tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80378203269014508442024-03-05T15:44:01.352-08:00History on the buses in Monmouthshire - and beyond.A cherry-picking guide to castles, Roman remains and other places of historic interest - plus modern CAKE! - available on bus routes in Monmouthshire. We'll also go abroad into England - this is a microadventure blog! You'll travel back in time with thrilling and quirky facts from past centuries, tit-bits of history to ponder on as you ride.
(For link to current bus timetables please scroll right down to the bottom of the page)Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-10676805904334013372018-05-24T09:05:00.001-07:002018-05-24T09:46:33.671-07:0014 crosses at St Teilo's Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As water is the natural environment for a fish, so I am at home on a bus but ... When a friend offered to take me for a fascinating visit in a zappy yet stylish yellow and black car named Toby Trekker how could I refuse? The invitation was backed by the irresistible promise of a large slice of CAKE afterwards. Although normally I write about sites at least 600 years old and St. Teilo's church dates from the 14th century, the objects that enthralled me were the 14 modern crosses in the churchyard. These were the inspiration of one female parishioner and are most definitely call for a detour.<br />
They are grouped in a circular walkway and form a tour of the Old and New Testaments with relevant texts and references to the wildflowers growing in the beautifully kept borders between them. They are all made of oak except for the Cross of St. James which is hewn from yew. The whole churchyard is maintained so as to provide a rich and diverse habitat for plant and animal life: its own ecosystem has been supplemented by introducing flowering shrubs, plants and bulbs which provide food for insects. As part of the Living Churchyard project they have developed an upper and lower river path where you can view some of the 26 different species of tree found in the churchyard. There are 5 war graves, four from WWI and one from WWII.<br />
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The crosses range from the very simple to the quite ornate but they are quietly harmonious in style. They are, in order: the Maltese cross; Orthodox; Cross of Nails; Syrian; Japanese; St. Andrew's; Ankh; San Damiano; Ethiopian; St. James the Greater; Tau; Roman; Jerusalem and Celtic. To give just one example of the scholarly yet uplifting information offered, I will quote about the Celtic Cross from the free leaflet. The text given is Acts 17: 27-28, the story of Apostle Paul preaching to the people of Athens. He talked to them about creation and their own ideas of the gods and quoted local poetry This cross is associated with Celtic nations whose understanding of the gospel and creation includes a strong sense of nature. The flower connected with it is Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare - Genesis 3). The long protruding stamens make the flower resemble a snake's head. The story from Genesis reminds us of the glory of creation and nature but how in our desire to better ourselves we fall into temptation.<br />
The crosses were carved by Ant Beetlestone (www.antbeetlestone.com)<br />
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The church itself is full of interest and it is worth attending the Open Day on September 8th 2018 to absorb it and be able to answer the quiz questions such as where you can find a pineapple and where the spelling of Katherine's name been corrected. If you answer them correctly, you too are allowed CAKE. The whole site in Llantilio Pertholey was an ancient centre of Christian worship: the yew on the south side of the churchyard has a girth of over 22 feet and is estimated to be 1200 years old. Parking is just opposite and the whole area is tranquil and green. Please check their website before visiting: <a href="http://www.stteiloschurch.org.uk/welcome.htm" target="_blank">http://www.stteiloschurch.org.uk/welcome.htm</a>Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-24154808320668522902018-04-30T10:16:00.001-07:002018-04-30T10:16:20.077-07:00Llangybi Castle: huge and ruinous<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Joan Bennet</td></tr>
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<b> Llangybi Castle</b> had the largest inner courtyard of any castle in England and Wales - and possibly in Europe - measuring 150 by 80 metres (500 by 250 feet in old money.) At present it is a ruin and there are no plans to maintain it. It is privately owned and, although it lurks quite near a public footpath, it is essential to ask the proprietor's permission to visit.<br />
I was lucky enough to be taken on a guided tour by the forester of the estate, Les Taylor, who was a cornucopia of fascinating information, not only about the castle, but also about the trees we walked past. He explained that it was never a true fortification but more of a glorified hunting lodge.<br />
We started at the house and appealing stable block, the latter built in the French style and containing dove cotes. Nearby had been a motte and bailey and a fish pond. The present castle, built by the powerful de Clare family, possibly started by Bogo de Clare (at last a different forename!), was mentioned by the Bishop of Hereford in 1262. It was probably still incomplete when Gilbert de Clare V was killed at Bannockburn in 1314. Les handed out a sketch, an artist's impression of the original building, showing round crenellated towers, buildings within the vast courtyard, curtain walls and a drawbridge with genuine Medieval people crossing. The drawing is copyright and I am no Picasso and so you will have to use your imagination.<br />
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During the tour we were invited to enter the garderobe chamber where a four-seater loo would have been flushed by water from sluice holes in the roof. Certain intrepid members of the group marched in and our leader was relieved when the head count was satisfactory afterwards. Les also pointed out putlog holes in the north wall and told us that they were where logs were put (get it?) for scaffolding. The wood was sawn off and the chunk remaining in the wall eventually rotted and left the holes. This solved endless arguments I have had about the purpose of these characteristic square gaps - not, it seems, for hiding your sweetmeats in.<br />
The family lived in the monumental twin-towered gatehouse and kept their important documents in a room with a highly decorated arch.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Joan Bennet</td></tr>
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The castle, sometimes called Tregrug, was, like so many others, slighted by the Roundheads in 1648 during the Civil War, after having been fortified for defensive purposes. We were then taken around the surrounding woodlands where we learned about the capacity of redwoods to withstand fire and saw a hazel nut shell hollowed out by a dormouse which had left its characteristic serrated marks at the edge. Les is an enthusiastic proponent of managing woods to maintain the health and longevity of the trees.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Reg Darge</td></tr>
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The old castle was the subject of an investigation by the Channel 4 Time Team in 2020. They concluded that the ditches surrounding the walls were Civil War defences and that the castle had been extensively remodelled in the 17th century to provide a new main entrance and to landscape the area inside the walls as a "pleasaunce" containing gardens and fountains.<br />
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Llangybi is on the bus route of the no 60 but, without the owner's permission, nothing is visible from the footpath. I have written about the l<a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/llangybi-village-half-hidden-gem.html" target="_blank">ovely little eponymous village</a> in another blog post. You are not far on the bus from <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/raglan-castle.html" target="_blank">Raglan Castle</a>, also more of a residence than a fortification and also slighted in the Civil War. If you do visit Llangybi you will have to take your own CAKE or press on to the cafe near Raglan Castle.Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-19073415186318932302018-04-17T23:25:00.000-07:002018-04-17T23:25:09.104-07:00Longtown Castle - a little known treasure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My loyal readers (love you all!) know that I visit castles only by bus except when some kind person offers to drive me and buys me CAKE afterwards. That is how I found this little known gem in Herefordshire in glorious April sunshine. Because there is no pay desk and shop selling wooden swords you feel you have discovered it for yourself when arriving through the dramatically framing arch.<br />
The view of this motte with its keep on top is powerful - and very exciting when you realise you can climb the steps and have wonderful views of the countryside around and the Black Mountains. If your children and dog are reluctant castle goers and promises of CAKE have not won them over they will love the sense of discovery and freedom here.<br />
Of course that is not the reason it was built because the Marcher Lords had not invented afternoon tea and were averse to peace.<br />
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<b> Longtown Castle</b> dates from around 1175, was built by Hugh de Lacy, a successful favourite of Henry II (of Roland de Pettour fame) and is characteristic of the Welsh borders, having a circular keep, rarer in England. It is set in the picturesque Olchon valley, background to a what-if historical novel by Owen Sheers called <i>Resistance. </i>As usual the first castle<i> o</i>n the site was a wooden structure (with some stone) which was probably thrown up extremely quickly on its man-made earthen mound. The Lacey's (spelling a matter of choice it seems as is typical of early English) then spent the prodigious sum of £37 improving it and the impressive stone structure you see dates from the 12th century. A circular keep was stronger than a square one as it is difficult even for a geometrician to find a corner to undermine - but this one has shallow foundations sloping slightly outwards for stability. The construction is shale rubble with ashlar detailing. It was known as Ewias Lacey castle and the site may have been important already as a defensive position on its spur of high ground. Outer earthworks suggest an Iron Age settlement and the Romans probably came here also on their nearby straight road. It may have been late Saxon but it is certainly recorded in the 1086 Domesday book as belonging to the Lacey's. They demanded honey and pigs from their tenants and so one may deduce they were clearly fond of sweetened roast pork. Yummy!<br />
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The Lacey's were Medieval warlords and, like other Marcher Lords, independent of control from the crown. By and large the Marcher Lords were given a free hand provided they kept the dastardly natives in check. When this lordship ended in the 1230's the castle had a succession of owners. In 1233 Henry III visited and ordered the garrison to be enlarged. Like many other castles, it was further fortified by Henry IV in 1403 to withstand the attacks of the Welsh rebel, Owain Glyn Dwr. </div>
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It fell into disuse perhaps because of the effect of the Black Death in the mid-14th century when Longtown (a planted Norman town like Usk) also shrank in importance and size. </div>
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The most prominent feature is the stone keep on its 33 ft high motte with its 5-metre thick walls (16 feet in old money) which would have been a two-storey structure over an undercroft and providing accommodation on the second floor. There are windows, probably enlarged in the 14th century, a fireplace, corbels to support floor beams and a projecting 7-seat latrine which weakened the structure. Is imagining that enough to put you off your CAKE? In the gatehouse you can easily see the portcullis slot. Outside were 3 semi-circular towers, one with a chimney flue and one with a spiral staircase, the collapse of which caused the deep breach. There would have been a curtain wall on the steep bank to the left of the steps and, unusually, 3 baileys and 2 large enclosures to protect the town. </div>
