of Aprill following 1588.

Hee was made Liuetenant of ye countie of Nottingham 1587 . Hee had issue by his most honorable and virtuous ladie Elizabeth Charleton, daughter of Fraunces Charleton esquire, five sonnes to witte

Edward who died at his age of ...........

Roger now Erle of Rutland, Lord Rosse of Hamlack Trusbott & Belvoir

Fraunces, George & Oliver & 4 daughters Briget, Elizabeth, Mary (deade in her infancy) & Frances borne after her fathers death"

 

John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland 1588 & wife Elizabeth Charlton

John was the son of Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, and Margaret www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/34U08g daughter of Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland.

He succeeded his elder brother Edward 3rd Earl in 1587

He m Elizabeth daughter of Francis Charlton of Apley Castle by Cicely Fitton of Gawsworth (her sister Margaret Chambre is at Myddle flic.kr/p/d3fZfE )

Children - 10 in all :

1. Edward - died young www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/a07k16

2. Roger 5th Earl of Rutland 1576 – 1612 m Elizabeth Sidney www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/g6Gj76

3. Francis 6th Earl of Rutland 1578 – 1632 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/0zVAUs m1 Frances Knyvett m2 Cecily www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/e5Ky1e daughter of Sir John Tufton of Hothfield flic.kr/p/47d7Yt

4. George 7th Earl of Rutland 1580 –dsp1641 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/vWy5h6 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/w1e736 m Frances Cary.

5. Sir Oliver 1582 – 1613

1. Bridget 1572-1604 (who kneels behind her parents heads) m Robert Tyrwhitt flic.kr/p/pL5uLw.

2. Elizabeth d1653https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/Edc6r4 m Emanuel Scrope Earl of Sunderland flic.kr/p/fuUDCR 1630 only child of Thomas, Lord Scroope of Bolton 1609 and Philadelphia www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/9509629009/ daughter of Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon (cousin of Elizabeth l) by Anne Morgan www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/henry-carey

3. Mary died an infant

4. Frances 1588 – 1643 m William 3rd Baron Willoughby of Parham

Monument by Gerard Johanssen in 1591 making the children only aged 15 to 3 at the time - Church of St Mary the Virgin Bottesford Leicestershire

Robert Sutton 2nd Baron Lexington 1662-1723 of Kelham Hall en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sutton,_2nd_Baron_Lexinton#/... sits back to back with wife Margaret Hungerford 1703 (in 1797 Thoroton said "they are not, I think, in the happiest position; a resting posture is not the best conceived for one of an active life, like that of lord Lexington's. Nor do I think their being placed back to back is agreeable with a life of mutual affection")

 

Robert was the son of Robert Sutton, 1st Baron Lexington 1668 flic.kr/p/NLigbu and 3rd wife Mary daughter of Sir Anthony Mayney of Linton

He was the grandson of Sir William Sutton 1611 of Averham and Susan Cony / Caney flic.kr/p/bjBiR1

He was the owner of Averham and Kelham manors

He m 1691 Margaret heiress of Sir Giles Hungerford of Colston / Coulston Wilts by Margaret daughter of Sir Thomas Hampson

Children

1. Willilam George 1697-1713 (his body brought back here for burial concealed in a bale of cloth).

2. Cornelia Leonora Margaretta 1695-1715

3. Bridget 1699-1734 m 1717 John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland d1779 eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke & Catherine Russell : Great grandson of John Manners 8th Earle of Rutland 1679 flic.kr/p/JpwnWy & Baptist Noel, Lord Viscount Campden 1683 flic.kr/p/Kvkvnp

 

His heir was his grandson Lord Robert Manners-Sutton 1722–1762 who added the name of Sutton when he inherited his grandfather's estates, However he died unmarried and the estates passed to his next brother Lord George Manners 1723-1783 who also adopted the name Manners-Sutton and m Diana Chaplin d1767 only daughter of Thomas Chaplin of Blankney, by whom he had 9 children

 

monument in marble by William Palmer, dated 1726

 

"The family of the Suttons has flourished in this county from immemorial. In the year 1251 Roland Sutton married Alicia one of the sisters and coheirs of Robert Lord Lexington. From this marriage issued in the 14th degree in direct line, Robert Sutton who in regard to his descent on the paternal side from the house of Sutton, which had given earles to Warwick and Leicester, and lords to the baronly of Dudley, and the maternal side from one of the coheirs of Robert Lord Lexington, and like wise in consideration of his steady loyality to his prince was created Lord Lexington of Averham in the 21st of King Charles the lst, upon his death which fell out October 135h 1668. He was succeeded in honour and estate by his only son Robert Lord Lexington, here interred who dying without issue male left his estate to his only daughter Bridget, Duchess of Rutland for life, afterwards to he second son the Lord Robert Manners, on condition that he take the arms and name of Sutton.

Here lyeth the body of Robert Sutton, Lord Lexington. The worthy descendant of great and illustrious ancestors. Gracefull in person, polite in behaviour, of conversation amiable. Prompted youthfull ardor he betook himself to arms, and served with reputation. In his riper years his superior genius shone out in clearest judgement united with candor and good nature, he understood and apply'd himself to business.

His whole conduct uncorrupt not adulterated by pride, hence recommended himself to 2 succeeding princes, and under different administration. King William brought him near his own person by constituting him one of the Lords of his bedchambers, then called him into his most important counsels, and sent him in quality of his envoy extraordinary to the courts of Vienna, Hanover and Zell, in a very nice conjuncture of affairs.

Her late majesty Queen Anne equally convinced of his great ability's, in the 1711 sent him embassador to Spain, where he occupied his commission with his usual skill and success and had this happiness in the discharge of public character that he was in the highest esteem at the courts where he resided at the same time that he possessed the fullest confidence of the princes whom he served. By his negotiations, King Philip was prevail'd upon to renounce all claim to the succession of ye crown of France and treatys of peace and commerce were happily concluded between the british and Spanish monarchy's. During his residence at Madrid he had ye misfortune to lose he dear only son, a youth of greatest hopes and this together with an ill state of health determined him to retire to private life. But the serenity he here expected was interrupted by the death of his eldest daughter which had been irreparable to him. Had he not enjoyed the signal felicity of seeing his other surviving daughter married to John Duke of Rutland, and observing in her all the accomplishments a tender parent could, with joyn'd to the prospect of a numerous issue from this union. To preserve the names of Manners and Sutton, and perpetuate the virtues of those noble family's he departed September 19th 1723 and such was the captivating and rare sweetness of his manners and conversation that he lived without enemy's, he died regretted by all that know him, particularly by his daughter Bridget who in filial gratitude to the most indulgent and best father, hath erected this monument.

Within this vault is deposited the body of Margaret, Lady Lexington, the virtuous and only wife of Robert Lord Lexington. She was daughter and heir to Sir Giles Hungerford of Colston in the county of Wilts, a family illustrious in the times of the saxon government and therefore suteably united to the ancient house of Sutton. Such were the beautyes of her mind and person that as she lived esteemed and reverenc'd, her memory will continue ever dear to posterity. She dyed April 1703. William George Sutton born at Vienna September 25th 1697 died at Madrid August 15th 1712, Cornelia Leonora Margaretta Sutton born at Vienna November 4th 1695 dyed October 18th 1715. Children of Robert and Margaret, Lord and Lady Lexington are likewise here interred"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sutton,_2nd_Baron_Lexinton- Church of St. Wilfrid, Kelham Nottinghamshire

De Rode Ridder (The Red Knight) is a Belgian Flemish comic book series set in medieval Europe. It stars the titular character Johan, the Red Knight, easily recognizable by his red tunic. Johan's character embodies the chivalric ideal. He is brave to the point of intrepid, virtuous, loyal and an expert swordsman. Most of the albums portray him as a travelling knight, owning nothing except his horse and his equipment. Often he will enter a community under threat by evil. This can be mundane (bandits, barbarian tribes or ruthless noblemen) or magical (evil sorcerers, monstrous races or old curses). Sometimes these present straight out fights, while at other times, Johan has to investigate to find his foe. In the end, Johan and the forces of good are usually triumphant.

Johan stayed at the Castle of Horst for a while, which served as his 'birthplace' and changed the meaning of "Rode" completely, as Johan turned out to be a member of the family of the Lords of Rode, which gave his name a dual meaning, the Red Knight and the Rode Knight, as in the Knight from Rode.

 

6 seconds exposure, ND110 filter

 

© All rights reserved

Images may not be copied or used in any way without my written permission.

Veteran squad Scorpius.

 

These guys were intended to showcase the various aspects of the space marines' character: the elite commando, the virtuous knight, the savage killer and the warrior-monk, with the sergeant being kind of a synthesis of all four.

The image of the Cambodian woman has always been compared to the celestial goddesses on the walls of the great temples Angkor Wat. The pleasant smile and distant gaze serve as a paragon for Cambodian women. Apsara, as they are called, represent water and purity and the fluidity of the virtuous female.

 

View On Black

The Windsor Dark Chocolate Rocky Road Bar is nominally a bar of fluffy marshmallow and whole almonds enrobed in a thick coat of dark Belgium chocolate.

 

But let's just call it what it really is: pure, undiluted, E.V.I.L.

 

It's a PG-17 Rocky Road bar that makes you throw back your head and Mwa ha ha like Boris Badenof while you gloat and nibble at its sinful perfection. And really, how embarrassing is that if you're in a public place?

 

You can get your own block of the Dark Force at Whole Foods where I succumbed during a late night run prior to Movie Night with friends last weekend. I did a triple take when I first passed a full Basket of Temptation but finally found the wherewithall to depart sans rocky road because I am a most virtuous and saintly girl.

 

But Shodashi, otherwise known as the Messenger of Satan, told me I had to try one. Since I'm only human and already had a clutch of dark chocolate (hey, it's all for the foodblog - I don't really like dark chocolate!) I averted my eyes and had her pick out a picture perfect bar (again, it's for the foodblog) then balanced it atop my already tetering pile and ran for the register.

 

But now I've eaten a morsel and am addicted. May the Goddess have mercy upon my soul.

 

mmm...mwa ha ha ha...mmmm...

At 21:47 GMT, the equinox happened, and so from then on, light is destined to win over darkness. Which meant, of course, that the day before then was the shortest "day", or amount of daylight.

 

This is the end of the year, the build up and excitement before Christmas, and at the same time, looking back at the year, and what has happened in the previous 50 or so weeks. So, a time of mixed emotions, good and bad, happy and sad.

 

But I was on vacation, or not going to work.

 

I am not up to date, but I did all the tasks I was supposed to do, threw a few electronic grenades over the walls, and was now happy not to think of that shit for two whole weeks.

 

For Jools, however, there was half a day to do, and then her employers paid for all those employed at the factory to go to a fancy place in Folkestone for lunch, drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine between four folks.

 

It was, in short, a time for celebration. Something I realise has not happened in my job since I left operational quality, to be happy and give thanks to those we work with. And be recognised for the good job we do.

 

So, I was to take Jools to work, and have the car for the day.

 

Jools was conscious that my plan for the day involved driving to the far west of Kent, so realised I needed an early start, and not dropping her off in Hythe at seven.

 

We left after coffee just after six, driving through Dover and Folkestone on the main road and motorway before turning over the downs into Hythe. I dropped her off in the town, so she could get some walking in. She always didn't walk, as waves of showers swept over the town, and me as I drove back home for breakfast and do all the chores before leaving on a mini-churchcrawl.

 

So, back home for breakfast, more coffee, wash up, do the bird feeders and with postcodes, set out for points in the extreme west. Now, Kent is not a big county, not say, Texas big, but it takes some time to get to some parts of the west of the county. Main roads run mainly from London to the coast, so going cross-country or cross-county would take time.

 

At first it was as per normal up the A20 then onto the motorway to Ashford then to Maidstone until the junction before the M26 starts. One of the reasons for going later was to avoid rush hours in and around Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

 

As it was, after turning down the A road, things were fine until I got to Mereworth, but from there the road began to twist and turn until it lead me into Tonbridge. Once upon a time, this was a sleepy village or small town. The the railways came and it became a major junction. The road to Penshurt took me though the one way system, then down the wide High Street, over the river Medway and up the hill the other side.

 

Two more turns took me to my target, through what were once called stockbroker mansions, then down a hill, with the village laid out before me just visible through the trees.

 

The village was built around the outskirts of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family since Tudor times. Just about everything is named the Leicester something, the village having its own Leicester Square, though with no cinemas, and all timber framed houses and painfully picturesque.

 

The church lays behind the houses, the tower in golden sandstone topped with four spirelets.

 

I parked the car, and armed with two cameras, several lenses and a photographer's eye, walked to the church.

 

The reason for coming was I can only remember a little about my previous visit, but the Leicester name thing triggered in my head the thought the memorials and tombs might be worth a revisit.

 

So there I was.

 

Gilbert Scott was very busy here, so there is little of anything prior to the 19th century, but the memorials are there. Including one which features the heads of the children of Robert Sidney (d1702) in a cloud. Including the eldest son who died, apparently, so young he wasn't named, and is recorded as being the first born.

 

This is in the Sidney Chapel where the great and good are buried and remembered, it has a colourful roof, or roof beams, and heraldic shields. It has a 15th century font, which, sadly, has been brightly painted so is gaudy in the extreme.

 

I go around getting my shots, leave a fiver for the church. Go back to the car and program Speldhurst into the sat nav.

 

Its just a ten minute drive, but there is no place to park anywhere near the church. I could see from my slow drive-by the porch doors closed, and I convinced myself they were locked and not worth checking out.

 

I went on to Groombridge, where there is a small chapel with fabulous glass. I had been here before too, but wanted to redo my shots.

 

It was by now pouring with rain, and as dark as twilight, I missed the church on first pass, went to the mini-roundabout only to discover that it and the other church in the village were in Sussex. I turned round, the church looked dark and was almost certainly locked. I told myself.

 

I didn't stop here either, so instead of going to the final village church, I went straigh to Tunbridge Wells where there was another church to revisit.

 

I drove into the town, over the man road and to the car park with no waiting in traffic, how odd, I thought.

 

It was hard to find a parking space, but high up in the parking house there were finally spaced. I parked near the stairs down, grabbed my cameras and went down.

 

I guess I could have parked nearer the church, but once done it would be easier to leave the town as the road back home went past the exit.

 

I ambled down the hill leading to the station, over the bridge and down the narrow streets, all lined with shops. I think its fair to say that it is a richer town than Dover because on one street there were three stores offering beposke designer kitchens.

 

The church is across the road from the Georgian square known at The Pantiles, but it was the church I was here to visit.

 

I go in, and there is a service underway. I decide to sit at the back and observe.

 

And pray.

 

I did not take communion, though. The only one there who didn't.

 

About eight elderly parishioners did, though.

 

I was here to photograph the ceiling, and then the other details I failed to record when we were last here over a decade ago.

 

I was quizzed strongly by a warden as to why I was doing this. I had no answer other than I enjoyed it, and for me that is enough.

 

After getting my shots, I leave and begin the slog back up to the car, but on the way keeping my promise to a young man selling the Big Issue that I would come back and buy a copy. I did better than that in that I gave him a fiver and didn't take a copy.

 

He nearly burst into tears. I said, there is kindness in the world, and some of us do keep our promises.

 

By the time I got to the car park, it was raining hard again. I had two and a half hours to get to Folkestone to pick up Jools after her meal.

 

Traffic into Tunbridge Wells from this was was crazy, miles and miles of queues, so I was more than happy going the other way.

 

I get back to the M20, cruise down to Ashford, stopping at Stop 24 services for a coffee and something to eat. I had 90 minutes to kill, so eat, drink and scroll Twitter as I had posted yet more stuff that morning. In other news: nothing changed, sadly.

 

At quarter past four I went to pick up Jools, stopping outside the restaurant. When she got in she declared she had been drinking piña coladas. Just two, but she was bubby and jabbering away all the way home.

 

With Jools having eaten out, and with snacks I had, no dinner was needed, so when suppertime came round, we dined on cheese and crackers, followed by a large slice of Christmas cake.

 

She was now done for Christmas too.

 

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

 

A large sandstone church of nave, aisles, chancel and chapels that was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864. It stands in an excellent position set back from the street in a large well-kept churchyard. The tower is of three stages with four pinnacles strangely set well back from the corners. Inside it is obvious that there have been many rebuildings and repairs, leaving a general character of the Victorian period. The good chancel screen is by Bodley and Garner and dates from 1897. Whilst it is well carved the florid design is more suited to a West Country church than to the Garden of England. The fifteenth-century font has been painted in bold colours in a way that can never have been imagined when it was new! Nearby is the Becket window designed by Lawrence Lee in 1970. It is quite unlike any other window in Kent and has an emphasis on heraldry - the figure of Becket and three knights are almost lost in the patchwork effect. Under the tower is the famous Albigensian Cross, a portion of thirteenth-century coffin lid with the effigy of a woman at prayer. The south chapel, which belongs to Penshurst Place, was rebuilt by Rebecca in 1820 and has a lovely painted ceiling. It contains some fine monuments including Sir Stephen de Pencester, a damaged thirteenth-century knight. Nearby is the large standing monument to the 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1704) designed by William Stanton. It is a large urn flanked by two angels, above which are the heads of the earls children's floating in the clouds!

 

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

 

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

 

PENSHURST.

THE next parish eastward from Chidingstone is Penhurst, called in the Textus Roffenfis, Pennesherst. It takes its name from the old British word Pen, the height or top of any thing, and byrst, a wood. (fn. 1) It is called in some antient records, Pen cestre, and more vulgarly, Penchester, from some sortified camp or fortress antiently situated here.

 

There is a district in this parish, called Hallborough, which is within the lowy of Tunbridge, the manerial rights of which belong to Thomas Streatfeild, esq. and there is another part of it, comprehending the estate of Chafford, which is within the jurisdiction of the duchy court of Lancaster.

 

THIS PARISH lies in the Weald, about four miles Southward from the foot of the sand hills, and the same distance from Tunbridge town, and the high London road from Sevenoke. The face of the country is much the same as in those parishes last described, as is the soil, for the most part a stiff clay, being well adapted to the large growth of timber for which this parish is remarkable; one of these trees, as an instance of it, having been cut down here, about twenty years ago, in the park, called, from its spreading branches, Broad Oak, had twenty-one ton, or eight hundred and forty feet of timber in it. The parish is watered by the river Eden, which runs through the centre of it, and here taking a circular course, and having separated into two smaller streams, joins the river Medway, which flows by the southern part of the park towards Tunbridge. At a small distance northward stands the noble mansion of Penshurst-place, at the south west corner of the park, which, till within these few years, was of much larger extent, the further part of it, called North, alias Lyghe, and South parks, having been alienated from it, on the grounds of the latter of which the late Mr. Alnutt built his seat of that name, from whence the ground rises northward towards the parish of Lyghe. Close to the north west corner of Penshurst-park is the seat of Redleaf, and at the south west corner of it, very near to the Place, is the village of Penshurst, with the church and parsonage. At a small distance, on the other side the river, southward, is Ford-place, and here the country becomes more low, and being watered by the several streams, becomes wet, the roads miry and bad, and the grounds much covered with coppice wood; whence, about a mile southward from the river, is New House, and the boroughs of Frendings and Kingsborough; half a mile southward from which is the river Medway; and on the further side of it the estate of Chafford, a little beyond which it joins the parish of Ashurst, at Stone cross. In a deep hole, in the Medway, near the lower end of Penshurst-park, called Tapner's-hole, there arises a spring, which produces a visible and strong ebullition on the surface of the river; and above Well-place, which is a farm house, near the south-east corner of the park, there is a fine spring, called Kidder's-well, which, having been chemically analized, is found to be a stronger chalybeate than those called Tunbridge-wells; there is a stone bason for the spring to rise in, and run to waste, which was placed here by one of the earls of Leicester many years ago. This parish, as well as the neighbouring ones, abounds with iron ore, and most of the springs in them are more or less chalybeate. In the losty beeches, near the keeper's lodge, in Penshurst-park, is a noted beronry; which, since the destruction of that in lord Dacre's park, at Aveley, in Effex, is, I believe, the only one in this part of England. A fair is held here on July I, for pedlary, &c.

 

The GREATEST PART of this parish is within the jurisdiction of the honour of Otford, a subordinate limb to which is the MANOR of PENSHURST HALIMOTE, alias OTFORD WEALD, extending likewise over parts of the adjoining parishes of Chidingstone, Hever, and Cowden. As a limb of that of honour, it was formerly part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was held for a long time in lease of the archbishops, by the successive owners of Penhurst manor, till the death of the duke of Buckingham, in the 13th year of king Henry VIII. in the 29th year of which reign, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, exchanging Otford with the crown, this, as an appendage, passed with it, and it remained in the hands of the crown till the death of king Charles I. 1648; after which the powers then in being, having seised on the royal estates, passed an ordinance to vest them in trustees, to be sold, to supply the necessities of the state; when, on a survey made of this manor, in 1650, it appeared that the quit-rents due to the lord, from the freeholders in free socage tenure, were 16l. 18s. 3½d. and that they paid a heriot of the best living thing, or in want thereof, 3s. 4d. in money. That there were copyholders holding of it, within this parish, by rent and fine certain; that there was a common fine due from the township or borough of Halebury, and a like from the township of Penshurst, a like from the townships or boroughts of Chidingstone, Standford, and Cowden; and that there was a court baron and a court leet. The total rents, profits, &c. of all which amounted to 23l. and upwards. (fn. 2) After this the manor was sold by the state to colonel Robert Gibbon, with whom it remained till the restoration of king Charles II. when the possession and inheritance of it returned to the crown, where it remains, as well as the honour of Otford, at this time, his grace the duke of Dorset being high steward of both; but the see farm rents of it, with those of other manors belonging to the above mentioned honour, were alienated from the crown in king Charles II.'s reign, and afterwards became the property of Sir James Dashwood, bart. in whose family they still continue.

 

SOON AFTER the reign of William the Conqueror Penshurst was become the residence of a family, who took their name from it, and were possessed of the manor then called the manor of Peneshurste; and it appears by a deed in the Registrum Roffense, that Sir John Belemeyns, canon of St. Paul, London, was in possession of this manor, as uncle and trustee, in the latter part of king Henry III.'s reign, to Stephen de Peneshurste or Penchester, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward I. He had been knighted, and made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports by Henry III. in which posts he continued after the accession of king Edward I. (fn. 3) He died without issue male, and was buried in the south chancel of this church, under an altar tomb, on which lay his figure in armour, reclining on a cushion. He left Margery, his second wife, surviving, who held this manor at her death, in the 2d year of king Edward II. and two daughters and coheirs; Joane, married to Henry de Cobham of Rundale, second son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, in this county, by his first wife, daughter of Warine Fitz Benedict; (fn. 4) and Alice to John de Columbers, as appears by an inquisition, taken in the 3d year of king Edward II. His arms, being Sable, a bend or, a label of three points argent, still remain on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury cathedral. Alice, above mentioned, had this manor, with that of Lyghe adjoining, assigned to her for her proportion of their inheritance; soon after which these manors were conveyed to Sir John de Pulteney, son of Adam de Pulteney of Misterton, in Leicestershire, by Maud his wife. In the 15th year of that reign he had licence to embattle his mansion houses of Penshurst, Chenle in Cambridgeshire, and in London. (fn. 5) In the 11th year of king Edward III. Thomas, son of Sir John de Columbers of Somersetshire, released to him all his right to this manor and the advowson of the chapel of Penshurst; (fn. 6) and the year following Stephen de Columbers, clerk, brother of Sir Philip, released to him likewise all his right in that manor and Yenesfeld, (fn. 7) and that same year he obtained a grant for free warren within his demesne lands within the former. He was a person greatly esteemed by that king, in whose reign he was four times lord mayor of London, and is noticed by our historians for his piety, wisdom, large possessions, and magnificent housekeeping. In his life time he performed several acts of public charity and munificence; and among others he founded a college in the church of St. Laurence, since from him named Poultney, in London. He built the church of Little Allhallows, in Thamesstreet, and the Carmelites church, and the gate to their monastery, in Coventry; and a chapel or chantry in St. Paul's, London. Besides which, by his will, he left many charitable legacies, and directed to be buried in the church of St. Laurence above mentioned. He bore for his arms, Argent a fess dancette gules, in chief three leopards heads sable.

 

By the inquisition taken after his death, it appears, that he died in the 23d year of that reign, being then possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the chapel, Lyghe, South-park, and Orbiston woods, with lands in Lyghe and Tappenash, and others in this county. He left Margaret his wife surviving, who married, secondly, Sir Nicholas Lovaine; and he, in her right, became possessed of a life estate in this manor and the others above mentioned, in which they seem afterwards jointly to have had the see; for Sir William Pulteney, her son, in his life time, vested his interest in these manors and estates in trustees, and died without issue in the 40th year of the same reign, when Robert de Pulteney was found to be his kinsman and next heir, who was ancestor to the late earl of Bath. The trustees afterwards, in the 48th year of it, conveyed them, together with all the other estates of which Sir John Pulteney died possessed, to Sir Nicholas Lovaine and Margaret his wife, and their heirs for ever. Sir Nicholas Lovaine above mentioned was a descendant of the noble family of Lovaine, a younger branch of the duke of Lorraine. Godfrey de Lovaine, having that surname from the place of his birth, possessed lands in England in right of his mother, grand daughter of king Stephen, of whose descendants this Nicholas was a younger branch. He bore for his arms, Gules, a fess argent between fourteen billets or; which arms were quartered by Bourchier earl of Bath, and Devereux earl of Essex. (fn. 8) He died possessed of this manor, leaving one son, Nicholas, who having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, widow of Henry lord Beaumont, died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, who at length became her brother's heir.

 

Margaret, the widow of Nicholas the son, on his death, possessed this manor for her life, and was afterwards re-married to Sir John Devereux, who in her right held it. He was descended from a family which had their surname from Eureux, a town of note in Normandy, and there were several generations of them in England before they were peers of this realm, the first of them summoned to parliament being this Sir John Devereux, who being bred a soldier, was much employed in the wars both of king Edward III. and king Richard II. and had many important trusts conferred on him. In the 11th year of the latter reign, being then a knight banneret, he was made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports. In the 16th year of that reign, he had licence to fortify and embattle his mansion house at Penshurst, the year after which he died, leaving Margaret his wife, surviving, who had an assignation of this manor as part of her dower. She died possessed of it, with Yensfield, and other lands, about the 10th year of king Henry IV. and was succeeded in them by Margaret, sister and heir of her husband, Nicholas Lovaine, who was twice married, first to Rich. Chamberlayn, esq. of Sherburn, in Oxfordshire; and secondly to Sir Philip St. Clere, of Aldham, St. Clere, in Ightham. (fn. 9) Both of these, in right of their wife, seem to have possessed this manor, which descended to John St. Clere, son of the latter, who conveyed it by sale to John duke of Bedford, third son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.

 

The duke of Bedford was the great support and glory of this kingdom in the beginning of the reign of his infant nephew, king Henry VI. his courage was unequalled, and was followed by such rapid success in his wars in France, where he was regent, and commanded the English army in person, that he struck the greatest terror into his enemies. The victories he acquired so humbled the French, that he crowned king Henry VI. at Paris, in which city he died greatly lamented, in the 14th year of that reign, (fn. 10) and was buried in the cathedral church of Roan. He was twice married, but left issue by neither of his wives. He died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, as was then found by inquisition; in which he was succeeded by his next brother, Humphry duke of Gloucester, fourth son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, &c. who in the 4th year of king Henry V. had had the offices of constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports, granted to him for the term of his life; and in the 1st year of king Henry VI. was, by parliament, made protector of England, during the king's minority; and the same year he was constituted chamberlain of England, at the coronation of that prince was appointed high steward of England.

 

The duke was, for his virtuous endowments, surnamed the Good, and for his justice was esteemed the father of his country, notwithstanding which, after he had, under king Henry VI. his nephew, governed this kingdom twenty-five years, with great applause, he was, by the means of Margaret of Aujou, his nephew's queen, who envied his power, arrested at the parliament held at St. Edmundsbury, by John lord Beaumont, then high constable of England, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham and others; and the night following, being the last of February, anno 25 king Henry VI. he was found dead in his bed, it being the general opinion that he was strangled; though his body was shewn to the lords and commons, with an account of his having died of an apoplexy or imposthume; after which he was buried in the abbey of St. Alban, near the shrine of that proto-martyr, and a stately monument was erected to his memory.

 

This duke married two wives; first Jaqueline, daughter and heir of William duke of Bavaria, to whom belonged the earldoms of Holand, Zeland, and Henault, and many other rich seignories in the Netherlands; after which he used these titles, Humphrey, by the grace of God, son, brother, and uncle to kings; duke of Gloucester; earl of Henault, Holand, Zeland, and Pembroke; lord of Friesland; great chamberlain of the kingdom of England; and protector and defender of the kingdom and church of England. But she having already been married to John duke of Brabant, and a suit of divorce being still depending between them, and the Pope having pronounced her marriage with the duke of Brabant lawful, the duke of Gloucester resigned his right to her, and forthwith, after this, married Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham of Sterborough, who had formerly been his concubine. A few years before the duke's death she was accused of witchcrast, and of conspiring the king's death; for which she was condemned to solemn pennance in London, for three several days, and afterwards committed to perpetual imprisonment in the isle of Man. He built the divinity schools at Oxford, and laid the foundation of that famous library over them, since increased by Sir Thomas Bodley, enriching it with a choice collection of manuscripts out of France and Italy. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, France and England, a berdure argent. (fn. 11)

 

By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears, that he died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, in this county, and that dying, without issue, king Henry VI. was his cousin and next heir.

 

¶The manor of Penshurst thus coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year to Humphrey Stafford, who, in consideration of his near alliance in blood to king Henry VI. being the son of Edmund earl of Stafford, by Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, sixth and youngest son of king Edward III. Mary, the other daughter and coheir, having married Henry of Bullingbroke, afterwards king Henry IV. and grandfather of king Henry VI. (fn. 12) as well as for his eminent services to his country, had been, in the 23d year of that reign, created duke of Buckingham. He was afterwards slain in the battle of Northampton, sighting valiantly there on the king's part. By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears that he died in the 38th year of that reign possessed of this manor of Penshurst, among others in this county and elsewhere; which afterwards descended down to his great grandson, Edward duke of Buckingham, but in the 13th year of Henry VIII. this duke being accused of conspiring the king's death, he was brought to his trial, and being found guilty, was beheaded on Tower-hill that year. In the par liament begun April 15, next year, this duke, though there passed an act for his attainder, yet there was one likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors or lands, so that this manor, among his other estates, became forseited to the crown, after which the king seems to have kept it in his own hands, for in his 36th year, he purchased different parcels of land to enlarge his park here, among which was Well-place, and one hundred and seventy acres of land, belonging to it, then the estate of John and William Fry, all which he inclosed within the pale of it, though the purchase of the latter was not completed till the 1st year of king Edward VI. (fn. 13) who seems to have granted the park of Penshurst to John, earl of Warwick, for that earl, in the 4th year of that reign, granted this park to that king again in exchange for other premises. In which year the king granted the manor of Penshurst, with its members and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the duke of Buckingham, to Sir Ralph Fane, to hold in capite by knight's service, being the grandson of Henry Vane, alias Fane, of Hilsden Tunbridge, esq. but in the 6th year of that reign, having zealously espoused the interests of the duke of Somersee, he was accused of being an accomplice with him, and being found guilty, was hanged on Tower-hill that year.

  

PENSHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham.

 

The church, which is a large handsome building, is dedicated to St. John Baptist. It consists of three isles, a cross isle, and three chancels, having a tower steeple at the west end.

