England Road Ways Two on the Loose TRAVEL HUMANITIES PHOTOS

Rule, Rhubarbiana. West Yorkshire M1 and M62.

2012-02-26T09:59:00.001-08:00

Rhubarb country. Food alerts. The Rhubarb Triangle. An inauspicious-looking triangle where the M1 and the M62 motorways intersect. The Financial Times zeroes in. See the highways at http://www.motorwaycameras.info/. That would be West Yorkshire: bounded by Wakefield, Rothwell, Morley. Go from Manchester to Wakefield, and continue south to Nottingham, perhaps.
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Why? Because rhubarb is a metaphor for the dedicated, stubborn life, growing where little else of value will. Bad climate, lots of waste from wool industry waste known as "shoddy", but good roads for transport. See Fool's Paradise, on our US paper edition, The Rhubarb Ruse, at http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/2db41de4-4c88-11e1-b1b5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nV2gxhkV.
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What else but rhubarb: it takes a ruse. Kid the plant into thinking spring has sprung. Leave the root out during fall; let it feel the sharp frost. Then take it indoors where it is warmer, and it will think it is okay to grow. Or, if it is too mild, apply an acid. See details.

Rhubarb poisoning. Do not eat leaves. We did, nice and chopped and sauteed, but it did not taste tastey. Hop on the internet: poison. Rhubarb info, poison! Fast to poison control at the drugstore, call Poison Central. Everybody fine. Noone seems to post the antidote process, so just remember to call.

Cumbria, Sheffield, Mormons. Mormon Convert Immigration 19th C. Coming to America

2012-01-10T16:01:00.001-08:00

Mormon Convert Immigration from England

19th Century

Coming to America. Or another ship, perhaps. Same function. A better life, perhaps.

Mormonism. Converts. The fast rise of a religion. The current American presidential election process includes a Mormon candidate, whose forbears are traced, apparently, to 1837 or so, to Cumbria, Dalton in particular, see http://www.in-cumbria.com/white-house-hopeful-s-connection-to-furness-1.908148?referrerPath=news-archive. This is an area that includes the Appleby Horse Fair, held 2011 on June 3-5. This event attracts thousands of people of Traveler, Gypsy heritage, see http://www.applebyfair.org/
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Interest simmers, not a big deal, on the ethnic roots of the candidate: Mitt Romney, with Romneys in England for several centuries. And in the process of Mormon conversions and financial support for converts. See http://martinlutherstove.blogspot.com/#!/2012/01/mormon-converts-19th-c-owned-by-company.html.
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With a name, Romney, so like Roma, Rom, Romany, we looked around.
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Romney Marsh of Kent.

And, the closest connection for Romney with Romany or Roma or Rom (Travelers, Gypsies) is in the Romney Marsh of Kent. This is specifically stated also as the Romany Marsh, see http://www.infobarrel.com/History_of_Romney_Marsh_kent. A smugglers' haven -- wool, brandy, tea. Special breed of sheep that do well in the wet. The identification by surname and ethnic name is tenuous to be sure, and certainly in the dimmer past, but not so far fetched. Will our Mitt Romney take an interest, ever, in migration, ethnic groups, and their opportunities.
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Mormonism, properly known as Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints, or LDS, began formally in America in 1830 by a previously unknown person, one Joseph Smith. The religious sytem was and rapidly spread by LDS missionaries abroad, particularly in England. This resulted in a large migration of newly converted, thousands, of Mormons to harbor areas including in Louisiana, and then to gathering points to Utah by wagon train, see the BBC overview of basic beliefs at http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/mormon/ataglance/glance.shtml. Our candidate's family in Dalton was apparently converted in 1837. Who were they, to take on something so new?

Cash offered helped. See the Mormons' Perpetual Emigration Fund set up as a corporation by the Mormons in 1849, by which converts got free passage to America in exchange for repaying the amount (how much? was there interest? were fortunes made on a profit between passage costs and amount charged) -- a kind of indentured servitude a the American end? Or a huge student loan idea -- could the people get out of it if they changed heir minds?
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The BBC identifies working class British as the primary converts, as industrial conditions were so harsh on laboring people. And there were the poor. The BBC identifies Sheffield in particular as a human tragedy, for whom an alternative, a religion that welcomed them and would help them get to America, was a magnet. See "social misery" at http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/south_yorkshire/article_1.shtml
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Dalton is eager to claim Mitt Romney, see http://www.daltonlocal.co.uk/us-republican-politician-mitt-romney-s-dalton-heritage-goes-back-to-1642-1.907821?referrerPath=home. See all the connections with family that that site lays out, tourists ho. An interest remains in photos, birth records, gravesites, documentation, of Church of England or Roman Catholic heritage, or other mainstream British Christian. This documentation of Romney heritage would offset the clear suggestion that, at some point, a Romani family assimilated.
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All of us in America come from elsewhere. We are a mongrel group whose "aristocrats" can claim little of the merit of the forebears, Is it so that the losers left, the winners stayed. Ha.

Does any brilliant person pass those genes or influence on beyond the second generation? Experience says, after the second generation, people become hangers-on. Who left in immigration waves: the successful, or the seeking.
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If Romney has other-ethnic roots, the seeking who converted to traditional or new religions or are otherwise other than pure "English", tell us. The Romany Archive and Documentation Center in Austin , Tx, would also like to know, we think. See RADOC at http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=presentation&lang=en.
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The name "Romney" suggests Romani, Romany, Roma, etc. but whether his forebears were Travelers will take someone simply looking up where the birth and grave records are. We cannot tell.
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The name itself, may even be Welsh, http://gypsiesroma.blogspot.com/2011/04/candidate-romney-immigration-policy-of.html, but there were Travelers and Tinkers in Wales, and also in Ireland, so it is an open issue until we learn more. If the family assimilated before the 1600's or even 1700's, no trace would remain, except the name, is that so?
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Why care? Immigrants and immigrant rights (some would say there are none if they enter without advance documentation) are in hot issue in America.
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If this candidate knew that his heritage at some point was not English Upper, or even Middle, but even Traveler; or, English working class, would he be more amenable to human aspirations. If his forebears were laborer, those who may not have been in misery, but had advancement roads blocked in the 19th Century, would he be more willing to stand up for those similarly disadvantaged, who don't have a handy Mormon conversion in their own country to help them.

Or is Mitt Romney of the Dalton Romneys just another profit-obsessed CEO: if capitalism allows the big to swallow the little, why fuss? That is an election issue.

BBC: Mormon missionaries in the 19th Century came on the industrial misery scene and attracted thousands of converts. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/south_yorkshire/article_1.shtml

How are Travelers, Gypsies, doing here? Most, not great, just as in Europe. See Gypsies, Roma, Romani; or, in Texas, this overview at http://www.hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/#!/2011/12/candidates-and-their-own-minority-roots.html; or http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_romanireligion&lang=en&articles=true; or http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/roma.html

CORNWALL, Morwenstow. The Caledonia Shipwreck, Queen Scota?

2011-10-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

There is a shipwreck site off Cornwall, the hapless "Caledonia" -- and a figurehead salvaged is, say some, Queen Scota who invaded ancient Ireland, leading her bands of warriors and founding lines of kings. See Scota, or Scotia, as queen of the tribe of Scotti who then, pressed into Ulster, commenced to raid and then settle in Scotland and fight with Picts against Rome. Is all that so? See http://scotlandroadways.blogspot.com/2010/03/caledonia-scotia-and-scotland-before.html

Here she is, as found at Morwenstow, Cornwall, (fair use thumbnail) at
http://www.submerged.co.uk/

The issue of which tribes came from where and did what can never be settled where the bases are oral tradition and legend, then, again, they cannot be totally disregarded. And, creativity is always in style, see http://www.arbroathtimeline.moonfruit.com/#/0-1099/4518304525. A more scholarly approach is at http://www.knowth.com/ireland-prehistory.htm

Ancient Ireland. Cornwall would have been well known to ancient navigators, whether ships were headed to parts unknown and ending up in Ireland, or not. Milesians: First through Spain, perhaps from the middle east, to Ireland, and Albany -- old name for Scotland. Is all this fantastic? See http://www.danann.org/library/arch/mil.html

DEVON, Westward Ho, Resident WWI, Major William McConaghy RAMC and World War I

2011-09-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

DEVON
Major William McConaghy RAMC
Boer War

"Seconded" to the Egyptian Army, WWI

Fernwood, Westward Ho, Devon.

died at Sea (Red Sea) while seconded.
.
Buried at Suez
Plaque Memorial, old Khartoum Cathedral, Sudan

Service at Hejaz, Hijaz, Hedjaz Railway (WWI - Lawrence of Arabia was attacking it)
.
Reference found: Letter to McConaghy about interrogation of prisoners.
Sources being researched.

Learn history by looking up family members who lived and died in its roll. Personalize a conflicts, the culture, and it lives. Here, at Westward Ho, a small town (apparently a prosperous one) boy grows up, engages in military and medical very serious matters WWI. We are tracing relative William McConaghy's military history. Several of us are pursuing different angles: his service record remains a mystery as to his actual work while "seconded" to the Egyptian Army in WWI.

Another relative, Violet, received a handwrtten letter from a Col. A. J. Tennuci, Curator at the RAMC Historical Museum, England, see it at http://www.ams-museum.org.uk/museum/ramc-history/. She reports that the Colonel wrote, in part,

"There is great difficulty in tracing information on this officer.... However, ...we can confirm that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for operations in Egypt and Hedjaz in connection with military operations."

Note the D in Hedjaz. Spellings in translation vary. Research all.