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I particularly liked the fine stonework in the walls and the thrill that there was a gallows here until 1790. Less fascinating is the existence of a school in the 19th century. Typical of the Medieval desire to confuse us is the fact that there were 2 men called Walter de Lacy. Are you still interested? They did seem short of names in the Middle Ages - all those Llewelyns! </div>
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For more information about the <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-welsh-marches-history-castles-and.html" target="_blank">Marcher Lords click here</a>. For <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/usk-town-planted-by-normans.html" target="_blank">Usk as a planted town click here</a>. To laugh and rejoice <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/five-fascinating-facts-about-farting-in.html" target="_blank">at Roland le Pettour</a> and other intriguing facts about farting in the Middle Ages click here. For more than anyone needs to know about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/owain-glyn-dwr-assessment.html" target="_blank">Owain Glyn Dwr click here</a> and on the other links given in the article.</div>
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Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-8634345015193064962018-03-14T08:24:00.000-07:002018-03-14T08:24:38.101-07:00Sir John Oldcastle: fact and fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(I have a real problem with finding out the copyright of images and have no wish to be imprisoned without CAKE for illegally using one - so here is an OK photo which has little to do with the case. Anyway no-one cares what Sir John Oldcastle looked like and we all know what his fictional counterpart resembled.)<br />
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<b>Sir John Oldcastle </b>is believed to have been born at Oldcastle in Monmouthshire (sounds a good theory to me) and certainly he was a man of Hereford. He was an early friend of Henry V and a Lollard leader, escaping immediate punishment for his heresy because of this royal connection.<br />
Lollardy was current in Herefordshire and followed the teachings of John Wycliffe in particular, being critical of the Roman Catholic Church and promoting a Bible in the vernacular. Oldcastle was imprisoned in the Tower of London but escaped, organised a rebellion against the king and was executed after 4 years hiding in the Welsh Marches.<br />
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<b>An anonymous Elizabethan play </b>entitled <i>The Famous Victories of Henry V </i>starts with<i> </i>the period of Henry's youth, portraying it as riotous and leads to his transformation into a warrior king, victorious at Agincourt and a wooer of Princess Katherine. You will spot that this drama - believed to be Shakespeare's source material - covers the 3 plays in the Bard's Henriad, (<i>Henry IV pt i, Henry IV pt.ii, Henry V.) </i>Amongst the Prince's band of merry chums is one called Jockey (Sir John Old-Castle). C.A Greer has identified 15 plot elements that appear in the later trilogy, including the Gad's Hill robbery, the Eastcheap tavern and the new king's rejection of his former boozy companions.<br />
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This play seems to be a stepping stone in the creation of a character out of the historical religious zealot to become <b>Shakespeare's fictional Falstaff</b> who, in my opinion, assumes in our imaginations a more powerful reality than many actual people. As well as being one of the most comic characters ever imagined, he stands for Riot and insurrection against values such as honour. His decline from lovable rogue through unscrupulous impresser of ragged soldiers to shameless sponger is one of the great achievements in English literature. The scene where King Henry repudiates him is truly shocking and the description of his death - probably from a broken heart - deeply moving as he feels cold from the feet up, calls to God and is assured by the Hostess that he does not need to think of that. Ironic when his source is recalled.<br />
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More on Henry V may be found on this blog by using the search button. In particular, further <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/henry-v-of-monmouth-insights-into.html" target="_blank">Shakespearean echoes have an article to themselves</a>. The <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/local-monmouthshire-lad-goes-to-france.html" target="_blank">preparations for the invasion</a> have also been covered.<br />
I have written a complete (?) analysis of <i>Henry IV pt i </i>on my website <a href="http://www.classicsenglishliterature.com/henry-iv-pt-i-1.html" target="_blank">Classics of English Literature.</a> You need and deserve a huge slice of CAKE whilst reading. I'd be thrilled if some of you did go there.Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-84362581237126027192018-03-01T09:12:00.002-08:002018-03-01T09:16:59.927-08:00Local Monmouthshire lad goes to France - what did Henry V take with him?On 11th August 1415 Henry V and his army sailed for France and the rest - as they say - is history. In Shakespeare's play he nips over the Channel (after an interminable explanation of the justifying Salique law, the famous scene with the tennis balls and the execution of traitors) with a couple of almost photographic Choruses. These invoke the enthusiasm amongst his followers who leave their "silken dalliance" in the wardrobe, sell their pastures to buy a horse, give business to the armorers, think only of honour and then wing it with the speed of thought. Whilst the ship-boys climb the hempen tackle, the "huge bottoms" breast the "lofty surge." The Bard does not mar the dramatic effect with numbers or logistics but the preparations for this invasion were immense, not to be matched until Operation Overlord, more than 500 years later, and all the more amazing considering the period.<br />
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The king needed money in vast amounts to pay for men, ships, arms and food for a projected year-long campaign. Taxation income and loans from all possible sources were inadequate and he had to guarantee payment to soldiers beyond the first 3 months before indentures could be struck on 29th April. (These were papers of service divided into 2 by unique irregular tooth-like cuts, which could be pieced together when needed.) He gave the captains jewels as security for the second 3 months with a pledge for redemption by January 1417. Loans came in (earlier Dick Whittington had previously lent £2000) from individuals, towns and religious communities until our financial wizard monarch raised the equivalent of £70 million by, some would say, mortgaging the future of the country.<br />
The production of arms was well under way, the machine gun of the day being the dreaded longbow, formidable when in the hands of highly trained men, particularly those of Henry's home county, Monmouthshire/Gwent. All men had been obliged to practise after Mass on Sundays and holy days. Archers made up about three quarters of the army but swords, lances, cannon and the more traditional siege weapons such as the trebuchet and mangonel were included, all of which had to be manufactured and shipped. Armour, made in separate pieces (which Shakespeare invokes later with his mention of the sounds of hammers riveting), was not as heavy as is sometimes believed but had to be well-fitted and worn over a thick jacket. The Channel was cleared of enemy ships and home defences such as castles and other fortifications were strengthened and, of interest to us in Wales, Owain Glyn Dwr was sought for in an attempt to quell insurrection.<br />
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Wages were set but the destination kept vague. Henry needed a long-term army of professional fighting men. 600 leather bags ordered to contain the indentures and related documents. A duke would receive 13s 4d a day, an earl half that, a baron 4 shillings, a knight 2 shillings and an archer sixpence. They were paid quarterly in advance. This was far above what the bowman would be paid in his unskilled trade and everyone could hope for more after a battle. Although Henry was strict about looting (we recall the scene in Shakespeare when he becomes enraged at the slaughter by the French of his boy guards for their "luggage") there were ransoms and the indentures stated how spoils would be divided out.<br />
There were probably about 600 ships as a basis and, in a requisition reminiscent of Dunkirk but enforced, all ships of 20 tons or more, whether foreign or English, from eastern ports were pressed into service. More than 1000 were impounded. These would carry, not only soldiers, but wagons, horses, grooms, farriers, wheelwrights, cooks, minstrels, men of religion and surgeons as well as cattle and the produce of bakeries. This was not to be a chevauchée where men lived off the land. There were around 12000 combatants and hundreds of ships were needed just for the horses.<br />
The muster took place on 1st July, the king made his will on the 24th and he gave orders for embarkation on the 29th. All was ready for August 1st but, the day before, 3 conspirators were found who had to be tried before execution: Cambridge, Grey and Scrope. Then, free from treachery and backed by the Salique law, our Monmouthshire lad set off in the flagship, the <i>Trinity Royal</i>, on his huge and minutely planned mission on August 11th 1415.<br />
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I am particularly indebted for the detail here to <i>Henry V </i> by Teresa Cole. More information on the <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/the-monmouthshire-warrior-in-middle-ages.html" target="_blank">formidable longbow</a> and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/six-weapons-of-war-in-castles-in-welsh.html" target="_blank">other Medieval combat weapons</a> may be found by clicking on those links and more on <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Monmouth+castle" target="_blank">Monmouth Castle</a>, birthplace of Henry V. More on <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/henry-v-of-monmouth-insights-into.html" target="_blank">Shakespeare's handling of Henry V</a> can be found.<br />
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Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-40155097196851821902018-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:002018-01-29T08:38:55.798-08:00Licence to Crenellate - Medieval planning permission<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you have lain awake at night for weeks on end waiting for planning permission for a new extension to your house, you might be in the same tense frame of mind as a Medieval knight wishing to add some battlements to his stately home. From the 12th to the 16th century, anyone wanting to add castle-like fortifications to his pile was required to have permission, usually from the king. A normal enough longing, one might think since these features almost define our sense of what a castle is, but the matter was more complex than that, which is why Sir Edsomething de Whatever had to apply for a licence.<br />
You might ask why someone would want these costly embellishments: crenellations, drawbridge, portcullis. murder holes etc. and, in some cases, it was probably for show and to astonish the neighbours. An Englishman's home was not his castle without battlements. True fortification may have been the reason in the earlier part of this period but later there is reason to believe that the motive was to keep ahead of society and make the interior as sumptuous as possible also.<br />
The king, however, had strong motives to be careful and choosy. No ruler, particularly one in times of trouble - and these were turbulent years in many areas - wants rich and influential men adding to their power and becoming capable of attacking him or defending themselves more efficiently. Such licences had to be carefully vetted and the nobleman had a better chance of approval if he could claim that his new fortifications would help him to support the king's interests against enemies of the crown.<br />