 

Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following:—In the middle isle, a grave-stone, with the figure of a man and his two wives, now torn off, but the inscription remains in black letter, for Watur Draynowtt, and Johanna and Anne his wives, obt. 1507; beneath are the figures of four boys and three girls, at top, arms, two lions passant, impaling or, on a chief, two lions heads erased; a memorial for Oliver Combridge, and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1698. In the chancel, memorials on brass for Bulman and Paire; within the rails of the altar a gravestone for William Egerton, LL. D. grandon of John, earl of Bridgwater, rector of Penshurst and Allhallows, Lombard-street, chancellor and prebendary of Hereford, and prebendary of Can terbury, he left two daughters and one son, by Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Head, obt. Feb. 26, 1737; on the south side of the altar, a memorial in brass for John Bust, God's painful minister in this place for twenty-one years; on the north side a mural monument for Gilbert Spencer, esq. of Redleafe-house, obt. 1709, arms, Spencer, an escutcheon of pretence for Combridge; underneath is another stone, with a brass plate, and inscription for William Darkenol, parson of this parish, obt. July 12, 1596; on grave-stones are these shields in brass, the figures and inscriptions on which are lost, parted per fess, in chief two lions passant guardant in base, two wolves heads erased; on another, the same arms, impaling a chevron between three padlocks; another, a lion rampant, charged on the shoulder with an annulet, and another, three lions passant impaling parted per chevron, the rest defaced. In the south chancel, on a stone, the figures of a man and woman in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Pawle Yden, gent. and Agnes his wife, son of Thomas Yden, esq. obt. 1564, beneath is the figure of a girl, arms, four shields at the corner of the stone, the first, Yden, a fess between three helmets; two others, with inscriptions on brass for infant children of the Sidney family; a small grave-stone, on which is a cross gradated in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Thomas Bullayen, son of Sir Thomas Bullayen; here was lately a monument for lady Mary . . . . . . eldest daughter of the famous John, duke of Northumberland, and sister to Ambrose, earl of Warwick, Robert, earl of Leicester, and Catharine, countess of Huntingdon, wife of the right hon. Sir Henry Sidney, knight of the garter, &c. at the west end of the chancel, a mural monument for Sir William Coventry, youngest son of Thomas, lord Coventry, he died at Tunbridge-wells, 1686; on the south side a fine old monument of stone, under which is an altar tomb, and on the wall above it a brass plate, with inscription in black letter, for Sir William Sidney, knightbanneret, chamberlain and steward to king Edward VI. and the first of the name, lord of the manor, of Penshurst, obt. 1553; on the front are these names, Sir William Dormer, and Mary Sidney, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir James Haninngton, Anne Sidney, and Lucy Sidney; on the south side a handsome monument, with the arms and quarterings of the Sidney family, and inscription for lord Philip Sidney, fifth earl of Leicester, &c. obt. 1705, and was succeeded by John, his brother and heir; for John, sixth earl of Leicester, cosin and heir of Henry Sidney, earl of Romney, &c. obt. 1737, his heirs Mary and Elizabeth Sidney, daughters and heirs of his brother the hon. Thomas Sidney, third surviving son of Robert, earl of Leicester, became his joint heirs, for Josceline, seventh earl of Leicester, youngest brother and heir male of earl John, died s. p. in 1743, with whom the title of earl of Leicester expired; the aforesaid Mary and Elizabeth, his nieces, being his heirs, of whom the former married Sir Brownlow Sherard, bart. and Elizabeth, William Perry, esq. on the monument is an account of the several personages of this noble family, their descent, marriages and issue, too long by far to insert here; on the north side is a fine monument for several of the infant children of this family, and beneath is an urn and inscriptions for Frances Sidney, fourth daughter, obt. 1692, æt. 6; for Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester, &c. fourth earl of this family, who married lady Elizabeth Egerton, by whom he had fifteen children, of whom nine died young, whose figures, as cherubims, are placed above, obt. 1702; Robert, the eldest son, obt. 1680, æt. 6; Elizabeth, countess of Leicester, obt. 1709, and buried here in the same vault with her lord. In the same chancel is a very antient figure in stone of a knight in armour, being for Sir Stephen de Penchester, lord warden and constable of Dover-castle in the reign of king Edward I. It was formerly laid on an altar tomb in the chancel, but is now placed erect against the door on the south side, with these words painted on the wall above it, SIR STEPHEN DE PENCHESTER. In the fourth window of the north isle, are these arms, very antient, within the garter argent a fess gules in chief, three roundels of the second, being those of Sir John Devereux, K. G. lord warden and constable, and steward of the king's house in king Richard II's reign; near the former was another coat, nothing of which now remains but the garter. In the same windows are the arms of Sidney; in the second window is this crest, a griffin rampant or. In the east window of the great chancel are the arms of England. In the east window of the south chancel are the arms of the Sidney family, with all the quarterings; there were also, though now destroyed, the arms of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, earl of Sussex, and lady Frances Sidney.

 

This church was of the antient patronage of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, when Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to that queen in exchange for the parsonage of Earde, alias Crayford; and though in the queen's letters patent dated that year, confirming this exchange, there is no value expressed, yet in a roll in the queen's office, it is there set down, the tenth deducted, at the clear yearly value of 32l. 1s. 9d. (fn. 24)

 

¶Soon after which the queen granted the church of Penshurst to Sir Henry Sidney, whose descendants, earls of Leicester, afterwards possessed it; from whom it passed, in like manner as Penshurst manor and place, to William Perry, esq. who died possessed of it in 1757, leaving Elizabeth his wife surviving, who continued proprietor of the advowson of this church at the time of her death in 1783; she by her last will devised it to trustees for the use of her eldest grandson, John Shelley, esq who has since taken the name of Sidney, and is the present owner of it.

 

In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of ecclesiastical livings, taken in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned that the tithes belonging to the parsonage of Penshurst were one hundred and ten pounds per annum, and the parsonage house and glebe lands about fifty pounds per annum, the earl of Leicester being patron, and master Mawdell, minister, who received the profits for his salary. (fn. 25)

 

The annual value of it is now esteemed to be four hundred pounds and upwards. The rectory of Penshurst is valued in the king's books at 30l. 6s. 0½d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 0s. 7½d. (fn. 26)

 

John Acton, rector of this parish, in 1429, granted a lease for ninety-nine years, of a parcel of his glebe land, lying in Berecroft, opposite the gate of the rectory, containing one acre one rood and twelve perches, to Thomas Berkley, clerk, Richard Hammond, and Richard Crundewell, of Penshurst, for the purpose of building on, at the yearly rent of two shillings, and upon deaths and alienations, one shilling to be paid for an heriot, which lease was confirmed by the archbishop and by the dean and chapter of Canterbury. (fn. 27)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol3/pp227-257

Germanicus, the adopted son of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius, was the father of Caligula, and the grandfather of Nero. He died at Antioch, victim of either poison or magic. His devoted widow, Agrippina, brought his ashes back to Rome in an urn.

This story had long been popular with history painters as an ‘exemplum virtutis’ (virtuous example) of a dutiful wife. Turner’s verses for this painting show that he saw the tragic episode as heralding the decline of Imperial Rome. He reconstructs the city in elaborate detail, though in fact Agrippina had landed at Brundisium (Brindisi) rather than Rome. Tate Britain

چو برف از زمين بادبان برکشيد

نبد نيزه نامداران پديد

ناپدید شدن کیخسرو از عالم، پهلوانان در برف ، شاهنامه محمد جوكي ، هرات، ۸۴۰ هجری قمری، انجمن سلطنتي هنرهاي آسيايي لندن،

Ferdowsi, Shahnameh

Timurid: Herat, c.1444

Patron: Mohammad Juki b. Shah Rokh

Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper

London, Royal Asiatic Society, Persian

After a long and prosperous reign, the virtuous Key Khosrow prayed that he might die before succumbing to pride. He renounced his kingship, gave away his treasures, left the throne to Lohrasp, and made his way into the mountains accompanied by his closest paladins. He asked them to leave him and return to the valley. Zal, Rostam and Gudarz obeyed him reluctantly, but others remained. Key Khosrow spent the night reading the Avesta (the primary collection of sacred Zoroastrian texts) and bade his companions farewell. In the morning they searched for him in vain, fell asleep and were buried in the snow.

خردمند ازين کار خندان شود

که زنده کسي پيش يزدان شود

که داند بگيتي که او را چه بود

چه گوييم و گوش که يارد شنود

بدان نامداران چنين گفت گيو

که هرگز چنين نشنود گوش نيو

بمردي و بخشش بداد و هنر

بديدار و بالا و فر و گهر

برزم اندرون پيل بد با سپاه

ببزم اندرون ماه بد با کلاه

و زآن پس بخوردند چيزي که بود

ز خوردن سوي خواب رفتند زود

هم آنگه برآمد يکي باد و ابر

هواگشت برسان چشم هژبر

چو برف از زمين بادبان برکشيد

نبد نيزه نامداران پديد

The enthroned and bearded personification of Honor receives the victor's laurel crown from Virtue and Victory. Majesty and Respect sit like handmaidens at Honor's feet, and the most lauded rulers of history, each identified by name, flank his throne; below are ten virtuous women, plucked from mythology, the Bible and more recent apocryphal histories. The central scribe peruses the list of Honor's celebrants, whilst in the foreground an unruly mob of historical and literary protagonists beseige Honor's pavilion.

 

This tapestry was part of a seven-piece set presenting an allegorical guide to the qualities which a successful ruler should espouse. The set was made for Cardinal Erard de la Marck (1472–1538), Prince-Bishop of Liège, and loyal envoy and financial backer of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Names of characters, in Latin, at center, top: VICTUS (probably a misreading at cartoon or weaving stage for VIRTUS- Virtue); MAIESTAS (Majesty); REVER[N]TIA (Respect); VICTORIA (Victory).

 

Top tier of rulers, inscribed left to right: GODEEREDUS BUHONIUS (Godfrey of Bouillon); S. LODOVICUS (Louis IX of France); CAROL MAGN (Charlemagne); CONSTANTINUS (Emperor Constantine); DAVID (King David); OCTAVIUS (Emperor Augustus); ABRAM (Abraham); ALEXANDER MAGN (Alexander the Great).

 

Second tier of virtuous females: FLORE[N]TIA ROMITIA (Florence of Rome); PENELOPE (Penelope); SOMRAMIS (Semiramis); HELENA (Empress Helena); HESTER (Esther); DEBORA (the prophet Deborah); SABA (Queen of Sheba); ASIA (the continent Asia, at this time iconographically associated with the spread of Fame).

 

Mounting the steps to enter Honor’s pavilion are, at the left, SERTORIUS (General Sertorius) and MARCELLA (Consul Marcellus), crowned by DIGNITE (Dignity) and TRIU[M]PH (Triumph); at the right, PHOCAS (Phocias) and PHUS (unidentifiable) welcome two additional unnamed protagonists.

 

At upper corners: NATURA (Nature); SCRIPTRAS (Scripture).

 

Amongst the foreground proragonists are: IORAM (Joram), IULIANUS APOSTATA (Julian the Apostate), JEROBOAM (Jereboam), HELENA (Helen of Troy) and PARIS (Paris), TARQUIN (Sextus Tarquinius), MELISA (probably an error due to reweaving of MEDUSA), IEZEBEL (Jezebel), NERO (Emperor Nero), MARCUS ANTONI (Mark Anthony), HOLOFERNES (Holofernes) and SARDANAPALUS (King Sardanapalus)

 

Three inscriptions in cartouches along the uppermost register of the border: “QUISQUIS UT AD CLARUM STUDIOSUS SCANDAT HONOREM / NATURA ASSIDUIS PROVOCAT ALMA TUBIS” (“Generous nature urges with constant trumpets / Anyone to ascend zealously to glorious Honor”); “CANDIDA QUOS MISIT VIRTUS HONOR ARCE RECEPTANS / LAUREAT AMBITIO QUOS TULIT INDE FUGAT” (“Those whom shining Virtue sent, Honor receives and crowns in the citadel. Those whom Ambition inspired, he makes flee from there”); “SEDULO DOCTA IUBET MODULIS SCRIPTURA DISERTIS / NE QUIS HONORIPAROS TARDET INITRE LARES” (“Scholarly Scriptura ordains with skillful means measures that no one should delay to enter the house of Honor”).

La personificazione in trono e barbuto di Honor riceve la corona d'alloro del vincitore da Virtue and Victory. Maestà e rispetto siedono come ancelle ai piedi di Onore, ei più lodati regnanti della storia, ciascuno identificato dal nome, fiancheggiano il suo trono; sotto ci sono dieci donne virtuose, strappate alla mitologia, alla Bibbia e alle più recenti storie apocrife. Lo scriba centrale esamina la lista dei celebranti di Honor, mentre in primo piano una folla indisciplinata di protagonisti storici e letterari blocca il padiglione di Honor.

 

Questo arazzo faceva parte di un set di sette pezzi che presentava una guida allegorica alle qualità che un governante di successo dovrebbe sposare. Il set è stato fatto per il cardinale Erard de la Marck (1472-1538), principe-vescovo di Liegi, e inviato leale e finanziatore del Sacro Romano Imperatore Carlo V.

Firme, iscrizioni e segni

Iscrizione: Nomi di personaggi, in latino, al centro, in alto: VICTUS (probabilmente una lettura errata del cartone animato o del palcoscenico per VIRTUS- Virtù); MAIESTAS (Maestà); REVER [N] TIA (Rispetto); VICTORIA (vittoria).

 

Top livello di sovrani, inscritto da sinistra a destra: GODEEREDUS BUHONIUS (Godfrey of Bouillon); S. LODOVICUS (Luigi IX di Francia); CAROL MAGN (Carlo Magno); COSTANTINO (imperatore Costantino); DAVID (King David); Ottaviano (imperatore Augusto); ABRAM (Abraham); ALEXANDER MAGN (Alessandro Magno).

 

Secondo livello di femmine virtuose: FLORE [N] TIA ROMITIA (Firenze di Roma); PENELOPE (Penelope); SOMRAMIS (Semiramis); HELENA (Imperatrice Elena); HESTER (Esther); DEBORA (il profeta Deborah); SABA (Regina di Saba); ASIA (il continente asiatico, in questo momento iconograficamente associato alla diffusione di Fame).

 

I passi per entrare nel padiglione di Honor sono, a sinistra, SERTORIUS (generale Sertorius) e MARCELLA (console Marcello), incoronati da DIGNITE (Dignity) e TRIU [M] PH (Triumph); a destra, PHOCAS (Phocias) e PHUS (non identificabili) danno il benvenuto a due altri protagonisti senza nome.

 

Agli angoli superiori: NATURA (natura); SCRIPTRAS (Scrittura).

 

Tra i proragonisti in primo piano ci sono: IORAM (Joram), IULIANUS APOSTATA (Julian the Apostate), JEROBOAM (Jereboam), HELENA (Helen of Troy) e PARIS (Parigi), TARQUIN (Sextus Tarquinius), MELISA (probabilmente un errore dovuto al riavvolgimento di MEDUSA), IEZEBEL (Jezebel), NERO (Imperatore Nerone), MARCUS ANTONI (Mark Anthony), HOLOFERNES (Oloferne) e SARDANAPALUS (Re Sardanapalus)

 

Tre iscrizioni in cartiglio lungo il registro superiore del confine: "QUISQUIS UT AD CLARUM STUDIOSUS SCANDAT HONOREM / NATURA ASSIDUIS PROVOCAT ALMA TUBIS" ("La natura generosa spinge con trombe costanti / Chiunque ascenda zelantemente al glorioso Onore"); "CANDIDA QUOS MISIT VIRTUS HONOR ARCE RECEPTANS / LAUREAT AMBITIO QUOS TULIT INDE FUGAT" ("Coloro che brillano di virtù, Honor riceve e incorona nella cittadella, quelli che l'ambizione ha ispirato, fugge da lì"); "SEDULO DOCTA IUBET MODULIS SCRIPTURA DISERTIS / NE QUIS HONORIPAROS TARDET INITRE LARES" ("La Scriptura ordinata con mezzi abili misura che nessuno dovrebbe ritardare per entrare nella casa d'onore")

At 21:47 GMT, the equinox happened, and so from then on, light is destined to win over darkness. Which meant, of course, that the day before then was the shortest "day", or amount of daylight.

 

This is the end of the year, the build up and excitement before Christmas, and at the same time, looking back at the year, and what has happened in the previous 50 or so weeks. So, a time of mixed emotions, good and bad, happy and sad.

 

But I was on vacation, or not going to work.

 

I am not up to date, but I did all the tasks I was supposed to do, threw a few electronic grenades over the walls, and was now happy not to think of that shit for two whole weeks.

 

For Jools, however, there was half a day to do, and then her employers paid for all those employed at the factory to go to a fancy place in Folkestone for lunch, drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine between four folks.

 

It was, in short, a time for celebration. Something I realise has not happened in my job since I left operational quality, to be happy and give thanks to those we work with. And be recognised for the good job we do.

 

So, I was to take Jools to work, and have the car for the day.

 

Jools was conscious that my plan for the day involved driving to the far west of Kent, so realised I needed an early start, and not dropping her off in Hythe at seven.

 

We left after coffee just after six, driving through Dover and Folkestone on the main road and motorway before turning over the downs into Hythe. I dropped her off in the town, so she could get some walking in. She always didn't walk, as waves of showers swept over the town, and me as I drove back home for breakfast and do all the chores before leaving on a mini-churchcrawl.

 

So, back home for breakfast, more coffee, wash up, do the bird feeders and with postcodes, set out for points in the extreme west. Now, Kent is not a big county, not say, Texas big, but it takes some time to get to some parts of the west of the county. Main roads run mainly from London to the coast, so going cross-country or cross-county would take time.

 

At first it was as per normal up the A20 then onto the motorway to Ashford then to Maidstone until the junction before the M26 starts. One of the reasons for going later was to avoid rush hours in and around Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

 

As it was, after turning down the A road, things were fine until I got to Mereworth, but from there the road began to twist and turn until it lead me into Tonbridge. Once upon a time, this was a sleepy village or small town. The the railways came and it became a major junction. The road to Penshurt took me though the one way system, then down the wide High Street, over the river Medway and up the hill the other side.

 

Two more turns took me to my target, through what were once called stockbroker mansions, then down a hill, with the village laid out before me just visible through the trees.

 

The village was built around the outskirts of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family since Tudor times. Just about everything is named the Leicester something, the village having its own Leicester Square, though with no cinemas, and all timber framed houses and painfully picturesque.

 

The church lays behind the houses, the tower in golden sandstone topped with four spirelets.

 

I parked the car, and armed with two cameras, several lenses and a photographer's eye, walked to the church.

 

The reason for coming was I can only remember a little about my previous visit, but the Leicester name thing triggered in my head the thought the memorials and tombs might be worth a revisit.

 

So there I was.

 

Gilbert Scott was very busy here, so there is little of anything prior to the 19th century, but the memorials are there. Including one which features the heads of the children of Robert Sidney (d1702) in a cloud. Including the eldest son who died, apparently, so young he wasn't named, and is recorded as being the first born.

 

This is in the Sidney Chapel where the great and good are buried and remembered, it has a colourful roof, or roof beams, and heraldic shields. It has a 15th century font, which, sadly, has been brightly painted so is gaudy in the extreme.

 

I go around getting my shots, leave a fiver for the church. Go back to the car and program Speldhurst into the sat nav.

 

Its just a ten minute drive, but there is no place to park anywhere near the church. I could see from my slow drive-by the porch doors closed, and I convinced myself they were locked and not worth checking out.

 

I went on to Groombridge, where there is a small chapel with fabulous glass. I had been here before too, but wanted to redo my shots.

 

It was by now pouring with rain, and as dark as twilight, I missed the church on first pass, went to the mini-roundabout only to discover that it and the other church in the village were in Sussex. I turned round, the church looked dark and was almost certainly locked. I told myself.

 

I didn't stop here either, so instead of going to the final village church, I went straigh to Tunbridge Wells where there was another church to revisit.

 

I drove into the town, over the man road and to the car park with no waiting in traffic, how odd, I thought.

 

It was hard to find a parking space, but high up in the parking house there were finally spaced. I parked near the stairs down, grabbed my cameras and went down.

 

I guess I could have parked nearer the church, but once done it would be easier to leave the town as the road back home went past the exit.

 

I ambled down the hill leading to the station, over the bridge and down the narrow streets, all lined with shops. I think its fair to say that it is a richer town than Dover because on one street there were three stores offering beposke designer kitchens.

 

The church is across the road from the Georgian square known at The Pantiles, but it was the church I was here to visit.

 

I go in, and there is a service underway. I decide to sit at the back and observe.

 

And pray.

 

I did not take communion, though. The only one there who didn't.

 

About eight elderly parishioners did, though.

 

I was here to photograph the ceiling, and then the other details I failed to record when we were last here over a decade ago.

 

I was quizzed strongly by a warden as to why I was doing this. I had no answer other than I enjoyed it, and for me that is enough.

 

After getting my shots, I leave and begin the slog back up to the car, but on the way keeping my promise to a young man selling the Big Issue that I would come back and buy a copy. I did better than that in that I gave him a fiver and didn't take a copy.

 

He nearly burst into tears. I said, there is kindness in the world, and some of us do keep our promises.

 

By the time I got to the car park, it was raining hard again. I had two and a half hours to get to Folkestone to pick up Jools after her meal.

 

Traffic into Tunbridge Wells from this was was crazy, miles and miles of queues, so I was more than happy going the other way.

 

I get back to the M20, cruise down to Ashford, stopping at Stop 24 services for a coffee and something to eat. I had 90 minutes to kill, so eat, drink and scroll Twitter as I had posted yet more stuff that morning. In other news: nothing changed, sadly.

 

At quarter past four I went to pick up Jools, stopping outside the restaurant. When she got in she declared she had been drinking piña coladas. Just two, but she was bubby and jabbering away all the way home.

 

With Jools having eaten out, and with snacks I had, no dinner was needed, so when suppertime came round, we dined on cheese and crackers, followed by a large slice of Christmas cake.

 

She was now done for Christmas too.

 

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

 

A large sandstone church of nave, aisles, chancel and chapels that was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864. It stands in an excellent position set back from the street in a large well-kept churchyard. The tower is of three stages with four pinnacles strangely set well back from the corners. Inside it is obvious that there have been many rebuildings and repairs, leaving a general character of the Victorian period. The good chancel screen is by Bodley and Garner and dates from 1897. Whilst it is well carved the florid design is more suited to a West Country church than to the Garden of England. The fifteenth-century font has been painted in bold colours in a way that can never have been imagined when it was new! Nearby is the Becket window designed by Lawrence Lee in 1970. It is quite unlike any other window in Kent and has an emphasis on heraldry - the figure of Becket and three knights are almost lost in the patchwork effect. Under the tower is the famous Albigensian Cross, a portion of thirteenth-century coffin lid with the effigy of a woman at prayer. The south chapel, which belongs to Penshurst Place, was rebuilt by Rebecca in 1820 and has a lovely painted ceiling. It contains some fine monuments including Sir Stephen de Pencester, a damaged thirteenth-century knight. Nearby is the large standing monument to the 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1704) designed by William Stanton. It is a large urn flanked by two angels, above which are the heads of the earls children's floating in the clouds!

 

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

 

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PENSHURST.

THE next parish eastward from Chidingstone is Penhurst, called in the Textus Roffenfis, Pennesherst. It takes its name from the old British word Pen, the height or top of any thing, and byrst, a wood. (fn. 1) It is called in some antient records, Pen cestre, and more vulgarly, Penchester, from some sortified camp or fortress antiently situated here.

 

There is a district in this parish, called Hallborough, which is within the lowy of Tunbridge, the manerial rights of which belong to Thomas Streatfeild, esq. and there is another part of it, comprehending the estate of Chafford, which is within the jurisdiction of the duchy court of Lancaster.

 

THIS PARISH lies in the Weald, about four miles Southward from the foot of the sand hills, and the same distance from Tunbridge town, and the high London road from Sevenoke. The face of the country is much the same as in those parishes last described, as is the soil, for the most part a stiff clay, being well adapted to the large growth of timber for which this parish is remarkable; one of these trees, as an instance of it, having been cut down here, about twenty years ago, in the park, called, from its spreading branches, Broad Oak, had twenty-one ton, or eight hundred and forty feet of timber in it. The parish is watered by the river Eden, which runs through the centre of it, and here taking a circular course, and having separated into two smaller streams, joins the river Medway, which flows by the southern part of the park towards Tunbridge. At a small distance northward stands the noble mansion of Penshurst-place, at the south west corner of the park, which, till within these few years, was of much larger extent, the further part of it, called North, alias Lyghe, and South parks, having been alienated from it, on the grounds of the latter of which the late Mr. Alnutt built his seat of that name, from whence the ground rises northward towards the parish of Lyghe. Close to the north west corner of Penshurst-park is the seat of Redleaf, and at the south west corner of it, very near to the Place, is the village of Penshurst, with the church and parsonage. At a small distance, on the other side the river, southward, is Ford-place, and here the country becomes more low, and being watered by the several streams, becomes wet, the roads miry and bad, and the grounds much covered with coppice wood; whence, about a mile southward from the river, is New House, and the boroughs of Frendings and Kingsborough; half a mile southward from which is the river Medway; and on the further side of it the estate of Chafford, a little beyond which it joins the parish of Ashurst, at Stone cross. In a deep hole, in the Medway, near the lower end of Penshurst-park, called Tapner's-hole, there arises a spring, which produces a visible and strong ebullition on the surface of the river; and above Well-place, which is a farm house, near the south-east corner of the park, there is a fine spring, called Kidder's-well, which, having been chemically analized, is found to be a stronger chalybeate than those called Tunbridge-wells; there is a stone bason for the spring to rise in, and run to waste, which was placed here by one of the earls of Leicester many years ago. This parish, as well as the neighbouring ones, abounds with iron ore, and most of the springs in them are more or less chalybeate. In the losty beeches, near the keeper's lodge, in Penshurst-park, is a noted beronry; which, since the destruction of that in lord Dacre's park, at Aveley, in Effex, is, I believe, the only one in this part of England. A fair is held here on July I, for pedlary, &c.

 

The GREATEST PART of this parish is within the jurisdiction of the honour of Otford, a subordinate limb to which is the MANOR of PENSHURST HALIMOTE, alias OTFORD WEALD, extending likewise over parts of the adjoining parishes of Chidingstone, Hever, and Cowden. As a limb of that of honour, it was formerly part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was held for a long time in lease of the archbishops, by the successive owners of Penhurst manor, till the death of the duke of Buckingham, in the 13th year of king Henry VIII. in the 29th year of which reign, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, exchanging Otford with the crown, this, as an appendage, passed with it, and it remained in the hands of the crown till the death of king Charles I. 1648; after which the powers then in being, having seised on the royal estates, passed an ordinance to vest them in trustees, to be sold, to supply the necessities of the state; when, on a survey made of this manor, in 1650, it appeared that the quit-rents due to the lord, from the freeholders in free socage tenure, were 16l. 18s. 3½d. and that they paid a heriot of the best living thing, or in want thereof, 3s. 4d. in money. That there were copyholders holding of it, within this parish, by rent and fine certain; that there was a common fine due from the township or borough of Halebury, and a like from the township of Penshurst, a like from the townships or boroughts of Chidingstone, Standford, and Cowden; and that there was a court baron and a court leet. The total rents, profits, &c. of all which amounted to 23l. and upwards. (fn. 2) After this the manor was sold by the state to colonel Robert Gibbon, with whom it remained till the restoration of king Charles II. when the possession and inheritance of it returned to the crown, where it remains, as well as the honour of Otford, at this time, his grace the duke of Dorset being high steward of both; but the see farm rents of it, with those of other manors belonging to the above mentioned honour, were alienated from the crown in king Charles II.'s reign, and afterwards became the property of Sir James Dashwood, bart. in whose family they still continue.

 

SOON AFTER the reign of William the Conqueror Penshurst was become the residence of a family, who took their name from it, and were possessed of the manor then called the manor of Peneshurste; and it appears by a deed in the Registrum Roffense, that Sir John Belemeyns, canon of St. Paul, London, was in possession of this manor, as uncle and trustee, in the latter part of king Henry III.'s reign, to Stephen de Peneshurste or Penchester, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward I. He had been knighted, and made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports by Henry III. in which posts he continued after the accession of king Edward I. (fn. 3) He died without issue male, and was buried in the south chancel of this church, under an altar tomb, on which lay his figure in armour, reclining on a cushion. He left Margery, his second wife, surviving, who held this manor at her death, in the 2d year of king Edward II. and two daughters and coheirs; Joane, married to Henry de Cobham of Rundale, second son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, in this county, by his first wife, daughter of Warine Fitz Benedict; (fn. 4) and Alice to John de Columbers, as appears by an inquisition, taken in the 3d year of king Edward II. His arms, being Sable, a bend or, a label of three points argent, still remain on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury cathedral. Alice, above mentioned, had this manor, with that of Lyghe adjoining, assigned to her for her proportion of their inheritance; soon after which these manors were conveyed to Sir John de Pulteney, son of Adam de Pulteney of Misterton, in Leicestershire, by Maud his wife. In the 15th year of that reign he had licence to embattle his mansion houses of Penshurst, Chenle in Cambridgeshire, and in London. (fn. 5) In the 11th year of king Edward III. Thomas, son of Sir John de Columbers of Somersetshire, released to him all his right to this manor and the advowson of the chapel of Penshurst; (fn. 6) and the year following Stephen de Columbers, clerk, brother of Sir Philip, released to him likewise all his right in that manor and Yenesfeld, (fn. 7) and that same year he obtained a grant for free warren within his demesne lands within the former. He was a person greatly esteemed by that king, in whose reign he was four times lord mayor of London, and is noticed by our historians for his piety, wisdom, large possessions, and magnificent housekeeping. In his life time he performed several acts of public charity and munificence; and among others he founded a college in the church of St. Laurence, since from him named Poultney, in London. He built the church of Little Allhallows, in Thamesstreet, and the Carmelites church, and the gate to their monastery, in Coventry; and a chapel or chantry in St. Paul's, London. Besides which, by his will, he left many charitable legacies, and directed to be buried in the church of St. Laurence above mentioned. He bore for his arms, Argent a fess dancette gules, in chief three leopards heads sable.

 

By the inquisition taken after his death, it appears, that he died in the 23d year of that reign, being then possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the chapel, Lyghe, South-park, and Orbiston woods, with lands in Lyghe and Tappenash, and others in this county. He left Margaret his wife surviving, who married, secondly, Sir Nicholas Lovaine; and he, in her right, became possessed of a life estate in this manor and the others above mentioned, in which they seem afterwards jointly to have had the see; for Sir William Pulteney, her son, in his life time, vested his interest in these manors and estates in trustees, and died without issue in the 40th year of the same reign, when Robert de Pulteney was found to be his kinsman and next heir, who was ancestor to the late earl of Bath. The trustees afterwards, in the 48th year of it, conveyed them, together with all the other estates of which Sir John Pulteney died possessed, to Sir Nicholas Lovaine and Margaret his wife, and their heirs for ever. Sir Nicholas Lovaine above mentioned was a descendant of the noble family of Lovaine, a younger branch of the duke of Lorraine. Godfrey de Lovaine, having that surname from the place of his birth, possessed lands in England in right of his mother, grand daughter of king Stephen, of whose descendants this Nicholas was a younger branch. He bore for his arms, Gules, a fess argent between fourteen billets or; which arms were quartered by Bourchier earl of Bath, and Devereux earl of Essex. (fn. 8) He died possessed of this manor, leaving one son, Nicholas, who having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, widow of Henry lord Beaumont, died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, who at length became her brother's heir.

 

Margaret, the widow of Nicholas the son, on his death, possessed this manor for her life, and was afterwards re-married to Sir John Devereux, who in her right held it. He was descended from a family which had their surname from Eureux, a town of note in Normandy, and there were several generations of them in England before they were peers of this realm, the first of them summoned to parliament being this Sir John Devereux, who being bred a soldier, was much employed in the wars both of king Edward III. and king Richard II. and had many important trusts conferred on him. In the 11th year of the latter reign, being then a knight banneret, he was made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports. In the 16th year of that reign, he had licence to fortify and embattle his mansion house at Penshurst, the year after which he died, leaving Margaret his wife, surviving, who had an assignation of this manor as part of her dower. She died possessed of it, with Yensfield, and other lands, about the 10th year of king Henry IV. and was succeeded in them by Margaret, sister and heir of her husband, Nicholas Lovaine, who was twice married, first to Rich. Chamberlayn, esq. of Sherburn, in Oxfordshire; and secondly to Sir Philip St. Clere, of Aldham, St. Clere, in Ightham. (fn. 9) Both of these, in right of their wife, seem to have possessed this manor, which descended to John St. Clere, son of the latter, who conveyed it by sale to John duke of Bedford, third son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.