Then, in 1977, a Research Officer at the National Army Museum, London, see it at http://www.nam.ac.uk/, wrote,

"His service documents will not yet be released out of copyright restrictions."

What?? Our family chronicler stopped there.

Fog and all, meet Major William McConaghy, RAMC, Royal Army Medical Corps, born 1881 in Poona (now Puna), India. His story parallels many who grew up in and out of the colonial era.

His father, also William McConaghy was the Surgeon-General, Indian Medical Service, "Presidency of Bombay." The senior William married Mary Birdwood, she a daughter of General Christopher Birdwood, peerage record [our family chronicler, Violet, describes him: he "of the magnificent black beard") (where is Mary in that listing? here she is, born Maharashtra, India, daughter of etc. at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/IGI/individual_record.asp?recid=100308211069&lds=1&region=1&regionfriendly=Asia&frompage=99) also in service in India. Lord Mark Birdwood, 3d Baron, lives or lived in London. Hello, from an obscure gang here.
See the senior William McConaghy's obituary from 1905 at Obituary, Surgeon-General William McConaghy 1905.

William, a son of Surgeon-General William McConaghy, served in South Africa. World War I: "BEF France" (British Expeditionary Force) 1914, and was earlier wounded in France.

See the record of him, wounded: But is this "our" William?

This William is a Private -- not likely for the William McConaghy medical doctor.
See the reference for the "private" at Dungannon [between Omagh and Belfast] Presbytery, Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The Private lived at Union Place in Dungannon, was a Private at the time, and is listed in the "Dungannon Second", see role of honor, 1914-1919 (this William McConaghy, probably not ours, lived in Ireland. Need more info. Our William may well still have resided in India, or with his wife, Mary Birdwood McConaghy in Devon?

Not ours: This McConaghy

William

Union Place

Private

R. In. Fus.

Wounded

See link to that other William McConaghy as a Private at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~econnolly/roh/rohdungannon.html

Still looking for William. Our William served and died as "seconded" to the Egyptian Army, buried in Suez War Memorial Cemetery, memorial plaque in the old Khartoum Cathedral.

I. It is William McConaghy RAMC "seconded" to the Egyptian Army that interests us.

What is that.

And the "Hejaz" - its railway was a focal point of Lawrence of Arabia's activities in WWI.

Find pictures of it at http://www.galenfrysinger.com/hejaz_railroad.htm And it is his role in Arabia that interests us. What was that?

A. Pursuit in Arabia, no idea of outcome yet.

Was William serving at Hejaz at the same time that Lawrence of Arabia was attacking the railroad there? While seconded to the Egyptian Army?

B. Is this letter addressed to him, document identified as letter to "McConaghy".

II. This leads to the next issue:

What was the letter from Lt. Col Charles Pierce Joyce, about interrogations of prisoners,

to "McConaghy""

See the National Archives and this mystery entry at Joyce, Lt. Col. Pierce Charles 1878-1965, at the King's College, London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Records, at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=099-joyce&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1
Liddell Hart - famous military strategist, for "indirection" see http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/339756/Sir-Basil-Liddell-Hart

Here is the entry, and the topic is "about interrogation of prisoners.":
That is logical, for a medical matter, letter to Dr. McConaghy -- suggesting something or what?
Is this a letter related to the Hejaz Railway issue WWI (Lawrence of Arabia attacks even, asks our imagination) to our McConaghy or another? But we see no other McConaghy in the military records for those "seconded" to the Egyptian Army. Need to find out more.
ENTRY AT THE LIDDELL HART CENTER RECORDS

"[no title] JOYCE/1/42 [1917 Feb 1-5]

Contents: To McConaghy. About interrogation of prisoners. D 20"

Where to look next:

Go to the King's College Archives to try to find that letter to a "McConaghy" - http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/index.aspx.
Go to General enquiries - listed here so I can find it again. The letters are not online, apparently. It takes a request, not being started.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 1978 / 2689
Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 1989
Email: cerch@kcl.ac.uk

Centre for e-Research
King's College London
3rd Floor, 26-29 Drury Lane
London WC2B 5RL

What will show?

Update: Here is the response, very expensive for hobby, family request. Converting pounds to dollars for this kind of thing can be open-ended, with high fees. We have not decided whether to pay, because payment in British pounds is additionally expensive and complex. Who out there is going to Kings College? Just go get it. When you find out, let us know.

See FN 1 at the very, very end.

Another side of those seconded to the Army of Egypt in WWI? No wonder we ask why-what? But if his work was primarily there, how was he killed at sea, with a plaque in his honor in Sudan.

The Memorial plaque to William McConaghy reads, according to a family chronicler, this inscription verified as in the Memorial Book, and that would mean that the plaque itself was in the Cathedral, but that building is no longer the Cathedral:

"In memory of Major William McConaghy, MB, DSO, RAMC

Attached to the Egyptian Army

Died at Sea on July 4, 1918

Aged 37 years."

That Cathedral was confiscated, and relocated, see http://khartoum.anglican.org/index.php?PageID=cathhistory. Were the memorial plaques also moved.

B. Our information so far

1. Biography of William McConaghy -

William McConaghy, MB, DSO, RAMC. Major William McConaghy. Start with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at http://www.cwgc.org/. That will only locate the grave, however, and basic identification. Find him in the Royal Army Medical Corps at http://www.cwgc.org/search/SearchResults.aspx?surname=McConaghy&initials=W&war=1&yearfrom=1917&yearto=2000&force=Army&nationality=6&send.x=49&send.y=8.

Other known designations:
MB - (Military, British? looking)
DSO - Distinguished Service Order
RAMC - Royal Army Medical Corps

Look for more. Find rolls of honour for counties or schools, if known. We went to Hertfordshire, a site we found through his Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, website. Go to http://www.roll-of-honour.com/cgi-bin/medicalsearch.cgi. Up will come the A's. Scroll down fast to the very bottom of the page and find where to click for the Medical Staff Who Died During Conflict Search Page.

Fill in McConaghy.

So far so good: He is the cousin we already know, of Lt. Col. Maurice Edwin McConaghy-McConaghey who died in WWI in 1917 at Arras. Now for William:

1.1 He was a major, hospital or area is unknown; died "Red Sea", died 4 July 1918,

1.2 He was born 12, July 1881, born Poona India, conflict WWI 1914-1919, Son of W. B. McConaghy (that would be Mary Birdwood McConaghy, she the daughter of General C. Birdwood, and from Fernwood, Westward Ho, Devon, England); and the the late Surgeon-General William McConaghy (he was in the IMS India, born 1845, died 1905, London)

We already know he got his MD at the University of Edinburgh.

1.3 Awards: DSO 4 SEP 1918 FOR OPERATIONS IN EGYPT & THE HEDJAZ, MID 7 OCT 1918 EGYPTIAN ORDER OF THE NILE 4TH CLASS.

What is Hejaz? see area of Arabia at http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31568/history-of-Arabia/46000/The-Hejaz. The railway here, Damascus Syria to Madina [or Medina?], Saudi Arabia, was damaged by Lawrence of Arabia 1914-1918, see http://nabataea.net/hejaz.html.

Was William there?

1.4 Details

Red Cross Unit - RAMC

MB Ed. LT 31 JUL 1905 CAPT 31 JAN 1909 MAN 15 OCT 1915. SOUTH AFRICA 1906-10 BEF FRANCE 1914 (WOUNDED IN ACTION) SECONDED EGYPTIAN ARMY 1915-1918. THE ARMY LIST OF MARCH 1910 SHOWS BASED PRETORIA.

Cousin Maurice McConaghy was also in South Africa - so we aren't pursuing that here. For those with an interest in the later WWI Somme and Ypres Salient, where Maurice served and died, you might want also to see the film, "War Horse" -- graphic, and historically accurate in at least this respect; German trenches used wicker woven walls as supports, and the British used planking. That difference is shown.

Other Details: SUEZ WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY D.89.

2. Basic question: "Seconded" to the Egyptian Army. What was Major William McConaghy M.D. doing in Egypt in WWI?

2.1 Narrative sites, not official records found yet:

See site http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=108993

"Centurion" writes (not vetted, just presented for review)

"Up to 1914 Egypt was technically an autonomous part of the Turkish Empire and although there was a Khedive who was British 'advising' the ruler the legal fiction was that he was doing this on behalf of the Turkish Sultan. As an autonomous region it had its own army which had British 'advisors' seconded to it (one of the most notable being a certain General Gordon). When WW1 broke out technically Egypt was on the side of the Central Powers so Britain declared it a protectorate. This left the Egyptian army in a slightly peculiar position and it was restricted to a role of assisting the civil power and protecting those parts of Egypt not facing the Turkish army - this meant defending againt Sennusi raids etc."

And "stevebecker" at same site writes,

"The British raised a number of units for the Egyptian Army to assist them in controling the Western and Southern Egypt during the War.

"Many British and Commonweath soldiers were seconded to these units and I have a large number of aussies being made 2/Lt's in the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps. These were used to bring supplies to other Egyptian units and British units in the Western and Southern Egypt. There is also record of these being used in the Sinai to assist the advance to Palestine.

"Egypt used its Army as stated above to conrol there outer areas these included the Sudan where Egyptian soldiers and Camel Companies operated against the Senssi and the Sutan of Dufar. These were filled with many British offciers and NCO's to help them and no dought to keep an eye on them.

"During the Egyptian rebelion of 1919 I can find no units of the Egyptian Army involved directly in this upriasing by the native Egyptians, althought soldiers on leave or such may have taken part?"

That is the story so far. Now to find where he was in the British Expeditionary Force 1914, where he was wounded. There must be a book based on the logs, as we found for his cousin, Maurice - The Royal Scots Fusiliers by John Buchan

.................................................................