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<b>Bodiam Castle, e</b>veryone's notion of a prototypic castle. is a good example of military additions as semi-ornaments. Its features would not have been invulnerable to attack: it was built 10 miles from the river Rother which was not particularly open to hostile forces; its moat could be drained quite easily; the windows are larger than usual for defensive purposes; the battlements are rather small in places; the gatehouse, though boasting machicolations, could have been avoided by forces who could nip round and enter at the back and - wait for it - there is no keep. The owner, Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, received permission, however, from King Richard II, to "strengthen with a wall of stone and lime, crenellate and make into a castle his manor house at Bodiam, next to the sea, for the defence of the adjacent country and resistance to the king's enemies." Clearly Sir Edward had glossed over a few matters (such as a 10 mile march) in his application (which did not include a clause about that ghastly bunting.)<br />
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Richard's secretaries were men of few words compared to those who wrote the licence from Edward IV in 1482 to Sir Edmund Bedingfield of Oxburgh in Norfolk which repeats the phrase "embattle, kernel and machecolate" like some magic charm throughout and is a precursor to modern official waffle. Yet, surprisingly, there was often no fee and, if one were demanded, it would be a mark at most. Usually it was knights who applied in order to enhance their status and move up the social ladder, but 11 women are mentioned in the surviving licences and 4 were granted directly to women. Although most applicants were individuals, 28 licences relate to town defences and 44 to churches, abbeys and cathedrals. Of the 1500 castles in England, the surviving licences refer to only 500 sites - did some aspiring noblemen sneak in their battlements, a few at a time, hoping no-one would notice?<br />
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I actually find this bureaucratic aspect of Medieval life fascinating and have written a poem about the knight dreaming of his newly endowed abode: I place a bet of a large slice of CAKE that no-one else has versified this topic.<br />
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He dreams of stones, of castles - not in air<br />
But grounded, rooted sternly on his land,<br />
Flaunting his prowess, trumpeting his flair.<br />
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He'll lord it over neighbours. He has planned<br />
Apartments, chambers, warmed and richly hung<br />
With tapestries, endowed by his strong hand.<br />
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His vision grew the windows, crystal lungs<br />
Of this great body; now his rapid heart<br />
Beats at its cords. They throb, too tightly strung.<br />
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This grand design, this mental work of art<br />
Must pause or stop as he waits for his king.<br />
A regal nod could crown his hopes: "Now start ...<br />
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... The statement of your power, the scaffolding<br />
Of wealth, supremacy" - but everywhere<br />
The villeins chafe. The tail. The hidden sting.<br />
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<a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/bodiam-castle-film-star-with-enigma.html" target="_blank">For more on Bodiam Castle click here</a>. If you enjoyed this poem and would like to read more of my work - on less arcane topics such as love - click here for my <a href="http://www.formalpoetryetc.com/" target="_blank">Formal Poetry website.</a>Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-15678437222221482872018-01-07T07:26:00.000-08:002018-01-07T07:26:17.017-08:00Davy Gam: hero or traitor?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If the name <b>Davy</b> <b>Gam</b> seems vaguely familiar to you, it may be because you actually concentrated during the part of Shakespeare's <i>Henry V </i>where the king reads out the names of those killed in the battle of Agincourt (more correctly Azincourt.) After a list of French noblemen with dashing Gallic titles, he turns to a second paper, handed to him by the herald, and notes the deaths of 4 men, the last of whom is Davy Gam, esquire. To the monarch, he is amongst those "of name", meaning that the rest were squaddies, a mere "five and twenty" of them. Perhaps this seems a little snobby for a king who, before the battle, when egging them on, claimed that they were all a "band of brothers" - but even then he was aware that this group included each of the men, "be he ne'er so vile." (Hal, as prince, frequented the ale houses but dropped his drinking mates as soon as he donned the crown). Yet he did go around, in disguise, chatting to the ordinary soldiers the night before. Davy Gam was clearly an aristocrat and, interestingly in this literary connection, some believe him to be the model for Fluellen, the slightly comic but knowledgeable military supporter of the king, who praises him and claims common kinship as a Welshman. He has read all about the glorious battles of Edward, the Black Prince of Wales, Henry's great-uncle.<br />
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<b>Who was he - and why do we want to know?</b><br />
In case you thought you were getting off lightly pronunciation-wise, part of his full name was Sir Dafydd ap Llewelyn ap Hywel and he lived from approximately 1380 to 25th October 1415. "Gam" is one of those merry Medieval nick-names which draws attention to some physical flaw such as short legs (Curt-hose) and probably means that he was lame. We still have the expression "gammy leg." Rather mysteriously the <i>Dictionary of Welsh Biography</i> thinks it means that he squinted or had only one eye but I find it difficult to fathom how he managed to be a successful warrior with that defect.<br />
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He was a prominent opponent of Owain Glyn Dwr and a supporter of the English king, which made him a traitor from the Welsh point of view. Bearing in mind the destruction that Glyn Dwr's rebellion caused in Wales, it is easy to see why some men were hostile to him. Dafydd could add to the pedigree already mentioned "Fychan ap Hywel ap Einion Sais" but probably told people "just call me Gam." His background locates him round Llanover in Monmouthshire and Pen Pont near Brecon. Some think he was previously in service to John of Gaunt and had to leave Wales after killing a rival in Brecon High Street. Rumour also places him in Hen Gwrt, near White Castle.<br />
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Dafydd Gam was previously paid annually 40 marks (a large sum) by the royal estate and the family's loyalty to the king caused their lands near Brecon to be attacked by the rebels. Another local point of interest is that he was named, by the Scottish Chronicler Walter Bower, as the leader in the critical and crushing defeat of Glyn Dwr's men at the battle of Pwll Melyn near Usk. His local knowledge may have helped the English victory and attracted Welshman to his cause. When captured in 1412 he was quickly ransomed for somewhere between 200 to 700 marks, a large sum indicating the regard in which he was held. He had made a forced promise to Glyn Dwr never to oppose him but, on release, he told King Henry where the rebel was and attacked him, suffering reprisals such as the burning of his house. Another less likely story is that he attacked Glyn Dwr's parliament in Machynlleth in 1404.<br />
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<b>Agincourt</b><br />
<b> </b> He probably fought with Henry V prior to the French battles but certainly served with three-foot archers (that disposes of the squint theory in my opinion) in the Agincourt campaign. Several chroniclers noted his death in that encounter but no-one agrees as to whether he was knighted then or posthumously. There is a legend that he saved the king's life during the counter-charge of the Duke of Alencon (whose name appears on Shakespeare's death roll of the French) when Henry was fighting hand-to- hand with him. The Frenchman lopped an ornament from Henry's crown with his sword and Dafydd led a group of Welsh knights to intervene. Some believe he killed the Duke before being killed himself.<br />
In the 19th century George Borrow wrote of him: "he achieved that glory which will for ever bloom, dying, covered in wounds, on the field of Agincourt after saving the life of the king, to whom in the dreadest and most critical moment of the fight, he stuck closer than a brother." Borrow also quotes descriptions of him, supposedly included in satirical englyn (you don't want to know, really you don't) written by Glyn Dwr: "he was small in stature and deformed in person. though possessed of great strength. He was very sensitive of injury, though quite as alive to kindness, a thorough-going enemy and a thorough-going friend." There is a stained glass window commemorating him in the church at Llantillio Crossenny, where the Latin inscription calls him a golden-haired knight. He is also a chief character in the novel <i>Owen Glendower </i>by John Cowper Powys.<br />
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If you DO want to know about englyn (and you have only yourself to blame for asking), here is the Wikipedia definition: "... it uses quantative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent known as cynghanedd." That clarifies that, then. Oh yes - and the plural is "englynion".<br />
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My thanks to Wikipedia for much of this information and two of the images.<br />
<a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=white+castle" target="_blank">Hen Gwrt is now a small moated ruin</a> and very atmospheric, quite near the equally charismatic White Castle, one of the Three Castles in the area. Grrr - you do need a car to get to both but there is excellent walking nearby to earn you your CAKE. You can, however, visit the site of the crucial battle of Pwll Melyn by travelling to Usk by bus and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=usk+castle" target="_blank">walking up past the castle</a> which you can look at en route.<br />
<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-6387576543144463142017-12-15T08:26:00.000-08:002017-12-15T08:26:04.161-08:00Christmas PoemI hoped you would like to read a poem about a modern but traditional Christmas that I wrote some years ago before starting my history blog.<br />
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<b>But once a year ...</b><br />
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... it comes, with spiced breath, lugging golden bags<br />
of secret foraging from High Street stores<br />
with packaged cubes of gift wrap, glitzy tags;<br />
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tucks berried sprigs on pictures, over doors,<br />
gilds cards with instant merriment, then makes<br />
a forest emblem, shimmer-lit. It draws<br />
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snow scenes on windows, sprinkles icing flakes<br />
of sugar on mince pies, shortbread and calls<br />
a warning to the children still awake.<br />
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Throughout this night a frosted silence falls,<br />
the shambling magic beast has done its trick<br />
again. The waiting time is here and all<br />
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the sleepers are the same as minutes tick<br />
toward the dawning of coincidence:<br />
the morning walk in new scarves; kisses; quick<br />
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large slurps of sherry; crackers; grand entrance<br />
of turkey to red faces, paper hats<br />
and hopeful dogs. We join the the pretence<br />
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that goodwill in the pudding feeds us fat<br />
enough to lose a careless bit each day<br />
until December - when the pit-a-pat<br />