 

The duke of Bedford was the great support and glory of this kingdom in the beginning of the reign of his infant nephew, king Henry VI. his courage was unequalled, and was followed by such rapid success in his wars in France, where he was regent, and commanded the English army in person, that he struck the greatest terror into his enemies. The victories he acquired so humbled the French, that he crowned king Henry VI. at Paris, in which city he died greatly lamented, in the 14th year of that reign, (fn. 10) and was buried in the cathedral church of Roan. He was twice married, but left issue by neither of his wives. He died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, as was then found by inquisition; in which he was succeeded by his next brother, Humphry duke of Gloucester, fourth son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, &c. who in the 4th year of king Henry V. had had the offices of constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports, granted to him for the term of his life; and in the 1st year of king Henry VI. was, by parliament, made protector of England, during the king's minority; and the same year he was constituted chamberlain of England, at the coronation of that prince was appointed high steward of England.

 

The duke was, for his virtuous endowments, surnamed the Good, and for his justice was esteemed the father of his country, notwithstanding which, after he had, under king Henry VI. his nephew, governed this kingdom twenty-five years, with great applause, he was, by the means of Margaret of Aujou, his nephew's queen, who envied his power, arrested at the parliament held at St. Edmundsbury, by John lord Beaumont, then high constable of England, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham and others; and the night following, being the last of February, anno 25 king Henry VI. he was found dead in his bed, it being the general opinion that he was strangled; though his body was shewn to the lords and commons, with an account of his having died of an apoplexy or imposthume; after which he was buried in the abbey of St. Alban, near the shrine of that proto-martyr, and a stately monument was erected to his memory.

 

This duke married two wives; first Jaqueline, daughter and heir of William duke of Bavaria, to whom belonged the earldoms of Holand, Zeland, and Henault, and many other rich seignories in the Netherlands; after which he used these titles, Humphrey, by the grace of God, son, brother, and uncle to kings; duke of Gloucester; earl of Henault, Holand, Zeland, and Pembroke; lord of Friesland; great chamberlain of the kingdom of England; and protector and defender of the kingdom and church of England. But she having already been married to John duke of Brabant, and a suit of divorce being still depending between them, and the Pope having pronounced her marriage with the duke of Brabant lawful, the duke of Gloucester resigned his right to her, and forthwith, after this, married Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham of Sterborough, who had formerly been his concubine. A few years before the duke's death she was accused of witchcrast, and of conspiring the king's death; for which she was condemned to solemn pennance in London, for three several days, and afterwards committed to perpetual imprisonment in the isle of Man. He built the divinity schools at Oxford, and laid the foundation of that famous library over them, since increased by Sir Thomas Bodley, enriching it with a choice collection of manuscripts out of France and Italy. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, France and England, a berdure argent. (fn. 11)

 

By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears, that he died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, in this county, and that dying, without issue, king Henry VI. was his cousin and next heir.

 

¶The manor of Penshurst thus coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year to Humphrey Stafford, who, in consideration of his near alliance in blood to king Henry VI. being the son of Edmund earl of Stafford, by Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, sixth and youngest son of king Edward III. Mary, the other daughter and coheir, having married Henry of Bullingbroke, afterwards king Henry IV. and grandfather of king Henry VI. (fn. 12) as well as for his eminent services to his country, had been, in the 23d year of that reign, created duke of Buckingham. He was afterwards slain in the battle of Northampton, sighting valiantly there on the king's part. By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears that he died in the 38th year of that reign possessed of this manor of Penshurst, among others in this county and elsewhere; which afterwards descended down to his great grandson, Edward duke of Buckingham, but in the 13th year of Henry VIII. this duke being accused of conspiring the king's death, he was brought to his trial, and being found guilty, was beheaded on Tower-hill that year. In the par liament begun April 15, next year, this duke, though there passed an act for his attainder, yet there was one likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors or lands, so that this manor, among his other estates, became forseited to the crown, after which the king seems to have kept it in his own hands, for in his 36th year, he purchased different parcels of land to enlarge his park here, among which was Well-place, and one hundred and seventy acres of land, belonging to it, then the estate of John and William Fry, all which he inclosed within the pale of it, though the purchase of the latter was not completed till the 1st year of king Edward VI. (fn. 13) who seems to have granted the park of Penshurst to John, earl of Warwick, for that earl, in the 4th year of that reign, granted this park to that king again in exchange for other premises. In which year the king granted the manor of Penshurst, with its members and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the duke of Buckingham, to Sir Ralph Fane, to hold in capite by knight's service, being the grandson of Henry Vane, alias Fane, of Hilsden Tunbridge, esq. but in the 6th year of that reign, having zealously espoused the interests of the duke of Somersee, he was accused of being an accomplice with him, and being found guilty, was hanged on Tower-hill that year.

  

PENSHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham.

 

The church, which is a large handsome building, is dedicated to St. John Baptist. It consists of three isles, a cross isle, and three chancels, having a tower steeple at the west end.

 

Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following:—In the middle isle, a grave-stone, with the figure of a man and his two wives, now torn off, but the inscription remains in black letter, for Watur Draynowtt, and Johanna and Anne his wives, obt. 1507; beneath are the figures of four boys and three girls, at top, arms, two lions passant, impaling or, on a chief, two lions heads erased; a memorial for Oliver Combridge, and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1698. In the chancel, memorials on brass for Bulman and Paire; within the rails of the altar a gravestone for William Egerton, LL. D. grandon of John, earl of Bridgwater, rector of Penshurst and Allhallows, Lombard-street, chancellor and prebendary of Hereford, and prebendary of Can terbury, he left two daughters and one son, by Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Head, obt. Feb. 26, 1737; on the south side of the altar, a memorial in brass for John Bust, God's painful minister in this place for twenty-one years; on the north side a mural monument for Gilbert Spencer, esq. of Redleafe-house, obt. 1709, arms, Spencer, an escutcheon of pretence for Combridge; underneath is another stone, with a brass plate, and inscription for William Darkenol, parson of this parish, obt. July 12, 1596; on grave-stones are these shields in brass, the figures and inscriptions on which are lost, parted per fess, in chief two lions passant guardant in base, two wolves heads erased; on another, the same arms, impaling a chevron between three padlocks; another, a lion rampant, charged on the shoulder with an annulet, and another, three lions passant impaling parted per chevron, the rest defaced. In the south chancel, on a stone, the figures of a man and woman in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Pawle Yden, gent. and Agnes his wife, son of Thomas Yden, esq. obt. 1564, beneath is the figure of a girl, arms, four shields at the corner of the stone, the first, Yden, a fess between three helmets; two others, with inscriptions on brass for infant children of the Sidney family; a small grave-stone, on which is a cross gradated in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Thomas Bullayen, son of Sir Thomas Bullayen; here was lately a monument for lady Mary . . . . . . eldest daughter of the famous John, duke of Northumberland, and sister to Ambrose, earl of Warwick, Robert, earl of Leicester, and Catharine, countess of Huntingdon, wife of the right hon. Sir Henry Sidney, knight of the garter, &c. at the west end of the chancel, a mural monument for Sir William Coventry, youngest son of Thomas, lord Coventry, he died at Tunbridge-wells, 1686; on the south side a fine old monument of stone, under which is an altar tomb, and on the wall above it a brass plate, with inscription in black letter, for Sir William Sidney, knightbanneret, chamberlain and steward to king Edward VI. and the first of the name, lord of the manor, of Penshurst, obt. 1553; on the front are these names, Sir William Dormer, and Mary Sidney, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir James Haninngton, Anne Sidney, and Lucy Sidney; on the south side a handsome monument, with the arms and quarterings of the Sidney family, and inscription for lord Philip Sidney, fifth earl of Leicester, &c. obt. 1705, and was succeeded by John, his brother and heir; for John, sixth earl of Leicester, cosin and heir of Henry Sidney, earl of Romney, &c. obt. 1737, his heirs Mary and Elizabeth Sidney, daughters and heirs of his brother the hon. Thomas Sidney, third surviving son of Robert, earl of Leicester, became his joint heirs, for Josceline, seventh earl of Leicester, youngest brother and heir male of earl John, died s. p. in 1743, with whom the title of earl of Leicester expired; the aforesaid Mary and Elizabeth, his nieces, being his heirs, of whom the former married Sir Brownlow Sherard, bart. and Elizabeth, William Perry, esq. on the monument is an account of the several personages of this noble family, their descent, marriages and issue, too long by far to insert here; on the north side is a fine monument for several of the infant children of this family, and beneath is an urn and inscriptions for Frances Sidney, fourth daughter, obt. 1692, æt. 6; for Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester, &c. fourth earl of this family, who married lady Elizabeth Egerton, by whom he had fifteen children, of whom nine died young, whose figures, as cherubims, are placed above, obt. 1702; Robert, the eldest son, obt. 1680, æt. 6; Elizabeth, countess of Leicester, obt. 1709, and buried here in the same vault with her lord. In the same chancel is a very antient figure in stone of a knight in armour, being for Sir Stephen de Penchester, lord warden and constable of Dover-castle in the reign of king Edward I. It was formerly laid on an altar tomb in the chancel, but is now placed erect against the door on the south side, with these words painted on the wall above it, SIR STEPHEN DE PENCHESTER. In the fourth window of the north isle, are these arms, very antient, within the garter argent a fess gules in chief, three roundels of the second, being those of Sir John Devereux, K. G. lord warden and constable, and steward of the king's house in king Richard II's reign; near the former was another coat, nothing of which now remains but the garter. In the same windows are the arms of Sidney; in the second window is this crest, a griffin rampant or. In the east window of the great chancel are the arms of England. In the east window of the south chancel are the arms of the Sidney family, with all the quarterings; there were also, though now destroyed, the arms of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, earl of Sussex, and lady Frances Sidney.

 

This church was of the antient patronage of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, when Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to that queen in exchange for the parsonage of Earde, alias Crayford; and though in the queen's letters patent dated that year, confirming this exchange, there is no value expressed, yet in a roll in the queen's office, it is there set down, the tenth deducted, at the clear yearly value of 32l. 1s. 9d. (fn. 24)

 

¶Soon after which the queen granted the church of Penshurst to Sir Henry Sidney, whose descendants, earls of Leicester, afterwards possessed it; from whom it passed, in like manner as Penshurst manor and place, to William Perry, esq. who died possessed of it in 1757, leaving Elizabeth his wife surviving, who continued proprietor of the advowson of this church at the time of her death in 1783; she by her last will devised it to trustees for the use of her eldest grandson, John Shelley, esq who has since taken the name of Sidney, and is the present owner of it.

 

In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of ecclesiastical livings, taken in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned that the tithes belonging to the parsonage of Penshurst were one hundred and ten pounds per annum, and the parsonage house and glebe lands about fifty pounds per annum, the earl of Leicester being patron, and master Mawdell, minister, who received the profits for his salary. (fn. 25)

 

The annual value of it is now esteemed to be four hundred pounds and upwards. The rectory of Penshurst is valued in the king's books at 30l. 6s. 0½d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 0s. 7½d. (fn. 26)

 

John Acton, rector of this parish, in 1429, granted a lease for ninety-nine years, of a parcel of his glebe land, lying in Berecroft, opposite the gate of the rectory, containing one acre one rood and twelve perches, to Thomas Berkley, clerk, Richard Hammond, and Richard Crundewell, of Penshurst, for the purpose of building on, at the yearly rent of two shillings, and upon deaths and alienations, one shilling to be paid for an heriot, which lease was confirmed by the archbishop and by the dean and chapter of Canterbury. (fn. 27)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol3/pp227-257

 

"Here lyeth the bodye of Barbara the wife of John Plumleigh of Dartmouth who departed this life the thirde day of September 1610

Here lyeth the wife of John Plumleigh who Barbara had to name

Whose virtuous life and Godly death hath left her lasting Fame

Of Rich and Poore she was beloved to Ye one a Neighbour kind

To the other still in all distress, a tender harted frende

Two sons and daughters 4 she bare unto her husband deare

And dyed when age had neere run out ye Four and XXXth yeare

Whose corps have thou O Death destroy, yet Christ shall raise again

And it conjoin with Soul in blisse for ever to remain

For Death to Life A Passage Is, as Scriptures ALL accord

Blest are the Dead therefore that die in favour of ye Lord"

 

Brass figure of Barbara wife of John Plumleigh with her 2 sons & 4 daughters below - Barbara wears a kind of French hood with dependent cover-chief, ruff, and richly embroidered stomacher and petticoat, with fathingale over, close sleeves with cuffs, the hands raised in prayer, the feet in shoes with rosettes.

 

Barbara was the daughter of Stephen Eyre

She m (1st wife) John Plumleigh 7th son of John Plumleigh of Dartmouth, both mayors of Dartmouth, by 2nd wife Anne daughter of John Fortescue of Fallopit & Honoria daughter of Edmund Speccott of Thornbury

Children

1. Richard Plumleigh 1596–1636 m Elizabeth daughter of William Nutbrowne, by whom he had two sons, Charles and Philip, and a daughter, Elizabeth.

2. George James Plumleigh 1601–1649 m Joan- by whom he had a son John

1. Rachel Plumleigh b1596

2. Anne Plumleigh 1602–1640 m Nicholas Ford of Ford

3. Barbara 1604 - m 1626 Thomas Woodward of London

 

Husband John m2 (within 2 months - 17 Dec. 1610), Margaret, daughter of Nicholas Martin of Exetor, relict of John Ellacott, merchant of Exetor, by whom he had one daughter Jane wife of Nicholas Roope. His will, Nov. 1641 proved 1641-2.

 

( Margaret's memorial is nearby inscribed; "Hereunder lyeth ye Body of Margaret the second wife of John Plumleigh of Dartmouth Gentleman, who was the daughter of Nicholas Martin of Exon, Esq: who departed this life ye 25 of Februar 1638. She lived vertously and died Godly" )

 

- Church of St. Petrox, Dartmouth

ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KHCD-7QR/barbara-eyre-1572-...

Vonderene www.findagrave.com/memorial/199664818/barbara-plumleigh

At 21:47 GMT, the equinox happened, and so from then on, light is destined to win over darkness. Which meant, of course, that the day before then was the shortest "day", or amount of daylight.

 

This is the end of the year, the build up and excitement before Christmas, and at the same time, looking back at the year, and what has happened in the previous 50 or so weeks. So, a time of mixed emotions, good and bad, happy and sad.

 

But I was on vacation, or not going to work.

 

I am not up to date, but I did all the tasks I was supposed to do, threw a few electronic grenades over the walls, and was now happy not to think of that shit for two whole weeks.

 

For Jools, however, there was half a day to do, and then her employers paid for all those employed at the factory to go to a fancy place in Folkestone for lunch, drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine between four folks.

 

It was, in short, a time for celebration. Something I realise has not happened in my job since I left operational quality, to be happy and give thanks to those we work with. And be recognised for the good job we do.

 

So, I was to take Jools to work, and have the car for the day.

 

Jools was conscious that my plan for the day involved driving to the far west of Kent, so realised I needed an early start, and not dropping her off in Hythe at seven.

 

We left after coffee just after six, driving through Dover and Folkestone on the main road and motorway before turning over the downs into Hythe. I dropped her off in the town, so she could get some walking in. She always didn't walk, as waves of showers swept over the town, and me as I drove back home for breakfast and do all the chores before leaving on a mini-churchcrawl.

 

So, back home for breakfast, more coffee, wash up, do the bird feeders and with postcodes, set out for points in the extreme west. Now, Kent is not a big county, not say, Texas big, but it takes some time to get to some parts of the west of the county. Main roads run mainly from London to the coast, so going cross-country or cross-county would take time.

 

At first it was as per normal up the A20 then onto the motorway to Ashford then to Maidstone until the junction before the M26 starts. One of the reasons for going later was to avoid rush hours in and around Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

 

As it was, after turning down the A road, things were fine until I got to Mereworth, but from there the road began to twist and turn until it lead me into Tonbridge. Once upon a time, this was a sleepy village or small town. The the railways came and it became a major junction. The road to Penshurt took me though the one way system, then down the wide High Street, over the river Medway and up the hill the other side.

 

Two more turns took me to my target, through what were once called stockbroker mansions, then down a hill, with the village laid out before me just visible through the trees.

 

The village was built around the outskirts of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family since Tudor times. Just about everything is named the Leicester something, the village having its own Leicester Square, though with no cinemas, and all timber framed houses and painfully picturesque.

 

The church lays behind the houses, the tower in golden sandstone topped with four spirelets.

 

I parked the car, and armed with two cameras, several lenses and a photographer's eye, walked to the church.

 

The reason for coming was I can only remember a little about my previous visit, but the Leicester name thing triggered in my head the thought the memorials and tombs might be worth a revisit.

 

So there I was.

 

Gilbert Scott was very busy here, so there is little of anything prior to the 19th century, but the memorials are there. Including one which features the heads of the children of Robert Sidney (d1702) in a cloud. Including the eldest son who died, apparently, so young he wasn't named, and is recorded as being the first born.

 

This is in the Sidney Chapel where the great and good are buried and remembered, it has a colourful roof, or roof beams, and heraldic shields. It has a 15th century font, which, sadly, has been brightly painted so is gaudy in the extreme.

 

I go around getting my shots, leave a fiver for the church. Go back to the car and program Speldhurst into the sat nav.

 

Its just a ten minute drive, but there is no place to park anywhere near the church. I could see from my slow drive-by the porch doors closed, and I convinced myself they were locked and not worth checking out.

 

I went on to Groombridge, where there is a small chapel with fabulous glass. I had been here before too, but wanted to redo my shots.

 

It was by now pouring with rain, and as dark as twilight, I missed the church on first pass, went to the mini-roundabout only to discover that it and the other church in the village were in Sussex. I turned round, the church looked dark and was almost certainly locked. I told myself.

 

I didn't stop here either, so instead of going to the final village church, I went straigh to Tunbridge Wells where there was another church to revisit.

 

I drove into the town, over the man road and to the car park with no waiting in traffic, how odd, I thought.

 

It was hard to find a parking space, but high up in the parking house there were finally spaced. I parked near the stairs down, grabbed my cameras and went down.

 

I guess I could have parked nearer the church, but once done it would be easier to leave the town as the road back home went past the exit.

 

I ambled down the hill leading to the station, over the bridge and down the narrow streets, all lined with shops. I think its fair to say that it is a richer town than Dover because on one street there were three stores offering beposke designer kitchens.

 

The church is across the road from the Georgian square known at The Pantiles, but it was the church I was here to visit.

 

I go in, and there is a service underway. I decide to sit at the back and observe.

 

And pray.

 

I did not take communion, though. The only one there who didn't.

 

About eight elderly parishioners did, though.

 

I was here to photograph the ceiling, and then the other details I failed to record when we were last here over a decade ago.

 

I was quizzed strongly by a warden as to why I was doing this. I had no answer other than I enjoyed it, and for me that is enough.

 

After getting my shots, I leave and begin the slog back up to the car, but on the way keeping my promise to a young man selling the Big Issue that I would come back and buy a copy. I did better than that in that I gave him a fiver and didn't take a copy.

 

He nearly burst into tears. I said, there is kindness in the world, and some of us do keep our promises.

 

By the time I got to the car park, it was raining hard again. I had two and a half hours to get to Folkestone to pick up Jools after her meal.

 

Traffic into Tunbridge Wells from this was was crazy, miles and miles of queues, so I was more than happy going the other way.

 

I get back to the M20, cruise down to Ashford, stopping at Stop 24 services for a coffee and something to eat. I had 90 minutes to kill, so eat, drink and scroll Twitter as I had posted yet more stuff that morning. In other news: nothing changed, sadly.

 

At quarter past four I went to pick up Jools, stopping outside the restaurant. When she got in she declared she had been drinking piña coladas. Just two, but she was bubby and jabbering away all the way home.

 

With Jools having eaten out, and with snacks I had, no dinner was needed, so when suppertime came round, we dined on cheese and crackers, followed by a large slice of Christmas cake.

 

She was now done for Christmas too.

 

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

 

A large sandstone church of nave, aisles, chancel and chapels that was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864. It stands in an excellent position set back from the street in a large well-kept churchyard. The tower is of three stages with four pinnacles strangely set well back from the corners. Inside it is obvious that there have been many rebuildings and repairs, leaving a general character of the Victorian period. The good chancel screen is by Bodley and Garner and dates from 1897. Whilst it is well carved the florid design is more suited to a West Country church than to the Garden of England. The fifteenth-century font has been painted in bold colours in a way that can never have been imagined when it was new! Nearby is the Becket window designed by Lawrence Lee in 1970. It is quite unlike any other window in Kent and has an emphasis on heraldry - the figure of Becket and three knights are almost lost in the patchwork effect. Under the tower is the famous Albigensian Cross, a portion of thirteenth-century coffin lid with the effigy of a woman at prayer. The south chapel, which belongs to Penshurst Place, was rebuilt by Rebecca in 1820 and has a lovely painted ceiling. It contains some fine monuments including Sir Stephen de Pencester, a damaged thirteenth-century knight. Nearby is the large standing monument to the 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1704) designed by William Stanton. It is a large urn flanked by two angels, above which are the heads of the earls children's floating in the clouds!

 

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

 

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PENSHURST.

THE next parish eastward from Chidingstone is Penhurst, called in the Textus Roffenfis, Pennesherst. It takes its name from the old British word Pen, the height or top of any thing, and byrst, a wood. (fn. 1) It is called in some antient records, Pen cestre, and more vulgarly, Penchester, from some sortified camp or fortress antiently situated here.

 

There is a district in this parish, called Hallborough, which is within the lowy of Tunbridge, the manerial rights of which belong to Thomas Streatfeild, esq. and there is another part of it, comprehending the estate of Chafford, which is within the jurisdiction of the duchy court of Lancaster.

 

THIS PARISH lies in the Weald, about four miles Southward from the foot of the sand hills, and the same distance from Tunbridge town, and the high London road from Sevenoke. The face of the country is much the same as in those parishes last described, as is the soil, for the most part a stiff clay, being well adapted to the large growth of timber for which this parish is remarkable; one of these trees, as an instance of it, having been cut down here, about twenty years ago, in the park, called, from its spreading branches, Broad Oak, had twenty-one ton, or eight hundred and forty feet of timber in it. The parish is watered by the river Eden, which runs through the centre of it, and here taking a circular course, and having separated into two smaller streams, joins the river Medway, which flows by the southern part of the park towards Tunbridge. At a small distance northward stands the noble mansion of Penshurst-place, at the south west corner of the park, which, till within these few years, was of much larger extent, the further part of it, called North, alias Lyghe, and South parks, having been alienated from it, on the grounds of the latter of which the late Mr. Alnutt built his seat of that name, from whence the ground rises northward towards the parish of Lyghe. Close to the north west corner of Penshurst-park is the seat of Redleaf, and at the south west corner of it, very near to the Place, is the village of Penshurst, with the church and parsonage. At a small distance, on the other side the river, southward, is Ford-place, and here the country becomes more low, and being watered by the several streams, becomes wet, the roads miry and bad, and the grounds much covered with coppice wood; whence, about a mile southward from the river, is New House, and the boroughs of Frendings and Kingsborough; half a mile southward from which is the river Medway; and on the further side of it the estate of Chafford, a little beyond which it joins the parish of Ashurst, at Stone cross. In a deep hole, in the Medway, near the lower end of Penshurst-park, called Tapner's-hole, there arises a spring, which produces a visible and strong ebullition on the surface of the river; and above Well-place, which is a farm house, near the south-east corner of the park, there is a fine spring, called Kidder's-well, which, having been chemically analized, is found to be a stronger chalybeate than those called Tunbridge-wells; there is a stone bason for the spring to rise in, and run to waste, which was placed here by one of the earls of Leicester many years ago. This parish, as well as the neighbouring ones, abounds with iron ore, and most of the springs in them are more or less chalybeate. In the losty beeches, near the keeper's lodge, in Penshurst-park, is a noted beronry; which, since the destruction of that in lord Dacre's park, at Aveley, in Effex, is, I believe, the only one in this part of England. A fair is held here on July I, for pedlary, &c.

 

The GREATEST PART of this parish is within the jurisdiction of the honour of Otford, a subordinate limb to which is the MANOR of PENSHURST HALIMOTE, alias OTFORD WEALD, extending likewise over parts of the adjoining parishes of Chidingstone, Hever, and Cowden. As a limb of that of honour, it was formerly part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was held for a long time in lease of the archbishops, by the successive owners of Penhurst manor, till the death of the duke of Buckingham, in the 13th year of king Henry VIII. in the 29th year of which reign, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, exchanging Otford with the crown, this, as an appendage, passed with it, and it remained in the hands of the crown till the death of king Charles I. 1648; after which the powers then in being, having seised on the royal estates, passed an ordinance to vest them in trustees, to be sold, to supply the necessities of the state; when, on a survey made of this manor, in 1650, it appeared that the quit-rents due to the lord, from the freeholders in free socage tenure, were 16l. 18s. 3½d. and that they paid a heriot of the best living thing, or in want thereof, 3s. 4d. in money. That there were copyholders holding of it, within this parish, by rent and fine certain; that there was a common fine due from the township or borough of Halebury, and a like from the township of Penshurst, a like from the townships or boroughts of Chidingstone, Standford, and Cowden; and that there was a court baron and a court leet. The total rents, profits, &c. of all which amounted to 23l. and upwards. (fn. 2) After this the manor was sold by the state to colonel Robert Gibbon, with whom it remained till the restoration of king Charles II. when the possession and inheritance of it returned to the crown, where it remains, as well as the honour of Otford, at this time, his grace the duke of Dorset being high steward of both; but the see farm rents of it, with those of other manors belonging to the above mentioned honour, were alienated from the crown in king Charles II.'s reign, and afterwards became the property of Sir James Dashwood, bart. in whose family they still continue.

 

SOON AFTER the reign of William the Conqueror Penshurst was become the residence of a family, who took their name from it, and were possessed of the manor then called the manor of Peneshurste; and it appears by a deed in the Registrum Roffense, that Sir John Belemeyns, canon of St. Paul, London, was in possession of this manor, as uncle and trustee, in the latter part of king Henry III.'s reign, to Stephen de Peneshurste or Penchester, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward I. He had been knighted, and made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports by Henry III. in which posts he continued after the accession of king Edward I. (fn. 3) He died without issue male, and was buried in the south chancel of this church, under an altar tomb, on which lay his figure in armour, reclining on a cushion. He left Margery, his second wife, surviving, who held this manor at her death, in the 2d year of king Edward II. and two daughters and coheirs; Joane, married to Henry de Cobham of Rundale, second son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, in this county, by his first wife, daughter of Warine Fitz Benedict; (fn. 4) and Alice to John de Columbers, as appears by an inquisition, taken in the 3d year of king Edward II. His arms, being Sable, a bend or, a label of three points argent, still remain on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury cathedral. Alice, above mentioned, had this manor, with that of Lyghe adjoining, assigned to her for her proportion of their inheritance; soon after which these manors were conveyed to Sir John de Pulteney, son of Adam de Pulteney of Misterton, in Leicestershire, by Maud his wife. In the 15th year of that reign he had licence to embattle his mansion houses of Penshurst, Chenle in Cambridgeshire, and in London. (fn. 5) In the 11th year of king Edward III. Thomas, son of Sir John de Columbers of Somersetshire, released to him all his right to this manor and the advowson of the chapel of Penshurst; (fn. 6) and the year following Stephen de Columbers, clerk, brother of Sir Philip, released to him likewise all his right in that manor and Yenesfeld, (fn. 7) and that same year he obtained a grant for free warren within his demesne lands within the former. He was a person greatly esteemed by that king, in whose reign he was four times lord mayor of London, and is noticed by our historians for his piety, wisdom, large possessions, and magnificent housekeeping. In his life time he performed several acts of public charity and munificence; and among others he founded a college in the church of St. Laurence, since from him named Poultney, in London. He built the church of Little Allhallows, in Thamesstreet, and the Carmelites church, and the gate to their monastery, in Coventry; and a chapel or chantry in St. Paul's, London. Besides which, by his will, he left many charitable legacies, and directed to be buried in the church of St. Laurence above mentioned. He bore for his arms, Argent a fess dancette gules, in chief three leopards heads sable.

 

By the inquisition taken after his death, it appears, that he died in the 23d year of that reign, being then possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the chapel, Lyghe, South-park, and Orbiston woods, with lands in Lyghe and Tappenash, and others in this county. He left Margaret his wife surviving, who married, secondly, Sir Nicholas Lovaine; and he, in her right, became possessed of a life estate in this manor and the others above mentioned, in which they seem afterwards jointly to have had the see; for Sir William Pulteney, her son, in his life time, vested his interest in these manors and estates in trustees, and died without issue in the 40th year of the same reign, when Robert de Pulteney was found to be his kinsman and next heir, who was ancestor to the late earl of Bath. The trustees afterwards, in the 48th year of it, conveyed them, together with all the other estates of which Sir John Pulteney died possessed, to Sir Nicholas Lovaine and Margaret his wife, and their heirs for ever. Sir Nicholas Lovaine above mentioned was a descendant of the noble family of Lovaine, a younger branch of the duke of Lorraine. Godfrey de Lovaine, having that surname from the place of his birth, possessed lands in England in right of his mother, grand daughter of king Stephen, of whose descendants this Nicholas was a younger branch. He bore for his arms, Gules, a fess argent between fourteen billets or; which arms were quartered by Bourchier earl of Bath, and Devereux earl of Essex. (fn. 8) He died possessed of this manor, leaving one son, Nicholas, who having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, widow of Henry lord Beaumont, died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, who at length became her brother's heir.

 

Margaret, the widow of Nicholas the son, on his death, possessed this manor for her life, and was afterwards re-married to Sir John Devereux, who in her right held it. He was descended from a family which had their surname from Eureux, a town of note in Normandy, and there were several generations of them in England before they were peers of this realm, the first of them summoned to parliament being this Sir John Devereux, who being bred a soldier, was much employed in the wars both of king Edward III. and king Richard II. and had many important trusts conferred on him. In the 11th year of the latter reign, being then a knight banneret, he was made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports. In the 16th year of that reign, he had licence to fortify and embattle his mansion house at Penshurst, the year after which he died, leaving Margaret his wife, surviving, who had an assignation of this manor as part of her dower. She died possessed of it, with Yensfield, and other lands, about the 10th year of king Henry IV. and was succeeded in them by Margaret, sister and heir of her husband, Nicholas Lovaine, who was twice married, first to Rich. Chamberlayn, esq. of Sherburn, in Oxfordshire; and secondly to Sir Philip St. Clere, of Aldham, St. Clere, in Ightham. (fn. 9) Both of these, in right of their wife, seem to have possessed this manor, which descended to John St. Clere, son of the latter, who conveyed it by sale to John duke of Bedford, third son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.

 

The duke of Bedford was the great support and glory of this kingdom in the beginning of the reign of his infant nephew, king Henry VI. his courage was unequalled, and was followed by such rapid success in his wars in France, where he was regent, and commanded the English army in person, that he struck the greatest terror into his enemies. The victories he acquired so humbled the French, that he crowned king Henry VI. at Paris, in which city he died greatly lamented, in the 14th year of that reign, (fn. 10) and was buried in the cathedral church of Roan. He was twice married, but left issue by neither of his wives. He died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, as was then found by inquisition; in which he was succeeded by his next brother, Humphry duke of Gloucester, fourth son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, &c. who in the 4th year of king Henry V. had had the offices of constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports, granted to him for the term of his life; and in the 1st year of king Henry VI. was, by parliament, made protector of England, during the king's minority; and the same year he was constituted chamberlain of England, at the coronation of that prince was appointed high steward of England.

 

The duke was, for his virtuous endowments, surnamed the Good, and for his justice was esteemed the father of his country, notwithstanding which, after he had, under king Henry VI. his nephew, governed this kingdom twenty-five years, with great applause, he was, by the means of Margaret of Aujou, his nephew's queen, who envied his power, arrested at the parliament held at St. Edmundsbury, by John lord Beaumont, then high constable of England, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham and others; and the night following, being the last of February, anno 25 king Henry VI. he was found dead in his bed, it being the general opinion that he was strangled; though his body was shewn to the lords and commons, with an account of his having died of an apoplexy or imposthume; after which he was buried in the abbey of St. Alban, near the shrine of that proto-martyr, and a stately monument was erected to his memory.