FN 1 How to get a copy of the correspondence to the doctor, "McConaghy", about interrogation of prisoners, in the Hejaz, WWI

"
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We are not King Tut here. Is anyone interested, for history? We still may, but this is a big deal.

LONDON. Borough, County, City. London. Westminster Abbey. History, Royal Wedding, Immigration, Mithra Elements

2011-07-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

LONDON
Westminster Abbey
A Window on History, a Royal Wedding, Immigration, and
William and Kate Marry
Photos, Side Issues

Westminster Abbey Boy's Choir. Assimilation, immigration, colonialism in the positive.
.
1. On location.

London: A City of vast history, remaining its own distinct entity, divided into several London Boroughs, rather than participating in an overall county system. Counties and boroughs. Those apparently in the know say that parts of London may happen to be in a particular county geographically, it may be in another London borough economically. See http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichCountyDoesLondonBelong/zjmjr/post.htm. And a basic source, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_London

2. An Event. The Wedding.

London is, of course, the site of Royals. Here is our update on London: a look at old Mithraism showing there, the Telly and the Wedding, Immigration seen in Westminster Abbey, and Hats. We sat with coffee, in bed, snapping pix. Credits. Photos by This Commoner at the Telly, fair use of tiny snaps. Wavy lines by Telly people going up and down the screen probably to discourage home photos. Undaunted, see here,

The Balcony Kiss.
Topics at the wedding:

Integration and immigration at the Boys' Choir,
Mithraism
The Telly and Changing mores (Elton John);
Institutional religion's compromises with Mithraism early on, leading to non-christian beliefs.
Hats. These also attend the Wedding: Royal, Wedding, Commoner, Clergy and Queen Victoria.

Then the rest of the wedding. Telly view of wedding.

I. Events After Westminster

Best first. Nice cuppa, a little toast, a few pillows and enjoy. This, in case you could not tell, is a Commoner's home.

William and Kate, balcony kiss, Buckingham Palace after.

Snap, snap. Have to get between the sliding black line always going up, like a barrier at a wooden duck shoot at a carnival.

William, after.

William. One ringy-dingy. This an update, upon hearing that Rupert hacked his phone.

Hats on the balcony. Whose hat to the left? Camilla? Okay. She's entitled.

William and Kate, Balcony Family

And, before the momentous topics, see the couple on to live their lives, like the rest of us, but different.

William and Kate, leaving for happily ever after.

II. Real Life Observations at Westminster

Common global issue: immigration, multinationalism, cultural identity, religious hold-overs that hold us all back.

Immigration. Assimilation, forced, encouraged, none. Ethnic identity. Gains, losses for whom, what.

Regular photos at section III. As to multiethnicity, England did it, at least for the course of the musical section of the wedding. Chorister choice. Depends on voice and talent, as it should

The Boys' Choir.

Some 30 boys are in the Boys Choir at Westminster Abbey, see http://www.westminster-abbey.org/music/choir/ ; they attend the Choir School there, see http://www.westminster-abbey.org/choir-school. There is also the adult male choir. Ladies need not apply.

Choir, Westminster Abbey

Can any country with a colonial past, or one that thinks itself superior to others, ever foster opportunity for others, while retaining the best of our heritage, and letting others do the same with theirs.

Multi-racial Boys' Choir, Westminster Abbey, Wedding of William and Kate

Not assimilated.

Women can and do teach and do other staff positions at the School, see sites and photos above. Typical selectivity under the guise of "history." So, it is indeed historical (hysterical?) that certain parts of anatomy are determinative -- more important to whether someone has opportunity to serve, than talent and smarts.

Multi-ethnic Westminster Boys' Choir,

Yet the prevalence of ruffles suggests ambivalence. History crossed gender lines, but no on admits it.

Westminster Abbey, Boy in Choir, Wedding of William and Kate

Ruffles.

See FN 2; and an overview of Mithraism. Was that among the first major religious system that excluded women from participation, that primary religion of Rome, old as 2800 BCE. It appears that that element, among others of the old Roman State Religion, its militance, administrative skill, turf interest, was simply absorbed in order to get more converts for salesman Paul, regardless of its consistency with theology of the new Founder, whom Paul never knew.

Our traditions are more Paulian influenced Mithra, to woo Rome; than Christian, so it would appear.

So there it probably is. It appears that discrimination against women was not Jesus' idea, but was Paul compromising on theology with the Mithraists. Anything to get a convert, even misrepresenting a founder and twisting into a new doctrine.

Full Choir, with costumes. Westminster Abbey

Faith restored: Music of a different kind, to a different drummer. Welcome.

Elton John, Westminster Abbey, with civil partner, David Furnish. William and Kate Wedding

New York will permit them to marry now. Either way. Their choice.

Now: Hats. The Mitre.

Clergy in costume, William and Kate's wedding. Mitre and ribbons.

What do the ribbons on the clergy signify? Curls? Long hair? What is the history of the mitre, the hat with two pointies.

These were Church of England clergy, but the two-horned mitre has a long history in the Roman Catholic church from which the protestants Sprang for various reasons. See its pagan origins at http://www.onlinechurch.com.au/pagan-origins-of-catholicism-the-fish-hat-mitre-2 That site tracks the two-horned mitre to the priests of Dagon, fish god of the Philistines. See also http://www.tofm.org/papacy/pope_mitre.htm. Of interest also are the vestiges of gnosticism, dualism that had been declared "heretic" because texts were interpreted other than the Roman orthodox wanted, see about horns of Mithra at http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_mythra.htm FN 1

Bride's hat: veil. Everyman's history is at http://www.veilubridal.com/history-bridal-veil.htm The sites are commercial, so need to find a more historical view.

Bishop's hat: Mitre from top view, all red inside. Now, that is weird and rather suggestive.

Why?

Clergy or regular rank do not wear hats and seldom get haircuts. William and Kate's wedding. William got a haircut.

Other hats attract other kinds of attention.

William and Kate's Wedding. Generational difference in Hats. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth; and Fergie's daughter what?

Boaters will slide by, allowing attention to focus on the main event. The danger of a snaky hat is that people will look at the hat and be more interested in it, than in who you are. Which of Fergie's are you?

Cinderella Moment. The shoe fit, he asked, she said yes, and off they go.

The Coach. To the Palace. William and Kate wedding

William about to step into the carriage. Prince's hat, military. Is that the Welsh Guard?

More royal hats. And, in the Commoner's area, is that Queen Victoria? It looks like a Queen Victoria crown.

Queen Victoria at William and Kate's Wedding

III. Westminster Abbey, The Rest of the Wedding

William and Kate. Surely we should not be on first name bases with royalty. But it is more convenient than titles, when one has one and the other does not, yet. Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after, but before that, Prince William and Commoner Kate?

Most self-explanatory --

Gothic Arches, Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey, red carpet, trees

Kate and William, Westminster Abbey

Wedding guests, Westminster Abbey

Interior, Westminster Abbey, Gothic

Kate and William, at Attention

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Westminster Abbey

Kate and father, Michael Middleton, Westminster Abbey

Choristers, Westminster Abbey (men only need apply)

Recessional, Westminster Abbey, William and Kate

William entering carriage, Westminster Abbey

Telly view. Excellent.
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FN 1 Mitre and the Two-Horned Hat

Why do traditional churches keep women out, but wear their clothes. Keep the part of history that bolsters your own status, but forget the rest. Progress only on fronts that benefit. Pass on the ruffles, for a religion founded by an anti-authoritarian itinerant pauper. Wealth. Hoard it. Show it. Maybe we need that?

Do we? We do know that the status of women in the Christian church, the traditional ones, is Outside.

Check your theological history.

This reflects, perhaps, Paul's need to placate the Mithra-ists of Rome, Mithraism as the State Religion before Christianization; and that took centuries. In about 300-400 CE Christianity was adopted (Constantine as emperor 306-337 CE) and a tenet of Mithraism was no participation by women, and much secrecy. The bull (see the double horned hat here?) also featured. See http://mithra2004.tripod.com/Cult%20of%20Mithra.htm. Click around for history, see also http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/mithraism_and_christianity.htm

See also Horns of Mithra, or other meaning, at Church of Saint Mary in Gdansk, Poland

Black Madonna, Horns of Mithra? Cathedral of St. Mary, Gdansk, Poland

YORKSHIRE. Norse. Surname Scharfe. Yorkshire; Scarborough. Vikings?

2009-06-27T04:14:00.000-07:00

YORKSHIRE
Norse Surname

Skarfr. Scarf and all its variations.

History through Names

A. Place names.

Any map in the US may well show a place name that derives from England, or another country where the immigrants from it settled and wanted to feel at home. Paris, Maine. Berlin, Connecticut. Toledo, Ohio, etc. For British derivations, see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/epncurrent/keytoepn; or the home page at http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/.

B. Surnames

1. Researching history through surnames.
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Start with heraldry. See Scharf, Scarf, similar spellings, at http://www.houseofnames.com/scarf-coat-of-arms. This site notes arrival of these Scarf Skarf surnamed folk in documents in Yorkshire from the 13th Century, but undocumented people were there long before the writing about particular ones. See the Viking Timeline at http://www.viking.no/e/etimeline.htm . Yorkshire and much of Britain was ruled by the Danes and other Norse, back in the day.

Of immediate interest is the odd Norse surname, SkarfR, or Skarf (""Otkell Son of Skarf, from Burnt Njall's Saga, Iceland 12th Century recorded, earlier told). Look what we get from JSTOR - one page. See http://www.jstor.org/pss/3678466/ Or at Questia: see this book from the 1930's - hidden away at ://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55440300 We don't want to get into all that bureaucracy.