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of Christmas padding comes once more to play<br />
The wind is cold, next year is far away ...<br />
the creature's begging. Why not let it stay?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLiZwTzkCfFJlsOoz3BNNkk9POZw3XDoyBVmTZMN79LRpyEeBoRJpY07cNaTjh93B12my9i0rXJaX4yvY43EkyRilHaLJbA_WrJhAsnf4lPP76U3kUZy6jSdOA453ESnhEz-2-Kv60O-I/s1600/IMG_1169.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLiZwTzkCfFJlsOoz3BNNkk9POZw3XDoyBVmTZMN79LRpyEeBoRJpY07cNaTjh93B12my9i0rXJaX4yvY43EkyRilHaLJbA_WrJhAsnf4lPP76U3kUZy6jSdOA453ESnhEz-2-Kv60O-I/s200/IMG_1169.JPG" width="150" /></a>If you enjoyed this terza rima verse, you might like some of my other poems on my website <a href="http://bit.ly/2kwtgii" target="_blank">Formal Poetry and other idiosyncrasies</a>. The topics range from love, poems about gardens to science and gender relationships. They all rhyme and many are humorous. For my account of a Medieval Christmas (in prose!) <a href="http://bit.ly/2jYC6F7" target="_blank">click here</a>. Have a good time, everyone, many thanks for reading my work - back to castles, CAKE and Roman remains in the New Year.<br />
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<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-46678493850047935982017-12-06T01:24:00.000-08:002017-12-06T23:10:02.239-08:00The Medieval Christmas - would you have enjoyed it?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Food and drink</b><br />
As you look forward to a giant nosh on 25th December, you will recollect that at least 2 popular items were unavailable in the Middle Ages. Potatoes and turkeys were late-comers to these islands and the birds have been regretting their arrival ever since. What DID they eat in the great mansions and castles?<br />
On Christmas Day 1347 at Hunstanton in Norfolk, Sir Hamon le Strange and his household consumed bread, 2 gallons of wine (12d), 1 big pig for the larder (4s), 1 small pig (6d), a swan which was a gift from Lord Camoys, 2 hens given as rent and 8 rabbits of which 2 were gifts. If this does not seem much - read on.<br />
The bread for the lord in any important dwelling would probably have been made with white flour, so precious that it was sometimes stored in a locked chest and the lower orders consumed brown rye bread. All roasted poultry and animals demanded specific ways of carving: a mallard was "unbraced"; a heron "dismembered"; a coney "unlaced" and a hen "spoiled." This delicate work was done by rushlight. Other ingredients might be venison, fawn, kid, bustard, stork, crane, peacock, sparrow, baked quinces, damsons in wine, and a range of vegetables used in sauces rather than served independently. The wine could be Rhenish, Gascon or Spanish and Sir Hamon seems almost teetotal when we recall that Chaucer was allowed a gallon every normal day. No wonder <i>The Canterbury Tales </i>rip along and were never finished!<br />
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<b>Entertainment</b><br />
William of Malmesbury relates how, on a Christmas night, 12 carollers (holding hands in a circle and skipping around the leader who sang) danced around a church and persuaded the priest's daughter to join them. He uttered a curse so that their hands became inseparably joined and, when the son ran out to save his sister, her arm broke off like a rotten stick. Better keep to Scrabble, say I.<br />
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Yet there would have been music, dancing and performances of "disguising games" - in these plays, the emphasis was on roles exemplified by masks rather than words and scripts. Heroes were pitted against evils such as legendary giants. Edward III was so enthusiastic about these that, for Christmas 1338, he ordered 86 plain masks, 14 with long beards, 15 baboons' heads of linen, 12 ells of canvas to make a forest, a wooden pillory and a cucking [sic] stool. In 1347 he required similar but with some masks as women, angels, dragons' heads, pheasant heads and wings, swan's heads plus starry tunics, whilst, in 1348, he took part in such a mumming himself, dressed as a giant bird. We are going to try all this ourselves this year instead of charades - I have bagsied the role of huge avian.<br />
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<b>Role reversal etc</b><br />
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In the spirit of satire and merriment, household roles would be upturned so that a menial servant could become the lord and give orders to the higher ranks. This period of misrule lasted until January 6th, Twelfth Night. It is an entertaining idea and was no doubt hilarious in enactment, but it represents a serious belief in The Wheel of Fortune. All humans were attached to this wheel, spun by the blindfolded goddess and no-one could be sure of holding his or her position on it as it rotated: the fate of any one individual did not depend on virtue but on chance. The concept permeates <i>King Lear</i> although the play most representative of the traditions is, of course, <i>Twelfth Night</i>, which was first performed at the end of an elongated Christmas period on 2 February 1602 (Candlemas) and whose subtitle is <i>What You Will, </i>suggesting misrule. In it Sir Toby Belch and his cronies (mere guests) upset the order of Olivia's household - love and cross-dressing overturn everything else, including gender roles. The riotous habits of the aptly surnamed Sir Toby were stressed along with musical interludes whilst Malvolio, embodying austerity, is humiliated. Sir Toby's language probably contains obscene slang.<br />
It is likely that this period, from Christmas to Epiphany, seemed particularly dreary, rainy and frost-bound and so was transformed into a long holiday. Services required of villeins were suspended and manorial servants received their "perquisites", bonuses of food, clothing, drink and firewood, their traditional seasonal due. On Christmas Eve the Yule log, a massive section of tree trunk, was brought in and kept burning for 12 days. If the tenants were invited, they ate food mostly provided by themselves on their own dishes. (Does this explain how Sir Hamon managed to be relatively miserly?) A bean was hidden in a CAKE or loaf and the finder became king of the feast.<br />
If all this makes our dash to the supermarket seem a little soulless, remember that, in 1251, Matthew Paris complained that Henry III not only economised on Christmas expenses but demanded costly gifts from his subjects, staying in more lowly households which had to honour him with splendid entertainments and gold or silver cups or jewelled necklaces. I think I'll settle for the family crackers and quiz after all.<br />
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<b>My personal memory of Christmas past</b><br />
After midday dinner all my relatives would arrive by taxi as no-one had cars and we settled down to gambling at unsophisticated card games and a well-worn horse-betting set-up called Backeroo. Tea consisted of cold chicken sandwiches and trifle: even during post-WWII rationing, my mother managed these (although obtaining lard was problematic). What I remember, apart from losing my pennies - this was not a child-centred epoch - is the horrid, sticky nature of the cards which developed little black greasy circles through over-use because of the paper shortage. Even now I marvel that you can buy lovely glossy playing cards so cheaply and actually enjoy handling them. (When she was plucking and dressing the fowl, my mother gave the infant me a claw to play with and I would pull the tendons to make it clench and relax. I have grown up to be quite unsqueamish and averse to gambling.)<br />
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You can read about entertainment provided by <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/five-fascinating-facts-about-farting-in.html" target="_blank">Roland le Pettour</a> in the household of Henry II or search using the appropriate button on this blog for information on several great houses and castles in Monmouthshire and beyond. 2018 could be the time to follow me on Twitter (New Year resolution?) @BarbaraDaniels6. There is an intimidating list of books I have consulted on the right of each article but here I am especially indebted to Ian Mortimer and Joseph and Frances Gies.<br />
<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-75846903133292218502017-11-25T08:04:00.000-08:002017-11-25T08:04:43.596-08:00Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Llewelyn ap Gruffyth Fychan</b> (easy for you to say!) is not to be confused with anyone called merely Llewelyn ap Gruffydd or the man called Gruffyth ap Llewelyn. If that makes you feel like a cup of tea and slice of CAKE, please go and indulge before reading on but bear in mind that "ap" in Welsh is a patronymic and tells you the name of the father of the person. Over time is has become reduced to a "p" and appears at the beginning of surnames like "Probert", son of Robert, or "Pugh", son of Huw (clearly the speakers were too out of breath climbing mountains to pronounce their h's.) As you eat your CAKE you will think of others: Powell etc. Yet do not practise the initial "ll" sound simultaneously with your chocolate sponge - save that till later (the CAKE or the practice). Then put the tip of your tongue up against the hard palate behind your two top front teeth and say "ff" and you will make that genuine clicky sound that the Welsh have used for years to terrorise the English. Shakespeare got away with Fluellen and that was probably a wise move to make the leek-wearing warrior a popular, likeable and pronounceable character.<br />
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My regular and devoted readers (love you all) who are endowed with a sharp acumen and instinctive faff filter will, by now, have concluded that I am flannelling (pronounced normally) and they will be right. We do not know much about him. What we do know is derived from our local and under-exposed hero, the chronicler Adam of Usk, Adda o Frynbuga. The other very tricky thing about Welsh is that the consonants change at the beginning of a word according to obscure grammatical rules intended to keep the English good targets for mockery when they attempt to learn the language. Brynbuga is the Welsh for Usk and the "b" has here become "f" - this cunning dodge makes use of a dictionary a teasing challenge for foreigners.<br />
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Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan (Vaughan) of Cayo in Cardigan, lived from 1341 to 9 October 1401 and joined the revolt against Henry IV, led by Owain Glyn Dwr. Adam calls him a "man of gentle birth and bountiful, who yearly used sixteen tuns of wine in his household". Because he was "well disposed" towards the rebel cause, he was executed in Llandovery on the feast of St. Denis, October 9th, "in the presence of the king and his eldest son, and by his command, drawn, hanged, and beheaded, and quartered." It is not crystal clear whether the son was Hal, the future Henry V of Monmouth, or Llewelyn's. (He probably had 2 sons fighting in the rebel forces.) By the standards of the period, he was quite elderly when tortured in this way. It must be noted that 16 tuns is a remarkable amount of wine and suggests that much generous tippling with guests went on annually on the rich household. Another story tells that Llewelyn deliberately led the English forces the wrong way whilst pretending to take them to Glyn Dwr but Adam merely states that he "willingly preferred death to treachery."<br />
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In 1998 a campaign was started in Llandovery to construct a memorial to this rebel, sometimes called the "Welsh Braveheart". Money was raised locally and from the Arts Council of Wales and, after an exhibition of proposed designs in 2000, a public vote secured the commission for Toby and Gideon Peterson of St. Clears (pronounced "Clares"). I do not know what the others in the competition would have been like but this is the most impressive statue I have ever seen as it stands on the motte of the ruinous castle overlooking the car park. It is 16 ft tall and made of stainless steel which glows in the sun and glowers in cloud: on its base of Cayo stone, it is a figure with empty cloak, helmet and armour representing both the universal nature of Llewelyn's actions and the violence of the mutilation of his body. You will have noted that the drawing of the entrails was the first torture, during which he would have been alive. The artist described it as depicting a "brave nobody."<br />