 

This duke married two wives; first Jaqueline, daughter and heir of William duke of Bavaria, to whom belonged the earldoms of Holand, Zeland, and Henault, and many other rich seignories in the Netherlands; after which he used these titles, Humphrey, by the grace of God, son, brother, and uncle to kings; duke of Gloucester; earl of Henault, Holand, Zeland, and Pembroke; lord of Friesland; great chamberlain of the kingdom of England; and protector and defender of the kingdom and church of England. But she having already been married to John duke of Brabant, and a suit of divorce being still depending between them, and the Pope having pronounced her marriage with the duke of Brabant lawful, the duke of Gloucester resigned his right to her, and forthwith, after this, married Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham of Sterborough, who had formerly been his concubine. A few years before the duke's death she was accused of witchcrast, and of conspiring the king's death; for which she was condemned to solemn pennance in London, for three several days, and afterwards committed to perpetual imprisonment in the isle of Man. He built the divinity schools at Oxford, and laid the foundation of that famous library over them, since increased by Sir Thomas Bodley, enriching it with a choice collection of manuscripts out of France and Italy. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, France and England, a berdure argent. (fn. 11)

 

By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears, that he died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, in this county, and that dying, without issue, king Henry VI. was his cousin and next heir.

 

¶The manor of Penshurst thus coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year to Humphrey Stafford, who, in consideration of his near alliance in blood to king Henry VI. being the son of Edmund earl of Stafford, by Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, sixth and youngest son of king Edward III. Mary, the other daughter and coheir, having married Henry of Bullingbroke, afterwards king Henry IV. and grandfather of king Henry VI. (fn. 12) as well as for his eminent services to his country, had been, in the 23d year of that reign, created duke of Buckingham. He was afterwards slain in the battle of Northampton, sighting valiantly there on the king's part. By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears that he died in the 38th year of that reign possessed of this manor of Penshurst, among others in this county and elsewhere; which afterwards descended down to his great grandson, Edward duke of Buckingham, but in the 13th year of Henry VIII. this duke being accused of conspiring the king's death, he was brought to his trial, and being found guilty, was beheaded on Tower-hill that year. In the par liament begun April 15, next year, this duke, though there passed an act for his attainder, yet there was one likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors or lands, so that this manor, among his other estates, became forseited to the crown, after which the king seems to have kept it in his own hands, for in his 36th year, he purchased different parcels of land to enlarge his park here, among which was Well-place, and one hundred and seventy acres of land, belonging to it, then the estate of John and William Fry, all which he inclosed within the pale of it, though the purchase of the latter was not completed till the 1st year of king Edward VI. (fn. 13) who seems to have granted the park of Penshurst to John, earl of Warwick, for that earl, in the 4th year of that reign, granted this park to that king again in exchange for other premises. In which year the king granted the manor of Penshurst, with its members and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the duke of Buckingham, to Sir Ralph Fane, to hold in capite by knight's service, being the grandson of Henry Vane, alias Fane, of Hilsden Tunbridge, esq. but in the 6th year of that reign, having zealously espoused the interests of the duke of Somersee, he was accused of being an accomplice with him, and being found guilty, was hanged on Tower-hill that year.

  

PENSHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham.

 

The church, which is a large handsome building, is dedicated to St. John Baptist. It consists of three isles, a cross isle, and three chancels, having a tower steeple at the west end.

 

Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following:—In the middle isle, a grave-stone, with the figure of a man and his two wives, now torn off, but the inscription remains in black letter, for Watur Draynowtt, and Johanna and Anne his wives, obt. 1507; beneath are the figures of four boys and three girls, at top, arms, two lions passant, impaling or, on a chief, two lions heads erased; a memorial for Oliver Combridge, and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1698. In the chancel, memorials on brass for Bulman and Paire; within the rails of the altar a gravestone for William Egerton, LL. D. grandon of John, earl of Bridgwater, rector of Penshurst and Allhallows, Lombard-street, chancellor and prebendary of Hereford, and prebendary of Can terbury, he left two daughters and one son, by Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Head, obt. Feb. 26, 1737; on the south side of the altar, a memorial in brass for John Bust, God's painful minister in this place for twenty-one years; on the north side a mural monument for Gilbert Spencer, esq. of Redleafe-house, obt. 1709, arms, Spencer, an escutcheon of pretence for Combridge; underneath is another stone, with a brass plate, and inscription for William Darkenol, parson of this parish, obt. July 12, 1596; on grave-stones are these shields in brass, the figures and inscriptions on which are lost, parted per fess, in chief two lions passant guardant in base, two wolves heads erased; on another, the same arms, impaling a chevron between three padlocks; another, a lion rampant, charged on the shoulder with an annulet, and another, three lions passant impaling parted per chevron, the rest defaced. In the south chancel, on a stone, the figures of a man and woman in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Pawle Yden, gent. and Agnes his wife, son of Thomas Yden, esq. obt. 1564, beneath is the figure of a girl, arms, four shields at the corner of the stone, the first, Yden, a fess between three helmets; two others, with inscriptions on brass for infant children of the Sidney family; a small grave-stone, on which is a cross gradated in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Thomas Bullayen, son of Sir Thomas Bullayen; here was lately a monument for lady Mary . . . . . . eldest daughter of the famous John, duke of Northumberland, and sister to Ambrose, earl of Warwick, Robert, earl of Leicester, and Catharine, countess of Huntingdon, wife of the right hon. Sir Henry Sidney, knight of the garter, &c. at the west end of the chancel, a mural monument for Sir William Coventry, youngest son of Thomas, lord Coventry, he died at Tunbridge-wells, 1686; on the south side a fine old monument of stone, under which is an altar tomb, and on the wall above it a brass plate, with inscription in black letter, for Sir William Sidney, knightbanneret, chamberlain and steward to king Edward VI. and the first of the name, lord of the manor, of Penshurst, obt. 1553; on the front are these names, Sir William Dormer, and Mary Sidney, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir James Haninngton, Anne Sidney, and Lucy Sidney; on the south side a handsome monument, with the arms and quarterings of the Sidney family, and inscription for lord Philip Sidney, fifth earl of Leicester, &c. obt. 1705, and was succeeded by John, his brother and heir; for John, sixth earl of Leicester, cosin and heir of Henry Sidney, earl of Romney, &c. obt. 1737, his heirs Mary and Elizabeth Sidney, daughters and heirs of his brother the hon. Thomas Sidney, third surviving son of Robert, earl of Leicester, became his joint heirs, for Josceline, seventh earl of Leicester, youngest brother and heir male of earl John, died s. p. in 1743, with whom the title of earl of Leicester expired; the aforesaid Mary and Elizabeth, his nieces, being his heirs, of whom the former married Sir Brownlow Sherard, bart. and Elizabeth, William Perry, esq. on the monument is an account of the several personages of this noble family, their descent, marriages and issue, too long by far to insert here; on the north side is a fine monument for several of the infant children of this family, and beneath is an urn and inscriptions for Frances Sidney, fourth daughter, obt. 1692, æt. 6; for Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester, &c. fourth earl of this family, who married lady Elizabeth Egerton, by whom he had fifteen children, of whom nine died young, whose figures, as cherubims, are placed above, obt. 1702; Robert, the eldest son, obt. 1680, æt. 6; Elizabeth, countess of Leicester, obt. 1709, and buried here in the same vault with her lord. In the same chancel is a very antient figure in stone of a knight in armour, being for Sir Stephen de Penchester, lord warden and constable of Dover-castle in the reign of king Edward I. It was formerly laid on an altar tomb in the chancel, but is now placed erect against the door on the south side, with these words painted on the wall above it, SIR STEPHEN DE PENCHESTER. In the fourth window of the north isle, are these arms, very antient, within the garter argent a fess gules in chief, three roundels of the second, being those of Sir John Devereux, K. G. lord warden and constable, and steward of the king's house in king Richard II's reign; near the former was another coat, nothing of which now remains but the garter. In the same windows are the arms of Sidney; in the second window is this crest, a griffin rampant or. In the east window of the great chancel are the arms of England. In the east window of the south chancel are the arms of the Sidney family, with all the quarterings; there were also, though now destroyed, the arms of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, earl of Sussex, and lady Frances Sidney.

 

This church was of the antient patronage of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, when Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to that queen in exchange for the parsonage of Earde, alias Crayford; and though in the queen's letters patent dated that year, confirming this exchange, there is no value expressed, yet in a roll in the queen's office, it is there set down, the tenth deducted, at the clear yearly value of 32l. 1s. 9d. (fn. 24)

 

¶Soon after which the queen granted the church of Penshurst to Sir Henry Sidney, whose descendants, earls of Leicester, afterwards possessed it; from whom it passed, in like manner as Penshurst manor and place, to William Perry, esq. who died possessed of it in 1757, leaving Elizabeth his wife surviving, who continued proprietor of the advowson of this church at the time of her death in 1783; she by her last will devised it to trustees for the use of her eldest grandson, John Shelley, esq who has since taken the name of Sidney, and is the present owner of it.

 

In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of ecclesiastical livings, taken in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned that the tithes belonging to the parsonage of Penshurst were one hundred and ten pounds per annum, and the parsonage house and glebe lands about fifty pounds per annum, the earl of Leicester being patron, and master Mawdell, minister, who received the profits for his salary. (fn. 25)

 

The annual value of it is now esteemed to be four hundred pounds and upwards. The rectory of Penshurst is valued in the king's books at 30l. 6s. 0½d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 0s. 7½d. (fn. 26)

 

John Acton, rector of this parish, in 1429, granted a lease for ninety-nine years, of a parcel of his glebe land, lying in Berecroft, opposite the gate of the rectory, containing one acre one rood and twelve perches, to Thomas Berkley, clerk, Richard Hammond, and Richard Crundewell, of Penshurst, for the purpose of building on, at the yearly rent of two shillings, and upon deaths and alienations, one shilling to be paid for an heriot, which lease was confirmed by the archbishop and by the dean and chapter of Canterbury. (fn. 27)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol3/pp227-257

 

At 21:47 GMT, the equinox happened, and so from then on, light is destined to win over darkness. Which meant, of course, that the day before then was the shortest "day", or amount of daylight.

 

This is the end of the year, the build up and excitement before Christmas, and at the same time, looking back at the year, and what has happened in the previous 50 or so weeks. So, a time of mixed emotions, good and bad, happy and sad.

 

But I was on vacation, or not going to work.

 

I am not up to date, but I did all the tasks I was supposed to do, threw a few electronic grenades over the walls, and was now happy not to think of that shit for two whole weeks.

 

For Jools, however, there was half a day to do, and then her employers paid for all those employed at the factory to go to a fancy place in Folkestone for lunch, drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine between four folks.

 

It was, in short, a time for celebration. Something I realise has not happened in my job since I left operational quality, to be happy and give thanks to those we work with. And be recognised for the good job we do.

 

So, I was to take Jools to work, and have the car for the day.

 

Jools was conscious that my plan for the day involved driving to the far west of Kent, so realised I needed an early start, and not dropping her off in Hythe at seven.

 

We left after coffee just after six, driving through Dover and Folkestone on the main road and motorway before turning over the downs into Hythe. I dropped her off in the town, so she could get some walking in. She always didn't walk, as waves of showers swept over the town, and me as I drove back home for breakfast and do all the chores before leaving on a mini-churchcrawl.

 

So, back home for breakfast, more coffee, wash up, do the bird feeders and with postcodes, set out for points in the extreme west. Now, Kent is not a big county, not say, Texas big, but it takes some time to get to some parts of the west of the county. Main roads run mainly from London to the coast, so going cross-country or cross-county would take time.

 

At first it was as per normal up the A20 then onto the motorway to Ashford then to Maidstone until the junction before the M26 starts. One of the reasons for going later was to avoid rush hours in and around Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

 

As it was, after turning down the A road, things were fine until I got to Mereworth, but from there the road began to twist and turn until it lead me into Tonbridge. Once upon a time, this was a sleepy village or small town. The the railways came and it became a major junction. The road to Penshurt took me though the one way system, then down the wide High Street, over the river Medway and up the hill the other side.

 

Two more turns took me to my target, through what were once called stockbroker mansions, then down a hill, with the village laid out before me just visible through the trees.

 

The village was built around the outskirts of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family since Tudor times. Just about everything is named the Leicester something, the village having its own Leicester Square, though with no cinemas, and all timber framed houses and painfully picturesque.

 

The church lays behind the houses, the tower in golden sandstone topped with four spirelets.

 

I parked the car, and armed with two cameras, several lenses and a photographer's eye, walked to the church.

 

The reason for coming was I can only remember a little about my previous visit, but the Leicester name thing triggered in my head the thought the memorials and tombs might be worth a revisit.

 

So there I was.

 

Gilbert Scott was very busy here, so there is little of anything prior to the 19th century, but the memorials are there. Including one which features the heads of the children of Robert Sidney (d1702) in a cloud. Including the eldest son who died, apparently, so young he wasn't named, and is recorded as being the first born.

 

This is in the Sidney Chapel where the great and good are buried and remembered, it has a colourful roof, or roof beams, and heraldic shields. It has a 15th century font, which, sadly, has been brightly painted so is gaudy in the extreme.

 

I go around getting my shots, leave a fiver for the church. Go back to the car and program Speldhurst into the sat nav.

 

Its just a ten minute drive, but there is no place to park anywhere near the church. I could see from my slow drive-by the porch doors closed, and I convinced myself they were locked and not worth checking out.

 

I went on to Groombridge, where there is a small chapel with fabulous glass. I had been here before too, but wanted to redo my shots.

 

It was by now pouring with rain, and as dark as twilight, I missed the church on first pass, went to the mini-roundabout only to discover that it and the other church in the village were in Sussex. I turned round, the church looked dark and was almost certainly locked. I told myself.

 

I didn't stop here either, so instead of going to the final village church, I went straigh to Tunbridge Wells where there was another church to revisit.

 

I drove into the town, over the man road and to the car park with no waiting in traffic, how odd, I thought.

 

It was hard to find a parking space, but high up in the parking house there were finally spaced. I parked near the stairs down, grabbed my cameras and went down.

 

I guess I could have parked nearer the church, but once done it would be easier to leave the town as the road back home went past the exit.

 

I ambled down the hill leading to the station, over the bridge and down the narrow streets, all lined with shops. I think its fair to say that it is a richer town than Dover because on one street there were three stores offering beposke designer kitchens.

 

The church is across the road from the Georgian square known at The Pantiles, but it was the church I was here to visit.

 

I go in, and there is a service underway. I decide to sit at the back and observe.

 

And pray.

 

I did not take communion, though. The only one there who didn't.

 

About eight elderly parishioners did, though.

 

I was here to photograph the ceiling, and then the other details I failed to record when we were last here over a decade ago.

 

I was quizzed strongly by a warden as to why I was doing this. I had no answer other than I enjoyed it, and for me that is enough.

 

After getting my shots, I leave and begin the slog back up to the car, but on the way keeping my promise to a young man selling the Big Issue that I would come back and buy a copy. I did better than that in that I gave him a fiver and didn't take a copy.

 

He nearly burst into tears. I said, there is kindness in the world, and some of us do keep our promises.

 

By the time I got to the car park, it was raining hard again. I had two and a half hours to get to Folkestone to pick up Jools after her meal.

 

Traffic into Tunbridge Wells from this was was crazy, miles and miles of queues, so I was more than happy going the other way.

 

I get back to the M20, cruise down to Ashford, stopping at Stop 24 services for a coffee and something to eat. I had 90 minutes to kill, so eat, drink and scroll Twitter as I had posted yet more stuff that morning. In other news: nothing changed, sadly.

 

At quarter past four I went to pick up Jools, stopping outside the restaurant. When she got in she declared she had been drinking piña coladas. Just two, but she was bubby and jabbering away all the way home.

 

With Jools having eaten out, and with snacks I had, no dinner was needed, so when suppertime came round, we dined on cheese and crackers, followed by a large slice of Christmas cake.

 

She was now done for Christmas too.

 

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

 

A large sandstone church of nave, aisles, chancel and chapels that was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864. It stands in an excellent position set back from the street in a large well-kept churchyard. The tower is of three stages with four pinnacles strangely set well back from the corners. Inside it is obvious that there have been many rebuildings and repairs, leaving a general character of the Victorian period. The good chancel screen is by Bodley and Garner and dates from 1897. Whilst it is well carved the florid design is more suited to a West Country church than to the Garden of England. The fifteenth-century font has been painted in bold colours in a way that can never have been imagined when it was new! Nearby is the Becket window designed by Lawrence Lee in 1970. It is quite unlike any other window in Kent and has an emphasis on heraldry - the figure of Becket and three knights are almost lost in the patchwork effect. Under the tower is the famous Albigensian Cross, a portion of thirteenth-century coffin lid with the effigy of a woman at prayer. The south chapel, which belongs to Penshurst Place, was rebuilt by Rebecca in 1820 and has a lovely painted ceiling. It contains some fine monuments including Sir Stephen de Pencester, a damaged thirteenth-century knight. Nearby is the large standing monument to the 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1704) designed by William Stanton. It is a large urn flanked by two angels, above which are the heads of the earls children's floating in the clouds!

 

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

 

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PENSHURST.

THE next parish eastward from Chidingstone is Penhurst, called in the Textus Roffenfis, Pennesherst. It takes its name from the old British word Pen, the height or top of any thing, and byrst, a wood. (fn. 1) It is called in some antient records, Pen cestre, and more vulgarly, Penchester, from some sortified camp or fortress antiently situated here.

 

There is a district in this parish, called Hallborough, which is within the lowy of Tunbridge, the manerial rights of which belong to Thomas Streatfeild, esq. and there is another part of it, comprehending the estate of Chafford, which is within the jurisdiction of the duchy court of Lancaster.

 

THIS PARISH lies in the Weald, about four miles Southward from the foot of the sand hills, and the same distance from Tunbridge town, and the high London road from Sevenoke. The face of the country is much the same as in those parishes last described, as is the soil, for the most part a stiff clay, being well adapted to the large growth of timber for which this parish is remarkable; one of these trees, as an instance of it, having been cut down here, about twenty years ago, in the park, called, from its spreading branches, Broad Oak, had twenty-one ton, or eight hundred and forty feet of timber in it. The parish is watered by the river Eden, which runs through the centre of it, and here taking a circular course, and having separated into two smaller streams, joins the river Medway, which flows by the southern part of the park towards Tunbridge. At a small distance northward stands the noble mansion of Penshurst-place, at the south west corner of the park, which, till within these few years, was of much larger extent, the further part of it, called North, alias Lyghe, and South parks, having been alienated from it, on the grounds of the latter of which the late Mr. Alnutt built his seat of that name, from whence the ground rises northward towards the parish of Lyghe. Close to the north west corner of Penshurst-park is the seat of Redleaf, and at the south west corner of it, very near to the Place, is the village of Penshurst, with the church and parsonage. At a small distance, on the other side the river, southward, is Ford-place, and here the country becomes more low, and being watered by the several streams, becomes wet, the roads miry and bad, and the grounds much covered with coppice wood; whence, about a mile southward from the river, is New House, and the boroughs of Frendings and Kingsborough; half a mile southward from which is the river Medway; and on the further side of it the estate of Chafford, a little beyond which it joins the parish of Ashurst, at Stone cross. In a deep hole, in the Medway, near the lower end of Penshurst-park, called Tapner's-hole, there arises a spring, which produces a visible and strong ebullition on the surface of the river; and above Well-place, which is a farm house, near the south-east corner of the park, there is a fine spring, called Kidder's-well, which, having been chemically analized, is found to be a stronger chalybeate than those called Tunbridge-wells; there is a stone bason for the spring to rise in, and run to waste, which was placed here by one of the earls of Leicester many years ago. This parish, as well as the neighbouring ones, abounds with iron ore, and most of the springs in them are more or less chalybeate. In the losty beeches, near the keeper's lodge, in Penshurst-park, is a noted beronry; which, since the destruction of that in lord Dacre's park, at Aveley, in Effex, is, I believe, the only one in this part of England. A fair is held here on July I, for pedlary, &c.

 

The GREATEST PART of this parish is within the jurisdiction of the honour of Otford, a subordinate limb to which is the MANOR of PENSHURST HALIMOTE, alias OTFORD WEALD, extending likewise over parts of the adjoining parishes of Chidingstone, Hever, and Cowden. As a limb of that of honour, it was formerly part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was held for a long time in lease of the archbishops, by the successive owners of Penhurst manor, till the death of the duke of Buckingham, in the 13th year of king Henry VIII. in the 29th year of which reign, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, exchanging Otford with the crown, this, as an appendage, passed with it, and it remained in the hands of the crown till the death of king Charles I. 1648; after which the powers then in being, having seised on the royal estates, passed an ordinance to vest them in trustees, to be sold, to supply the necessities of the state; when, on a survey made of this manor, in 1650, it appeared that the quit-rents due to the lord, from the freeholders in free socage tenure, were 16l. 18s. 3½d. and that they paid a heriot of the best living thing, or in want thereof, 3s. 4d. in money. That there were copyholders holding of it, within this parish, by rent and fine certain; that there was a common fine due from the township or borough of Halebury, and a like from the township of Penshurst, a like from the townships or boroughts of Chidingstone, Standford, and Cowden; and that there was a court baron and a court leet. The total rents, profits, &c. of all which amounted to 23l. and upwards. (fn. 2) After this the manor was sold by the state to colonel Robert Gibbon, with whom it remained till the restoration of king Charles II. when the possession and inheritance of it returned to the crown, where it remains, as well as the honour of Otford, at this time, his grace the duke of Dorset being high steward of both; but the see farm rents of it, with those of other manors belonging to the above mentioned honour, were alienated from the crown in king Charles II.'s reign, and afterwards became the property of Sir James Dashwood, bart. in whose family they still continue.

 

SOON AFTER the reign of William the Conqueror Penshurst was become the residence of a family, who took their name from it, and were possessed of the manor then called the manor of Peneshurste; and it appears by a deed in the Registrum Roffense, that Sir John Belemeyns, canon of St. Paul, London, was in possession of this manor, as uncle and trustee, in the latter part of king Henry III.'s reign, to Stephen de Peneshurste or Penchester, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward I. He had been knighted, and made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports by Henry III. in which posts he continued after the accession of king Edward I. (fn. 3) He died without issue male, and was buried in the south chancel of this church, under an altar tomb, on which lay his figure in armour, reclining on a cushion. He left Margery, his second wife, surviving, who held this manor at her death, in the 2d year of king Edward II. and two daughters and coheirs; Joane, married to Henry de Cobham of Rundale, second son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, in this county, by his first wife, daughter of Warine Fitz Benedict; (fn. 4) and Alice to John de Columbers, as appears by an inquisition, taken in the 3d year of king Edward II. His arms, being Sable, a bend or, a label of three points argent, still remain on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury cathedral. Alice, above mentioned, had this manor, with that of Lyghe adjoining, assigned to her for her proportion of their inheritance; soon after which these manors were conveyed to Sir John de Pulteney, son of Adam de Pulteney of Misterton, in Leicestershire, by Maud his wife. In the 15th year of that reign he had licence to embattle his mansion houses of Penshurst, Chenle in Cambridgeshire, and in London. (fn. 5) In the 11th year of king Edward III. Thomas, son of Sir John de Columbers of Somersetshire, released to him all his right to this manor and the advowson of the chapel of Penshurst; (fn. 6) and the year following Stephen de Columbers, clerk, brother of Sir Philip, released to him likewise all his right in that manor and Yenesfeld, (fn. 7) and that same year he obtained a grant for free warren within his demesne lands within the former. He was a person greatly esteemed by that king, in whose reign he was four times lord mayor of London, and is noticed by our historians for his piety, wisdom, large possessions, and magnificent housekeeping. In his life time he performed several acts of public charity and munificence; and among others he founded a college in the church of St. Laurence, since from him named Poultney, in London. He built the church of Little Allhallows, in Thamesstreet, and the Carmelites church, and the gate to their monastery, in Coventry; and a chapel or chantry in St. Paul's, London. Besides which, by his will, he left many charitable legacies, and directed to be buried in the church of St. Laurence above mentioned. He bore for his arms, Argent a fess dancette gules, in chief three leopards heads sable.

 

By the inquisition taken after his death, it appears, that he died in the 23d year of that reign, being then possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the chapel, Lyghe, South-park, and Orbiston woods, with lands in Lyghe and Tappenash, and others in this county. He left Margaret his wife surviving, who married, secondly, Sir Nicholas Lovaine; and he, in her right, became possessed of a life estate in this manor and the others above mentioned, in which they seem afterwards jointly to have had the see; for Sir William Pulteney, her son, in his life time, vested his interest in these manors and estates in trustees, and died without issue in the 40th year of the same reign, when Robert de Pulteney was found to be his kinsman and next heir, who was ancestor to the late earl of Bath. The trustees afterwards, in the 48th year of it, conveyed them, together with all the other estates of which Sir John Pulteney died possessed, to Sir Nicholas Lovaine and Margaret his wife, and their heirs for ever. Sir Nicholas Lovaine above mentioned was a descendant of the noble family of Lovaine, a younger branch of the duke of Lorraine. Godfrey de Lovaine, having that surname from the place of his birth, possessed lands in England in right of his mother, grand daughter of king Stephen, of whose descendants this Nicholas was a younger branch. He bore for his arms, Gules, a fess argent between fourteen billets or; which arms were quartered by Bourchier earl of Bath, and Devereux earl of Essex. (fn. 8) He died possessed of this manor, leaving one son, Nicholas, who having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, widow of Henry lord Beaumont, died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, who at length became her brother's heir.

 

Margaret, the widow of Nicholas the son, on his death, possessed this manor for her life, and was afterwards re-married to Sir John Devereux, who in her right held it. He was descended from a family which had their surname from Eureux, a town of note in Normandy, and there were several generations of them in England before they were peers of this realm, the first of them summoned to parliament being this Sir John Devereux, who being bred a soldier, was much employed in the wars both of king Edward III. and king Richard II. and had many important trusts conferred on him. In the 11th year of the latter reign, being then a knight banneret, he was made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports. In the 16th year of that reign, he had licence to fortify and embattle his mansion house at Penshurst, the year after which he died, leaving Margaret his wife, surviving, who had an assignation of this manor as part of her dower. She died possessed of it, with Yensfield, and other lands, about the 10th year of king Henry IV. and was succeeded in them by Margaret, sister and heir of her husband, Nicholas Lovaine, who was twice married, first to Rich. Chamberlayn, esq. of Sherburn, in Oxfordshire; and secondly to Sir Philip St. Clere, of Aldham, St. Clere, in Ightham. (fn. 9) Both of these, in right of their wife, seem to have possessed this manor, which descended to John St. Clere, son of the latter, who conveyed it by sale to John duke of Bedford, third son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.

 

The duke of Bedford was the great support and glory of this kingdom in the beginning of the reign of his infant nephew, king Henry VI. his courage was unequalled, and was followed by such rapid success in his wars in France, where he was regent, and commanded the English army in person, that he struck the greatest terror into his enemies. The victories he acquired so humbled the French, that he crowned king Henry VI. at Paris, in which city he died greatly lamented, in the 14th year of that reign, (fn. 10) and was buried in the cathedral church of Roan. He was twice married, but left issue by neither of his wives. He died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, as was then found by inquisition; in which he was succeeded by his next brother, Humphry duke of Gloucester, fourth son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, &c. who in the 4th year of king Henry V. had had the offices of constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports, granted to him for the term of his life; and in the 1st year of king Henry VI. was, by parliament, made protector of England, during the king's minority; and the same year he was constituted chamberlain of England, at the coronation of that prince was appointed high steward of England.

 

The duke was, for his virtuous endowments, surnamed the Good, and for his justice was esteemed the father of his country, notwithstanding which, after he had, under king Henry VI. his nephew, governed this kingdom twenty-five years, with great applause, he was, by the means of Margaret of Aujou, his nephew's queen, who envied his power, arrested at the parliament held at St. Edmundsbury, by John lord Beaumont, then high constable of England, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham and others; and the night following, being the last of February, anno 25 king Henry VI. he was found dead in his bed, it being the general opinion that he was strangled; though his body was shewn to the lords and commons, with an account of his having died of an apoplexy or imposthume; after which he was buried in the abbey of St. Alban, near the shrine of that proto-martyr, and a stately monument was erected to his memory.

 

This duke married two wives; first Jaqueline, daughter and heir of William duke of Bavaria, to whom belonged the earldoms of Holand, Zeland, and Henault, and many other rich seignories in the Netherlands; after which he used these titles, Humphrey, by the grace of God, son, brother, and uncle to kings; duke of Gloucester; earl of Henault, Holand, Zeland, and Pembroke; lord of Friesland; great chamberlain of the kingdom of England; and protector and defender of the kingdom and church of England. But she having already been married to John duke of Brabant, and a suit of divorce being still depending between them, and the Pope having pronounced her marriage with the duke of Brabant lawful, the duke of Gloucester resigned his right to her, and forthwith, after this, married Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham of Sterborough, who had formerly been his concubine. A few years before the duke's death she was accused of witchcrast, and of conspiring the king's death; for which she was condemned to solemn pennance in London, for three several days, and afterwards committed to perpetual imprisonment in the isle of Man. He built the divinity schools at Oxford, and laid the foundation of that famous library over them, since increased by Sir Thomas Bodley, enriching it with a choice collection of manuscripts out of France and Italy. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, France and England, a berdure argent. (fn. 11)

 

By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears, that he died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, in this county, and that dying, without issue, king Henry VI. was his cousin and next heir.

 

¶The manor of Penshurst thus coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year to Humphrey Stafford, who, in consideration of his near alliance in blood to king Henry VI. being the son of Edmund earl of Stafford, by Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, sixth and youngest son of king Edward III. Mary, the other daughter and coheir, having married Henry of Bullingbroke, afterwards king Henry IV. and grandfather of king Henry VI. (fn. 12) as well as for his eminent services to his country, had been, in the 23d year of that reign, created duke of Buckingham. He was afterwards slain in the battle of Northampton, sighting valiantly there on the king's part. By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears that he died in the 38th year of that reign possessed of this manor of Penshurst, among others in this county and elsewhere; which afterwards descended down to his great grandson, Edward duke of Buckingham, but in the 13th year of Henry VIII. this duke being accused of conspiring the king's death, he was brought to his trial, and being found guilty, was beheaded on Tower-hill that year. In the par liament begun April 15, next year, this duke, though there passed an act for his attainder, yet there was one likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors or lands, so that this manor, among his other estates, became forseited to the crown, after which the king seems to have kept it in his own hands, for in his 36th year, he purchased different parcels of land to enlarge his park here, among which was Well-place, and one hundred and seventy acres of land, belonging to it, then the estate of John and William Fry, all which he inclosed within the pale of it, though the purchase of the latter was not completed till the 1st year of king Edward VI. (fn. 13) who seems to have granted the park of Penshurst to John, earl of Warwick, for that earl, in the 4th year of that reign, granted this park to that king again in exchange for other premises. In which year the king granted the manor of Penshurst, with its members and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the duke of Buckingham, to Sir Ralph Fane, to hold in capite by knight's service, being the grandson of Henry Vane, alias Fane, of Hilsden Tunbridge, esq. but in the 6th year of that reign, having zealously espoused the interests of the duke of Somersee, he was accused of being an accomplice with him, and being found guilty, was hanged on Tower-hill that year.

  

PENSHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham.

 

The church, which is a large handsome building, is dedicated to St. John Baptist. It consists of three isles, a cross isle, and three chancels, having a tower steeple at the west end.