If anything is public domain, that is. If not, let people be paid by the click from tax dollars - encourage everyone to research.

2. Still looking: Yorkshire. Found more affirmation of Norse roots - at http://www.yorkshire-england.co.uk/PlaceNameMeaningsPtoS.html/

Youtube asks, with Simon and Garfunkel, Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Scarboro is in the Norse Tales as Skarthabork, and as Scarthborg and Vikings.

The Norse, of course, were not the first on the northeast coast of England - there were others, and Romans. But the Vikings gave their names to the places in ways that lasted, more perhaps than the Romans.

3. More history. Vikings began raiding in England in 787 AD. Conquest activity followed. See http://www.localhistories.org/viking.html/.

Danes conquered northern England in 866 AD, and the area that once was a Roman city, York, became the capital of Viking rule. Finally in 1016, there came peace with King Canute. Read there about the history of Viking raiding and invasions in Europe, down through Germany, Russia, Eastern Europe, Iceland, Spain (the Muslims defended, kept them out), Portugal, and traded with the Byzantine Empire. In Germany, the root "scharf" in Middle High German meant energetic active person; and scharpf is sharp-cutting, see http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Scharf-name-meaning.ashx/

4. A blacksmith connection.

Viking craftsmen included blacksmiths, see http://www.localhistories.org/viking.html/ The root of "skarf" with all its spellings wherever the Vikings went comes from forge, or in the Orkneys, a shale-y place as where cormorants nested, with skarf as a term connected to cormorants (Skarfskerry, Scotland, see Skarfskerry Point at http://mapcarta.com/17621246) see Ireland Road Ways, Scarf - Scharfe - Scharf Ironworking, Norse Is that so? We are just enjoying ourselves here. Not experts.

Also mountaineers perhaps, or reference again to shale, at Skarfjellet, Norway. The mountain, near Sunndal, see http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Skarfjellet

5. And in the 1800's, there were four Scharfe families in Yorkshire.

Thomas in 1831,
Hadassah A. in 1837,
Agnes in 1837, and
Thomas H. in 1872. See Scharfe Family History at Ancestry.Com at ://www.ancestry.com/facts/Scharfe-family-history-uk.ashx/ This would not be our group, except in name, as our Scharf-Scharfes settled in Ireland.

6. A Jewish connection with the name evolved. Skarf is a Norse name that moved into Germany, Poland. Did it come with the Vikings in those waterways, who then settled, intermarried. The rivers went deep into the countries, and the longboats were shallow-drafted, and fast. See Denmark Road Ways, Roskilde Viking Ship Museum.

However the name moved and was adopted,

There are Polish Jewish Scharfs, see http://www.shoreshim.org/en/trees/treesNamelist.asp?letter=S/
Read about Nili Scharf Gold and his research into the poet, Amichai. See http://www.brandeis.edu/information/download/jewishstudies.pdf/ and
That Hadassah Scharfe, above.

7. Interest in Hadassah.

Back to history, and Jews in England - back to the beginnings?

There was a massacre of Jews in York in 1190 - there is a Hadassah Scharfe in Yorkshire in the 1890's - see http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=0&gsln=Scharfe&f1=Yorkshire&db=uki1891&gss=genfact/ That Hadassah is the Hebrew name for Esther, with connections to the myrtle, used in perfume. See http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Hadassah.html/

Hadassah is also the name of the Jewish women's Zionist organization.

Jewish connections? Given the Viking wanderings, settlements, raids and conquests, that would not be unusual at all.

Looks like the connection became strong. A Lauren Scharf in Ohio US gave some records to Hadassah the organization there, so is there a Jewish branch of us? See http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/FindingAids/hadassah.htm/ The name comes up. Everybody intermarries with everybody all over the world, so welcome, family. Come to think of it, we were detained in 1961 from entering Israel from Egypt because the "scharfe" was thought to be what? German therefore Jewish or Jewish? We never knew. After an hour we were allowed in. Or was it going from Israel into Syria and Lebanon? Maybe that was it.

The e in our name came only in the 20th Century, to keep all the Ireland-originating Ottawa Scharfs identifiable for the post office. We still would like to know about Hadassah Scharfe.

SkarfR. Scharfe. Scarf. Scarth. Scarff. Skarf. Norse roots.

..........................................

Side interest: "wic" means trading place, see http://www.localhistories.org/york.html/ Eastwick? Southwick? How about Pickwick? Wicca? Wickman?

"Land" is a Viking word, and that became attached to the Gaelic "eire" = Ireland.

Suder means South, so Sutherland (Scotland at the north). See Viking history at that allhistories site, click and find yourself at http://www.localhistories.org/viking.html/ Upper class Vikings: Earls. Farmers and craftsmen: Karls. See http://www.localhistories.org/viking.html

Copyright over-restrictions: Consider the merits of Copyleft, see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/ - a way to open up use of material, while protecting the originator.

WILTSHIRE. Stonehenge and Healing

2008-10-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

STONEHENGE

Stonehenge is near the town of Amesbury, in Wiltshire. Find it at http://www.aboutstonehenge.info/index.php?pg=stonehenge-location.
Land at Heathrow, and immediately head out from city and airport, to open road immediately. Practice driving on the left where there are lots of lanes.
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Stonehenge: Stone Outside Main Perimeter, Wiltshire, England

1. Stonehenge.

We had been told that this was a place of sun worship - example http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16465. With the carbon-dating of cremated remains that had been in storage, archeologists then said that the purpose of Stonehenge is clearer. It was a burial ground, and apparently for rulers that dominated the area for some 500 years. Stonehenge itself dates from about 2500-3000 BC. See http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-stonehenge_30may30,0,3850894.story

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Update 2011.
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Research and archeology are now finding more to this famous setting of monolithic standing stones at Stonehenge, Stonehenge long thought to be for ceremonial and/or burial purposes. There are other henge monument traces nearby, remains of a mound circle, gaps, ditches, seen by below-ground imaging and without the digs initially, see http://www.archaeology.ws/stonehenge.html. This also dates from 2500-3000 BC, as does mainstream Stonehenge. Named Bluestone Henge in 2009, at its discovery (after our trip),

Stonehenge, for all its other possible uses, was apparently also a place of healing, its own Lourdes where those with illness or deformity could come for relief. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/stonehenge/

Stonehenge, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, England

See September 2008 articles, at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26838058/

Early pilgrims coming to Stonehenge - pre-Christian came from other parts of Europe, not just local. This was the Neolithic era. Some skulls even show signs of surgery (didn't the ancient Egyptians also drill through skulls successfully?), see http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-09-22-stonehenge-healing_N.htm
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Current dating: at 2300 BCE (Before Christian Era), and more precise than the broader range laid out before, see http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/science/September-October/Stonehenge-Said-to-Be-Place-of-Healing.html

2. Logistics

Comment reply -

We were able to get very close, but not to touch. Park across the highway, then follow the pedestrian tunnel underneath to the stones' side. There was a gravel walkway around a tight perimeter, with some stones nearby on the other side of the walkway as well. There was a very light wirey fence, nothing formidable, more a guide. We could not wander freely inside the main area of the stones, however. Everyone stayed on the walkway.

These areas, for us, are too manicured. We liked the rough settings of other stone circles and standing stones in the middle of fields in England and Ireland, and in Orkney, see the Ring of Brodgar at http://orkneyroadways.blogspot.com/2007/10/layers-of-culture.html and Callenish, Lewis, Hebrides, see http://hebridesroadways.blogspot.com/2006/06/callanish-lewis-standing-stones.html sites at Europe Road Ways. Enjoy more those wilder settings for standing stones. More impressive, we thought.

WILTSHIRE Sarum, Salisbury area

2008-05-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Wiltshire, the District

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The area is a layer cake, as this site describes parts of it - history of Sarum, see below, at http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/castles/sarum.shtml.

From surface to deep below, are successive cultures, religions for the ages. Burial practices, historical developments taking place within short distances, Cathedral, little hamlets with little Norman churches, like Mildenhall. There ere are two Mildenhalls, one north of London with a military base, and then this little village they pronounce as "Minal" if you are looking.

In the area, an Iron Age hill fort, Caer Guorthigirn, or Vortigern; then Roman Sorviodunum after the Roman invasion in 53 AD, Saxons fought over it in 554 AD, and more details (some reliable or not) from a travel chronicle dating back to 1480, see http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artcit/caersalis.htm,

1. Stonehenge: see preceding post.
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2. Old Sarum:

Old Sarum is the original site of the town now located further to the south, where reliable water is, and known as Salisbury. Work building the banks of this old site, the earthwork area began in about 5000 BC - a fort by 1000 BC, and the town on top of the mounded area. This town was in use through the time of the Romans and Normans, and finally the center of life moved to Salisbury, about 1219 AD. See http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_to_go_in_Britain/Destination_Library/old-sarum.htm
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Old Sarum had religious significance from early Christian times.
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"The Sarum Use" is an old liturgy that formed the basis for the later Book of Common Prayer, Church of England, the Common Prayer dating from 1549. View the Sarum Use, parallel Latin and the English, here - at http://ia331338.us.archive.org/0/items/theancientliturg00maskuoft/theancientliturg00maskuoft.pdf.