Even I, tireless devotee of public transport, would not really suggest a pilgrimage from the east especially but, if you are going to Pembrokeshire on the A40, do stop in Llandovery car park and eat your sarnies gazing at the statue and climb up afterwards to admire it in detail. It is simply stunning.<br />
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I have written about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/owain-glyn-dwr-assessment.html" target="_blank">Owain Gly Dwr</a> and his rebellion (as has Shakespeare!) and about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/adam-of-usk-unsung-local-hero-or-was-he.html" target="_blank">Adam of Usk</a> who seems little recognised as an important Medieval chronicler, though I am delighted that my blog post has received hundreds of hits. <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/henry-v-of-monmouth-insights-into.html" target="_blank">Henry V</a> and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/monmouth-castle-fascinating-ruin.html" target="_blank">Monmouth Castle</a> are the subjects of other articles here. "Llan" at the beginning of Welsh place names means "church" or parish usually of a particular saint (Llandeilo, just down the road and very pretty, means "parish of St. Teilo") but here refers to the meeting of 2 rivers. It is twinned with Pluguffan in Brittany (finish your CAKE before embarking on that one.)<br />
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<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-85193572900006325382017-11-07T02:57:00.000-08:002017-11-10T22:26:01.582-08:00The Monmouthshire Warrior in the Middle Ages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>The medieval fighters of Gwent/Monmouthshire</b><br />
We know a certain amount from various sources but one seminal writer on the topic is Giraldus Cambrensis who toured Wales with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1188. He kept a kind of diary (I have no doubt that today he would have been an enthusiastic and diligent blogger) and, as one of his motives was to drum up support for the Third Crusade, his notings of military matters are crucial to our understanding.<br />
He commented that the men of Gwent "have much more experience of warfare, are more famous for their martial exploits and, in particular, are more skilled with the bow and arrow than those who come from other parts of Wales." He quotes events from the capture of Abergavenny castle where the arrows penetrated the oak doorway of the tower, almost as thick as a man's palm, and where the infamous William de Braose told a riveting (pun intended) tale. In this account a Welsh bowman shot an arrow through a rider's thigh despite protection by cuishes, then though his leather tunic, part of the saddle and deeply into the horse, killing it. Another fighter, similarly pierced, wheeled his mount round and was impaled on the other side, pinning him twice to the animal.<br />
Giraldus sums this up: "It is difficult to see what more you could do, even if you had a ballista". Quite so, Gerald of Wales. These bows were carved out of dwarf elm trees, not very large but sturdy, and left unpolished: in his view they were particularly useful at close quarters. In general, the archers were usually, as John Keegan states, "from remote and rustic areas ... with time on their hands." They were often not considered worth a ransom.<br />
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<b>The longbow</b><br />
It is generally accepted that the English longbow was borrowed from Wales and evolved to become a formidable weapon, by the 13th century coming to measure around 6ft. It had a complex construction of different woods and required great strength and skill to manipulate. A shorter bow drawn back as far as the nearside of the chest had some force but the taller one taken further back as far as the ear was a winner - this change dates from the first decades of the 14th century. The yard-long arrows took 3 times as long to make as the bow, needed goose feathers from the same wing of the bird for even flight and were tipped with metal bodkins. This explains why they were frequently retrieved from the dead on the battle field.<br />
It was Edward I who was mainly responsible for recognising the potential of the longbow, ironically largely because of his encounters with it in the hands of his enemy, The rise of the English infantry to be a real power in Europe depended on the longbow drawn to the ear and he developed such trust in it that he had an archers-only corps of 800 men in 1277 from Gwent and Crickhowell who gained, as mercenaries, an unusual 3d per day. The arrows could penetrate chain mail and chroniclers report victims looking like hedgehogs with bristling spikes - bowmen were more often combined with other forms of infantry or even cavalry. A rain of arrows caused a "funk" sending a soldier into a kind of distraught madness even if he were not hit.<br />
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It could take 10 years to train an archer and they developed enlarged pulling arms and shoulders as has been seen on skeletons. Edward III issued a declaration in 1363 that "every man in the ... country, if he be able-bodied, shall, upon holidays, make use, in his games, of bows and arrows ... and so learn and practise archery." He recognised that this would give him a pool of skilled men for recruitment in war. By contrast, the French rulers discouraged such training for fear that the plebs would use their proficiency to rise up in revolt against them. They perhaps regretted this after their defeats in the great battles of the Hundred Years' War. It should be noted that archers were also used on ships and stood on the "castles" to fire.<br />
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<b>England/Wales v France</b><br />
<b> </b>Crécy was perhaps the battle of the non-Hundred Years' War (I was baffled by the arithmetic when I was at school) most affected by the longbowmen. 2000 of them were taken from South Wales to a resounding victory over the French who were blinded by the sun: at least 10000 of the enemy died, many of them noblemen. We will skip over Poitiers where the bowmen committed atrocities and move on to Agincourt where the arrow-scarred Henry V (injured by a Welsh shot at the Battle of Shrewsbury and captured in his portrait in profile to hide this) won another round of the contest. Again French losses vastly outnumbered the English. In a conversation with Fluellen after the battle, the Welshman refers to Henry's great-uncle "Edward the Plack, Prince of Wales" fighting a "most prave pattle here in France" in which the Welshman did good service ... wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps" as the King does on "Saint Tavy's day" because he is, as he acknowledges, Welsh himself.<br />
On a sourer note, we can infer that some regarded as treachery, Welsh service to the English cause.<br />
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Henry V was born in <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/monmouth-castle-fascinating-ruin.html" target="_blank">Monmouth Castle</a> and, if you are interested in the ballista, there is also a post on this blog about such <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/six-weapons-of-war-in-castles-in-welsh.html" target="_blank">Medieval weapons</a>. I am indebted to Reginald Bosanquet for the detail about goose feathers which, at first, seemed rather like the tale I once believed that it was best to buy a left leg of Welsh lamb because they built up flesh on that side by circling the mountains clockwise.Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-43816201417486405482017-10-27T09:29:00.001-07:002017-10-27T09:29:10.047-07:00Roman Bath: a natural phenomenon - a few facts!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>A Famous Site/Sight</b><br />
<b> </b>Everyone is familiar with the spectacle of this ancient Roman bath in Bath with steam rising atmospherically from the hot water. Most people know that this falls as rain on the Mendip Hills, percolating down several thousand feet where geothermal energy raises its temperature to between 69 and 96 degrees C. It is then forced upwards through fissures in the limestone and 1,170,000 litres of it emerge here at 46 degrees C every day (117 F) from the aptly named Pennyquick fault. In old money that is about a quarter of a million gallons per diem. It contains 43 minerals including the iron which colours the stone, magnesium and calcium. Put differently, 13 litres per second flow in, cool down a little and join the flow out to the river, thus constantly refreshing the pool every 8 hours.<br />
It was the energetic Victorians who uncovered the site and erected embellishments such as the statues. Before the Romans, the Celts had worshipped here, paying tribute to Sul (m) / Sulis (f) as they were not too particular as to the gender of their gods. They cultivated a layer of dirt on the skin as protection but the Romans were more picky about cleanliness and also disliked the swampy territory which they drained effectively.<br />
Nowadays there are 4 main features of the site: the Sacred Spring; the Roman Temple; the Roman Bath House and the Museum. The flintstones on view, found in the Spring, indicate prehistoric inhabitants.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sacred Spring overflow</td></tr>
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<b>Did You Know?</b><br />
<b> </b>The statues of Roman emperors and generals are mostly Victorian but that of Julius Caesar is more modern. He tried twice to conquer Britain but it was the unlikely Claudius who succeeded. It is therefore only proper that the statue of Caesar was pushed into the pool in the 20th century and that his absence was not noticed for several days as it lay in pieces at the bottom of the water. A third humiliation!<br />
The Romans knew that dirt was linked to disease and, because doctors were expensive, bathing and healing by the gods were favoured. This water was believed to treat many diseases including gout and leprosy, a term which was loosely interpreted to cover any skin disease. People came from France, Italy, North Africa and Belgium to be cured.<br />
There was a roof over the 5ft deep pool - which would have made the site quite dark - and the bath floor is lined with 45 sheets of Roman lead. In some of the alcoves the brickwork (which would have been brightly painted) and mortar are original and signs can be seen of secondary raised paving where the Health and Safety experts decreed its necessity.<br />
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These spoil sports are still around today and bathing is forbidden, although I could not resist trying to cause alarm. Yet no-one has found a way of telling the pigeons about this and, every morning, when all is quiet, these birds come to disport themselves. I have had many a lively discussion with my elder daughter on the issue of pigeons receiving the Dickin medal for services rendered in WWII, her point being that they are too stupid to recognise danger and therefore demonstrate courage. Any creature that knows where to take a daily hot mineral-laden bath is clever by my reckoning and the 3 that helped to save stranded airmen deserved their recognition in Dec. 1943 for "conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty." Rats also like to exercise and swim lengths at dawn but have never been thus celebrated.<br />
Businesses grew around the baths to meet the needs and desires of visitors: massage, olive oil, towel rental, beauty treatments, snacks such as oysters, fish sauces, honey and mead all contributed to a Grand Day Out.<br />
The Romans, although doubtless cruel at times, did make attempts to integrate with the locals and here amalgamated one of their gods with corresponding features to that of the conquered, leading to the creation of Sulis Minerva, the female characteristics winning through.<br />