 

Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following:—In the middle isle, a grave-stone, with the figure of a man and his two wives, now torn off, but the inscription remains in black letter, for Watur Draynowtt, and Johanna and Anne his wives, obt. 1507; beneath are the figures of four boys and three girls, at top, arms, two lions passant, impaling or, on a chief, two lions heads erased; a memorial for Oliver Combridge, and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1698. In the chancel, memorials on brass for Bulman and Paire; within the rails of the altar a gravestone for William Egerton, LL. D. grandon of John, earl of Bridgwater, rector of Penshurst and Allhallows, Lombard-street, chancellor and prebendary of Hereford, and prebendary of Can terbury, he left two daughters and one son, by Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Head, obt. Feb. 26, 1737; on the south side of the altar, a memorial in brass for John Bust, God's painful minister in this place for twenty-one years; on the north side a mural monument for Gilbert Spencer, esq. of Redleafe-house, obt. 1709, arms, Spencer, an escutcheon of pretence for Combridge; underneath is another stone, with a brass plate, and inscription for William Darkenol, parson of this parish, obt. July 12, 1596; on grave-stones are these shields in brass, the figures and inscriptions on which are lost, parted per fess, in chief two lions passant guardant in base, two wolves heads erased; on another, the same arms, impaling a chevron between three padlocks; another, a lion rampant, charged on the shoulder with an annulet, and another, three lions passant impaling parted per chevron, the rest defaced. In the south chancel, on a stone, the figures of a man and woman in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Pawle Yden, gent. and Agnes his wife, son of Thomas Yden, esq. obt. 1564, beneath is the figure of a girl, arms, four shields at the corner of the stone, the first, Yden, a fess between three helmets; two others, with inscriptions on brass for infant children of the Sidney family; a small grave-stone, on which is a cross gradated in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Thomas Bullayen, son of Sir Thomas Bullayen; here was lately a monument for lady Mary . . . . . . eldest daughter of the famous John, duke of Northumberland, and sister to Ambrose, earl of Warwick, Robert, earl of Leicester, and Catharine, countess of Huntingdon, wife of the right hon. Sir Henry Sidney, knight of the garter, &c. at the west end of the chancel, a mural monument for Sir William Coventry, youngest son of Thomas, lord Coventry, he died at Tunbridge-wells, 1686; on the south side a fine old monument of stone, under which is an altar tomb, and on the wall above it a brass plate, with inscription in black letter, for Sir William Sidney, knightbanneret, chamberlain and steward to king Edward VI. and the first of the name, lord of the manor, of Penshurst, obt. 1553; on the front are these names, Sir William Dormer, and Mary Sidney, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir James Haninngton, Anne Sidney, and Lucy Sidney; on the south side a handsome monument, with the arms and quarterings of the Sidney family, and inscription for lord Philip Sidney, fifth earl of Leicester, &c. obt. 1705, and was succeeded by John, his brother and heir; for John, sixth earl of Leicester, cosin and heir of Henry Sidney, earl of Romney, &c. obt. 1737, his heirs Mary and Elizabeth Sidney, daughters and heirs of his brother the hon. Thomas Sidney, third surviving son of Robert, earl of Leicester, became his joint heirs, for Josceline, seventh earl of Leicester, youngest brother and heir male of earl John, died s. p. in 1743, with whom the title of earl of Leicester expired; the aforesaid Mary and Elizabeth, his nieces, being his heirs, of whom the former married Sir Brownlow Sherard, bart. and Elizabeth, William Perry, esq. on the monument is an account of the several personages of this noble family, their descent, marriages and issue, too long by far to insert here; on the north side is a fine monument for several of the infant children of this family, and beneath is an urn and inscriptions for Frances Sidney, fourth daughter, obt. 1692, æt. 6; for Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester, &c. fourth earl of this family, who married lady Elizabeth Egerton, by whom he had fifteen children, of whom nine died young, whose figures, as cherubims, are placed above, obt. 1702; Robert, the eldest son, obt. 1680, æt. 6; Elizabeth, countess of Leicester, obt. 1709, and buried here in the same vault with her lord. In the same chancel is a very antient figure in stone of a knight in armour, being for Sir Stephen de Penchester, lord warden and constable of Dover-castle in the reign of king Edward I. It was formerly laid on an altar tomb in the chancel, but is now placed erect against the door on the south side, with these words painted on the wall above it, SIR STEPHEN DE PENCHESTER. In the fourth window of the north isle, are these arms, very antient, within the garter argent a fess gules in chief, three roundels of the second, being those of Sir John Devereux, K. G. lord warden and constable, and steward of the king's house in king Richard II's reign; near the former was another coat, nothing of which now remains but the garter. In the same windows are the arms of Sidney; in the second window is this crest, a griffin rampant or. In the east window of the great chancel are the arms of England. In the east window of the south chancel are the arms of the Sidney family, with all the quarterings; there were also, though now destroyed, the arms of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, earl of Sussex, and lady Frances Sidney.

 

This church was of the antient patronage of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, when Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to that queen in exchange for the parsonage of Earde, alias Crayford; and though in the queen's letters patent dated that year, confirming this exchange, there is no value expressed, yet in a roll in the queen's office, it is there set down, the tenth deducted, at the clear yearly value of 32l. 1s. 9d. (fn. 24)

 

¶Soon after which the queen granted the church of Penshurst to Sir Henry Sidney, whose descendants, earls of Leicester, afterwards possessed it; from whom it passed, in like manner as Penshurst manor and place, to William Perry, esq. who died possessed of it in 1757, leaving Elizabeth his wife surviving, who continued proprietor of the advowson of this church at the time of her death in 1783; she by her last will devised it to trustees for the use of her eldest grandson, John Shelley, esq who has since taken the name of Sidney, and is the present owner of it.

 

In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of ecclesiastical livings, taken in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned that the tithes belonging to the parsonage of Penshurst were one hundred and ten pounds per annum, and the parsonage house and glebe lands about fifty pounds per annum, the earl of Leicester being patron, and master Mawdell, minister, who received the profits for his salary. (fn. 25)

 

The annual value of it is now esteemed to be four hundred pounds and upwards. The rectory of Penshurst is valued in the king's books at 30l. 6s. 0½d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 0s. 7½d. (fn. 26)

 

John Acton, rector of this parish, in 1429, granted a lease for ninety-nine years, of a parcel of his glebe land, lying in Berecroft, opposite the gate of the rectory, containing one acre one rood and twelve perches, to Thomas Berkley, clerk, Richard Hammond, and Richard Crundewell, of Penshurst, for the purpose of building on, at the yearly rent of two shillings, and upon deaths and alienations, one shilling to be paid for an heriot, which lease was confirmed by the archbishop and by the dean and chapter of Canterbury. (fn. 27)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol3/pp227-257

Harambee's Save the Sea Hunt 2 In the Store August 1 to August 31

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtuous/67/180/24

 

Hint: Thank you come again :)

Freestyletattooink via Alberto Pasini 10 43125 Parma Italy T.3385366581

I always thought he was, by far, the best heavy metal guitarist of his time. Beyond the virtuousity, he knew how to get real loud, without blowing it out. He knew the difference between volume and distortion.

"Chinese socialism is founded upon Darwin and the theory of evolution." Mao Tse-tung (1893 – 1976). Kampf um Mao's Erbe (1977)

 

(Apart from the last remaining, atheist regime in North Korea) we could say that global atheism died with the demise of the brutal, atheist regimes of the 20th century.

But its ghosts still haunt us.

Incredibly, while the horrendous crimes of the hideous, atheist ideology are still within living memory, attempts are being made to resurrect it and make it seem respectable, under the guise of 'new' atheism.

 

The atheist beast of the East which had died, is now raising its ugly head in the West.

"And I saw one of his heads as if it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world marvelled after the beast." Revelation 13:3

 

Will the atheist monster live again? Who knows?

What we do know - is what history tells us about atheism, and it is not at all pleasant.

 

The promised atheist/communist utopia ... the idea of an atheist Heaven on Earth resulted in a diabolical Hell on Earth.

 

Atheism proved to be the most horrendous, barbaric, murderous and criminal ideology the world has ever experienced. Countless millions suffered and died at the hands of this hideous ideology, they must never be forgotten.

 

Who, but a complete idiot would want to resurrect such a monstrous, no-hope philosophy?

The so-called 'new' (improved?) atheists try to disassociate themselves from the disastrous record of the world's first ever, official, atheist states of the 20th century's, great, atheist experiment. But there is no other example to go by.

The atheist experiment has been tried and, from beginning to end, was a diabolical failure. The new atheists may say: it's nothing to do with us gov.

But who wants to risk such devastation again, by giving atheism another chance? Only an idiot would want to take that gamble.

 

However, it was only to be expected and it could easily have been predicted beforehand, that the inevitable result of atheism's lack of an absolute ethical or moral yardstick would be to wreak havoc on the world - and that is exactly what it did.

Atheism hasn't changed at all in that respect, because it can't. The ephemeral values, moral relativism and situational ethics of atheism is the ideal recipe for abuse.

We can see from the aggressive, intolerant, rabble rousing rhetoric and ranting of today's militant, new atheist zealots, that the leopard hasn't really changed its spots. Let no one doubt it - atheism has a hideous, barbaric history, ... we must never let it happen again.

 

Moreover, it is a singularly perverse ideology that motivates its adherents to waste so much time of the only life they believe they have, trying to convince everyone else that they are doomed to eternal oblivion. The ultimate reward for atheists is to never know if they got it right, only if they got it wrong.

 

There is no moral or rational defence for the atheist cult, past or present.

 

But what do atheists themselves say about their ethical and moral values?

 

They claim that they DO have an ethical and moral yardstick, and cite the Humanist Manifesto as representing the ethics and moral code of atheism.

So is it really true?

 

The Humanist Manifesto looks good at first glance, but like most proposals atheists come up with, when examined closely, it is full of holes.

 

Problems ....

1. You don’t have to sign up to the Humanist Manifesto to be an atheist.

 

2. Even if you do sign up to it, there is no incentive to follow it. No reward for following it, and no penalty for not following it. You are not going to be barred from being an atheist because you reject or break the rules of the Humanist Manifesto. It is not enforced in any way.

 

3. It borrows its desirable ethics from Judeo-Christian values, there is no atheist, moral code per se.

Genuine, naturalist ethics is basically the Darwinian law of the jungle, the ethics of the Humanist Manifesto are actually a contradiction of social Darwinism. The ethics of the H.M. are not consistant with atheist materialist and evolutionist beliefs.

 

4. By far the biggest flaw in the Humanist Manifesto is the fact that it is entirely ephemeral. It advocates 'situational ethics' and 'moral relativism'. And that major flaw makes it a worthless scrap of paper.

Why?

Because .....

Situational ethics is based on what people want or find desirable, not on any adherence to what is intrinsically right or wrong.

 

A good, example of humanist style, situational ethics in practice, is the gender selection abortions now being blatantly carried out in abortion clinics in Britain. It primarily discriminates against female babies, who are especially targeted for killing, because most of the parents who want it, prefer to have boys for cultural reasons.

The abortion clinics openly admit to it happening, and claim it is legal.

The abortion act of 1967 certainly did not intend that, and the Government admits it was not intended.

So we have a Government that knows it is going on, it also knows it is not what the abortion law intended, yet it is still reluctant to do anything about it.

Why? Because it is wedded to the secularist concept of situational ethics, i.e. whatever people want, people get. Any concept of intrinsic right and wrong has to take a back seat, to whatever is the spirit of the times. And that is an example happening right now, in a so-called democracy.

 

The Nazi persecution of the Jews became popular through brainwashing of the public, and was eventually supported by a good proportion of the public.

So Hitler cleverly used situational ethics to do what he had persuaded people was right and good.

 

So, all in all, the Humanist Manifesto is a very dangerous document.

It gives carte blanche to any so-called ethical values, as long they become the fashionable or consensus opinion. Whatever people want, people get, or what a government can claim people want, they are justified in giving to them.

And for that reason it would not stop; a Lenin, a Stalin, a Hitler, or a Pol Pot, even if they had signed up 100% to abide by the Humanist Manifesto.

 

In fact, the 20th century, atheist tyrants even called their regimes ... Democratic People's Republics. They claimed they were representing people's wishes, and thus carried out their 'situational ethics' on behalf of the people.

 

What about the common, atheist tactic of highlighting alleged crimes and wrongdoing committed by Christians?

 

The point is ....

Christians who do wrong, go against the teachings of Christianity.

And, without sincere repentance, they don't get to go to the Christian Heaven.

End of story!

 

Atheists who do wrong, go against nothing, unless it is against the law of the land.

The atheist 'heaven' is right here on earth, and far from being a 'heaven' it is an horrendous nightmare. Anyone with any sense would call it a hell.

 

And even the law of the land need not stop them .....

Whenever, atheists get into a position of power they change the law to suit their situational ethics. Then they can do whatever they want.

That is what Stalin and all the other atheist tyrants did in their people's DEMOCRATIC republics.

 

And the atheist thirst for blood does not cease when they live in the so-called 'real' democracies, it is simply sanitised by atheist inspired, situational ethics.

They use their 'humanist' ethics to change the law, accompanied by 'newspeak' and propaganda.

So that what was once considered evil, is not only made legal, it is actually turned around so it is considered a virtue.

 

The wholesale and brutal slaughter, of the most vulnerable in society ... millions of unborn babies, is callously shrugged off as necessary, for 'free choice'.

Of course murder is always a free choice for the killer, only the dangerous, warped, atheist style, situational ethics could value a killer's free choice to kill, above the victim's right not to be killed, and make murder legal.

 

The callous slaughter of the unborn, which in most cases, was not even put to the people democratically (it was imposed on them by a handful of secularist politicians, lawyers and bureaucrats), is accompanied by the usual atheist lies and devious propaganda.

 

So the secularists simply laugh off democracy, it doesn't stop them, if it gets in the way of their ideology, they just ignore it, like they do with science.

 

"Democratic societies" what are they?

Why ask the people? They are apparently not qualified to consider such difficult matters of right and wrong, like whether babies should live or die? You can't give those ignorant peasants, plebs and rednecks a vote on it, ... leave it to the secularist EXPERTS and their wonderful, situational ethics based on 'reason' and 'science'.

 

We are told by atheist moralists that the unborn baby is not fully human, it is only a blob of jelly, which has, and deserves, NO rights.

And we are also told, anyone who supports the rights of the unborn babies not to be brutally ripped limb from limb is evil, because they are interfering with free CHOICE.

 

So the atheist leopard certainly hasn't changed its lying, devious, brutal and murderous spots, even in so-called 'real' democratic societies. It simply legalises and sanitises evil and murder and makes it appear good.

Then it can claim atheism is extremely ethical and virtuous, with its own, beautiful code of morals and conduct .... Yeah Right!

Remind you of anyone?

 

That, then ... is the atheist Heaven on earth, and images in the picture are of the atheist tyrants of the last century, who exemplified atheist, situational ethics.

 

Is atheism credible, logically or scientifically?

 

..If people would only think for themselves - there would be no atheists.

Atheism is anti-logic ......

 

Atheism = NOTHING created Everything - without a cause and - for NO REASON.

Makes perfect sense .... NOT!

 

www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/20_arguments-gods-existen...

 

Atheism is the rejection of one of the only 2 origins options.

The only two options are:

1. An uncaused, supernatural first cause.

2. An uncaused, natural first cause.

Atheists categorically reject option one, therefore they believe in option two - by default.

Option two (an uncaused, natural first cause) is impossible according to logic, natural laws and the scientific method.

 

Every natural event/effect/entity has to have an adequate cause.

All material/natural entities/events are contingent, they rely on preceding causes.

A natural first cause, cannot be a very FIRST cause because something (which didn't need a cause) must have caused it.

A natural first cause also cannot be the very first cause of the universe because it is woefully inadequate for the effect. An effect cannot be greater than its cause.

So atheism is a set of beliefs which violate the scientific method, ignore logic and defy natural laws.

 

In addition, the fact that there are natural laws and an ordered structure to atoms is not conducive to the idea of a purposeless universe.

 

Also, the Second Law of Thermodynamics rules out the unguided development of order of its own accord. The application of raw energy, without a directive agent, results in entropy, not increasing complexity and order, which atheists propose.

 

And the First Law of Thermodynamics tells us that there is no 'natural' mechanism for the creation of matter/energy. Yet atheists insist that matter (along with natural law and information) arose naturally of its own accord.

 

It is evident that, while pretending to be scientific, the atheist dogma is actually anti-science, it manipulates science to fit its own agenda, regardless of the violation of natural laws, logic and the scientific method.

 

Atheism is akin to a religion because it credits matter/energy with similar creative powers and attributes as those applied to a creator God. It is really just a more sophisticated version of pagan naturalism, which imbued natural entities such as Mother Nature, The Sun or Moon god etc. with creative and magical powers.

 

To clarify further:

 

If there are only 2 options and one is ruled out as 'impossible' by logic, natural law and the scientific method, then it is safe, indeed sensible, to deduce that the other option is the only possible, and likely one.

 

Anyone who believes in science should know - that the basis of the scientific method is looking for adequate causes for every natural event/effect.

An 'uncaused' natural event is an anathema to science, it cannot even contemplate such a prospect.

If someone was to propose a natural first cause of everything, science would have to ask - what caused it? You cannot claim it was uncaused - that defies the scientific method.

However, if it was caused - if it had a preceding cause, ... then it cannot be the FIRST cause. Because FIRST means FIRST, not second or third.

So the very first cause of everything must be UNCAUSED ... which means, according to science, it CANNOT be a NATURAL cause.

In other words ... it cannot be a contingent entity, it can only be an eternally self-existent, self-reliant, autonomous, infinite, omnipotent entity which is entirely independent of causes, and the limitations that causes impose.

 

Furthermore, the first cause also has to be completely adequate for the effect, the effect cannot be greater than the cause ... so the first cause has to have adequate powers, properties and potentiality to create the entirety of the universe, i.e. nothing in the universe can be superior in any respect to the first cause.

That means the first cause must embody, or be able to create, every property and quality that exists, which includes: natural laws, information, life, intelligence, consciousness, self-awareness, design, skill, moral values, sense of beauty, justice etc.

All proposed, natural first causes - Big Bang's, Singularities, quantum mechanics etc. are not only ruled out because, as contingent events, they cannot be uncaused, they are also grossly inferior to the effect, which definitively rules them all out as credible first causes.

 

To put it more simply ... all effects/events/entities are the result of a combination of numerous, preceding causes, but the very first cause is unique, inasmuch as it is a lone cause of everything.

Everything can be traced back to that single cause, it is responsible for every other cause, entity and effect that follows it. Unlike other lesser or subsequent causes it has to account for the totality of everything that exists. So it cannot be inferior in any respect to any particular property, entity, event, effect, or to the totality of them all.

If we have intelligence then, that which ultimately caused us cannot be non-intelligent.

Atheists assume that we are greater in that respect than that which caused us .... that is ridiculous and it defies logic and natural law.

 

What about infinite time?

Time is simply a chronology of natural events. Time began with the origin of the material realm. No natural events ...means - no time. All natural entities, events/effects are contingent, they cannot be self-existent, they rely on causes and the limitations that causes impose. they are not autonomous entities, to propose that is anti-science.

 

Atheists often say: you can’t fill gaps in knowledge with a supernatural first cause.

 

But we are not talking about filling gaps, we are talking about a fundamental issue ... the origin of everything in the material realm.

The first cause is not a gap, it is the beginning - and many of the greatest scientists in the history of science had no problem whatsoever with the logic that - a natural, first cause was impossible, and the only possible option was a supernatural creator.

Why do atheists have such a problem with it?

 

Atheists seem to think that to explain the origin of the universe without a God, simply involves explaining what triggered it, as though its formation from that point on, just happens automatically.

This has been compared by some as similar to lighting the blue touch paper of a firework. They think that if they can propose such a naturalistic trigger, then God is made redundant.

That may sound plausible to some members of the public, who take such pronouncements at face value, and are somewhat in awe of anything that is claimed to be 'scientific'.

But it is obvious to anyone who thinks seriously about it, that a mere trigger is not necessarily an adequate cause.

A trigger presupposes that there is some sort of a mechanism/blueprint/plan already existing which is ready to spring into action if it is provided with an appropriate trigger. There has to be an existing, inherent potential for future development and everything else that follows the trigger. So a trigger is not a sole cause, or a first cause, it is merely one contributing cause.

Natural things do only what they are programmed to do, i.e. they obey natural laws and behave only within the limits dictated by the potential of their pre-ordained properties, composition or structure. Those pre-ordained properties are determined by the ability, powers and adequacy of the first cause, which brought them into being.

Lighting blue touch paper achieves absolutely nothing, unless there is a carefully designed and manufactured firework already attached to it. Chance or randomness is not an answer.

 

Atheists invent all sorts of bizarre myths to explain the origin of the universe and matter/energy.

Such as it arising from nothing of its own volition, for no reason.

Or even the utterly, ludicrous notion - of the universe creating itself from nothing. Obviously for something to create itself, it would need to pre-exist its own creation, in order to do the creating.

Incredible!

 

“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

― G.K. Chesterton ..... HOW TRUE THAT IS PROVING TO BE!

my models are the "four virtuous women" in Carrara marble in the wintergarden of the Ursulines, Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver (near Brussels & Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium), art nouveau, 1900.

Sculptor : A. Piazza (Italy)

Fountain in majolica : Villeroy & Boch (Mettlach, Germany)

 

One of my older videos of an old cosplay I made. Enjoy!

1st Circle: Limbo (the unbaptized and virtuous pagans including Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Socrates, Plato, and Saladin)

 

2nd Circle: Lust (souls are blown about in a violent storm, without hope of rest. Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo are here)

 

3rd Circle: Gluttony (the gluttons are forced to lie in a vile, freezing slush, guarded by Cerberus. Ciacco of Florence is here)

 

4th Circle: Avarice & Prodigality (the Miserly and spendthrift push great heavy weights together, crashing them time and time again. Plutus guards them)

 

5th Circle: Wrath & Sullenness (the wrathful fight eachother on the surface of the Styx while the sullen gurgle beneath it. Filippo Argenti is here)

 

6th Circle: Heresy (heretics are trapped in flaming tombs. Florentines Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti are here)

 

7th Circle: Violence (the violent against people and property, the suicides, the blasphemers, the sodomites and the usurers)

 

8th Circle: Fraud (Panderes and seducers, flatterers, sorcerers, and false prophets, liars, thieves, and Ulysses and Diomedes)

 

9th Circle: Treachery (betrayers of special relationships are frozen in a lake of ice. Satan, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are here)

In 1868, four Irish Christian brothers, P.A. Treacy, D.F. Bodkin, J.B. Lynch and P.J. Nolan, arrived in Melbourne to open a new Christian school in the booming, and somewhat wild, city at the behest of Bishop Gould. They began teaching in 1869 in a small rented primary school behind St. Francis’ Church in Lonsdale Street. However, they really wanted something more permanent than the rented school they had, and they also wished to have a monastery in which to reside, rather than the rented rooms in Fitzroy that they had taken as a temporary measure.

 

With help from the Irish Catholic Church, they acquired a parcel of land along the wide boulevard of Victoria Parade in East Melbourne. In 1871 their dreams were realised when a new bluestone college was blessed by Bishop Gould in the presence of the venerable Archbishop of Sydney, the Archbishop Polding. They called their new school Parade College, after the name of the street it was built on, and dedicated it to Mary Immaculate.

 

The building is an imposing three storey bluestone structure that was built to the designs of Melbourne architect William Wilkinson Wardell (1823 – 1899), who also designed the nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The building has been designed in the popular Victorian Gothic style, a mostly ecclesiastical architectural style. It features gothic style windows on the Victoria Parade facade, and a double storey verandah of cast iron on the rear of the building, which when it was built, would have taken in beautiful views of the nearby Fitzroy Gardens and the burgeoning city beyond it. The building also included a beautiful chapel on the third floor, accessed via a stairwell that was also designed in the Gothic style. The chapel is small; however it makes up in beauty what it lacks in size, with a vaulted pressed metal ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows.

 

On the school’s first day, more than one hundred boys were enrolled and the number increased steadily as accommodation became available. As time went on, more Brothers arrived at Parade College from Ireland, and so the number of boys attending the school could increase. In 1902 the school building was extended yet again and finally completed William Wardell’s original designs. It is this building that we see today. This building was affectionately known as the "Old Bluestone Pile" and the school’s song takes its name from this building.

 

Gothic architecture was perceived by the pious Victorians as an expression of religious, and therefore, moral values, and this may be the reason why architects preferred to build schools in this style throughout the Nineteenth Century. Its revival was seen as virtuous and equated with moral revival; the perfect environment in which to educate young minds. For this reason an ecclesiastical character was predominant even on buildings that were not necessarily religious.

 

In 1999 after being located in Clayton for 25 years, the Catholic Theological College moved into the former Parade College building (which had been sold in 1994) alongside which it built a new modern building designed by Gregory Burgess.

 

William Wilkinson Wardell was a civil engineer and architect born in England. He studied under Gothic architect Augustus Pugin, who became his friend as well as his mentor. Between 1846 and 1858 he designed over thirty churches in England, which was a very prodigious output, and he had a flourishing business. Some of the churches he designed include: St Birinus, Bridge End, Dorchester-on-Thames which was worked on between 1846 and 1849, and Greenwich’s Our Lady Star of the Sea which was worked on between 1846 and 1851. By 1858, Mr. Wardell’s health was suffering and his doctors felt that the warmer climate afforded by Australia might be more beneficial to his health. Therefore he, his wife Lucy, his two sons and daughter migrated after Mr. Wardell obtained the position of "Government Architect" to the city of Melbourne. In Melbourne he is known for designing the first St Mary’s Church in East St Kilda in 1859 and the second in 1897, Government House Melbourne in 1876, the ANZ Gothic bank in Collins Street in 1877, and St Patrick’s Cathedral which was completed in 1897 but was still being modified by Mr. Wardell at the time of his death. He is also known in Sydney for designing, the ASN Co. Building in 1884, St John’s College at the University of Sydney, which was completed after a breakdown in relations between the architect and the Sydney City Council, and St Mary’s Cathedral which was not completed until after his death. Mr. Wardell died at his home, “Upton Grange” in North Sydney in November 1899 of heart failure and pleurisy, but left behind a rich legacy in Australia, not only of the commercial and ecclesiastical buildings that he created, but for the numerous private houses and mansions that he designed.

 

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Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501)

Goddess of chaste love

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

This is a fragment from a cassone panel representing the Triumph of Chastity, here meaning fidelity in marriage, a common subject for nuptial chests. She is in her triumphant cart accompanied by virtuous women.

St Margaret of Antioch, Cowlinge, Suffolk

 

Given its proximity to the Cambridgeshire border, some people would argue that this Suffolk church is closer to civilisation than most, and yet St Margaret of Antioch, Cowlinge, has a decidedly remote feel to it. Gentle hills enfold these pretty villages, and St Margaret stands distant from the houses it serves. Cowlinge, pronounced coo-linj, stands about a mile north of the Haverhill to Bury road, not far from the better-known Denston. You approach it up a track from the north, where it is rather hemmed in, but the graveyard opens up widely beyond on the other side.

 

The first impression is one of redness. From the outside, Cowlinge seems a rather pretty accretion of centuries' work, its tower a typical red brick 18th century rebuilding - there are similar ones across the county at Grundisburgh and Layham. The chancel and nave appear to have met each other by chance as much as intention, and all is pleasantly patched up, with solid red-brick buttressing and just about every kind of window you can think of. There are aisles, there is a clerestory, but this is not a grand church. Rather, it is the kind of building a DIY enthusiast might put together if he wanted a late medieval one in his back garden.

 

And somehow, this makes it beautiful, especially if seen from the south-east or north-east. You might expect the interior to be similarly ramshackle, but you step through the north door into cool whiteness, and as you walk through this treasure chest of a church, unusual vistas open up at each turn. This is a complex church.

 

Facing east to start with, the first impression is of the wall-painting above the chancel arch, and the gated rood screen beneath. There are gates in the screens at nearby Withersfield and Denston, but unlike those these doors rise to the full height of the screen. The screen itself is perhaps not as beautiful as the parclose screen enclosing the chapel in the south aisle. Mortlock points out how similar it is to the one up the road at Dalham. The paleness of the wood is very pleasing.I thought it compared very well with the parclose at Dennington, which has been repainted gaudily. Another good parclose of the same age is at Westhorpe. A memorial window contains 1920s glass by Christopher Webb of Christ with the fishermen at Galilee.

 

One the wall beside the parclose in the south aisle is a small exposed area of wall painting. It appears to be an unbearded male saint holding something that may well be a chalice, in which case it is St John the Evangelist. The better-known wall painting here is the one I mentioned earlier, above the chancel arch. It is often referred to as a doom, but it is organised rather differently to others of its kind. Instead of the day of judgement, with God in Majesty overseeing the parting of the ways into hell on his right and heaven on his left, it depicts St Michael, to the south of the arch, balancing a set of scales in which a sinner is being weighed against his sins.

 

St Michael is a common feature of doom paintings - he appears nearby at Stoke by Clare and on the famous doom at Wenhaston. The unusual aspect of this one, however, is to the north of the arch, where the Virgin Mother of God stands. She reaches out with a wand, and tips the balance of the scales. Simon Jenkins, in his England's Thousand Best Churches, suggests that she is tipping the balance in the favour of the virtuous. This is, of course, exactly what she is not doing. The virtuous had no need of intervention; the good in them would outweigh their sins in any case. Mary is intervening on behalf of sinners who have prayed to her for her help, and she is tipping the scales in the favour of those sinners. It represents the efficacy of intercessions to Our Blessed Lady, and as such it was anathema to the 16th century reformers.

 

In common with other wall paintings, this priceless art treasure was whitewashed over rather than destroyed. It would be interesting to know when this happened. We know that during William Dowsing's iconoclastic progress through Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in 1644, he found no wall paintings still in existence. It has always been assumed that they were covered by the Anglicans when the new Church of England took possession of our parish churches a century earlier. But I do wonder if they might have been done away with a century before even that, perhaps around the middle of the 15th century, when the ruling classes were enforcing orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of the superstitions of the ordinary people. Part of this process involved setting up larger roods at the east end of the nave, and I think this wall-painting may have been covered before that happened here.

 

The chancel arch beneath the doom is also extensively painted, and also of interest on all of the pillars a large amount of medieval graffiti, some of which is described as being consecration crosses. This, of course, cannot be so, for the medieval church ordered its liturgical needs rather better than this, and these are no doubt the work of some bored 17th century vandal.

 

Stepping through into the chancel, it is at once one of the loveliest in Suffolk, and one of the most dominated, since Peter Scheemakers' ugly 18th century memorial for Francis Dickins glowers against the north wall. Dickins was responsible for the building of the tower. The figures are life size, and the monument is wholly secular, even pagan. They look like nothing so much as two well-pleased fans posing with the FA Cup.

 

Near the north door, a plaque on the wall records the visitation of 1618 when permission was given for the local house of correction to set up seating here for its inmates. There are still banked benches below, but these are later, and were probably intended for the village schoolchildren. Seating on a similar scale can be seen at nearby Kedington, divided there into boys' and girls' sections. On a somewhat larger scale they can also be seen at Laxfield.

 

A fine view of this church can be had by climbing to the spacious gallery beneath Dickins' tower. Once up here, the space is dominated by another huge classical memorial to Dickins and above it a George II royal arms, which also records that George Finton and Henry Seabrook were the churchwardens who set it up in 1731.

 

St Margaret is everything a historic church should be. Well-ordered, welcoming, suited to its Protestant present and mindful of its Catholic past. It used to be left open all the time, but a traumatic assault on the building some five years ago by a mentally ill man suffering from a religious mania, during which both screens and the altar were set fire to, means that it is now kept locked, but with a very cheerful churchwarden who was most happy to come and open up.

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.”

― Thomas Jefferson

Boudhnath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal before earthquake

 

Boudhnath Stupa, located roughly 5 kilometers to the east of the center of Kathmandu, is the largest and most important Buddhist holy place in all of Nepal. Similar in appearance to the hilltop Swayambhunath Stupa in the western part of the Kathmandu, Boudhnath is popular with both pilgrims and foreign tourists.

 

While it is impossible to say with any certainty when the site first became a sacred place, there are three legends that give some indication of the antiquity of the place. According to one Tibetan text a daughter of Indra (the Hindu God of War, Storms, and Rainfall) stole flowers from heaven and was exiled to earth as a poultry man’s daughter. While on earth she prospered and decided to use her wealth to build a monument to honor a mythical Buddha of an earlier age. She asked for land from a local ruler, who cynically gave her only as much land as could be covered by the hide of a buffalo. Undeterred, she cut the hide into extremely thin strips, which when tied together enclosed a large area upon which she was able to erect a temple.

 

Another legend tells of a great drought that struck Kathmandu during the early 5th century reign of the Lichhavi king, Vishvadeva. When court astrologers advised that only the sacrifice of a virtuous man would bring rain, King Vishvadeva told his son Manadeva to go to a royal well on a moonless night and behead the shrouded body he would find there. Manadeva followed this order, only to find to his horror that he had sacrificed his own father. When he asked the goddess Bajra Yogini of Sankhu how to atone for his sin, she let fly a bird and told him to erect a stupa at the place where it landed, which was the site where Boudhnath is now located.

 

Still another legend relates that the first stupa at Boudhnath was built sometime after 600 AD, when the Tibetan King, Songsten Gampo, converted to Buddhism. The king constructed the stupa as an act of penance after unwittingly killing his father. Unfortunately, Mughal invaders destroyed this stupa in the 14th century, so the current stupa is a more recent construction.