Hear and see Sarum Use at http://wn.com/Sarum_Use
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Or, go first to this site for an overview, and then click to view. See http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Sarum/index.html; overviews back at at http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_to_go_in_Britain/Destination_Library/old-sarum.htm.
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A new book is coming out on that liturgical Sarum Use, says http://www.thecityandthecity.org/2008/04/new-book-on-the-sarum-use/. The liturgy is also known as the Sarum Missal. See http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Sarum/index.htm

Were these changes from the Old Sarum Use, reflecting the Gregorian Reform movement, where also the old Visigothic Rite was upended as well? Visigoths: See http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Visigoths.aspx. Arian Christians, some? Who decides what is "heresy" and on what grounds, to whose benefit? Are we better off with the Roman militant church? See discussion of the old rite at http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne5.htm

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Good older beach book: "Sarum - The Novel of England," by Edward Rutherford, 1987, see http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92163.Sarum.
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Salisbury. Apparently people needed water and the high earthwork town did not access it easily, thus the move to Salisbury and the vast Cathedral there, see http://www.salisburycathedral.org.uk/; and http://www.thetravelinsider.com/britain/salisburyintroduction.htm
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It is possible to see much in a day. FN 1
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Fn 1. Travel philosophy: enjoy the full travel day, even after supper.

Getting around.

How do we cover so much in two weeks with a rented car? Remember the short distances and small size of European countries. Go back to your globe and superimpose England, for example, on the US. Our car trips are not frenetic at all. They just unfold. Stonehenge, the Salisbury Plain; Old Sarum, 500 BC, see http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.16426; Salisbury Cathedral, all an easy motorway drive from London and then south - short compared to the distances here. Easy to visit from London to Stonehenge, Stonehenge to Old Sarum, and then to Salisbury for the night.

LEEDS COUNTY - Travelers (Gypsies, Roma) in England

2007-12-30T07:38:00.001-08:00

LEEDS COUNTY

TRAVELLERS

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Each country has its own narrative about its Roma, or Gypsies as they used to be known elsewhere, the groups being different. See Gypsies, Roma, Romani. See the "History of Travelling" at http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryEngland.html, for the Roma or Romani or Travellers in Leeds, England.

Leeds appears to be central to Roma in England. It also has an industrial underbelly, see history of its feltworks and other industry and the people who worked there, in "Foreigners," by Caryl Phillips - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/25/society; see Hello, Fodder - Racial Fodder post. Immigrants, or cast-off ethnic groups, similar issues. That story of immigration centers on three individuals, including one David Oluwale, a Nigerian immigrant who died under such suspicious circumstances while in custody, and related issues of racial targeting in England.

Update: a current candidate for president in the US -- Mitt Romney -- a Roma, Romani name?
Contemporary politics: Someone ask how Mitt Romney would address access to opportunity issues as to American Roma? Ask even if his name cannot be traced to Romani origins. Ask anyone seeking elected office, as to any ethnic group.

The Travellers in Leeds site is a central site for Travellers, with links to various needs and interest groups. It shows by maps and pictures and chronological events where Gypsies came from, and their earliest connections to England.

In England, there is increasing unrest by the community people against the Travellers, as there is in many nations not only against Roma, but any ethnic immigrant group on the move in. See http://www.abc.net.au/abccontentsales/s1519912.htm. It looks like similar immigration issues are arising worldwide, as peoples cross old boundaries. Distrust, resentment, efforts to dislodge without a place for them to go, etc. And the healthcare provided is abominable, like here. See http://www.news-medical.net/?id=22350.

Governments maximize use of words about them and the government's great plans for enhancing opportunity, sustenance. See http://www.83.137.212.42/sitearchive/cre/policy/gypsies_and_travellers.html. Would a better solution to forced settlement and the poverty there, and loss of occupation, to provide for access to healthcare and sustenance and let them travel? Leave a culture alone if they want it?

Ireland: See a similar problem at Ireland Road Ways, Travellers , and there is a good overview historical-social-political site at http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/ireland/travellers.htm.

Roma are in the news and media now, especially with the imaginative, and not much historical, film, "The Golden Compass," This topic is too much for one post, with the film so please visit Gypsies, Roma, Romani. The post on the film is at Golden Compass.

Scotland and a cultural history angle, see the post on Johnny Fa, the Scottish gypsy in ballads, at 11/12/2007, Johnny Faa.

As to Johnny Faa's surname, we find no connection to the solfege do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti system - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege. Will keep looking. Perhaps Mother Faa sang?

WARWICKSHIRE - Warwick Castle - A teaching castle

2007-12-16T14:22:00.001-08:00

Warwick Castle

Warwickshire

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Mighty Warwick, not far from Stratford-on-Avon. Castle of the curtain wall fortification, a nearly impregnable perimeter, see http://history.howstuffworks.com/middle-ages/castle5.htm.

Early on, the site was a Roman fort, in 79 AD (see timeline at http://www.castles.me.uk/warwick-castle-facts-timeline.htm), a burh, a fortified town built by Queen Aethelflaed, widow of King Ethelred in 914-916, as a defense against Vikings. See http://hearteng.110mb.com/warwick.htm, The Saxon sheriff before the Norman conquest may have been related to Lady Godiva and the king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the day. See timeline. He also (traitor?) switched allegiance from Anglo-Saxon King Harold to William when William won, for which he was greatly rewarded in lands and honor but not by his own people.

Then more serious fortifications ensued with a timber motte and bailey by the forces of William the Conqueror after the successful Norman invasion. He needed many were built fast, in order to subdue the population after his invasion in 1066 from Normandy.
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Motte and bailey Warwick began in 1068. Method: Choose the highest ground, even build a mound, rather steep, as the motte; add a second mound on the first, surround that smaller one with a wooden fence at top and build tower inside for a lookout, and accommodation for the noble and others - the bailey. http://www.castles.me.uk/motte-and-bailey-castle-layout.htm. Earth for constructing the mounds came from below, with a handy ditch resulting all around, also good for defense.

In 1260, the wooden structures were replaced with heavy stone walls and structures.
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Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England. Interior display, a war room. Which rebellion?
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In medieval times, the Castle could be inherited either by males of females, through either line. http://www.castles.me.uk/warwick-castle.htm
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It served as a fortification, a prison, a seat of Royals. Romans, Saxons, Celts, Vikings, all in the area making their mark.
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Warwick today is an educational site as well as a furnished castle and 60 acres of grounds. See the scenes set inside with wax figure mock-ups of historical events. Put yourself there. Dan did. Go to this tours and photos site for a full view: http://www.google.com/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official. Do a search for Warwick Castle panorama and you will find an interactive site for a 360 all-around tour.
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This place is becoming very commercialized. Arrive early or late to beat the buses. Click on the history of Warwick at that site (you have searched for Warwick Castle panorama). It has been inhabited continuously until recently; home to Earls of Warwick until recently; town destroyed by 17th century disastrous fire, rebuilt, used as setting for many TV and film ventures.

KENT: Leeds Castle. Gardens, Ducks, and Industry

2007-12-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

Leeds Castle in Kent - modestly described as "the loveliest castle in the world," see http://www.leeds-castle.com/land.php. There is the required moat, water, gardens, great ducks.

This Leeds Castle is in Kent, not in the County of Leeds, so it appears that "Travellers in Leeds," a site about Roma, is not focused here. See http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryEngland.html.

Leeds Castle was named for a minister of old King Ethelbert IV, king who lived 856-860 AD. It is not even near Leeds the City. See the Leeds Castle Timeline at http://www.castles.me.uk/leeds-castle-timeline.htm.
It was first a Saxon fortress, then a stone castle Norman "donjon" built by Robert Crevecoeur (donjon now gone), then King Edward I , 1272-1307, took over and made many structures and improvements, King Edward II successfully attacked in 1321, time passes, Henry VIII makes it a royal palace in the 1500's, etc. Take a look. The castle ghost? a large black dog, says the Timeline.

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Leeds Castle grounds offer a place for wandering. Spot the ducks. This particular duck is a Muscovy. See http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/ducks/index.htm.

Muscovy Duck, Leeds Castle, Kent, England

Meanwhile, go to the gardens at the castle.

Gardens, Leeds Castle, Kent, England

Is this so: that the uglier the persecutions, and the more rigid the thought, the more regimented are the gardens as well?

Nature likes some looseness instead, I think. Something there is doesn't love a straight line.

Stonehenge -Winner Stone

2007-01-08T07:33:00.000-08:00

Out from London. Stonehenge.

Here is the predictable view.

Compare these tamed giants with the wild standing stones in the Hebrides and Orkney, that remain remote and more primitive in surroundings. See Hebrides Road Ways; and Orkney Road Ways. So much more is felt. Do see those for an idea of what the original builders were doing and responding to in their world. At least the Stonehenge managers here could let the grass grow up a little. With the current manicure, one is tempted to set up a little stand, for renting putters.

Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site, in Wilstshire, England. See Stonehenge World Heritage. Scroll down there, and follow more links there.

WILTSHIRE. Mildenhall. Helen Scholes. Parish of Minal. Mendenhall, Mindin Hole. Cunetio. Mildan-Heall: in Wiltshire

2007-01-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

Mildenhall,
Town in Wiltshire

Near Marlborough, County of Wiltshire: Find Mildenhall. Pronounced "Minal".

Minal? Why that pronunciation for a word that sounds a three syllable Mil den hall. And where a family emigrated at the time of William Penn to Pennsylvania, the Mendenhalls. See Mildenhall - Mendenhall. Wiltshire at FN 1 there for Joseph Mendenhall.

A. The Name Mildenhall pronounced Minal.

Ask Helen Scholes, calligrapher, lettering artist, illustrator, and see her work at Pen and Ink Calligraphy at ://www.penandinkcalligraphy.co.uk/contact.html/

We are starting with the research on a print by Ms. Scholes, with calligraphy and illustrations: background legwork by one Richard Westall, who died in 1998. Look at the calibre of the xalligraphy by Helen Scholes, a local artist. All this in a print series dated 1999. She dedicates the series to Mr. Westall.