The baths were probably very noisy: Seneca describes the din caused by the grunting, hissing and gasping of dumb-bell swingers, smacking sounds made during a massage, a loud argument with a pickpocket, a yelp as someone has his armpits plucked and the calls of the sausage vendor.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The workings</td></tr>
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Soap was quite a late German invention and was avoided at first by the Romans because they thought it reddened the hair. Instead they used oil often mixed with fuller's earth or pumice, applied when the body was sweating and scraped off with a curved instrument called a strigil, perhaps by a slave who cleaned up afterwards. The slave, if the bather could afford one, might also watch over the master's clothes and possessions and, if any were stolen, curse tablets relieved the feelings of the victim with their strong words. Scribes sometimes were hired to write down the imprecations.<br />
I have used the pronoun "he" throughout (tut tut) although women also used the baths and it took the stern Hadrian to prohibit mixed bathing, fearing its immorality. Probably the women then used the east and warmer end and the men the colder west.<br />
There are only 3 hot springs in Britain and they are all in Bath. I have been told several times that extremely fat fish breed near the warm outlet in the river but I have never managed to see them.<br />
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It is well worth taking the hourly free guided tour: I am indebted to Laure for some of this recondite information and, of course, tea afterwards in the Pump Room is obligatory - they do not seem to mind 3 people sharing the three-tier rack of dainty sandwiches and CAKE.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The other munchers are aghast at my sodden appearance. </td></tr>
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I went to Bath by train from Newport and braved unforecast heavy rain for your edification. Nearer to home, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/caerleon-roman-baths.html" target="_blank">the baths at Caerleon</a> are a favourite of mine, as is <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-roman-amphitheatre-in-caerleon_25.html" target="_blank">the huge amphitheatre</a>, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/caerleon-roman-barracks.html" target="_blank">remains of barracks</a> and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/caerleon-roman-legionary-museum.html" target="_blank">interesting museum</a> there. The <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/caerwent-roman-town.html" target="_blank">Roman town of Caerwent</a> is not far away with its magnificent stretch of ancient walls.<br />
<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-53291915717994097562017-10-13T09:07:00.001-07:002017-10-13T09:07:03.841-07:00Monmouthshire in the 14th century: prosperity and plague<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chepstow Castle, a crossing point</td></tr>
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<b>Prosperity</b><br />
Monmouthshire in the 14th century was relatively accessible from England and became quite affluent, particularly in the towns which grew up (some around castles) such as Chepstow, Abergavenny, Monmouth, Newport, Tryleg and Caerleon. The county had a higher ratio of castles per square mile than any other similar region of England or Wales, except Herefordshire and Northumberland. To get my tenses right - it still does and therefore has a record number of post-castle-visit CAKE opportunities. Even though some fortresses were starting to fall into disrepair, several were sufficiently comfortable and welcoming for leading English lords to spend time in them, Henry V being born in Monmouth.<br />
These lowlands of the south-east were also appealing because of their good hunting: a well-stocked park in Grosmont made it a favourite residence of the House of Lancaster and the towns offered specialised crafts and services, weekly markets and twice-yearly fairs. A suburb of Abergavenny was called Englishton and several spots were the homes of Benedictine priories, outposts of northern French monasteries.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The River Usk from the Flood Route or Noah's Ark Route</td></tr>
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Manors grew wheat and the River Usk provided salmon, prized as far away as East Anglia. Wood and charcoal also formed an important part of the economy. More distant parts of the region were still thoroughly Welsh in language, customs and culture: 87% of taxpayers in 1292 round Monmouth had English surnames but the proportions were reversed in the district around White Castle. The men of Gwent were particularly skilled in military techniques, especially the bow and arrow, and were sought after in English wars against France. One detail I like from this tapestry of prosperity is that of the journey of Lady Elizabeth de Burgh of Usk travelling to her East Anglian estates in 1350, escorted by 130 horses and 28 hackneys, the menage quaffing an impressive 80 gallons of ale per day en route. If that makes you feel thirsty you may have a cup of tea with your CAKE.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Usk Castle</td></tr>
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<b>The Plague</b><br />
I have scattered the story of affluence with photographs because it is hard to know how to illustrate this next part of the story. Towards the end of the century Monmouthshire (Gwent) was composed of 5 great lordships: Abergavenny; Monmouth and Three Castles; Striguil (Chepstow); Usk and Caerleon; and Gwynllwg (Newport) - the latter now having the least visited ruined castle in the area. (Don't try to boost its numbers: the local council makes no attempt to make the relic accessible.) Changes in lordships caused by natural demise were disruptive but the advent of the Black Death was cataclysmic.<br />
There are many facts here which are only probable but the outline is clear: in the winter of 1348-9 the pandemic arrived and was known as "Y Farwolaeth Fawr" which does sound more ominous than the English version, "The Great Death". It killed between a third and a quarter of the population. Recurrent further outbreaks meant that economic recovery seemed nearly impossible: particularly distressing was that of 1361-2 which carried off the younger generation who might otherwise have revived the economy. In 1362, 36 of the 40 tenants of Caldicot are recorded as dead and only 114 labour services remained out of a previous 2000, though these figures might be cumulative over more years. Areas spared so far were devastated by the 1369 spread of this virulent disease. The county was overturned by such losses.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caldicot Castle</td></tr>
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Yet there was some recovery despite the demographic collapse although it was the lower classes of men and women who scraped together money to satisfy the well organised lords' demands. This was, in some ways, merely a delay of inevitable consequences: labour shortages made demesne farming less profitable and many lords became long-distance, rent-collecting owners. Serfdom as a system was eclipsed and workers could now make demands on their lords. The peasantry became rebellious (schoolroom titters at the back about revolting peasants will not be tolerated) and there were risings against the lords in Abergavenny and ominous threats to Monmouth in 1381 which prompted John of Gaunt to fortify his castle there.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monmouth Castle</td></tr>
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<b>What next?</b><br />
I can pick 3 words from my unlocked word-hoard to answer that question: Owain Glyn Dwr.<br />
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I have written <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/owain-glyndwr-unlikely-hero.html" target="_blank">a brief biography</a> of this enigmatic man followed by <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/owain-glyn-dwr-assessment.html" target="_blank">an attempt at assessment</a>. Many of my posts are about castles in Monmouthshire: you might like to start by reading about Henry V's birthplace: <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/monmouth-castle-fascinating-ruin.html" target="_blank">Monmouth Castle</a>. An <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-welsh-marches-history-castles-and.html" target="_blank">account of Marcher lordships</a> goes a little further in explaining this aspect and there is an <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/markets-in-middle-ages-in-south-wales.html" target="_blank">article on Medieval markets in the area</a>. <br />
On the right of this blog there is a rather daunting list of books consulted with gratitude but I am particluarly indebted to The Gwent County History vol. 2 for this piece.<br />
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<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-44495385769267560182017-10-04T08:20:00.000-07:002017-10-12T08:26:43.841-07:00Wells: the Bishop's Palace and gardens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Wells Cathedral</b> is magnificent and I was stunned by it, as I expected to be. For some silly reason I had not entertained such high hopes of the neighbouring <b>Bishop's Palace</b> but I was even more struck by it and, particularly, its gardens. There you find the wells which give the city its name: water gardens are always special and these are the most atmospheric I have visited. I entered the main part of them through a small opening in the wall - there is something especially magical about vistas that open out after confinement - and was overwhelmed. Unfortunately the light was fading and, when I returned to take better photos, it drizzled. Some kindly people have suggested I use images from Google but I just know that my loyal followers prefer my amateurish but personalised efforts.<br />
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<b>A brief history</b><br />
The site may have been occupied since prehistoric times because of the abundant supply of fresh water but the first episcopal buildings were established by Jocelin who became bishop in 1206. Succeeding bishops until 1500 enlarged the palace, built formidable ramparts, harnessed the water to make a moat and supply the city and created an impressive new opening from the market place. All these improvements emphasised the power and grandeur of the bishopric and later incumbents added lesser improvements such as the long south wall (Bishop Ken composed his hymns whilst walking there and I love to imagine him strolling along humming gently and intoning proudly when he had nailed it), remodelling of the gardens and embellishing the palace interior. Water often has a symbolic significance to us all and the most active spring here, St. Andrew's Well, has the same dedication as the minster, with the bishops controlling the supply from the 1200's onwards.<br />
Jocelin was favoured by King John and Henry III, who needed his support and who allowed him to develop the estate. He constructed 2 new schools, a hospital and a chapel - it is worth walking past the left hand side of the cathedral as these smaller buildings are lovely. A deer park was also part of his endowment, stocked with animals from the king's own estates, whose sensitivity to noise was respected by the diversion of the lorries carrying stones.<br />
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<b>The gardens</b><br />
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<b> </b>Be bold and, Alice-like, pop through the hole to discover the extensive water gardens, developed by Ralph of Shrewsbury from the marshy ground which had flooded uncontrollably until the 1330's. He created a moat which acted as a reservoir, and thus limited the inundations and made the building of water mills possible. He added a rampart with round towers and a gatehouse which had, with the permission of King Edward III, crenellations. The site covers 14 acres and demands labour from the Head Gardener and team - it has reflected the charging tastes in garden design over the centuries.<br />