 

sacredsites.com/asia/nepal/boudhnath_stupa.html

En montée sur le fleuve St-Laurent à la hauteur de Ste-Foy, Québec, Canada.

Upbound on the St-Lawrence River in front of Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada.

 

2019-7-16

Sterbebilder or death cards were prayer cards traditionally handed out at funerals, as a remembrance of the deceased.

 

Herr Alois Holzner, son of a master-smith from Rabenden. A lance corporal from the 5th Bavarian Minenwerfer Company and holder of the Militärverdienstkreuz 3. Klasse mit Schwertern.

 

He died a hero's death for the Fatherland on 23rd March 1918, in his 24th year after 29 months in the field. This virtuous young man died in the performance of his duty after being wounded by shrapnel.

 

Year of the Rat

China Zodiac Animal - Rat

Rat is the first in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Rat include 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032...

 

Though people consider the rat not adorable, and it even makes its way into derogatory languages, it ranks first on the Chinese zodiac signs. It has characteristics of an animal with spirit, wit, alertness, delicacy, flexibility and vitality.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Zi

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Shui (Water)

Yin Yang: Yang

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Rat Year:

Lucky Numbers: 2, 3

Lucky Colors: gold, blue, green

Lucky Flowers: lily, African violet, lily of the valley

Lucky Directions: southeast, northeast

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 5, 9Unlucky Colors: yellow, brownUnlucky Direction: west

Personality of the Rat

People born in the Year of the Rat are instinctive, acute and alert in nature which makes them to be brilliant businessmen. They can always react properly before the worst circumstances take place. They are also sophisticated and popular in social interaction. They are sanguine and very adaptable, being popular with others.

 

Strengths

Adaptable, smart, cautious, acute, alert, positive, flexible, outgoing, cheerful

Weaknesses

Timid, unstable, stubborn, picky, lack of persistence, querulous

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Rat

 

Best Matches: Ox, Dragon, Monkey

They can get along with Ox, Dragon and Monkey partners, and their relationship will be well maintained as fresh as before. There is no big rise and fall in their life time, but will never be a lack of romance and passion.

Bad Matches: Horse, Rooster

If they get together, there will be endless quarrels. They are all sharp in words, and seldom make compromises. Picky in each other’s faults, they cannot be tolerant, which leads to their final divergence.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: If you're looking for a job, then you need to take education or learn new skill. Your savior will appear to guide you the job opportunity. If you encounter trouble in the career, then people around will be happy to help you. If you look for a promotion opportunity, then you will receive the support from the coworkers.

 

Job Change: If you want to apply a job in a different company, then you will have good chance to have it. If you accept the job, then new position will make you busy for a while. But you will be happy to take that job.

 

Wealth: You have opportunity to increase your wealth. House can protect our living. For you, the house is connected to Monkey. Therefore, housing investment in the real estate market is a good choice.

 

Love: Rat and Monkey have attraction relationship. This is a good time for love relationship. You can ask your mentors, parents or older friends to help you to find potential match. For men, sometimes you can try the relationship with the person older than you.

 

Social Circle: Your people relationship is pretty good. You can do more social activities. That will help your money luck and career development.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you will receive good support. Hopefully, you can win the reputation.

 

Health: Monkey will keep you busy. Therefore, you need to rest yourself regularly to avoid overwork and exhaustion. Pay attention on your kidneys, abdominal pain, and the urinary system.

 

General Fortune: It's a sign of God's blessings. You will often have a carefree and joyous mood with pleasing appearance.

  

Year of the Ox

China Zodiac Animal - Ox

Ox is the second in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. Years of the Ox include 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033...

 

Oxen used to be capable farming tools in agricultural society, which attach to the symbol of diligence, persistence and honesty. People born in the Year of Ox are probably tardy in action, but industrious and cautious. Most of them are conservative and hold their faith firmly.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Chou

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Tu (Earth)

Yin Yang: Yin

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Ox Year:

Lucky Numbers: 1, 9

Lucky Colors: red, blue, purple

Lucky Flowers: tulip, evergreen, peach blossom

Lucky Directions: southeast, south and north

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 3, 4Unlucky Colors: white, greenUnlucky Direction: northwest

Personality of the Ox

Ranking second in Chinese zodiacal signs, the Ox is huge. People often use it to indicate something big in size or number. People born in the Year of Ox bear persistent, simple, honest, and straightforward characteristics. They are talent leaders with strong faith, and strong devotion to work. They are contemplative before taking actions, not easily affected by the surroundings but just follow their concept and ability. Being conservative with a lack of wit in speaking, they usually look silent and sometimes stubborn in their old ways.

 

Strengths

honest, industrious, patient, cautious, level-headed, strong-willed, persistent

Weaknesses

obstinate, inarticulate, prudish, distant

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Ox

 

Best Matches: Rat, Snake, Rooster

They are quite compatible, deeply attracted by each other. They are both responsible, willing to share the family duty. Besides, loyalty and faith are the key factors to their happy marriage.

Bad Matches: Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Sheep

They will stick on their own opinions and ideas, and they both can hardly give in. They don’t get used to forgiveness, and squabbles lead to their relationship reaction.

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Career: It's time to put worries and concerns aside to accept the career challenge. People needs your knowledge and help to build their business opportunities. They provide a good working environment to for you to show your talent.

 

Job Change: If you want to apply a job in a different company, then that's a good idea to make the change. Your new position should give you better career development.

 

Wealth: The money opportunity is there. This is because you are building your reputation. But money won't come in to your door directly. You need to earn money using your brain and labor.

 

Love: Cow needs heat to warm up the cold heart. Monkey doesn't contain Fire and cannot offer love to Cow directly. But Monkey can help Cow to have more social activities. For better love relationship, Cow must reserve a space of love for its partner to build the relationship.

 

Social Circle: It's a good time to build your people relationship. To join more social networks and meet people to build friendships will help your career.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you will stand on the advantage position at the beginning. But that doesn't mean you will win in the end. The carelessness can fail you.

 

Health: Just keep exercising and pleasure mood regularly. That will give you better health. Pay attention on your stomach, intestine and the entire digestive system.

 

General Fortune: As long as you would stand out to prove your ability, the opportunity can bring you to anywhere, just like wind. If you are too conservative, then your achievement will be limited.

  

The Tiger ranks the third of the animals Year of the Tiger

China Zodiac Animal - Tiger

Tiger is the third in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Tiger include 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022, 2034...

 

Tigers, considered to be brave, cruel, forceful, stately and terrifying, are the symbol of power and lordliness. In ancient times, people usually compared emperors or grandees with the tiger. Court officials often said that 'accompanying the emperor is just like being at the side of a tiger'. There are also many legends about this animal.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Yin

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Mu (Wood)

Yin Yang: Yang

 

Lucky Signs for people born in Tiger Year:

Lucky Numbers: 1, 3, 4

Lucky Colors: grey, blue, white, orange

Lucky Flowers: cineraria, anthurium

Lucky Directions: south, east, southeast

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 6, 7, 8Unlucky Colors: gold, silver, brown, blackUnlucky Direction: northwest

Personality of the Tiger

In most cases, people with Chinese zodiac sign 'Tiger' are powerful, independent, confident and brave. They have strong sense of errantry, being frank and easy to win others' trust. In their middle age, their fate may be uneven, but after hardships, they will enjoy a bright prospect. While they are also likely to be dogmatic, and like showing off when accomplishing something.

 

Strengths

Tolerant, loyal, valiant, courageous, trustworthy, intelligent, virtuous

Weaknesses

Arrogant, short-tempered, hasty, traitorous

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Tiger

Best Matches: Dragon, Horse, Pig

They can encourage and help each other, and they can be the best lovers as well as rivals. They are all ambitious and share the same value in life and money. The couple can lead a harmonious life.

Bad Matches: Ox, Tiger, Snake, Monkey

They are both aggressive, and seldom make compromise, so the relationship will be nipped in the bud. If getting married, financial problems would result in their breakup.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: You will face the challenge and trouble in your career. It's required to use your experience, knowledge and wisdom to solve the problems. If you don't have the solution, then you have to ask and learn from someone else.

 

Job Change: If a company offers you a job, then you shouldn't take it. It's not the time to make change. Otherwise, many unexpected problems in the new position are waiting for you to solve. And you don't have that solutions now.

 

Wealth: The money luck doesn't look good. People are watching for the money in your pocket. Don't be greedy for big return and risky business. All investments must switch to conservative items.

 

Love: There is a disagreement sign in the love relationship. You need to calm and play low profile when the argument is there. If you have trouble in the communication with your lover, then ask the elder friend as the mediator or liaison.

 

Social Circle: You don't have good mood for social events. But you can attend the educational networks. You can learn new knowledge and meet new friends there.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument or lawsuit with someone, then you need the negotiation to stop the dispute. The sign shows the result of the dispute is unfavorable to you.

 

Health: You need to pay attention on the accident. Your arms and legs might get hurt. Also, take care of your liver and the nervous system.

 

General Fortune: Your fortune won't be the same as before. You need to learn new professional skills to increase your career opportunities.

  

Year of the Rabbit

China Zodiac Animal - Rabbit

Rabbit is the fourth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Rabbit include 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023...

 

For Chinese people, the rabbit is a tame creature representing hope for a long time. It is tender and lovely. The moon goddess Chang'e in Chinese legend had a rabbit as her pet, which stimulated the thought that only this creature was amiable enough to match her noble beauty. People born in the Year of the Rabbit are not aggressive but approachable. They have a decent, noble and elegant manner.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Mao

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Mu (Wood)

Yin Yang: Yin

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Rabbit Year:

Lucky Numbers: 3, 4, 9

Lucky Colors: red, blue, pink, purple

Lucky Flowers: snapdragon, plantain lily, nerve plant

Lucky Directions: east, southeast, south

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 7, 8 Unlucky Colors: dark brown, dark yellow, white Unlucky Direction: northwest

Personality of the Rabbit

People with Chinese zodiac Rabbit sign usually impress others with an image of tenderness, grace and sensitive. They are romantic in relationship, having a high demand in life quality. They avoid arguing with others, and have a capability of converting an enemy into a friend. They are homebody and hospitable, and like house fitting-up. They can work with speed and efficiency, do not insist and get angry easily. But they also like hesitating, which makes them lose many chances.

 

Strengths

Gentle, sensitive, compassionate, amiable, modest, and merciful

Weaknesses

Amorous, hesitant, stubborn, timid, conservative

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Rabbit

Best Matches: Sheep, Monkey, Dog, Pig

They are romantic in love and adventurous in life. They know how to make compromises to make their relationship lasting and fresh. Living together, they can become more tolerant and considerate, and life will be sweet and happy.

Bad Matches: Snake, Rooster

Their relationship cannot be everlasting, for they will suffer from a series of disagreement and conflicts. They both feel suppressed in marriage life.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: People will find you and offer the career opportunity or business relationship. You will have very good cooperative experience with the new boss or partner.

 

Job Change: If a company offers you a new position, then you can consider to take it. Don't miss the career opportunity.

 

Wealth: Your reputation will help you to create money making opportunity. Fame and wealth will come together. But, the major income still come from the job.

 

Love: There is a strong love relationship between Rabbit and Monkey. If you are looking for love, then it's a good time to take actions. If you are in love, then you could think about the deeper relationship or marriage. If you have family, then the opposite sex is still attractive to you.

 

Social Circle: You're the favorite person in your group. You will win good reputation from everybody.

 

Quarrel: You shouldn't have disputes with others during this period. But you might involve and mingle with relationships of other people, and then an argument or lawsuit occurs from there. In this case, you should make negotiation and peace with the person.

 

Health: Be careful the accident to injure at face or head, which might leave scar on it. Pay attention on your arms, legs, liver and the nervous system.

 

General Fortune: Your people relationship is pretty good. Everything will come in your way. The result will be very satisfactory to you.

  

Year of the Dragon

China Zodiac Animal - Dragon

Dragon is the fifth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Dragon include 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024...

 

The Dragon enjoys a very high reputation in Chinese culture. Chinese people regard themselves as descendents of the dragon. In ancient China, this imaginary creature was thought to speed across the sky with divine power. It is the token of authority, dignity, honor, success, luck, and capacity. Emperors entitled themselves exclusively as 'dragon'.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Chen

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Tu (Earth)

Yin Yang: Yang

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Dragon Year:

Lucky Numbers: 1, 7, 6

Lucky Colors: gold, silver, hoary

Lucky Flowers: bleeding heart vine, larkspur, hyacinth

Lucky Directions: west, north, northwest

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 9, 8, 3Unlucky Colors: red, green, purple, blackUnlucky Direction: southeast

Personality of the Dragon

People with Chinese zodiac Dragon sign are usually a group of people who are lively, intellectual and excitable. They can clearly tell right from wrong. They are upright and frank. However, they are also a bit arrogant and impatient. Female Dragons tend to be overly confident. They hate hypocrisy, gossip and slander. They are not afraid of difficulties but hate to be used or controlled by others.

 

Strengths

Decisive, inspiring, magnanimous, sensitive, ambitious, romantic

Weaknesses

Eccentric, tactless, fiery, intolerant, unrealistic

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Dragon

Best Matches: Rooster, Rat, Monkey

They are born to be a couple, and they can build a good and happy family. Dragons give a lot of support and guidance to Roosters and Rats, and they get tenderness and care in return. Sharing similar interests and hobbies, they can be best partners in travel.

Bad Matches: Ox, Sheep, Dog

Quarrels and conflicts take turns to show up in their life, and they even become enemy at last. The reason for their split is that they cannot tolerant each other’s flaws and they always put themselves in the first.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: Dragon has good management skill for the organization. It knows how to assign tasks to proper people to share the authority and responsibility. If you encounter the career opportunity or heavy workload, you should ask help from your partners or coworkers to fulfill the career plan.

 

Job Change: If someone offers you a job in a different company, then you can consider to take it. Your people relationship is good. The opportunity should bring you good friendship and career opportunity.

 

Wealth: This will be a good fortune year. You will have unexpected income. It's right time to ask the financial advisor to manage your investment. If you own your business, then your reputation will help you to increase your fame, wealth and value.

 

Love: It's a very good sign for love relationship. If you are single, then you should attend more social activities. Someone might be there waiting for you. If you are in love, then you will receive more caring from your lover. Your lover relationship will be much closer in the winter time. If you are married, you and your spouse will have wonderful and memorable love year.

 

Social Circle: Dragon and Monkey have attraction relationship. You will meet many friendly people in the Monkey year. This is a good sign for your reputation and love relationship.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you have good odd to win the case because you have strong support. Unless, your opposite party has better luck than you.

 

Health: You need to pay attention on your diet. Improper food or drink might cause the problem in the cardiovascular system. Then it will cause the difficulty in movement. It's will help doing regular exercise with perseverance.

 

General Fortune: It's a good sign of endorsement, joyfulness, trouble-free and prosperity.

  

Year of the Snake

China Zodiac Animal - Snake

Snake is the sixth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Snake include 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025, 2037...

 

Snake carries the meanings of malevolence, cattiness and mystery, as well as acumen and divination. In some places, people believe that a Snake found in their court can bring delight. However, in most cases, this animal is considered evil, which scares people from the bottom of the heart. There are some idioms in China indicating the danger of this animal, for example, once bitten by the Snake twice shy of ten years.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Si

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Huo (Fire)

Yin Yang: Yin

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Snake Year:

Lucky Numbers: 2, 8, 9

Lucky Colors: red, light yellow, black

Lucky Flowers: orchid, cactus

Lucky Directions: northeast, southwest, south

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 6, 7Unlucky Colors: white, gold, brownUnlucky Direction: northwest

Personality of the Snake

Usually, people regard Snake as a cunning and sly animal, which likes hanging out in darkness. In fact, this animal is also a symbol of wisdom and wit. Therefore, people with Chinese zodiac sign 'Snake', sensitive and humorous, and most of them are gifted in literature and art, such as Goethe and Picasso. Suspicion is their weakness, which makes them hesitant and a bit paranoid.

 

Strengths

Soft-spoken, humorous, sympathetic, determined, passionate, smart

Weaknesses

Jealous, suspicious, sly, fickle, nonchalant

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Snake

Best Matches: Dragon, Rooster

Their relationship develops through lasting attraction between each other. Both of them like to cooperate to make life better. They both are good at associating, and enjoy a high reputation in life circus. They can form a cozy and harmonious family.

Bad Matches: Tiger, Rabbit, Snake, Sheep, Pig

They are suspicious and silent. When misunderstanding occurs, they lack effective communication and they stick on the disagreement, which give rise to more conflicts.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: Monkey contains Metal and some Water. You will encounter little trouble in the career. You need to work a little bit harder. It will be worth after all, because you will get a satisfied return.

 

Job Change: If you have a promotion chance, then you can consider to take it. The sign shows both of your career and money luck are good.

 

Wealth: Your income and investment will have stable increasing. If you can find good financial adviser to manage your finance, then you might get much more return.

 

Love: The younger generations are easier to find their matches. If you are a female, then you need to push or encourage the boy to accept the relationship. If you are a male, then you have very good love relationship. A man will have more chances to meet the girls. If you are married or in love, your love relationship will maintain well.

 

Social Circle: If you can help people, then you should spend time on it. That will help you to expand social networks, and then the money making opportunity will come after.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument or dispute with someone, then you need to take care the business by yourself. You won't get a perfect result, if you only hire someone to handle the issue.

 

Health: Try not to over-exercise and then injure the body. Pay attention to arthritis, arms, legs and shoulders.

 

General Fortune: Monkey will bring a good fortune opportunity to you. Don't miss the opportunity in the year of Monkey.

  

Year of the Horse

China Zodiac Animal - Horse

Horse is the seventh in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Horse include 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026...

 

The Five Elements of Horse is Fire (Huo), which symbolizes enthusiasm and energy. The animal gives people an impression of independence and integrity. Its spirit is recognized to be the Chinese people's ethos - making unremitting efforts to improve themselves with passion and diligence.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Wu

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Huo (Fire)

Yin Yang: Yang

 

Lucky Signs for People born in Horse Year:

Lucky Numbers: 2, 3, 7

Lucky Colors: brown, yellow, purple

Lucky Flowers: calla lily, jasmine, marigold

Lucky Directions: northeast, southwest and northwest

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 5, 6Unlucky Colors: blue, white, goldUnlucky Direction: southeast

Personality of the Horse

They always impress upon people with dynamic, zealous and generous image. Although endowed with many shinning points, they have to face the weaknesses in their characteristics.

 

Strengths

Most have nice personalities, such as warm-hearted, upright and easygoing. Hence, they usually have a lot of friends flocking around them. Independence and endurance makes them more powerful, and they do not easily give up when in difficulties. Positive attitude leads to a brighter direction.

Weaknesses

The love of spending seems to be the biggest problem since they must be financially well off to support their social activities and outlook. Besides, their frank attitude at times leads to letting out secret easily. Persistence is what they lack on the path of success.

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Horse

Perfect Matches: Tiger, Sheep, Rabbit

They are born to be a well-matched couple, sharing a lot in common.

Acceptable Matches: Dragon, Dog, Monkey

Their life will be sweet and happy as long as one of them learns to be considerate, tolerant and understanding.

Complementary Match: Pig

They are a complementary couple in characteristic and capability, and good partners in housework / business.

Intimate Friend: Snake

They are not so much couple as intimate friends, enjoying the same value for fashion and art.

Avoid: Rat, Ox, Rooster, Horse

They cannot understand and support each other.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: Your workload and responsibility will increase. That's a good sign for the career development. Your income will grow as much as you make efforts on your job.

 

Job Change: Your career luck is good. You have the chance of the promotion. Also a different company could offer you a higher position. You should accept the challenge.

 

Wealth: The money luck is pretty good. You might have a good salary raise from your work. If you have extra money for the investment, you have better to spend time and energy to review your investment portfolio and adjust your financial strategy.

 

Love: If you are looking for love, then the love opportunity is out there and you need to spend time to find it. If you are a male, you have more chances to meet girls you like to build a new relationship. If you are married or in love, what you need is be more romance with your lover.

 

Social Circle: The topics of your social networks will focus more in the career and finance. Staying in those circles, you will learn new knowledge and experience from others. Those friendships and connections will help your career development.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you have good chance to win the case. If that's involving the money, then you can get some money back.

 

Health: Try not to over-exercise and then injure the body. Pay attention on your muscle, tendon and bones. Next, watch the air quality to prevent from the problems out of the respiratory system.

 

General Fortune: Monkey brings good fortune to you. Fame and wealth are coming to you. Don't miss this opportunity.

 

Note: Don't be too serious about the above predictions. Since using the only the birth year zodiac sign, the predictions cover only 12.5% of your 2016 fortune. If your Lucky Element is Metal, you will have good luck in the year of the Monkey. See the Chinese Five Element Astrology and the Rise and Fall Chart below.

  

Year of the Sheep / Goat / Ram

China Zodiac Animal - Sheep

Sheep / Goat is the eighth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Sheep include 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027, 2039, 2051...

 

Sheep (goat, or ram) is among the animals that people like most. It is gentle and calm. Since ancient times, people have learned to use its fleece to make writing brushes and fur to keep warm. The white cute creature often reminds people of beautiful things.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Wei

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Tu (Earth)

Yin Yang: Yin

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Sheep Year:

Lucky Numbers: 3, 4, 9

Lucky Colors: green, red, purple

Lucky Flowers: carnation, primrose, Alice flower

Lucky Directions: east, southeast, south

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 6, 7, 8Unlucky Colors: gold, brown, blackUnlucky Direction: west

Personality of the Sheep

People born in the Year of the Sheep are tender, polite, filial, clever, and kind-hearted. They have special sensitivity to art and beauty and a special fondness for quiet living. They are wise, gentle and compassionate and can cope with business cautiously and circumspectly. In their daily life, they try to be economical. They are willing to take good care of others, but they should avoid pessimism and hesitation.

 

Strengths

gentle, softhearted, considerate, attractive, hardworking, persistent, thrift

Weaknesses

indecisive, timid, vain, pessimistic, moody, weak-willed

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Sheep

Best Matches: Horse, Rabbit, Pig

Sheep could make a perfect couple with Horse, Rabbit or Pig. The harmonious bond between them would bring prosperity to both their career and families. The couple will win respect from others.

Bad Matches: Ox, Tiger, Dog

If Goat people get married with Ox, Tiger or Dog people, they may hardly live a happy life. Throughout their life, they might encounter considerable difficulties and setbacks. They might spend life in tough work or even experience the pain of losing family members.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: Don't be too conservative to your career development. It's a right time to encourage yourself to show your knowledge, experience and wisdom to people. Your talent and experience will win peoples respect and bring you good reputation.

 

Job Change: The career opportunity is coming. If you have the opportunity of the promotion or job relocation, then you can accept the challenge. It must be someone giving you good recommendation. People will help you when you get on the new position.

 

Wealth: Money won't fall down at your door directly. You still need to work hard to earn the money from your job. To build good people relationship can make it easier for you to bring money home.

 

Love: If you want a better love relationship, then you need to respect the opinions and feelings of your partner. Both of you need the self-control not to push other to the limitation. If you are a female, you need to watch your language and behavior not hurt the dignity of your lover.

 

Social Circle: The popularity of a person is always changing. Your people relationship is fair. Currently, you have better chance to build more social connections. You should learn the active spirit of Monkey. You attend more social activities to acquaint new people and maintain the friendships. People relationship is the key to bring you the opportunity of career and wealth.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you will face the trouble of the storm. But the sunny day will come after. The result will be a close call. It's better to negotiate with the opposite party to shorten the period of worry and fear.

 

Health: You need to watch for the food you have. You should eat more vegetables. Pay attention on your stomach, large intestine and the entire digestive system.

 

General Fortune: As long as you want to work harder for the coming opportunity, the fame and fortune will come to you.

  

Year of the Monkey

China Zodiac Animal - Monkey

Monkey is the ninth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Monkey include 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028...

 

The monkey is a clever animal. It is usually compared to a smart person. During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC), the dignified Chinese official title of marquis was pronounced 'Hou', the same as the pronunciation of ‘monkey’ in Chinese. The animal was thereby bestowed with an auspicious meaning.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Shen

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Jin (Metal)

Yin Yang: Yang

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Monkey Year:

Lucky Numbers: 1, 7, 8

Lucky Colors: white, gold, blue

Lucky Flowers: chrysanthemum, alliums

Lucky Directions: north, northwest, west

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 2, 5, 9Unlucky Colors: red, black, grey, dark coffeeUnlucky Direction: east

Personality of the Monkey

The general image of people born in the Year of the Monkey is of always being smart, clever and intelligent, especially in their career and wealth. They are lively, flexible, quick-witted and versatile. In addition, their gentleness and honesty bring them an everlasting love life. Although they were born with enviable skills, they still have several shortcomings, such as an impetuous temper and a tendency to look down upon others.

 

Strengths

enthusiastic, self-assured, sociable, innovative

Weaknesses

jealous, suspicious, cunning, selfish, arrogant

See more about Destiny by Birth Month, Destiny by Birth Date

Love Compatibility of the Monkey

Perfect Matches: Ox, Rabbit

They seem like made for each other, having several similarities in personality and life. Both of them can tolerate everything of each other, as long as they have enough space and freedom. Their love lives are full of fun because they have a strong sense of curiosity to get to know each other. Usually, they share common attitudes and opinions about life.

Bad Matches: Tiger, Pig

Holding different values and views, they don’t have many common topics in daily life. It’s difficult for them to communicate with patience and respect. Quarrels and conflicts will bring lots of negative influences to their relationship.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: The sign is that you are working very close with your coworkers for the same project. That means your career is keeping you busy. But, your career status doesn't make any change. There is no sign for promotion. If you are looking for a job, then you might need more time to get one. This is because you have many competitors out there.

 

Job Change: If you get on a new position because of the promotion or new job offering, then your working status and development won't change too much. If you work for a new company, then you will feel new competition in the new working environment. The humble and polite attitude is very important when you are in unfamiliar territory. There is no sign showing you are outsmarting over people around.

 

Wealth: In general, you don't have good money luck in the near future. The people around you are all looking for the money making opportunities. If someone asks you for a big return investment, then you had better skip it. If someone gets a loan from you, then you won't get it back soon. The money investment must be conservative during the Monkey years.

 

Love: You and your lover often have different opinions. People born in the Rabbit year can act a good mediator for you. If you are looking for your love, then you will see strong competitors out there. But you will have better opportunity with people born in Rat, Dragon or Rabbit.

 

Social Circle: To build better people relationship, you should show courtesy to others, offer favors to people and yield your opportunities to friends. Never intentionally show off your cleverness and wit in public. Being polite and humble, you will become a popular figure in your social networks.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you had better truce for peace. The negotiation is the best approach during this period. Otherwise, both of parties will become losers.

 

Health: You shouldn't have too serious health issue. But you have watch for unnecessary accident on arms and legs. You should avoid the dangerous sports and activities. Also, pay attention on your Nervous system, liver and gall bladder.

 

General Fortune: Keep your persistence in benevolence, etiquette and righteousness, the good luck will stay with you.

 

Note: Don't be too serious about the above predictions. Since using the only the birth year zodiac sign, the predictions cover only 12.5% of your 2016 fortune. If your Lucky Element is Metal, you will have good luck in the year of the Monkey. See the Chinese Five Element Astrology and the Rise and Fall Chart below.

  

Year of the Rooster

China Zodiac Animal - Rooster

Rooster is the tenth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Rooster include 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029...

 

Rooster is almost the epitome of fidelity and punctuality. For ancestors who had no alarm clocks, the crowing was significant, as it could awaken people to get up and start to work. In Chinese culture, another symbolic meaning of chicken carries is exorcising evil spirits.

 

Earthly Branch: You 酉

Element: Metal (Jin)

Yin Yang: Yin

Season: Autumn

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Rooster Year:

Lucky Numbers: 5, 7, 8

Lucky Colors: gold, brown, brownish yellow, yellow

Lucky Flowers: gladiola, impatiens, cockscomb

Lucky Directions: west, southwest, northeast

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 3, 9Unlucky Colors: white, greenUnlucky Directions: east, north

Personality of the Rooster

People born in the Year of Rooster according to Chinese zodiac have many excellent characteristics, such as being honest, bright, communicative and ambitious. Most of them are born pretty or handsome, and prefer to dress up. In daily life, they seldom rely on others. However, they might be enthusiastic about something quickly, but soon be impassive. Thus, they need to have enough faiths and patience to insist on one thing.

 

Strengths

Independent, capable, warm-hearted, self-respect, quick minded

Weaknesses

Impatient, critical, eccentric, narrow-minded, selfish

See more about Destiny by Birth Month

Love Compatibility of the Rooster

Perfect Matches: Ox, Snake

If combining with people in Ox or Snake signs, most of them will obtain everlasting and harmonious marriage lives. The connection between them can become tight. In addition, couples of these combinations always become enviable ones in other people’s eyes.

Avoid: Rat, Rabbit, Horse, Rooster, Dog

They have a large chance to obtain a tough and unstable love life if they get married with people with the above five signs. During the whole life, they always meet difficulties and troubles. However, they don’t have enough abilities to solve them because of their born different opinions and attitudes with each other. Lots of divergences will damage the relationship finally.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: The career industry is changing. You need to spend more time and energy on your job. You will feel some pressures from the project schedule. But you still can work happily as long as you follow all the instructions of your boss carefully.

 

Job Change: If you have a job offer from a different company, then you should think twice before accepting the position. The new working environment might have many different opinions in the future business direction. That's a noisy and unstable sign. If you don't like such challenge, then it's not a good time to move.

 

Wealth: You don't have strong money luck. But your friends or relatives will discuss some investment opportunities to you. They might even push you to involve the investment using the yearlong friendship. The problem is that you cannot manage and control the operation of investment. Monkey is connected to the wind. The money will disappear very quickly on a wrong investment.

 

Love: Your lover likes to show his or her ability to act as the speaker of your relationship. Your lover likes to take control over the decision making including your activities and schedules. He or she has many reasons to override your opinions. You will feel the pressures from the love relationship.

 

Social Circle: Basically, your social activities will increase. But some social networks are wasting your time. Some ones out there are talkative, seeking the limelight and publishing nonsense opinions. Therefore, just spend more time with your close friends and family members.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then you had better to negotiate with your opponent. The sign shows you are underdog. A quick truce is a good approach for the current circumstance.

 

Health: The air quality is very important to your health. Pay attention on your respiratory system - lungs, nose, bronchus and throat.

 

General Fortune: The potential and unexpected pressure is out there. When you are in a joyous moment, you need to watch your words and behaviors not offending or displease someone. Then your life will be calm and safe.

 

Note: Don't be too serious about the above predictions. Since using the only the birth year zodiac sign, the predictions cover only 12.5% of your 2016 fortune. If your Lucky Element is Metal, you will have good luck in the year of the Monkey. See the Chinese Five Element Astrology and the Rise and Fall Chart below.

  

Year of the Dog

Dog is the eleventh in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Dog include 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030, 2042...

 

Dog is man's good friend who can understand the human's spirit and obey its master, whether he is wealthy or not. The Chinese regard it as an auspicious animal. If a dog happens to come to a house, it symbolizes the coming of fortune. The invincible God Erlang in Chinese legend used a loyal wolfhound to help him capture monsters.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Xu

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Tu (Earth)

Yin Yang: Yang

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Dog Year:

Lucky Numbers: 3, 4, 9

Lucky Colors: green, red, purple

Lucky Flowers: rose, oncidium, cymbidium orchids

Lucky Directions: east, southeast, south

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 6, 7Unlucky Colors: blue, white, goldenUnlucky Direction: north, west

Personality of the Dog

People born in the Year of the Dog are usually independent, sincere, loyal and decisive according to Chinese zodiac analysis. They are not afraid of difficulties in daily life. These shining characteristics make them have harmonious relationship with people around.

 

Strengths

Valiant, loyal, responsible, clever, courageous, lively

Weaknesses

Sensitive, conservative, stubborn, emotional

See more about Destiny by Birth Month

Love Compatibility of the Dog

Best Matches: Rabbit

They are born to be a perfect match. Similar personality traits and common hobbies add much fun to their love relationship. They can understand each other and face difficulties with enough patience.

Bad Matches: Dragon, Sheep, Rooster

Different sense of worth cause many conflicts in their daily life. Both of them are not willing to share inner true feelings. The lack of effective communication and trust won't bring a happy and relaxing marriage life.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

 

Career: Your career luck shows quite stable. You will find a good smart, creative partner to assist your career. If you have very tight project schedule, you should assign some tasks to the younger team members to share some workloads.