Here is a fair use tiny portion of the print, showing the town area and immediate fields around.

Mildenhall segment, small portion of the "Parish of Minal" calligraphy and illustration print by Helen Scholes 1999. Original colors are more soft melon and early spring green, than this pink and aqua. We are trying to fix, but our equipment is limited.

Ms. Scholes has appropriately pointed out that our colors are not quite the same as the original -- and with our silly equipment we are seeing what we can do to set that right.

Please adjust your mind's eye to softer, more evocative shades of melon, and pale green. It is not fair to represent an artist's fine work if all aspects are not just so. So we used a small portion, and add this extra disclaimer for amateur work.

The original colors are more lovely melon tones, a soft cantaloupe, not this pink; and a fine, soothing green, all mild and evocative, like a honeydew (is that closer, Helen Scholes?). Nothing jarring.

As soon as we figure out how to get our scanner to do the right thing, please tell you eyes to substitute cantaloupe for pink, and early, mild green for aqua. She kindly pointed that out, see comment below.
On that entire print (it is poster size), find the evolution of Mildenhall's name, its sequence of residents, their ethnicity, other names they gave the places in their area. Celts, to Romans, to on and on. American history begins so late. Look at theirs. Iron age. Romans. Normans.

First the print itself: Perhaps there are some still available in Mildenhall. Ask at the Horseshoe Inn there, see ://www.thehorseshoeinn.info/. It once had to close in the 1950's because it had remained open when villagers were supposed to be in church, says the print. We vote it for the best food in England. So there.

The print shows some obvious things: sketches of prominent landmark buildings like St. John the Baptist Church, two granaries (Church arm and Glebe House), prominent stately homes (Poulton and Woodlands Houses), and a large, rather grand The Old Schoolhouse. Described and listed are local points of interest for prominent people and heroes of wars, tragedies on the spot. A child, for example, killed when a wagon overturned.

B. The Romans

There is a coat of arms on the print for the town, with its Roman name for the 10 years, 50-60 AD, that there was a Roman trading post settlement out here, Cunetio.

Roman Cunetio: The trading settlement became a walled garrison in about 355 AD. This marked the crossroads of A) the significant West to East way, Bath to Silchester Road (and from there on to London) and b) the smaller, but well-traveled Winchester to Wanborough (is that it? find it at ://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jimella/wanbrgh.htm) to Cirencester Road (is that it? find it at ://www.cirencester.co.uk/map.htm).
In the 5th Century, the Romans left, and the garrison shrank away. We did not know all this at the time, but see the copper coins found outside one of the old gates, and there are parts of old mosaic floors said to be just beneath the soil.
Black Field: There is more to the coins. A large hoard of Roman coins was found at Black Field, see the Cunetio Times Dig Report at ://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/articles/cunetio-dig-report/ Find an animation of it on You-Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvbvLwU7Bek/ and scholarly material at the stingy JSTOR that won't let you read more than a whistle before you have to subscribe. Forest Hill: more Roman significance.
Mindin Hole -- we heard that the Romans found indigenous residents (Celts? Britons?) whose homes were on sunken floors, below ground level for a few feet. Step in, step down. They called them "mind in hole" -- or some such.

C. The Fields

Then the fun starts: a sketch of the town, small cluster of streets, its buildings; and huge area of fields surrounding and extending out with a river through it, like a chunky hump-backed open parenthesis or backwards comma. The name of the river seems to be missing, and we understand it to be the Kennet River. One "t". That is the name that followed with prominent settlers to Pennsylvania in colonial times - Kennett Square; and the Kennett River there, two "t's". The town name went with the Mendenhalls who were among them, and from here - Mildenhall - Mildan-Heall, to Mendenhall over there and also until recently, still in town.

The fields are the history. The Richard Westall-researched names are all there, laid out like a large puzzle.

Helen Scholes -- this is for you: We still love your print. Why not make a commercial puzzle out of your work here. With all the names, it is more interesting than the knobby repeats we see in stores made from pictures. Put the history sound-bite on the back. Hm? And it would teach all of us whose families by blood or marriage trace rootlets back here, what this area means.

The fields: imagine! And this is just the outer perimeter. Omitted is the great big middle: There is a Wilson there. My husband's mother is Wilson on one side, Mendenhall on the other. Go, genes. All the dozens and dozens and dozens of field names and markers and places where things happened that are memorialized by name or marker

D. Following the Fields around the PERIMETER

Clockwise perimeter, beginning at roughly 12:00 High.

1. Across the top to the right
Broad Drove
Swain's Cottage
Lark Field
Merry Boys - named for students from Marlborough College who helped an Alec Gale there. What was Gale doing? When?
Warren Cottage
Tolterpin Barrage Hill
Blow-a-way

2. Angling down the side
Whitechard - five parishes meet here: Minal, Ogbourne St. Andrew, Ogbourne St. George, Aldbourne, and Ramsbury (the Mendenhalls are buried at Ramsbury)
Smatchams

3. Curling down steeply, all the way toward the bottom
Mere Farm
Mere Paddocks
Mere Barn
Sound Copse
Old Coach Road to London
Sound Bottom - this area has never been plowed. What lies beneath?
Horse Field
Grove Farm
Dairy Block
Rookery
Grove House
Water Meadow
River (the Kennet River - now a syndicated fishery with native brown trout, grayling and pike if you're lucky. Wild fish caught are replenished, preserving the wild stock)
Shepherd Meadow
Stitchcombe Farm
Chalk Pit
Coombe Hill
Oxleaze
Savernake Forest
Puthall Park

4. Across the bottom, right to left now

The A4 motorway to Marlborough goes through here, this way.
Take it the other way and head to London.

The A4 bisects Puthall Park
Amity Oak - about 230 years old. Three parishes meet - Minal, Little Bedwyn, and Brimslayed Cadley
And more of Savernake Forest
Dark Vale
Grand Avenue (coded = = = = for "other tracks")
Red Vein Bottom
Hospital Pieze
Mast Down - there is an Iron Age fort site here. Extra! This has a large rabbit warren. Lots of cowslips in spring.
Elcot
Chopping Knife Lane - it is said that villagers used to chop wood on the common land there
Elcot Water Meadows
Kennet River again - otters are coming back, with some enhancement projects for them going on; also find kingfishers, herons, feeding snipe and sanepipers, swans - same pair of them for 20 years, they say

5. This puts us at about 8:00, heading around and up the backwards comma back to 12:00
Bat Willow Meadow
Codes for bridle paths
Wilsons
Poulton
Poulton Farm
Coding for other tracks
Poulton House
Horse Meadow
Bay Meadow
Linseed
Bay Furlong (a furlong is about 220 yards to us, see ://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furlong)

6. From 10:00 to Noon, going up the top, left to right

Mid Furlong
Abandoned railway track, now a bikeway
Osbourne Hedge
Hollow Ground
Coding for deciduous trees and Old Coach Road to Bath (hedgerows separating fields often contain dense deciduous trees, leaves falling in fall)
Tumulus (artificial hillock, perhaps over a grave, burial mound?)
Coding for earthworks (remains of raised fort areas?)
Stickley
Pennings
More deciduous trees and coding for a by-way

E. Modern Mildenhall

The community website for Mildenhall is at ://www.minal.org.uk/front.htm/ Friday! November 5! 2010! a BBQ with burgers and the fixin's. Very tempting. I bet it will be at the Horseshoe Inn grounds - big lawn area there, gatherings on Sunday afternoons, perpetual Sunday picnics. Is that still so?

Mildenhall (Mendenhalls), Wiltshire; and Salisbury

2007-01-06T11:56:00.000-08:00

Mildenhall, Wiltshire. Pronounced "Minall." West and south from London. This website shows the river in Mildenhall, the Kennett River. See www.communigate.co.uk/wilts/mildenhallcommunitysite/. Here is the parish church: Norman.

St. John the Baptist Church, Mindenhall (Minal), Wiltshire. See its website at ://www.marlboroughanglicanteam.org.uk/st-john-the-baptist-church.html/

Mildenhall, Wiltshire. St. John the Baptist Church. England

St. John the Baptist Church dates from the 9th century. Over the years, it expanded from the single tower and nave area.

There is another Mildenhall in Suffolk, the home of a large military base north from London. See www.oldcity.org.uk/eastanglia/towns/mildenhall.php.

Tiny.

How to get there?

We looked up Mildenhall, and nearly went in the wrong direction.

The Wiltshire Mildenhall is not on most maps, and was the home of the Mendenhall family, many of whom emigrated to the Kennett Square area, PA, close to the time of William Penn himself. in Pennsylvania, there is a Mendenhall Inn there, near Toughkenamon, PA. See our earliest photograph of a Mendenhall (Joseph or James??) at FN 1.

And find Kennett Square, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania known for mushrooms. My husband Jon's mother was a Mendenhall - any reason for going anywhere is as good as any other. We like family roots places, no matter how remote.

Horseshoe Inn, Mildenhall, Wiltshire, England

Overnight: The Horseshoe Inn there has excellent food and is a fine central hub. Our best dinners in England were served here. On Sunday afternoons, people bring their umbrellas and blankets and chairs and picnic all afternoon on an empty area to the rear and beside. Very chummy. See www.britainexpress.com/History/english-parish-churches.

Minall as a name apparently came from the Romans' seeing Celts in homes that were dug half underground, both for climate control and for defense - the Romans called the Celts "mind-in-hole" -- and other derivations followed. The fields there are still named with the old names.

The homes there still have thatched roofs, and that is not uncommon.

Homes, thatched roofs, Mildenhall, Wiltshire

Thatching is a sensible building material. We didn't expect thatch on such large homes.