It was Bishop Beckynton who built the wellhouse with a cistern to collect the water from the wells and maintain enough pressure to send it through a conduit towards the market place where any overflow washed away rubbish. Wooden bungs could be used to shut off the flow. Amazing engineering prowess.<br />
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The swans on the moat are still trained to ring a bell beneath the window on the left at the gatehouse to ask for dinner. They pull on the chain and demand fast food from the caretaker who lives there: mother swans teach their cygnets how to do this with dignity and an imperious manner in morning classes (not really - just checking you are still concentrating) and their sleek plumpness shows how successful they are.<br />
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<b>2 (or 3?) not-so-peaceful items</b><br />
The palace was used as a garrison by troops in both the Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. Bishop Kidder and his wife were killed in the Great Storm of 1703 when 2 chimney stacks fell on them in the night whilst they slept. The Bishop of Bath and Wells has been recorded on Blackadder as a baby-eater but I am sceptical since they had fat swans for their delectation - though these probably belonged to the monarch.<br />
I lingered in the failing light as long as I could, wandering about and sitting on various seats including one of those swinging striped jobbies with a canopy that always seem to me the height of luxury and indolence. There is also an arboretum with a Dragon's Lair but I live in Wales where they are ubiquitous. If I lived in Wells I would come here daily to breathe in the atmosphere. Yet I was far from home, having journeyed through Bath from Newport by train and bus on the very well run local services. Anyway it was time for CAKE which I had in the cathedral café where they were asking people to donate crockery and glassware so that they could recreate the traditional afternoon tea - isn't that a soothing thought?<br />
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For my <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/wells-cathedral-fascinating-and.html" target="_blank">blog post on Wells Cathedral</a>, click here. From there you can click on other links to cathedrals, castles and Roman remains and your afternoon will pass profitably until CAKE time.<br />
For <a href="https://bishopspalace.org.uk/" target="_blank">opening times of the Palace</a> click here.Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-32745131542153253542017-08-25T23:53:00.001-07:002017-10-04T08:23:37.813-07:00Wells Cathedral: fascinating and beautifully situated<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>One Exterior View of the Cathedral Church of St Andrew: Wells Cathedral</b><br />
As you stand on the green gazing at the west front, having entered via one of the 3 ancient gateways (Brown's Gatehouse, Penniless Porch or Chain Gate) recall that your feet are planted on a graveyard. Your eyes are fixed on a facade of unusually consistent architecture, being almost wholly Early English in style and not a medley as in many Medieval Cathedrals. The stone is Inferior Oolite from the Middle Jurassic period - I love that as I am not even sure if there is a Superior version!<br />
There are 3 horizontal layers, the bottom one being quite plain. The others showcase 300 sculpted figures - there were 400 originally - which would have been brightly painted in reds, blues and greens as has been deduced from some remaining flakes of colour adhering to them. This is one of the largest collection of Medieval statues in Europe and the finest display of such carving in England. There are seated and standing people, half-length angels and narratives. The personalities include monarchs, Old Testament prophets and patriarchs, apostles, bishops and other holy individuals, many identifiable by their attributes. There are also the dead, joyful or despairing, emerging from their tombs on the Day of Judgement, some recognisable as royal by their crowns or episcopal by their mitres - although otherwise naked! The sizes reflect importance but the large statue at the very top of Christ in Majesty is a modern replacement of one badly damaged.<br />
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<b>Inside</b><br />
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It is impossible in a blog post to describe all the attributes worth noting on the inside but these are the most striking in my opinion.<br />
<b>The scissor (strainer) arches: </b>these are structural in an interesting way since they were inserted to sustain the weight of an extra storey added to the top of the central tower which caused it to crack and lean. Between 1338 and 48 the master mason William Joy conceived this solution which proved stunning to look at and yet practical. The appearance is of an extra inverted arch on top of the more usual one.<br />
<b>The 'Golden Window' </b>is so called because of the glowing yellow stain given to the 14th century glasswork depicting the Tree of Jesse which shows the lineage of Christ rising from Jesse, symbolising Israel, who lies on his side at the bottom with a tree or vine growing from his side. Wells has one of the most substantial collections of Medieval stained glass in England, despite damage by Parliamemtary troops in the Civil War.<br />
<b>Carvings:</b> in particular, look out for the man with toothache as a capital in the South Transept. He is pointing to the place of pain with his index finger as if showing it to the dentist and is one of 11 such.<br />
<b>The misericords:</b> these are little seats often with carvings underneath, so called because they gave the worshippers a merciful chance to semi-sit during a long service without appearing to do so. In Wells they are particularly fine and date from 1330-1340: 27 depict animals including rabbits, dogs, a puppy biting a cat, a ewe feeding a lamb, monkeys, lions and bats; 18 show mythological subjects such as mermaids, dragons, wyverns and the narrative of the Fox and the Geese. Such unchristian icons may have crept in unobserved, perhaps being the foible of the individual carver.<br />
<b>The Astronomical Clock: </b>in the North Transept is a 24 hour, geocentric clock dating from around 1325, probably the work of a Glastonbury monk, Peter Lightfoot. The original mechanism is now in the Science Museum in London, still working. The Medieval face remains and shows the hours, the motions of sun and moon around a fixed Earth and the phases of the moon. The quarter hours are marked by Jack Blandifers (look upwards to the right) who hits 2 bells with hammers and 2 with his heels as jousting knights appear above the clock face. A second clock, working from the same mechanism, has 2 knights in armour as quarter jacks. In 2010 the official winder retired to be replaced by an electric motor - a pity say I.<br />
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<b>Violence and peace</b>:<br />
Dean <b>Walter Raleigh</b> (nephew of the more famous chap of the same name) was placed under house arrest here. His jailer was a shoe maker and city constable called David Barrett, who caught him writing a forbidden letter to his wife. When Raleigh refused to hand it over, Barrett ran him through with his sword and he died 6 weeks later on 10th October 1646.<br />
During the <b>Monmouth Rebellion</b> of 1685, Puritan soldiers damaged the West front, tore lead from the roof for bullets, broke windows, smashed the organ and furnishings and stabled their horses in the nave.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look for this in the town</td></tr>
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In 1703, during the<b> Great Storm</b>, Bishop Kidder was killed when 2 chimney stacks on the Palace fell on him and his wife as they lay asleep.<br />
In July 2009 the Cathedral held the funeral of <b>Harry Patch</b>, plumber and firefighter, British Army veteran of World War I, "the Last Fighting Tommy", who died aged 111 years, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day - at peace after great violence.<br />
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<b> A Very Very Brief History of the name</b><br />
Fans of Blackadder with be asking about the Bishop of Bath and Wells: after many disputes, Pope Innocent IV established this title in 1245 after the seat had moved between Wells and the Abbeys of Bath and Glastonbury but - it is a bit like saying there is no Father Christmas - none of them ate babies!<br />
There has been a church here since 705 and a shrine in Roman times or even earlier.<br />
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The town of Wells is very appealing with the Vicars' Close, (probably the oldest purely residential street in Europe), some interesting shops as well as the usual suspects and a thriving Wednesday market - but even more enthralling is the Bishop's Palace and gardens which utterly entranced me and which I will write about after a second visit.<br />
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I went by public transport from Monmouthshire via Bath and, on the way back, Bristol Temple Meads, and it necessitated an overnight stay but I intend to go again on an organised day coach trip. I have also written about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/hereford-cathedral-imposing-yet-intimate.html" target="_blank">Hereford Cathedral</a> and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/gloucester-cathedral-ancient-and.html" target="_blank">Gloucester Cathedral</a> and many castles and Roman remains - perhaps you could start with <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/raglan-castle.html" target="_blank">Raglan Castle</a> and nearby <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-roman-amphitheatre-in-caerleon_25.html" target="_blank">Caerleon amphitheatre</a>.<br />
I am grateful to the Pitkin Guide and Wikipedia for information.<br />
For opening times etc <a href="http://www.wellscathedral.org.uk/" target="_blank">click here for the Cathedral website</a> and you can also read my account of the <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/wells-bishops-palace-and-gardens.html" target="_blank">Bishop's Palace and gardens</a>.<br />
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<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-42798284234046605052017-08-16T01:06:00.000-07:002017-08-17T04:41:18.761-07:00Hereford Cathedral: imposing yet intimate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Hereford Cathedra</b>l makes a strong impression on the visitor and yet feels friendly with its warm stone and manageable size. The first building on this site some 1300 years ago may have been a modest thatched wooden construction, replaced later by a stone Saxon Cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The second patron saint was King Ethelbert who was brutally murdered by Offa: once his innocence had been established, he was eventually canonised. A bishop named Thomas Cantilupe, became St. Thomas of Hereford in 1320 and had a shrine erected to him - this became a place of pilgrimage. His feast day, 2 October, is still celebrated and you can see a banner showing his history designed by Jean Mobbs commemorating the 700th anniversary of his death. He was believed to have performed 400 miracles but had been excommunicated. When the ban was lifted, his various bones were sent around the country and finally came back here. Then comes St. John the Baptist a statue of whom, wearing his camel-skin coat with its head, can be seen in the north transept.<br />
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<b>Look for:</b><br />
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The corona, a magnificent suspended zig-zag or chevron construct of gilded stainless steel by Simon Beer, which seemed to me a symbol of the Crown of Thorns as it hangs above the central altar.<br />
A beautiful modern stained glass window in blues, called Ascension, by John Maine which pays tribute to the Special Air Service and its many connections to this neighbourhood..<br />
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Three tapestries designed by John Piper for the 1300th anniversary in 1976 representing the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Tree of the Crucifixion and the Tree of the Future (Book of Revelation.)<br />