 

Job Change: If you receive a promotion or new job offer, then you should accept the challenge. Changing working environment to show people your talent is a good approach for current career development.

 

Wealth: The money luck is pretty good. Your professional skills can earn money easily. Your social networks will bring you the money opportunity.

 

Water is money to Dog. Dog is connected to the mountain. When it rains, the mountain can absorb all the water. But it won't rain all the time. Don't lose the opportunity when water is there.

 

Love: Your personality is complementary to your lover. Both of you will become a good match. However, you need to give more romance moments for your lover. If you're looking for love, it's good time to attend more social activities. You will find and enjoy the easy and relaxing life style there.

 

Social Circle: It's good time to build people relationship. You should spend more time at social events. You will find people like your advices. You will feel the sense of achievement with them. You can build good friendships there.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then both you and the opposite party will become the losers. You had better negotiate the truce.

 

Health: Bringing better fortune is required more social or outdoor activities. The dangerous sports should be avoided. The outdoor activities need to carry out with caution. Pay attention on not hurting arms, legs and bones.

 

General Fortune: Dog and Monkey can be energetic partners. They can generate promising fortune. Your efforts will return you the prosperity and happiness.

  

Year of the Pig

Pig is the twelfth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Pig include 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043...

 

Pig is not thought to be a smart animal in China. It likes sleeping and eating and becomes fat. Thus it usually features laziness and clumsiness. On the positive side, it behaves itself, has no plan to harm others, and can bring affluence to people. Consequently, it has been regarded as wealth.

 

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: Hai

Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Shui (Water)

Yin Yang: Yin

 

Lucky Signs for People Born in Pig Year:

Lucky Numbers: 2, 5, 8

Lucky Colors: yellow, grey, brown, gold

Lucky Flowers: hydrangea, pitcher plant, marguerite

Lucky Directions: southeast, northeast

 

Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 3, 9Unlucky Colors: red, blue, greenUnlucky Directions: east, west

Personality of the Pig

People with Chinese zodiac Pig sign are considerate, responsible, independent and optimistic. They always show generousness and mercy to endure other people's mistakes, which help them gain harmonious interpersonal relationships. However, sometimes they will behave lazy and lack actions. In addition, pure hearts would let them be cheated easily in daily life.

 

Strengths

Warm-hearted, good-tempered, loyal, honest, gentle

Weaknesses

Naive, gullible, sluggish, short-tempered

See more about Destiny by Birth Month

Love Compatibility of the Pig

Perfect Matches: Tiger, Rabbit, Sheep

These combinations always have a high possibility to obtain a sweet and everlasting marriage. When meeting difficulties, they can face them together. More patience and enough encouragement are keys to solve problems. They have common goals and similar values, which add more fun in daily life.

Avoid: Snake, Monkey

Totally different personalities may lead to conflicts. They always have completely contrary opinions about one thing, and cannot reach an agreement because of their stubbornness. If getting married, one would always think about his/her own advantages and feelings, which would hurt the other.

See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibilityd

 

Career: Basically, your career luck is good. You will realize your job is much easier than before. You will receive the training, education and assistances from others. You have better knowledge to handle your position. But you still need to stay alert. Any negligence on your duty will ruin your reputation and career development.

 

Job Change: If you have a job opportunity at a different company, then you had better think twice before accepting the offer. A strong wind of Monkey is coming. That's an unstable sign.

 

Wealth: The money luck is good, if you are humble and play low profile. If you slide into the arrogant and complacent attitude, then you won't get any fortune.

 

Love: You will find people care about you very much. If you are looking for love, then attend more social activities and you will feel many people are interested on you. If you are in love, you need to plan more romantic moments for your lover.

 

Social Circle: Your people relationship is great. People care and concern about you. They will give you lots of courage, sponsor and Compliment. That might spoil your personality. You should be humble and never proud of you fortune or achievement. Otherwise, jealous people will give you negative reputation.

 

Quarrel: If you have argument, dispute or lawsuit with someone, then that will waste your time, energy and money. To negotiate with the opposite party will be the best approach. Otherwise, it might become a big and long event.

 

Health: Watch out for diabetes, diarrhea, bladder and neuralgic pain.

 

General Fortune: The good fortune sign is coming. You will be excited. You have good energy and will be eager for actions. But you need to look well before each leap. Thus a promising winner won't become a loser.

 

Note: Don't be too serious about the above predictions. Since using the only the birth year zodiac sign, the predictions cover only 12.5% of your 2016 fortune. If your Lucky Element is Metal, you will have good luck in the year of the Monkey. See the Chinese Five Element Astrology and the Rise and Fall Chart below.

Its all up now here

 

slurl.com/secondlife/Virtuous%20Estates/53/92/21

Second weekend of the annual Heritage event. It seems wrong to call it a weekend as it now compromises two weekends and many meedweek events too.

 

And scanning the events, there were some in Canterbury, so we decide to head to the city for a wander: jools would go shopping while I would go and do some snapping.

 

Of course there is always shopping first. Off to Tesco to fill the car, then fill the fridge and larder. I am away for three days, nearly four, so not much needed on top of some ready meals for Jools. Still came to seventy quid, mind.

 

A tub of cheese footballs did fall into the trolley, which helped.

 

Back home for breakfast of fruit and more coffee, and then off to Canterbury, parking near St Augustine's Abbey, walking to the centre via a subway. We parted, Jools went to Body Shop and a couple of other shops, while I walked down High Street, past the Eastbridge Hospital, Westgate Tower, Canterbury West station to St Dunstan's.

 

I could say I walked straight there, but I had a quarter of an hour to play with, so when I walked past a pasty shop, I went in for a coffee, and although wasn't really hungry, I did have a pasty anyway.

 

Once fed and watered, I walk on, up the hill past the station, and on the left was the church, the door already open despite it being only five to nine.

 

I went in, and found I had the church to myself.

 

Last time I was here, the Roper Chapel was being renovated and so I couldn't get inside. Important as it is in the chapel that the head of Thomas Moor, beheaded on Tower Hill on orders of Henry VIII. The windows of the chapel have several representation of him and scenes from his life. I snap them all.

 

I go round with the wide angle lens, now the church is fully open again.

 

That done, I walk back down into the centre heading for Eastbridge Hospital.

 

I have been here before, a decade ago, when I went round with just my wide angle lens, and go a few poor shots. So, with it being open for the Heritage Event, it seemed a good idea to go.

 

The hospital is ancient, it goes without saying, and is still in use.

 

I have walked up and down High Street in Canterbury dozens of times, and never really thought about what lay behind buildings on the west side.

 

At Eastbridge the ancient hospital straddles the Stour, or one branch of it, on the other is the timber framed house, Weavers, with the ducking stool further downstream.

 

I re-visited the hospital, and on the way out was told I could visit the gardens and Greyfriars Chapel at the same time.

 

A shop, former pawnbrokers, is now a charity shop for the gardens, and through the shop there is an exit to a path beside the river.

 

This opens out into two acres of gardens, still used to feed the patients in the hospital, and the monks who still live and work here.

 

There used to be a large priory church here, and there are parts of ancient walls and ruins to be seen, as well as a bridge of the same age.

 

Over the river, a former lodging building from the 13th century, as been converted into a chapel, Greyfriars, with pillars supporting the building as the river passes through a tunnel under it.

 

It was rather like walking through a wardrobe into a magical place, with the Stour gently flowing through it, and a few other visitors making their was to the Chapel and surrounding gardens.

 

We sat for 45 minutes in the meadow waiting for a service to end, so I could get shots. So, we people watched and delighted in Migrant Hawkers flying by.

 

Franciscan Gardens, Canterbury, Kent The sounds of the city seemed a hundred miles away.

 

I got the shots once the group of ladies left, and once I had the three shots, we followed sign to the exit, leaving the garden through a plane gate beside the old post office.

 

Two hundred and sixty Now what?

 

Well, nothing. Really.

 

So, we walk back slowly to the car, pay for three hours parking and drive back out of the city, down the A2 to the coast and home.

 

Back in time to listen to the footy, have a brew and try to avoid eating as we were going out in the evening. As, on Monday, it will be 14 years since we married, and as I will be in another country Monday, we celebrated it two days early.

 

Or would do come six.

 

Norwich were going for seven wins in a row, but never really got going against WBA, and fell a goal behind early on. Better in the second half, and drew level thanks to a deflection, but no win. But also, no defeat either.

 

Franciscan Gardens, Canterbury, Kent I had a shower and put on some clean clothes and a splash of aftershave.

 

Ready.

 

I drive us to Jen's, picked her up, then drove slowly to Sandwich, then over the marshes through Preston to Stourmouth.

 

We were not the only customers; there was a wedding reception, and there were gentlement and boys in three piece suits, and ladies and girls in glamourous gowns and neck-breaking heels. Occasionally the bride would literally sweep through the bar, the train of her dress cleaning as it went. Not sure if what was the right colour.....

 

We had ordered when I booked the table, a huge pan of paella with chorizo, chicken, ham and shrimp. Jen and I shared a bottle of red, and we ate and watched the comings and goings as the wedding party got ever more rauocus.

 

We rounded off with a cheeseboard between the three of us, and that was it.

 

Jools drove us back to Jen's, dropping her off, then back home.

 

I had decided to open the bottle of port once home, and did. This has been on the shelf since my last trip to Denmark and I saw it at the airport duty free.

 

It was every bit of good that I hoped it would be.

  

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

  

OF THE MANY RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS, HOSPITALS, AND ALMS-HOUSES which were within the circuit of this city and its suburbs, most of them were exempt from the liberty of it; these therefore will be treated of hereafter, among those districts which are esteemed to be exempt from it, and to lie within the county at large. THOSE NOW HELD to be within the jurisdiction of the city, are as follows:

 

THE GREY FRIARS, which was a convent here, stood at a small distance southward from St. Peter'sstreet, of which there are remaining only some walls and ruined arches; the scite of it is very low and damp, among the meads and garden-grounds, (fn. 1) having two entrances or alleys leading to it, where formerly stood two gates; one called Northgate, in St. Peter'sstreet, facing that of the Black Friars; the other was called Eastgate, to which the entrance was by a bridge at the end of Lamb-lane, in Stour-street.

 

These friars, called at first Franciscans, from the name of their founder St. Francis; (fn. 2) the head of whom was called the guardian, were afterwards likewise called Grey Friars, from their habit, which, in imitation of their founder, was a long grey coat down to their heels, with a cowl or hood, (fn. 3) and a cord or rope about their loins, instead of a girdle. They were likewise called Minorites, from their being the lowest and most humble of all orders; and sometimes Observants, from their being more observant and strict to the rules of their order, than a more negligent and loose sort of them. They were stiled Mendicants, from their professing wilful poverty, subsisting chiefly upon alms, which they used to ask and receive from door to door; by which friars were distinguished from monks, who kept at home within their convents, and lived in common upon their own substance. These Franciscans came first into England in king Henry III.'s reign, about the year 1224. (fn. 4) How they were afterwards en tertained, or accommodated with a home, is told by the author of the Antiquities of the English Franciscans, entitled Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica; by this we learn, that these friars, viz. Aghellus de Pisa and his companions, on their coming to Canterbury in the year 1220, were charitably harboured and entertained for two days by the Benedictine monks, in the priory of the Holy Trinity, after which they were taken in at the Poor Priests hospital, where however they continued no longer than whilst a part of the school belonging to it was fitted up for their reception. Here some of them staid to build their first convent; for which purpose Alexander, the provost or master of the hospital, gave them a spot of ground set out with a convenient house, and a decent chapel or oratory, which by his care and charitable endeavours were there built for them, and here he placed these friars, and this was their first convent for this order in England, and was held in the name of the corporation or community of Canterbury, for their use, they being by their profession incapable of possessing it as their own right.

 

Here they lived for some time, increasing in numbers and popularity, having gained the esteem of many persons of dignity and consequence; among whom were archbishop Stephen Langton, his brother the archdeacon, and Henry de Sandwich, who became their first great benefactors and patrons. Among others who admired them for their sanctity, was a devout and worthy citizen, of a flourishing family then in this city, as they were afterwards in the county, one John Digg or Diggs, then an alderman of it, (fn. 5) into whose favour they had so far insinuated themselves, that he purchased for them a piece of ground, lying between the two streams of the river Stour here, then called the island of Binnewyth, (fn. 6) and shortly afterwards translated them thither. (fn. 7)

 

The friars being seated here, and there being many houses and much ground belonging to the priory of Christ-church, within the precinct of their convent, they laid claim to them, and they made themselves absolute possessors of the whole of this island; and the monks seeing the common people much inclined to favour them, and not willing to incur theirs, left it might bring with it the people's displeasure too, made a virtue of a necessity, and after the friars had been no small time in possession, without payment of any of the accustomed rents and services, which the former tenants of the monks were bound to pay; they, by a composition made, as they phrased it, through pure motives of charity, not only remitted to them all arrears past and for the future, an abatement of the one half of the rent; on condition of their paying in full of all services and demands, for the time to come, iii shillings yearly rent. (fn. 8) How this might stand with their founder's rule, and their own vow, appears strange; for by their rule set forth articulately in Matthew Paris, they were clearly debarred, not only by their vow of poverty, but by express precept besides, from all property, either house or ground, or any kind of substance, but as pilgrims and strangers in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, by going and begging alms with considence, &c.

 

These Franciscans, or Minorite friars, had granted to them by several popes, many privileges, immunities, and indulgencies; (fn. 9) besides their exemption and immunities from episcopal and other ordinary jurisdiction; in the matter of tithes they were privileged from the payment of any, either of their house, orchard, or garden, and the nutriment, i. e. the herbage or agistment of their cattle, as in the decretals; in matters of burial, they had liberam sepulturam, i. e. might chuse wheresoever any of them would his place of burial, paying the fourth part of the obventions to the parish church; and as a thing of which multitudes were ambitious, numbers of persons of high degree and estimation were desirous of living, dying, and being interred in the habit of these Franciscans, believing that whosoever was buried among them, especially if in the holy and virtuous habit of a poor friar, he should not be only happily secured from evil spirits, which might otherwise disturb the quiet of his grave, but assure to himself an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. (fn. 10)

 

There is but little further to be mentioned concerning these friars and their house, only that in king Henry VII.'s reign, this convent became one of those which were called Observants, being those who put themselves under the more strict discipline of this order, in opposition to whom, the others gained the name of Conventuals, who continued under the former relaxed state of the rules of their primitive institution, though still in general they were called Franciscan friars. (fn. 11)

 

This house was dissolved in the 25th year of king Henry VIII. anno 1534, those of this order being the first that were suppressed by him. (fn. 12) Hugh Rich was the last principal of this house.

 

As to the benefactions to this convent, it should be observed, that whoever died of any worth always remembered these friars in their wills, and in general gave liberally both to their church and convent; among others, it appears by the wills in the Prerogative-office, in Canterbury, that William Woodland, of Holy Cross parish, anno 1450, by his will gave five pounds towards the reparation of their church, and five marcs besides to the repairing of their dormitory or dortor; and Hamon Beale, a citizen, and in his time mayor of Canterbury, chusing this church for his place of burial, as Isabel his first wife had done before, gave forty shillings in money to this convent.

 

¶There were several persons of worth and estimation, as well of the clergy as laity, buried in the church of this convent, which is so entirely destroyed, that the scite of it can only be conjectured. Weever, however, has preserved some few of them. These were, Bartholomew, lord Badlesmere, steward to king Edward II.'s houshold, who was hanged for rebellion in 1321, at the gallows at the Blean, near this city; Sir Giles Badlesmere, his son; Elizabeth Domina de Chilham; Sir William Manston, Sir Roger Manston, his brother; Sir Thomas Brockhull, and the lady Joan, his wife; Sir Thomas Brockhull, their son, and lady Editha, his wife; Sir Fulk Peyforer, Sir Thomas Drayner, lady Alice de Marinis; lady Candlin; Sir Alan Pennington, of Lancashire; who died in this city; lady Audry de Valence; Sir William Trussell; Sir William Balyol; Sir Bartholomew Ashburnham, and Sir John Mottenden, a friar of this house; (fn. 13) and by the register in the Prerog. office above-mentioned, it appears, that Hamon Beal, who is mentioned above as a benefactor to this convent, and who was mayor of this city in 1464, by his will anno 1492, appointed to be buried in the middle of the nave of the church of these Friars Minors, and to have a tomb three feet high, at his executors charges, set over him and Elizabeth his wife; (fn. 14) that Thomas Barton, of Northgate, in Canterbury, by his will in 1476, ordered to be buried in the church of this house, and that a little square stone of marble set in the wall over the place where he should be buried, with images and figures of brass of his father, mother, himself, wives and children, &c. Margaret Cherche, of St. Alphage, in the nave of the church before the high cross in 1486—John Forde, of St. George's, in the north part of the church, near the altar of St. Cle ment there, in 1487—and that Richard Martyn, bishop in the universal church, by his will in 1502, ordered to be buried in the church of these Grey Friars, to whom he devised his crysmatory of silver, and parcel thereof gilt, and the case thereto belonging, and mentions the chapel of St. Saviour, in this church.— Elizabeth Master was buried in the church of these Friars in 1522; Anne Culpeper, widow of Harry Agar, esq. by her will anno 1532, ordered to be buried, if she died at Canterbury, at the Friars Observants there.

 

Weever says, that this priory was valued at that time at 39l. 12s. 8½d. per annum, but there is no valuation of it either in Dugdale or Speed. (fn. 15)

 

The scite of this priory was granted anno 31 king Henry VIII. to Thomas Spilman, (fn. 16) who levied a fine of it in the 35th year of that reign, and then alienated it to Erasmus Finch and his wife, (fn. 17) after which, I find it next in the name of Lovelace, for it appears by the escheat rolls, that William Lovelace died possessed of it in the 25th year of queen Elizabeth, holding it in capite, in which year his son, of the same name, had livery of it; (fn. 18) Sir William Lovelace resided here and died possessed of it in 1629; (fn. 19) since which it has been for many years in the possession of the family of Hartcup; the present possessor of it being Thomas Hartcup, esq.

 

A fee-farm rent of four shillings is yearly paid to the crown for this estate, by the name of the Little Friars, in Canterbury.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol11/pp164-184

The enthroned and bearded personification of Honor receives the victor's laurel crown from Virtue and Victory. Majesty and Respect sit like handmaidens at Honor's feet, and the most lauded rulers of history, each identified by name, flank his throne; below are ten virtuous women, plucked from mythology, the Bible and more recent apocryphal histories. The central scribe peruses the list of Honor's celebrants, whilst in the foreground an unruly mob of historical and literary protagonists beseige Honor's pavilion.

 

This tapestry was part of a seven-piece set presenting an allegorical guide to the qualities which a successful ruler should espouse. The set was made for Cardinal Erard de la Marck (1472–1538), Prince-Bishop of Liège, and loyal envoy and financial backer of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Names of characters, in Latin, at center, top: VICTUS (probably a misreading at cartoon or weaving stage for VIRTUS- Virtue); MAIESTAS (Majesty); REVER[N]TIA (Respect); VICTORIA (Victory).

 

Top tier of rulers, inscribed left to right: GODEEREDUS BUHONIUS (Godfrey of Bouillon); S. LODOVICUS (Louis IX of France); CAROL MAGN (Charlemagne); CONSTANTINUS (Emperor Constantine); DAVID (King David); OCTAVIUS (Emperor Augustus); ABRAM (Abraham); ALEXANDER MAGN (Alexander the Great).

 

Second tier of virtuous females: FLORE[N]TIA ROMITIA (Florence of Rome); PENELOPE (Penelope); SOMRAMIS (Semiramis); HELENA (Empress Helena); HESTER (Esther); DEBORA (the prophet Deborah); SABA (Queen of Sheba); ASIA (the continent Asia, at this time iconographically associated with the spread of Fame).

 

Mounting the steps to enter Honor’s pavilion are, at the left, SERTORIUS (General Sertorius) and MARCELLA (Consul Marcellus), crowned by DIGNITE (Dignity) and TRIU[M]PH (Triumph); at the right, PHOCAS (Phocias) and PHUS (unidentifiable) welcome two additional unnamed protagonists.

 

At upper corners: NATURA (Nature); SCRIPTRAS (Scripture).

 

Amongst the foreground proragonists are: IORAM (Joram), IULIANUS APOSTATA (Julian the Apostate), JEROBOAM (Jereboam), HELENA (Helen of Troy) and PARIS (Paris), TARQUIN (Sextus Tarquinius), MELISA (probably an error due to reweaving of MEDUSA), IEZEBEL (Jezebel), NERO (Emperor Nero), MARCUS ANTONI (Mark Anthony), HOLOFERNES (Holofernes) and SARDANAPALUS (King Sardanapalus)

 

Three inscriptions in cartouches along the uppermost register of the border: “QUISQUIS UT AD CLARUM STUDIOSUS SCANDAT HONOREM / NATURA ASSIDUIS PROVOCAT ALMA TUBIS” (“Generous nature urges with constant trumpets / Anyone to ascend zealously to glorious Honor”); “CANDIDA QUOS MISIT VIRTUS HONOR ARCE RECEPTANS / LAUREAT AMBITIO QUOS TULIT INDE FUGAT” (“Those whom shining Virtue sent, Honor receives and crowns in the citadel. Those whom Ambition inspired, he makes flee from there”); “SEDULO DOCTA IUBET MODULIS SCRIPTURA DISERTIS / NE QUIS HONORIPAROS TARDET INITRE LARES” (“Scholarly Scriptura ordains with skillful means measures that no one should delay to enter the house of Honor”).

La personificazione in trono e barbuto di Honor riceve la corona d'alloro del vincitore da Virtue and Victory. Maestà e rispetto siedono come ancelle ai piedi di Onore, ei più lodati regnanti della storia, ciascuno identificato dal nome, fiancheggiano il suo trono; sotto ci sono dieci donne virtuose, strappate alla mitologia, alla Bibbia e alle più recenti storie apocrife. Lo scriba centrale esamina la lista dei celebranti di Honor, mentre in primo piano una folla indisciplinata di protagonisti storici e letterari blocca il padiglione di Honor.

 

Questo arazzo faceva parte di un set di sette pezzi che presentava una guida allegorica alle qualità che un governante di successo dovrebbe sposare. Il set è stato fatto per il cardinale Erard de la Marck (1472-1538), principe-vescovo di Liegi, e inviato leale e finanziatore del Sacro Romano Imperatore Carlo V.

Firme, iscrizioni e segni

Iscrizione: Nomi di personaggi, in latino, al centro, in alto: VICTUS (probabilmente una lettura errata del cartone animato o del palcoscenico per VIRTUS- Virtù); MAIESTAS (Maestà); REVER [N] TIA (Rispetto); VICTORIA (vittoria).

 

Top livello di sovrani, inscritto da sinistra a destra: GODEEREDUS BUHONIUS (Godfrey of Bouillon); S. LODOVICUS (Luigi IX di Francia); CAROL MAGN (Carlo Magno); COSTANTINO (imperatore Costantino); DAVID (King David); Ottaviano (imperatore Augusto); ABRAM (Abraham); ALEXANDER MAGN (Alessandro Magno).

 

Secondo livello di femmine virtuose: FLORE [N] TIA ROMITIA (Firenze di Roma); PENELOPE (Penelope); SOMRAMIS (Semiramis); HELENA (Imperatrice Elena); HESTER (Esther); DEBORA (il profeta Deborah); SABA (Regina di Saba); ASIA (il continente asiatico, in questo momento iconograficamente associato alla diffusione di Fame).

 

I passi per entrare nel padiglione di Honor sono, a sinistra, SERTORIUS (generale Sertorius) e MARCELLA (console Marcello), incoronati da DIGNITE (Dignity) e TRIU [M] PH (Triumph); a destra, PHOCAS (Phocias) e PHUS (non identificabili) danno il benvenuto a due altri protagonisti senza nome.

 

Agli angoli superiori: NATURA (natura); SCRIPTRAS (Scrittura).

 

Tra i proragonisti in primo piano ci sono: IORAM (Joram), IULIANUS APOSTATA (Julian the Apostate), JEROBOAM (Jereboam), HELENA (Helen of Troy) e PARIS (Parigi), TARQUIN (Sextus Tarquinius), MELISA (probabilmente un errore dovuto al riavvolgimento di MEDUSA), IEZEBEL (Jezebel), NERO (Imperatore Nerone), MARCUS ANTONI (Mark Anthony), HOLOFERNES (Oloferne) e SARDANAPALUS (Re Sardanapalus)

 

Tre iscrizioni in cartiglio lungo il registro superiore del confine: "QUISQUIS UT AD CLARUM STUDIOSUS SCANDAT HONOREM / NATURA ASSIDUIS PROVOCAT ALMA TUBIS" ("La natura generosa spinge con trombe costanti / Chiunque ascenda zelantemente al glorioso Onore"); "CANDIDA QUOS MISIT VIRTUS HONOR ARCE RECEPTANS / LAUREAT AMBITIO QUOS TULIT INDE FUGAT" ("Coloro che brillano di virtù, Honor riceve e incorona nella cittadella, quelli che l'ambizione ha ispirato, fugge da lì"); "SEDULO DOCTA IUBET MODULIS SCRIPTURA DISERTIS / NE QUIS HONORIPAROS TARDET INITRE LARES" ("La Scriptura ordinata con mezzi abili misura che nessuno dovrebbe ritardare per entrare nella casa d'onore")

Lord of the manor Richard Hovel 1611, kneels with his wife Margery Ford, son Richard Hovel 1653 & daughter in law Frances Ferneley 1648

Father = '*The monument of Richard Hovell of Hillington in the county of Norfolk, esquire who, being of the age of 77 years and upwards, finished his course in charity with all men and now resteth here with expectation of the resurrection in assurance of eternal glorification the 30th of November 1611. Margery Hovell, wife of the aforesaid Richard Hovell, deceased and one of the daughters and heires of John Ford of Frating in the county of Essex, Esq who having lived virtuously and comfortably with her said husband 44 years, did beare unto him 4 sons and 9 daughters whereof there are yet 12 alive to her great comfort being all growne to the perfect state of men and women"

 

Richard was the son of William Hovel of Stratfield Hall, Hadleigh by Ann daughter of Richard Turner of Norton

Richard had acquired the manor of Hillington in 1610

He m Margery daughter of John Ford of Frating & Horsley, sister of John Ford of Thorpe

Children

1. Richard 1653 m Frances Ferneley +++

2. Mary m William Gooding of Mosford

3. Katherine m1 Francis Fyske of Brynham m2 Edward Mordaunt of Hempsted m3 Alexander Dering of Pluckley Kent

4. Bridget m William Mothe of Kings Lynn

5. Ann m George Colley of St Andrews Suffolk

6. Elizabeth m Thomas Russell of Rudham

7. Thomasine 1633 m (1st wife) William Barnes of East Winch 1657 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/81qs3M

8-11 William, Anthony, Thomas, Mary

 

Son =+++ "In memory of Richard Hovel of Hillington esquire and Frances his wife daughter of Thomas Ferneley of Creting / Creeting Suffolk esquire. Richard died in June 1653

Frances in December 1648"

Richard fought on the king's side during the Civil War, he had occupied King’s Lynn in 1643, but escaped without penalty. He built the first Hillington Hall in 1624

Children

1. William b1637 dsp

2. Richard 1654 m Dorothy grand daughter of Sir Thomas Chicheley of Wimpole 1616 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/88G5Fn and daughter of Thomas Chicheley 1699 (stirnet) by 1st wife Sarah daughter of Sir William Russell of Chippenham (parents of William who m Etheldreda Lilly having 3 co-heiress daughters = 1. Dorothy m Martin Folkes whose son William m Mary Browne heiress of Sir William Browne 1774 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/k1B2X2 =2 Etheldred m Archbishop William Wake = 3. Clementia Stuart / Montgomery

- Church of St. Mary, Hillington Norfolk

   

"Veganism is the moral baseline of what we owe other animals in general, but additionally, in the case of domesticated nonhumans in need, I believe the virtuous thing to do is to provide them with a home and proper care, when we have the ability to do so." ~ Jo Charlebois

 

Adopt, Foster, Spay/Neuter!

Church of St. Michael and All Angels Diseworth Derbyshire built of local stone, in the centre of the village which has been inhabited since Roman times . It stands at St Clements Gate at the meeting of Lady Gate , Grimes Gate and Hall Gate, names which recall its Viking past .

Originally appropriated to nearby Langley Priory of Benedictine nuns who employed some of the villagers, In late 15c Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, purchased a considerable part of the village to found what became Christ's College, Cambridge.

The Priory dedicated to God and the Blessed Virgin described as small and in good repair, was dissolved n June 1536 . At that time there were 6 nuns as well as the prioress, who was very old and impotent. All the nuns desired to continue in religion, and all were virtuous, though one was over 80 and another was feeble-minded. There was a priest attached to the nunnery, and the lay servants consisted of 10 men and 4 women.

 

The church consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle, north porch and a western tower with dwarf spire, containing a clock, and 6 bells dating from 1626 to 1803:

The present building dates from the 13c, although it is known that a church existed here centuries earlier. It replaced a Saxon single cell church remains of which can been seen in the north wall of the nave.. The 2 blocked windows in the chancel are of Saxo-Norman type. Herringbone work can also be seen inside the building at the base of the old external nave wall in the south aisle chapel.

A large Anglo Saxon font also survives.

 

The added south aisle is not tied in to the main building but is simply butted up against the existing walls, with buttresses for stability. The original pent roof line can be seen in the east and west walls. On the parapet of the south wall and near the top of the west wall are 4 heads, much defaced by weathering. The east and south west windows in this aisle are early 13c. The taller early 14c window on the south wall, which cuts through the original roof line and into the added masonry, gives the date by which the roof was raised and pitched. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/74G74W The south doorway is 13c and much weathered.

 

The tower and spire may date from the 1300s. The tower has four triple-chamfered bell openings, their tracery and cusping now removed. The spire has tall broaches and one tier of lucarnes (dormers). The external west door under the tower was blocked and a new window created when the tower and spire were restored in 1896.

The building was originally thatched until the roof was leaded in c 1699, however the increased weight led to distortion of the chancel arch so the brick buttress on the north wall was built. Some of the sheets of 1699 lead have markings of shoe outlines, made with a sharp tool. Much of the stone coping from the parapet of the north wall is missing.

The church is entered through the north porch which was built in 1661. However, the outer heavily weathered arch is in the same style as that of the 13c north and south doors, and may be made from reused stone

the church was restored in 1840, and in 1885 the chancel was restored and fitted with oak and the floor relaid at a cost of £130: there are 150 sittings, 50 at that time being free

 

In the 19c the living was a vicarage, funded from 106 acres of glebe, with residence, in the alternate gift of the Haberdashers’ Company and Christ’s Hospital, The land belonged mostly to the Master and Fellows of Christ’s College, Cambridge and the owners of Langley Priory after its 16c dissolution, beginning with the Grays, the Cheslyns and ;ater the Shakepears. The college sold their interest in Diseworth in 1920

Two monuments to tragedy stand out - that of Anne Cheslyn who drowned herself in the Priory lake in 1823 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/03L204 ; and Trooper George Harris killed in action at Dewetsdorp, Orange River Colony in 1901 whose monument was erected "by Emily Lock in gratitude to his mother" www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/0HgCw7

The Lock family have 2 monuments of interest , one to young vicar Rev Herbert Lock 1902 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1RmX1r whose hope to erect a church in memory of his younger brother Joseph www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/775hP6 was thwarted by his own early death. - www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/470vh2 2 windows inscribed the St Joseph Benefaction being given instead. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/N5pPK0 It may well be that Trooper Harris's mother nursed Rev Herbert Lock in his final year thus earning Emily Lock's gratitude (?) .

  

LHS picture with thanks - copyright www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=f81197...

Yiwu, China

Kartikeya, also known as Skanda, Murugan and Subramaniyan, is the Hindu god of war. He is the commander-in-chief of the army of the devas (gods) and the son of Shiva and Parvati.

 

Murugan is often referred to as "Tamil Kadavul" (meaning "God of Tamils") and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore and Reunion Island. His six most important shrines in India are the Arupadaiveedu temples, located in Tamil Nadu. In Sri Lanka, Hindus as well as Buddhists revere the sacred historical Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna and Katirkāmam Temple situated deep south.[1] Hindus in Malaysia also pray to Lord Murugan at the Batu Caves and various temples where Thaipusam is celebrated with grandeur.