Then on to Salisbury: south of Mildenhall. The Great Cathedral, and nearby, Sarum, the site of the first church and town - were moved off the original hill because of insufficient water, I think.

Hotel lesson in Salisbury: if you like a room that faces on the main street, get a hotel room in the back, even though there are views from the front. We were there on party night, and hardly got any sleep. Or, take earplugs.

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FN 1
Joseph Mendenhall, family originally from Mildenhall

May I introduce Joseph Mendenhall, whose family, we believe, bought 85 acres of the original William Penn land grant in 1847, where the homestead and now restaurant are located. Is that so? Which of the several Joseph Mendenhalls is this one.

Search it: find a Joseph Mendenhall, Quaker bachelor, born 1829, some of his papers are at ://www.haverford.edu/library/special/aids/mendenhall/mendenhall.pdf /. There is another Joseph Mendenhall 1692-1748, see ://www.geni.com/people/Joseph-Mendenhall/6000000002603535782/ This one donated land for the old Kennet Meeting House (Quaker).

He is buried in Pennsbury Township.

The Mendenhall Inn in Kennett Square PA provided this information, of interest to us because Jon's mother was a Mendenhall. The Mendenhalls migrated from Mildenhall, Wiltshire, and settled in Concord, Delaware County, in 1684. Our info has Mildenhall dating to Celtic times, on through the Romans, and on. The family established the first station for the underground railroad over the PA line. The old barn of the homestead became a restaurant in 1968. Mendenhalls: see big website at ://www.mendenhall.org/

There are still Mendenhalls in the area around Kennett Square (double t's), but no longer in Mildenhall - moved recently to the next town. The Mendenhall family graves are at Ramsbury, town to the north.

Mount St. Michael's - near Cornwall. St. Michael's Mount

2007-01-06T09:13:00.000-08:00

St. Michael's Mount

This is a monastery on an island on the way to the Cornish coast, and was inspired by Mont St. Michel in France. See France Road Ways. We were there toward the end of the afternoon, misty. It has retained more of its old character because it can only be reached by boat or walking. No causeway. They stop the walkers when the tide is coming in. We were among the last allowed to start, and we were already up to our ankles and going to the knees when we finally got across. You walk on a cobble walk that becomes fully submerged. Check the tides if you want the luxury of choosing to walk or not.

Coming back, the tides gave no choice but to hop on the little motor launches. The island is not full of shops and tourists, some, but quite quiet. See www.castlexplorer.co.uk/england/st-michaels-mount/smm.php.

Jack the Giant Killer.

Jack is supposed to have defeated the Giant Cormoran here, after making him fall into a pit. Great Cornish legends. See www.gandolf.com/cornwall/places/mountstmichael.

The full tale is worth reading, if you have your glasses because the print is small - visit Andres Lang's Fairy Books, "The History of Jack the Giant Killer", at http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/291.htmSee also Migratory Patterns of Tales, Jack the Giant Killer>

Dartmoor and Bennett Cross - and the baying of the Hound of the Baskervilles

2007-01-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

Bennetts Cross, Dartmoor, Devon, England.

Dartmoor. Find 368 miles of open space, and two shorelines, expanse in between. Most recently, this an update 2011, Stephen Spielberg's film, War Horse, was made here. See http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/below-the-line-green-valleys-golden-sunsets-and-war-horse/?ref=movies.

People get lost out there. Its wide area is a national park. See the location, at Devon, near Cornwall - http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/.

Bennett's Cross. The history of this particular cross is uncertain, but it could be named -- as many of these medieval landmarks -- for Benedictine monks, Saint Benedict. Spellings vary: Bennett, Bennet, Bennet's, Bennetts, see http://www.fotothing.com/ThorBeverley/photo/da43f2a71c16117e5be3cf3b8fcb734c/. Park your car anywhere and head down a path. If you worry all the time, you'll see little. We found this isolated cross, with a road sign pointing to it, "Bennet's Cross." That is one of many crosses of different kinds that were used to marks certain boundaries, or provide a landmark, or is named after the person with tin rights to the area at an early time: see Bennet's Cross at http://www.dartmoor-crosses.org.uk/bennet.htm.

That site carries the full listing and explanation for all the Dartmoor Crosses. Vast spaces.

Reread Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, or find the 1939 film at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031448/ -- with Sherlock Holmes. Later films are from 1959 and 2002. Do not cheat and go to Sparknotes at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hound/

The setting is Dartmoor. Sherlock's statue and museum are in London, not far from Madame Tussaud's. See London post here.

Cornwall - Mousehole, Penzance, St. Ives; and Wreckers; Cornish pasties

2007-01-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

A clerk at the hotel in Salisbury spent his honeymoon at Mousehole (pronounced Mouzill), so we had to go. See it at www.chycor.co.uk/travel-tips/penzance/mousel; and its lovely harbor at www.cornwall-online.co.uk/westcornwall/mousehole. Worth the trip, but dicey parking on the steep little streets. We finally went out on the jetty. See www.chycor.co.uk/travel-tips/penzance/penzance.

We were interested in the wrecker tradition of Cornwall. We had read that people known as wreckers years ago, for centuries, went out at night with false lights to lure sailors to the rocks. Once the ships wrecked, the wreckers kill the survivors and loot them and the ship. Wonderful. Even movies about them. We heard that the practice was common also in old New Jersey, USA, and anywhere there are rocks and cliffs and lighthouses to be imitated. Wrong?

Apparently that is not all true. See www.connexions.co.uk/culture/shpwrck. That site says that nature did the wrecking on the Cornwall coast. People and false lights were not needed there at Cornwall - it was so hazardous on its own. You travel, you learn something. See the site on Cornish culture at www.connexions.co.uk/culture.htm#M.

Delights. Cornish pasties: not a burlesque, but a food: www.cornish-links.co.uk/pasty. Empanadas with an accent.

St. Ives. Hear the Mother Goose rhyme about the one going to St. Ives, who met the man with seven wives, at www.repeatafterus.com/title.php?i=1354&PHPSESSID=a06421908ce8b6bb6d487446ce9d5bf5. . Go to the dot com home page, then navigate until you identify the rest of the address.

Cornwall - Tintagel, King Arthur

2007-01-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

Tintagel. King Arthur. Camelot. We were there in the mists - many stairs, long walks to it, out and up and down. The room foundations of the castle are small. It was not really even a castle, in those days. They had wooden fortress shapes on stone foundations, and stone for other defensive parts, and the remains here show a modest geographic area for them. Walt Disney, take note. See www.archaeology.co.uk/ca/timeline/saxon/tintagel/tintagel.

This is what it really looks like - stone foundations, supporting wooden structures. The legends are many. See www.tintagelweb.co.uk/King%20Arthur.htm>. Was he really here. Where. See www.archaeology.co.uk/ca/timeline/saxon/tintagel/tintagel.htm.

And here is the view outwards.

One of the first chroniclers of King Arthur's exploits was Sir Thomas Malory in his "Morte d'Arthur (1470 or so). In Paul Gray's review of the book, "Malory, The Knight who Became King Arthur's Chronicler, " by author Christina Hardyment (HarperCollins 2006?), and in the NYTimes Review of Books Sunday 8/20/06 at page 12: the thesis is that Malory was a rapist and a thug. Wonderful. See www.harpercollins.com/books/9780066209814/Malory/index.aspx. But interesting. There is some debate as to the identity of the chronicler, but Hardyment looks persuasive that it is indeed the bad boy Malory.

Later Cornwall is known for its tin mining, from the earliest Middle Ages. Skeletons of old tin mines many places against the sky. See www.cornish-mining.org.uk/.

Wales - side trip

2007-01-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

After St. Ives, we aimed for Wales - see Wales Road Ways.

Chester - the races and half-timbers

2006-12-31T07:44:00.000-08:00

On the way back from Wales - Chester, England, on race day. Hats like pictures of Ascot. Very very. See www.bwpics.co.uk/races.

Parking. We parked fast so we could get out and enjoy, and noted we were near half-timbered buildings. Like this. However, the whole town - it seems - is half-timber. Moral: take a photo of where you are, if you have a digital camera. Or, write down the cross streets and main buildings every time. Every time. The history of Chester and virtual tours are at www.bwpics.co.uk/chesterintro.

Here is the history of half-timber construction in England. www.britainexpress.com/History/half-timber. With an abundance of oak at the time, many of these buildings survive. They are usually made of squared-off or split lumber. The site compare this resource to Romania and other countries where there was not as much hard wood - they use more whole logs. That is a good site for overall British culture and history.

We did not know if its haunted history at the time. Go ahead. See www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Chester+England&btnG=Search.

Chester is in the Domesday Book, ordered in 1085 by William the Conqueror, or William I. See www.domesdaybook.co.uk/; and www.bwpics.co.uk/quotes/domesday. More about William (he won at the Battle of Hastings, among other glories, see www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page18.asp, and is buried back in Normandy, at Caen, see France Road Ways.

Nottingham and Robin Hood

2006-12-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

Robin Hood statue, Nottingham, England

Robin Hood. He is understated in his town, Nottingham, and in his woods, Sherwood Forest. See www.localhistories.org/nottingham; and www.robinhood.ltd.uk/robinhood/legend. There is a fine interactive museum, however, with tableaux and details and old ledgers.

Robin Hood, according to the exhibits, is a generic type of name, like John Doe, used for any unknown petty criminal or other hapless individual arrested for whatever. Robin Hood this, Robin Hood that. You can see the ledgers through the years - could not have been one person. But as anywhere, stories illustrate larger truths, and may well not be true in themselves. Legend, myth. Robin Hood. See ://www.robinhood.info/robinhood/candidates.html

Perhaps the main model for our Robin Hood was Robin fitz Ooth, Earl of Huntingdon, born 1160, died 1247, Or Sir Robert Foliot, 1110-1165, or Robert Hod, or Robert de Kyme, 1210-1285, Robert Hood of the Wakefield Roles, 1290-1346, or several others not listed at //www.robinhood.info/robinhood/candidates.html. Or a collage. Once a figure is identified, religions or social, the stories collect, and soon have a life of their own.

Visiting on a Sunday is good for leisurely strolls and a less crowded museum; but: not all exhibit areas are open early. The underground caves and dungeon areas beneath the castle area did not open until much later.

Sing it again, Robin Hood riding through the glen, at users.ox.ac.uk/~archery/old/hoodf.

Update 2010: the new film, Robin Hood, at ://www.imdb.com/title/tt0955308/, is fun and fast-fighting, but nothing at Nottingham seems to support the details.

Bodiam Castle - best moat award

2006-12-14T07:42:00.000-08:00

Bodiam Castle. See www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-bodiamcastle.htm. It is listed on the National Trust, and was built in the 14th century. Prize for best moat. It is south of Canterbury, on the way to the Victorian resort at Brighton on the coast. Not far is Hastings, famous for its 1066 battle - William the Conqueror against King Harold, with William winning.

It is a pity that the roof was purposefully removed in the mid 1600's to keep the castle from being used by Charles I (remember the James-Charles-Charles-James sequence in high school history?) and the castle has not been used since.

Castle buffs should enjoy this site for English castles: Medieval England.

The castle is also on the Heritage Trail. It has a fine "barbican," a term seen often that means a forward extension of the gate area. See, for example, Definition of Castles.

London and Sherlock Holmes; fish 'n chips

2006-12-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Here is Sherlock in London, not far from Madame Tussaud's.

For Sherlock, see www.sherlockian.net/. Howooo. The Sherlock Holmes Museum is in London. See www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/. This fine statue is nearby, and there are many fish and chips places - served in newspaper with vinegar. Recipe at splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/fish_fishchips.html. Further hints for making this delectable tasty snack-meal are forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=91475.

More on hounds: See www.bbc.co.uk/devon/outdoors/moors/hound_baskervilles.shtml

London - Bridge, Tower, Buckingham Palace; World War II Reconstruction

2006-12-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

Recalling the bombing of World War II, the Blitz of London, the city now shows little of that. See photos of the Battle of Britain at ://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/#britain/. Take your own tour of the remaining sites, and museums commemorating the Blitz, at ://www.citythemes.co.uk/pdffiles/The%20Blitz.pdf

London Bridge, London, England

London Bridge.

Find its history at ://www.barryoneoff.co.uk/html/london_bridge.html/ The Thames River used to be about five times as wide as it is now, but shallow so that the tides exposed mud flats. There was a ferry near the bridge site in medieval times, and the daughter of the last ferryman (Mary Ovary) used her inheritance (that was not forbidden - restrictions on women's inheritance so the men could get at it came later) to build a convent: St. Mary of the Ovaries, says the site, and we are not making this up. Again, we can't have women in such a prominent place, so the men took it over as a college for priests. Plus ca change, and none the better for it, is that so?

Buckingham Palace, London, England. Changing of the Guard

Buckingham Palace - the changing of the guard. The palace here is not very old as the Royal Residence. It was bought for that purpose only in 1761. See http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalResidences/BuckinghamPalace/History.aspx

London Tower. For a virtual tour of London Tower, see www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/RenAissance/TowerofLondon/TowerLondon.html/ Find its history at ://www.castles.me.uk/history-of-tower-of-london.htm/ The Normans started it in the 1100's, with a wooden structure, a raised center area with wooden fortifications around -- motte and bailey. It then morphed and developed into a place for state apartments, but also intrigue, defense ongoing, royal refuge, executions, imprisonments.

Our guide said that so many people had been executed there and others were taken there for burial, and all had indeed been buried under the chapel. Finally the stone floor began to heave and buckle and smell so they had to exhume and rebury whoever they could find and identify. Do they still haunt? Ask at ://www.hauntedcastlesandhotels.com/England/tower.htm

Where to sleep in London without giving up your fortune:

Sleeping - Last minute and reasonably priced accommodations can be a problem in the big cities,so aim for the main bus and train stations. Behind Victoria Station in London, for example, is a street that is all little hotels. Fine and clean and convenient.

We drove in all the big cities, on most days preferring the hassle of parking to the blind hurtling of the subways. We like learning the layout ourselves.

London, Kensington Gardens, and Peter Pan

2006-12-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Peter Pan. You can read J.M.Barrie's story at www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Barrie/Peter/. The statue is in Kensington, the park in London. J.M.Barrie put it there himself, causing some controversy about self-promotion. See www.c20th.com/ppstatue.

The little statue is not easy to find, if you happen to park at the wrong end of the park. The walk is well spent, however, in duck-spotting.

The statue is very small. As it should be for a boy, and Tinkerbell, and the other children below.

Leeds. Ducks in England

2006-12-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

Today we look at English ducks. They are treated well. They are kind to their web-footed friends. In the US, we are limited in populated areas, it seems, to mallards and Canada geese, and signs to please do not feed. England offers ducks everywhere, in Kensington Gardens, London; at castles, back roads, on grounds.
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Leeds Castle, England. Mallard ducks

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To identify ducks, visit http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/bekindto. Increase the volume. Remember the song? Your web-footed friends. Somebody's mother.
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Muscovy Duck, Leeds Castle, England

The one with the red on top of the beak looks like a Muscovy, see http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/ducks/index.

A focus is good for tranquil walks. Duck spotting is tranquil, leads to unexpected plumage, requires stops, photos, and look-ups later. It also leads to appreciation of habitats.

Literary ducks.

Ping: "Things are kind of cramped on the boat in the Yangtze River where Ping the duck lives with his parents, siblings and 42 cousins. That makes it all the more exciting when one day Ping wanders off all by himself." That sentence from Kidsreads: "The Story About Ping." #45.

Make Way for Ducklings: There was a duckling-caused traffic jam in the Boston Gardens - "Make Way for Ducklings" at same list (Kidsreads.com) #5.
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Aria ducks.
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Stop, find a bench, talk about old books, rest your feet. Sing softly, about Little Ducky Duddle, at http://www.pipergrove.com/Lyrics_123.?
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Sing that one at #11. Etc.
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More blogs about England Road Ways.

Canterbury - Chaucer's life force; and Thomas a Becket's death

2006-12-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

Chaucer. Medieval. His famous tales recount a group of Pilgrims en route to Canterbury Cathedral: some bawdy, others just plain human interest funny or sad. Here is a splendid site on this medieval author's times. It even has background music. See Geoffrey Chaucer's Times and Tales at www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucer.

Read his "Canterbury Tales" again yourself at www.librarius.com/cantales. As an example of one tale, The Pardoner's Tale (and the Unredeemed Dead, a topic of the times) is at www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/zatta/pardoner. Take a virtual tour of the town of Canterbury at www.hillside.co.uk/tour/tour.

Thomas a Becket. A towering figure connected to Canterbury Cathedral. Confidante to the King, but later his adversary when issues came to a head. Thomas was stabbed in the Cathedral itself. See the story of Thomas a Becket at www.digiserve.com/peter/becket.

The beautiful cathedral, at Canterbury is a destination for pilgrimages and should also be a destination for anyone interested in both the secular and religious core of England. Take a tour here: http://www.loyno.edu/~letchie/becket/tour/default.htm.

London: Hammersmith. History in Etymology. Tomorrow: Fifty

2006-11-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

London

Hammersmith. Pulls back.
Straining imagination.
Saxons with Ham-hythe. *

Or giantesses
Riverbank dwelling, across-
Tossing, one hammer.

"Hurl it! Put it nigh!"
"Full home." Breaks? Smith to repair.
Real tale: no repair.

Hurl to hit. Misdate
Misstate Miss. Date Sixty-One
Home haven updates.

Tomorrow. Fifty.
Hoerled. Entitlement hammers
Sport-smithed. Dickens. Call.

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* Charles Dickens, All the Year Round, Vols 3-4 (August 4, 1860); set of Dickens' weekly journals, at p.391, suggests name derivation as Saxon, town with a creek or harbor, see http://books.google.com/books?id=OW4HAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA391&lpg=PA391&dq=hammersmith+etymology&source=bl&ots=pbmFbwfBbM&sig=PgP3mn4ynwZQZcz4egPqJB6cKXg&hl=en&ei=RvPITq__I8Po0QHE_LUb&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=hammersmith%20etymology&f=false

DATES: In Europe, our month-day-year is day-month-year. November 21, 1961, is 21 November 1961. Date-writing is important for statutes of limitation in foreign cases. Special dates and films, other important items to England - England chronology items at http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/.

NAMES. Other English place names:

Westminster. West Monastery. See London place names at http://www.krysstal.com/londname .

Elephant and Castle? A 1760 pub - castle meant the "howdah" on top of the elephant for riding, http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ele1.

People's names - Tekle Gerenas I met. Then a more usually named, but never forgotten, fine fellow, Robert Howard. A new school unsought. See http://www.newschool.edu/about.

Itinerary After The Fact - Improvised travel

2006-11-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

London, Windsor, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Mildenhall (Wiltshire), Exeter, Plymouth, Lizard, St. Michael's Mount, Mousehole, Penzance, Land's End, St. Ives, Tintagel, Bristol, Cardiff, Welshpool, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Conwy, Chester, Nottingham, Oxford, Rochester, Canterbury, Dover, Hastings, Brighton, London.

See also http://www.europeroadways.com.