 

In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Kartikeya is known as Subrahmanya with a temple at Kukke Subramanya known for Sarpa shanti rites dedicated to Him and another famous temple at Ghati Subramanya also in Karnataka. In Bengal and Odisha, he is popularly known as Kartikeya (meaning 'son of Krittika').[2]

Other names[edit]

Like most Hindu deities, Subrahmanya is known by many other names, including Senthil, Vēlaṇ, Kumāran (meaning 'prince or child or young one'), Swaminatha (meaning 'smart' or 'clever'), Saravaṇa, Arumugam or Shanmuga (meaning 'one with six faces'), Dhandapani (meaning God with a Club), Guhan or Guruguha (meaning 'cave-dweller'), Subrahmanya, Kartikeya and Skanda (meaning 'that which is spilled or oozed).[3][4] He was also known as Mahasena and the Kadamba Dynasty kings worshiped him by this name.[5]

Vedas[edit]

The Atharva Veda describes Kumaran as 'Agnibhuh' because he is form of 'Agni' (Fire God) & Agni hold in his hand when kumaran born. The Satapatha Brahmana refers to him as the son of Rudra and the six faces of Rudra. The Taittiriya Aranyaka contains the Gayatri mantra for Shanmukha. The Chandogya Upanishad refers to Skanda as the "way that leads to wisdom". The Baudhayana Dharmasutra mentions Skanda as 'Mahasena' and 'Subrahmanya.' The Aranya Parva canto of the Mahabharata relates the legend of Kartikeya Skanda in considerable detail. The Skanda Purana is devoted to the narrative of Kartikeya.[6] The Upanishads also constantly make a reference to a Supreme Being called Guha, the indweller.

The first elaborate account of Kartikeya's origin occurs in the Mahabharata. In a complicated story, he is said to have been born from Agni and Svaha, after the latter impersonated the six of the seven wives of the Saptarishi (Seven Sages). The actual wives then become the Pleiades. Kartikeya is said to have been born to destroy the Asura Mahisha.[7] (In later mythology, Mahisha became the adversary of Durga.) Indra attacks Kartikeya as he sees the latter as a threat, until Shiva intervenes and makes Kartikeya the commander-in-chief of the army of the Devas. He is also married to Devasena, Indra's daughter. The origin of this marriage lies probably in the punning of 'Deva-sena-pati'. It can mean either lord of Devasena or Lord of the army (sena) of Devas. But according to Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, in his master work on Shiva[8] and other works, Kartikeya was married to Devasenā and that is on the ground of his name as Devasena's husband, Devasenāpati, misinterpreted as Deva-senāpati (Deva's general) that he was granted the title general and made the Deva's army general.[9]

 

The Ramayana version is closer to the stories told in the Puranas discussed below.

Tolkappiyam, possibly the most ancient of the extant Sangam works, dated between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE glorified Murugan, "the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent," as "the favoured god of the Tamils."[10] The Sangam poetry divided space and Tamil land into five allegorical areas (tinai) and according to the Tirumurugarruppatai ( c. 400–450 AD) attributed to the great Sangam poet Nakkiirar, Murugan was the presiding deity the Kurinci region (hilly area). (Tirumurugaruppatai is a deeply devotional poem included in the ten idylls (Pattupattu) of the age of the third Sangam). The other Sangam era works in Tamil that refer to Murugan in detail include the Paripaatal, the Akananuru and the Purananuru. One poem in the Paripaatal describes the veneration of Murugan thus:

 

"We implore thee not for boons of enjoyment or wealth,

But for thy grace beatific, love and virtuous deeds."

 

According to the Tamil devotional work, Thiruppugazh, "Murugan never hesitates to come to the aid of a devotee when called upon in piety or distress". In another work, Thirumurukkarrupatai, he is described as a god of eternal youth;

 

His face shines a myriad rays light and removes the darkness from this world.[11]

The references to Murugan can be traced back to the first millennium BCE. There are references to Murugan in Kautilya's Arthashastra, in the works of Patanjali, in Kalidasa's epic poem the Kumarasambhavam. The Kushanas, who governed from what is today Peshawar, and the Yaudheyas, a republican clan in the Punjab, struck coins bearing the image of Skanda. The deity was venerated also by the Ikshvakus, an Andhra dynasty, and the Guptas.[6] The worship of Kumāra was one of the six principal sects of Hinduism at the time of Adi Shankara. The Shanmata system propagated by him included this sect. In many Shiva and Devi temples of Tamil Nadu, Murugan is installed on the left of the main deity. The story of His birth goes as follows:

 

Sati immolated herself in a pyre as her father King Daksha had insulted Shiva, her Lord. She was reborn as Parvathi or Uma, daughter of the King of Himalayas, Himavan. She then married her Lord Shiva. The Devas were under onslaught from the Asuras whose leader was Soorapadman. He had been granted boons that only Lord Shiva or his seed could kill him. Fearless he vanquished the Devas and made them his slaves. The Devas ran to Vishnu for help who told them that it was merely their fault for attending Daksha's yagna, without the presence of Lord Shiva. After this, they ran to Shiva for help. Shiva decided to take action against Soorapadman's increasing conceit. He frowned and his third eye- the eye of knowledge- started releasing sparks. These were six sparks in total. Agni had the responsibility to take them to Saravana Lake. As he was carrying them, the sparks were growing hotter and hotter that even the Lord of Fire could not withstand the heat. Soon after Murugan was born on a lotus in the Saravana Lake with six faces, giving him the name Arumukhan. Lord Shiva and Parvati visited and tears of joy started flowing as they witnessed the most handsome child. Shiva and Parvathi gave the responsibility of taking care of Muruga to the six Krittika sisters. Muruga grew up to be a handsome, intelligent, powerful, clever youth. All the Devas applauded at their saviour, who had finally come to release them from their woes. Murugan became the supreme general of the demi-gods, then escorted the devas and led the army of the devas to victory against the asuras.

Legends[edit]

Given that legends related to Murugan are recounted separately in several Hindu epics, some differences between the various versions are observed. Some Sanskrit epics and puranas indicate that he was the elder son of Shiva. This is suggested by the legend connected to his birth; the wedding of Shiva and Parvati being necessary for the birth of a child who would vanquish the asura named Taraka. Also, Kartikeya is seen helping Shiva fight the newborn Ganesha, Shiva's other son, in the Shiva Purana. In the Ganapati Khandam of the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, he is seen as the elder son of Shiva and Ganesha as the younger. In South India, it is believed that he is the younger of the two. A Puranic story has Ganesha obtain a divine fruit of knowledge from Narada winning a contest with Murugan. While Murugan speeds around the world thrice to win the contest for the fruit, Ganesha circumambulates Shiva and Parvati thrice as an equivalent and is given the fruit. After winning it, he offers to give the fruit to his upset brother. After this event, Ganesha was considered the elder brother owing as a tribute to his wisdom. Many of the major events in Murugan's life take place during his youth, and legends surrounding his birth are popular. This has encouraged the worship of Murugan as a child-God, very similar to the worship of the child Krishna in north India. He is married to two wives, Valli and Devasena. This lead to a very interesting name : Devasenapati viz. Pati (husband) of Devsena and/or Senapati (commander in chief) of Dev (gods)

Kartikeya symbols are based on the weapons – Vel, the Divine Spear or Lance that he carries and his mount the peacock. He is sometimes depicted with many weapons including: a sword, a javelin, a mace, a discus and a bow although more usually he is depicted wielding a sakti or spear. This symbolizes his purification of human ills. His javelin is used to symbolize his far reaching protection, his discus symbolizes his knowledge of the truth, his mace represents his strength and his bow shows his ability to defeat all ills. His peacock mount symbolizes his destruction of the ego.

 

His six heads represent the six siddhis bestowed upon yogis over the course of their spiritual development. This corresponds to his role as the bestower of siddhis.

In Tamil Nadu, Murugan has continued to be popular with all classes of society right since the Sangam age. This has led to more elaborate accounts of his mythology in the Tamil language, culminating in the Tamil version of Skanda Purana, called Kandha Purānam, written by Kacchiappa Sivachariyar (1350–1420 AD.) of Kumara Kottam in the city of Kanchipuram. (He was a scholar in Tamil literature, and a votary of the Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy.)

 

He is married to two deities, Valli, a daughter of a tribal chief and Deivayanai (also called Devasena), the daughter of Indhra. During His bachelorhood, Lord Murugan is also regarded as Kumaraswami (or Bachelor God), Kumara meaning a bachelor and Swami meaning God. Muruga rides a peacock and wields a bow in battle. The lance called Vel in Tamil is a weapon closely associated with him. The Vel was given to him by his mother, Parvati, and embodies her energy and power. His army's standard depicts a rooster. In the war, Surapadman was split into two, and each half was granted a boon by Murugan. The halves, thus turned into the peacock (his mount) and the rooster his flag, which also "refers to the sun".[12]

 

As Muruga is worshipped predominantly in Tamil Nadu, many of his names are of Tamil origin. These include Senthil, the red or formidable one; Arumugam, the six-faced one; Guhan and Maal-Marugan, the son-in-law of Vishnu. Murugan is venerated throughout the Tamil year. There is a six-day period of fast and prayer in the Tamil month of Aippasi known as the Skanda Shasti. He is worshipped at Thaipusam, celebrated by Tamil communities worldwide near the full moon of the Tamil month Thai. This commemorates the day he was given a Vel or lance by his mother in order to vanquish the asuras. Thirukarthigai or the full moon of the Tamil month of Karthigai signifies his birth. Each Tuesday of the Tamil month of Adi is also dedicated to the worship of Murugan. Tuesday in the Hindu tradition connotes Mangala, the god of planet Mars and war.

 

Other parts of India[edit]

Historically, God Kartikeya was immensely popular in the Indian subcontinent. One of the major Puranas, the Skanda Purana is dedicated to him. In the Bhagavad-Gita (Ch.10, Verse 24), Krishna, while explaining his omnipresence, names the most perfect being, mortal or divine, in each of several categories. While doing so, he says: "Among generals, I am Skanda, the lord of war."

 

Kartikeya's presence in the religious and cultural sphere can be seen at least from the Gupta age. Two of the Gupta kings, Kumaragupta and Skandagupta, were named after him. He is seen in the Gupta sculptures and in the temples of Ellora and Elephanta. As the commander of the divine armies, he became the patron of the ruling classes. His youth, beauty and bravery was much celebrated in Sanskrit works like the Kathasaritsagara. Kalidasa made the birth of Kumara the subject of a lyrical epic, the Kumaarasambhavam. In ancient India, Kartikeya was also regarded as the patron deity of thieves, as may be inferred from the Mrichchakatikam, a Sanskrit play by Shudraka, and in the Vetala-panchvimshati, a medieval collection of tales. This association is linked to the fact that Kartikeya had dug through the Krauncha mountain to kill Taraka and his brothers (in the Mrichchakatikam, Sarivilaka prays to him before tunnelling into the hero's house).

 

However, Kartikeya's popularity in North India receded from the Middle Ages onwards, and his worship is today virtually unknown except in parts of Haryana. There is a very famous temple dedicated to Him in the town of Pehowa in Haryana and this temple is very well known in the adjoining areas, especially because women are not allowed anywhere close to it. Women stay away from this temple in Pehowa town of Haryana because this shrine celebrates the Brahmachari form of Kartikeya. Reminders of former devotions to him include a temple at Achaleshwar, near Batala in Punjab, and another temple of Skanda atop the Parvati hill in Pune, Maharashtra. Another vestige of his former popularity can be seen in Bengal and Odisha, where he is worshipped during the Durga Puja festivities alongside Durga. Lord Subramanya is the major deity among the Hindus of northern Kerala. Lord Subramanya is worshipped with utmost devotion in districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the state of Karnataka. Rituals like nagaradhane are unique to this region.

Kartikeya also known as Kartik or Kartika is also worshipped in West Bengal, and Bangladesh on the last day of the Hindu month of 'Kartik'. However, the popularity of Kartik Puja (worshipping Kartik) is decreasing now, and Lord Kartik is primarily worshipped among those who intend to have a son. In Bengal, traditionally, many people drop images of Kartik inside the boundaries of different households, who all are either newly married, or else, intend to get a son to carry on with their ancestry. Lord Kartik is also associated to the Babu Culture prevailed in historic Kolkata, and hence, many traditional old Bengali paintings still show Kartik dressed in traditional Bengali style. Also, in some parts of West Bengal, Kartik is traditionally worshipped by the ancestors of the past royal families too, as in the district of Malda. Kartik Puja is also popular among the prostitutes. This can probably be linked to the fact that, the prostitutes mostly got clients from the upper class babu-s in old Kolkata, who all, in turn, had been associated to the image of Kartik (as discussed above). In Bansberia (Hooghly district) Kartik Puja festival is celebrated like Durga puja of Kolkata, Jagadhatri puja in Chandannagar for consecutive four days. The festival starts on 17 November every year and on 16 November in case of Leap year.[13] Some of the must see Puja committees are Bansberia Kundugoli Nataraj, Khamarapara Milan Samity RadhaKrishna, Kishor Bahini, Mitali Sangha, Yuva Sangha, Bansberia Pratap Sangha and many more.

 

In Durga Puja in Bengal, Kartikeya is considered to be a son of Parvati or Durga and Shiva along with his brother Ganesha and sisters Lakshmi and Saraswati.[14]

Kartikeya is worshiped during Durga Puja in Odisha as well as in various Shiva temples throughout the year. Kartik puja is celebrated in Cuttack along with various other parts of the state during the last phases of Hindu month of Kartik. Kartik purnima is celebrated with much joy and in a grand fashion in Cuttack and other parts in the state.

Murugan is adored by both Tamil Hindus and Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Numerous temples exist throughout the island. He is a favorite deity of the common folk everywhere and it is said he never hesitates to come to the aid of a devotee when called upon. In the deeply Sinhalese south of Sri Lanka, Murugan is worshipped at the temple in Katirkāmam, where he is known as Kathiravel or Katragama Deviyo (Lord of Katragama) . This temple is next to an old Buddhist place of worship. Local legend holds that Lord Murugan alighted in Kataragama and was smitten by Valli, one of the local aboriginal lasses. After a courtship, they were married. This event is taken to signify that Lord Murugan is accessible to all who worship and love him, regardless of their birth or heritage. The Nallur Kandaswamy temple, the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple and the Sella Channithy Temple near Valvettiturai are the three foremost Murugan temples in Jaffna. The Chitravelayutha temple in Verukal on the border between Trincomalee and Batticaloa is also noteworthy as is the Mandur Kandaswamy temple in Batticaloa. The late medieval-era temple of the tooth in Kandy, dedicated to the tooth relic of the Buddha, has a Kataragama deiyo shrine adjacent to it dedicated to the veneration of Skanda in the Sinhalese tradition. Almost all buddhist temples house a shrine room for Kataragama deviyo(Murugan)reflecting the significance of Murugan in Sinhala Buddhism,

 

Based on archeological evidence found, it is believed that the Kiri Vehera was either renovated to build during the 1st century BCE. There are number of others inscriptions and ruins.[15]

 

By the 16th century the Kathiravel shrine at Katirkāmam had become synonymous with Skanda-Kumara who was a guardian deity of Sinhala Buddhism.[16] The town was popular as a place of pilgrimage for Hindus from India and Sri Lanka by the 15 the century. The popularity of the deity at the Kataragama temple was also recorded by the Pali chronicles of Thailand such as Jinkalmali in the 16th century. There are number of legends both Buddhist and Hindu that attribute supernatural events to the very locality.[16] Scholars such as Paul Younger and Heinz Bechert speculate that rituals practiced by the native priests of Kataragama temple betray Vedda ideals of propitiation. Hence they believe the area was of Vedda veneration that was taken over by the Buddhist and Hindus in the medieval period.[17]

Lord Murugan is one of the most important deities worshipped by Tamil people in Malaysia and other South-East Asian countries such as Singapore and Indonesia. Thai Poosam is one of the important festivals celebrated. Sri Subramanyar Temple at Batu Caves temple complex in Malaysia is dedicated to Lord Murugan.

The main temples of Murugan are located in Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India. They include the Aru Padaiveedu (six abodes) — Thiruchendur, Swamimalai, Pazhamudircholai, Thirupparangunram, Palani (Pazhani), Thiruthani and other important shrines like Mayilam, Sikkal, Marudamalai, Kundrathur, Vadapalani, Kandakottam, Thiruporur, Vallakottai, Vayalur, Thirumalaikoil, Pachaimalai and Pavalamalai near Gobichettipalayam. Malai Mandir, a prominent and popular temple complex in Delhi, is one of the few dedicated to Murugan in all of North India apart from the Pehowa temple in Haryana.

There are many temples dedicated to Lord Subramanya in Kerala. Amongst them are Atiyambur Sri Subramanya Temple in Kanhangad Kasaragod, Payyannur Subramanya Swamy temple in Payyanur, Panmana Subramanya Swamy temple in Panmana and the Subramanya temple in Haripad. There is a temple in Skandagiri, Secunderabad and one in Bikkavolu, East Godavari district in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka there is the Kukke Subramanya Temple where Lord Murugan is worshiped as the Lord of the serpents. Aaslesha Bali, Sarpa Samskara with nagapathista samarpa are major prayers here. There is a temple called Malai Mandir in South Delhi. Malai means hill in Tamil. Mandir means temple in Hindi.

 

The key temples in Sri Lanka include the sylvan shrine in Kataragama / (Kadirgamam) or Kathirkamam in the deep south, the temple in Tirukovil in the east, the shrine in Embekke in the Kandyan region and the famed Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. There are several temples dedicated to Lord Murugan in Malaysia, the most famous being the Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur. There is a 42.7-m-high statue of Lord Murugan at the entrance to the Batu Caves, which is the largest Lord Murugan statue in the world. Sri Thandayuthapani Temple in Tank Road, Singapore is a major Hindu temple where each year the Thaipusam festival takes place with devotees of Lord Muruga carrying Kavadis seeking penance and blessings of the Lord.

 

In the United Kingdom, Highgate Hill Murugan temple is one of the oldest and most famous. In London, Sri Murugan Temple in Manor park is a well-known temple. In Midlands, Leicester Shri Siva Murugan Temple is gaining popularity recently. Skanda Vale in West Wales was founded by Guruji, a Tamil devotee of Subramaniam, and its primary deity is Lord Murugan. In Australia, Sydney Murugan temple in Parramatta (Mays Hill), Perth Bala Muruguan temple in Mandogalup and Kundrathu Kumaran temple in Rockbank, Melbourne are major Hindu temples for all Australian Hindus and Murugan devotees. In New Zealand, there is a Thirumurugan Temple in Auckland and a Kurinji Kumaran Temple in Wellington, both dedicated to Lord Murugan. In the USA, Shiva Murugan Temple in Concord, Northern California and Murugan Temple of North America[18] in Maryland, Washington DC region are popular. In Toronto, Canada, Canada Kanthasamy Temple is known amongst many Hindus in Canada. In Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a suburb of the city of Montreal in Canada, there is a monumental temple of Murugan. The Sri Sivasubramaniar Temple, located in the Sihl Valley in Adliswil, is the most famous and largest Hindu temple in Switzerland.[19]

The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of the heart.

  

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:23. A bargain made by fraud will prove a losing bargain in the end. 24. How can we form plans, and conduct business, independently of the Lord? 25. The evasions men often use with their own consciences show how false and deceitful man is. 26. Justice should crush the wicked, and separate them from the virtuous. 27. The rational soul and conscience are as a lamp within us, which should be used in examining our dispositions and motives with the revealed will of God. 28. Mercy and truth are the glories of God's throne. 29. Both young and old have their advantages; and let neither despise or envy the other.

bible.cc/proverbs/20-27.htm

成大同人活動2010 - 照殿月 / 超酷斑馬淑女 - 日本動畫漫畫的世界

National Cheng Kung University Cosplay 2010 - The moon to shine on palace / Ultra cool zebra virtuous young woman - The world of the Japanese Animation and cartoon

Universidad nacional Cosplay 2010 de Cheng Kung - La luna a brillar en palacio / Mujer joven virtuosa de la cebra ultra fresca - El mundo de la animación y de la historieta japonesas

成大同人は2010活動します - 殿の月を照らします / クールシマウマの淑女を超えます - アニメーションの漫画の世界

Nationale Universität Cosplay 2010 Cheng-Kung - Der Mond, zum auf Palast zu glänzen / Rechtschaffene junge Frau des ultra kühlen Zebra - Die Welt der japanischen Animation und der Karikatur

Université nationale Cosplay 2010 de Cheng Kung - La lune à briller sur le palais / Femme vertueux de zèbre ultra frais jeune - Le monde de l'animation et du dessin animé japonais

 

Tainan Taiwan / Tainan Taiwán / 台灣台南

 

霹靂狂刀 / Cuchillo loco del trueno

{Thunderclap crazy knife / 雷の狂う刀}

 

{View large size on black}

 

{My BLOG/管樂雅集台南孔廟精彩演出-2010楊老大生日快樂}

{Wind instrument music elegant gathering Tainan Confucian temple splendid performance - Saxbai Yang happy birthday 2010 }

{Funcionamiento espléndido de acopio elegante del templo confuciano de Tainan de la música del instrumento de viento - Feliz cumpleaños 2010 de Saxbai Yang}

{管楽の風雅に集う台南孔子廟のすばらしい公演-2010楊は非常に誕生日おめでとうございます}

{Windinstrument-Musik elegante erfassenherrliche Leistung des tainan-konfuzianischen Tempels - Saxbai Yang alles Gute zum Geburtstag 2010}

{Exécution splendide sourcilleuse élégante de temple confucien de Tainan de musique d'instrument de vent - Joyeux anniversaire 2010 de Saxbai Yang}

 

{My Blog / 不斷成長與進步的喜悅-管樂雅集}

{My Blog / The joy of the Grows unceasingly and the progress - Wind instrument music elegant gathering}

{Mi blog / La alegría del crece incesante y el progreso - Reunión elegante de la música del instrumento de viento}

{Mein Blog / Die Freude an wächst fortwährend und der Fortschritt - Elegante Versammlung der Windinstrument-Musik}

  

可用放大鏡開1:1原圖

The available magnifying glass opens 1:1 original picture

La lupa disponible abre el cuadro de la original del 1:1

利用できる拡大鏡は1:1の原物映像を開ける

Die vorhandene Lupe öffnet 1:1vorlagenabbildung

 

書中風起雲動 劍下虎嘯龍吟

The book stroke have the clouds to move under the sword the tiger's roar and dragon to recite

 

誰知成敗早已天定

Who knows the success or failure already to decide for GOD

 

回首江山依舊 入眼夕陽正紅

Who looks back on the landscape as before pleasant setting sun is red now

 

但願人長久情長在

Hopes the persons long-time sentiment exist

 

熱蘭劍士無悔無憾

The Zeelandia's swordsman regretless not regrets

On life's journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.

 

~ Buddha

 

The Iron Academy sword was forged by David DelaGardelle for the Iron Academy school, a school based out of Raleigh North Carolina that was founded to help craft young men into honorable, virtuous, humble, and Godly leaders for future generations.

 

Crafted to be large, powerful, imposing, yet precisely balanced and swift moving in the hand of its wielder. The blade was forged and hand ground out of high carbon 1075 steel, with mild steel blued fittings and a walnut wood core grip wrapped with veggie tanned blood red leather.

 

The overall design is a hybrid blend of many late medieval Northern European swords, while still having its own distinctive bold voice in its design and aesthetics.

Crafted to inspire and empower its wielder with strength and responsibility, no matter how young or old the wielding warrior of the sword may be.

 

Down the length of the fullers the hand engraved phrases read:

 

"Live Pure, Speak True, Right Wrong, Follow The King."

And on the other side:

"Iron Academy - Because Biblical Manhood Is Never An Accident"

  

Stats:

OAL: 43"

Blade length: 32 1/2"

Blade Width: 2"

Grip Length: 8 1/2"

Balance point: 2 1/4" from the guard

 

Blade Steel: 1075 high carbon

Fittings: Blued Mild Steel

Grip: Wooden core with Veggie Tanned Leather Wrap

  

cedarloreforge.com/

www.ironacademy.org/

In Thiksey Monastery, in Ladakh, India.

 

Maitreya is a transcendent bodhisattva named as the universal buddha of a future time. The name is taken from the Sanskrit maitri (in Pali, metta), which means "loving kindness." In Mahayana Buddhism, Maitreya is the embodiment of all-encompassing love.

 

As a bodhisattva he dresses as royalty; as a buddha, he dresses as a monk. He is said to reside in the Tushita heaven, which is part of the Deva Realm of the Kamadhatu (Desire Realm, which is the world depicted in the Bhavachakra).

 

The Cakkavatti Sutta speaks of a distant time in which all skillfulness in dharma practice is lost and mankind will war with itself. A few people will take shelter in the wilderness, and when all others are slaughtered these few will emerge and seek to live virtuously. Then Maitreya will be born among them.

 

After this, various Mahayana traditions weave a story that closely resembles the life of the historical Buddha. Maitreya will leave the Tushita heaven and be born in the human realm as a prince. As an adult, he will leave his wives and palaces and seek enlightenment; he will sit in meditation until he is fully awakened. He will teach the dharma exactly as other buddhas have taught it.

 

Before getting too caught up in anticipation, it's important to understand that in most schools of Buddhism linear time is an illusion. This makes speaking of a literal future a bit problematic since "future" is an illusion. From this perspective, it would be a huge mistake to think of Maitreya as a messianic figure who will come in the future to save mankind.

Triptych possibly by Melchior Salaboss who made the one in Burford church for the Cornwall / Wogan family flic.kr/p/e26vFT - a distant relative .

It is thought to be in memory of John Harewell who died c1600 or his brother Edmund who also died young.

It has 4 opening doors; the top two being larger than the bottom two. On the outside ARE 2 full-length angels holding shields, the first bearing the 12 quarters of Harewell and Bury, the other Gules a cheveron argent between three lions' heads or with two gimel bars gules and roundels sable on the cheveron, which are the arms of Susan Coles, his mother. Below are two more shields, the first Bury as on his kinsman's monument, the second a shield of Townsend quarterly of six, for his maternal grandmother, Anne Townsend. The full coat is as follows: (1) Azure a cheveron ermine between three scallops argent, for Townsend; (2) Purpure a cheveron between three fleurs de lis or; (3) Argent crusilly fitchy gules with a lion gules crowned or; (4) Sable a cross engrailed argent; (5) Gules a cross and a border both engrailed or; (6) Argent a cheveron azure between three crosslets fitchy gules.are the remains of painted shields with the arms of the Harewell & Colles (Gules a cheveron argent between three lions' heads razed or with two gimel bars gules and roundels sable on the cheveron).

 

The top two doors reveal his kneeling figure with Old Father Time holding a scythe in one door corner & a skeleton with spear on the other, both with inscriptions below. www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/6o25k8

"Time sounds the wofull wach;

Then death with dreadfull stroake

Retourns all flesh to mouoldy earth

But Christ shall soone revoke

And call the good to lyfe againe,

And plouge the bad to endles payne

 

Poore child to whom should I complayn

In this my freife and mared plight

Time bendes his sythe to cut my threade,

Death waves his dreadfull dart in sight.

And both doe threate without delaye

To take my vitall breath awaye.

To flye for aid to parentes deare

Will not maybe inthis distress;

No ingred woundes, no questes nor bribes

Can force of Tyme or death suppress,

Then to the Lord I flye alone

To man tis vayne to make my moan.

With patient mynd and thankful hart

Graunt that I maye yeeld unto thy wil;

That livinge I maye love my Lord

That dyinge I maye searche hym still

When tyme and deathe have playd theire parte

Yet then thy sight shall ease my smart.

"Of Harewells bloode ere conquest made

Is nowne to discende of gentle race

And sithence linckt in jugal leage

with Colles whome birthe and vertues .......

An impe entombed heere dothe lie

in tender years, bereft of breath

Whose hope of future virtuous lyfe

was plaine forshewde by lyfe and death

A childe bestrede of graver years

And childishe toies did quyte dispise

He sought by yealdinge parents tears

And serving God to clime the skies

But prickte with piercing plagues of deatj

For meercie still to God he cryde

So lyude hee with the love of men

So deere in sight of God hee dyde

Bluch, elder sex, from Christ to straye

When suche an hope foreshowse the waie"

 

Underneath the smaller doors reveal him lying in his shroud with symbols of the shortness of life on either side. A boy with a bubble pipe standing in a calm sunny meadow & another holding a rose its petals being blown away by a strong wind.which bends the trees around him . www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/5oEojy

 

John born in 1596 was the younger son of Sir Edmund Harewell lll & 1st wife Susan daughter of Edmund Colles / Coles 1606 flic.kr/p/8ahiyJ of Leigh & 2nd wife Alice flic.kr/p/dhrYQz , widow of Humphrey Archer of Tanworth-in-Arden, (parents of Andrew Archer who m Margaret Raleigh flic.kr/p/T86YNV ) and daughter of Sir Robert Townshend of Ludlow by Alice Poppey. flic.kr/p/dhrYKi

His father was the 2nd son of Edmund Harewell and 2nd wife Elizabeth daughter of James Bury / Bery of Hampton Poyle. As his elder brother Richard had died, www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/HZC18C he succeeded to the manor

 

John 's surviving siblings were Mary who m William Newce, Anne & Elizabeth

 

The mass of quarterings shows the genealogy of the Harewells in a lineage which can be traced back to the late 14c and even further back according to the inscription.

However with the loss of his 2 sons and being the last of the male line of Harewell, his father , knighted in 1603, sold the manor in 1606 to William Sebright Town Clerk of London for £2,750, thus redeeming some of his debts to Rowland Berkeley etc. Habington describes most sympathetically the shipwreck of Sir Edmund's fortunes which necessitated this sale of the manor, and ascribes his sudden downfall, after the steady ascent of the generations that had preceded him, to the heavy expenses incurred by him in filling the offices to which he was appointed on account of his wisdom and character. He eulogizes him as "Edmund Harewell, Knyght of the Bathe, Shyreefe of this county, an expert Justyce, a rare Commisyoner, and learned Gentellman. But overspending hymsealfe to serve his county in Offyces of authority (as hee towlde me hymsealfe) weakened hys estate, and then rowlinge from Besford to London and so backe agayne fyrst consumed and last sould all." Elsewhere he writes, "A wonnder to see suche a Pylot so misgoverne. . . . eavery waye wise but in guydinge his estate'

 

www.middlesex-heraldry.org.uk/publications/seaxe/SeaxeOS0...

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-349-62340-2_4

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Colles

Pictures with thanks - copyright Philip Halling CCL www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5316038

  

This memorial to James Graham is located in the Chepman Aisle in St.Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. The quiet and peace of St.Giles is palpable and in some ways a perfect contrast to the dramatic and ultimately violent end to the life of the Earl of Montrose.

He supported the Covenanters in their struggle against the Episcopalian ambitions of King Charles I but turned against them when they attempted to export strict Presbyterianism to England. A great military strategist he was recognised in France and Germany. His failure in the Royalist cause led eventually to his capture and execution, he got the lot, hung, drawn and quartered with his head spiked on display here in Edinburgh and at gigs all over Scotland. Following the restoration of Charles II Montrose was posthumously rehabilitated, though he is always bound to be controversial.

 

Montrose was a poet as well as a soldier.

 

I'LL NEVER LOVE THEE MORE

 

MY dear and only Love, I pray

That little world of thee

Be govern'd by no other sway

Than purest monarchy;

 

For if confusion have a part

(Which virtuous souls abhor),

And hold a synod in thine heart,

I'll never love thee more.

 

Like Alexander I will reign,

And I will reign alone;

My thoughts did evermore disdain

A rival on my throne.

 

He either fears his fate too much,

Or his deserts are small,

That dares not put it to the touch,

To gain or lose it all.

 

And in the empire of thine heart,

Where I should solely be,

If others do pretend a part

Or dare to vie with me,

 

Or if Committees thou erect,

And go on such a score,

I'll laugh and sing at thy neglect,

And never love thee more.

 

But if thou wilt prove faithful then,

And constant of thy word,

I'll make thee glorious by my pen

And famous by my sword;

 

I'll serve thee in such noble ways

Was never heard before;

I'll crown and deck thee all with bays,

And love thee more and more.

  

James Graham Marquis of Montrose 1612 - 1650.