These are the possessions which made the most impression on me but the Norman pillars in the nave, the misericords, (I always love those as it seems to me they gave the relief of sitting on your suitcase on a crowded train) The Quire, St. John's Walk, The Lady Chapel, The Crypt and the gardens are also of great interest.<br />
Having a weakness for the sensational, I was particularly enthralled by the fact that the west end and its tower collapsed on Easter Monday, 1786. I always ask myself how ancient architects and builders coped without modern methods and clearly they sometimes failed - perhaps because of earthquakes - although the date is striking. A new west front was designed by James Wyatt but the resulting facade was deemed too plain and was replaced in 1908. The brightness of his nave reflects a movement away from the idea that those churches are best for prayer that have least light.<br />
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<b>Mappa Mundi</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral<br />
and the Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust</td></tr>
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<b> Mappa Mundi</b> (you don't need to add 'the' because it is contained in the Latin term for Map of the World) is part of a separate exhibition along with the Chained Library. It is well worth the viewing but bear in mind it is not a travel map in the modern sense but a representation of the Christian world, centred on Jerusalem, on a single piece of parchment (prepared animal skin) dating from the late 1280's. East is at the top because of its religious significance and it was probably made in Lincoln by monks. (Incidentally, Hereford was never a monastic cathedral and is therefore termed secular). There are pictures of Biblical and classical events, geographical features, peoples (some of them very strange) plants and animals. It is almost a chart of the Medieval outlook and is amazingly complex.<br />
You will benefit from a tour of this and the <b>Chained </b><b>Library </b>which is, as the name suggests, a collection of ancient books with chains attached to their covers at the cut-page end with 2 hasps and a lock. Hand-written books were hugely expensive (remember that Chaucer's Wife of Bath became deaf in one ear by a blow after tearing a book). It is so atmospheric: 'modern' here means post 1801 and most of the books are in Latin though I was fascinated to know that the dictionary of my hero, Dr. Johnson, is on the shelves. These treasures make Hereford Cathedral outstanding.<br />
What is less well-known, perhaps, is that there is a also a truly <b>modern working library</b> with over 4000 titles available to borrow and a large reference collection. This contains theological works as well as biographies and books on the decorative arts, architecture and music. Visitors are welcome to use it and you can bring your own laptop. If I lived nearer I would inhabit it permanently! There are also unusual archives of Medieval manuscript books, early printed books, music, prints, drawings and photographs. Now that our local libraries are turning into jolly (?) community hubs, this is a rare find.<br />
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I travelled to Hereford by bus from Monmouth and fortified myself with CAKE as usual in the café. Opening hours and other visitor details may be found <a href="https://www.herefordcathedral.org/" target="_blank">on the website</a>. You might also be interested in my account of <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/gloucester-cathedral-ancient-and.html" target="_blank">Gloucester Cathedral</a> or one of my castle articles such as that on <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/goodrich-castle.html" target="_blank">Goodrich Castle</a>. If you travel by car (tut! tut!) you could spend a lovely afternoon at <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/hampton-court-castle-and-gardens.html" target="_blank">Hampton Court Castle</a> with its stunning gardens which is about 20 minutes away.<br />
<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-61596307049034425192017-07-30T06:40:00.005-07:002017-08-17T09:26:04.465-07:00Hampton Court Castle and gardens - Herefordshire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The <b>Hampton Court</b> in Herefordshire is 100 years older than its more famous namesake, dating back 600 years on parkland by the River Lugg near Leominster in the village of Hope under Dinmore. It is a castellated country house, a Grade 1 listed building of Gothic and Gothic revival architecture, which sits in 935 acres. The word "hampton" derives from Anglo-Saxon and means "home place" which explains why there are so many towns etc ending in this suffix.<br />
The main construction of a quadrangular courtyard house was started in 1427 by Sir Rowland Lenthall on land that was a wedding gift from King Henry IV on Lenthalls's marriage to the king's cousin, Margaret Fitzalan, a daughter of the Earl of Arundel. Building had been taking place earlier when the king was Henry Bolingbroke and Sir Rowland went on to fight at Agincourt - all very Shakespearean.<br />
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<b>Later ownership</b><br />
The palace or castle, whichever you prefer, has changed hands several times with each owner altering and adding to it so that the oldest remaining part is to the north. Some tended to make it more domestic but others reversed the trend and made it more of a castle according to fashion or inclination. The powerful Coningsby family bought it in the 16th century and stayed for 300 years, their name accounting for the theme of white rabbits throughout ("coney" means "rabbit"). After that it was purchased for nearly a quarter of a million pounds by Richard Arkwright, offspring of the famous inventor, whose son John lavished more money on it over a period of 12 years, though making some economies such as scumbling the woodwork in the dining room instead of installing true walnut panelling. (Some oak panelling had been sold off in the 17th century).<br />
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The chapel is Medieval and would have been much more colourful than at present: the stained glass was sold in the 1920's though a little remains high up.<br />
The house is great fun although not all is as old as it seems since a U.S. millionaire, Robert Van Kampen, furnished it in the 1990's (to the tune of £17 million) according to his ideas of an English country house, adding armour and stuffed animals. Some complain about the lack of authenticity but I raise a cheer to him for spending his money to recreate his ideal for us all to enjoy. No-one lives here any more but it is the fabulous setting for weddings and events and it has served as a military hospital.<br />
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<b>The gardens</b><br />
<b> </b> I went there on a perfect July day and was bowled over by the gardens, taking a couple of hours to explore and absorb. They are beautifully maintained without being manicured and signage is kept to a minimum: I was amused to be warned of uneven surfaces near the river due to mole activity and half expected to see Ratty, Badger and Toad as well. There is a river walk of 45 minutes but I contented myself with the shorter one.<br />
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There are more formal gardens with a water pavilion, a maze, a secret passage, a wisteria tunnel 150 years old and a sunken pond with a waterfall that some children were persuading their grandfather to go behind. One of them called out:"I love this place - I am having so many adventures." (So was grandpa!) This is perhaps because there are hidden things to discover, several paths to take to different parts, and a hollow tree with a door to hide in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLkxmK0az4dJex4FVbyo0yt0uOT1ONk_ya3MACBpM9q0kAab2ZiBSgXec9OLBRsKIgZGAOP25bv3xSAiN5etohzuf9vg41vnF9IlHF9xb5iOfA9qA-U1_ArpDH4y2sf-6m-dvBdeK5eHc/s1600/IMG_4426.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLkxmK0az4dJex4FVbyo0yt0uOT1ONk_ya3MACBpM9q0kAab2ZiBSgXec9OLBRsKIgZGAOP25bv3xSAiN5etohzuf9vg41vnF9IlHF9xb5iOfA9qA-U1_ArpDH4y2sf-6m-dvBdeK5eHc/s200/IMG_4426.JPG" width="200" /></a>I was very taken with the Dutch garden which is a contrast to the wilder areas, being symmetrical with a rectangular pond and colourful potted plants. I sat here for a while contemplating and reflecting on how heartening it is to visit a place so carefully and yet so unobtrusively managed. You can have lunch etc with home grown organic produce from the kitchen garden in the conservatory designed by Joseph Paxton or you can bring a picnic and lounge on the grass. There is a shop but nowhere is there any sense of pressure to buy - yet I went burrowing in the archives of the local paper and found an advert of 19th May 2014 with a price tag on the site of £12 million. My piggy bank just isn't fat enough!<br />
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This house and gardens make a Grand Day Out for all ages and will keep juniors occupied and active. I couldn't think of any way it could be improved and went home quite uplifted. Opening hours and details of events can be found on <a href="http://www.hamptoncourt.org.uk/" target="_blank">their website</a>. This time I went on an organised coach trip with Jenson and the Gwent National Trust Association - so that counts as a Monmouthshire bus microadventure. Afterwards we continued the short distance to <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/hereford-cathedral-imposing-yet-intimate.html" target="_blank">Hereford Cathedral</a> which I have now described.<br />
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A few of the other castles in or near Monmouthshire that I have visited by bus and written about are <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/raglan-castle.html" target="_blank">Raglan Castle</a>, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/chepstow-castle.html" target="_blank">Chepstow Castle</a>, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/ludlow-castle-from-conquest-to-comus.html" target="_blank">Ludlow Castle</a> and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/caerphilly-castle-huge-and-imposing.html" target="_blank">Caerphilly Castle</a>. Then there is my home fortification of <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/caerphilly-castle-huge-and-imposing.html" target="_blank">Usk Castle</a>. Many of these articles are linked to others about the people connected with each castle's history.<br />
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Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-37265163242940750922017-07-23T08:13:00.000-07:002017-07-23T08:13:02.020-07:00Tintern Abbey: a guided tour by "Brother Thomas"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If, like me, you have formed your image of a monk from Chaucer's satirical account, you imagine a jolly, rounded, shiny lover of the luxurious life, particularly fond of roast swan. The Cistercians had formed their order much earlier in order to distance themselves from such laxity and lived very simply, dressed in white (or off-white) garments of undyed sheep's wool with no trappings. In the 12th century they set up in remote, wild Tintern, far from the temptations of rich living and were intent on following strictly the Rule of St. Benedict.<br />
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<b>"Brother Thomas" </b>who led us round the Abbey with his helper, Sister Mary, was authentically clad as a White Monk and was pleased that the weather was cooler and dry as his habit becomes unduly warm in the heat and smells of Labrador in the rain. He was tall and appropriately ascetic-looking but had a good sense of humour which did not detract from his informative and evocative talk. We followed him as he explained the history in the various parts of the Abbey and the daily life of the monks, bringing it all to life with details. One such was the fact that a monk did a circuit with a candle at the 1:30 a.m. service, holding it near each face to check that the cold, sleepy worshipper had not nodded off.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His black scapular indicates a senior monk</td></tr>
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The history was given in palatable portions and we learned that there had been an earlier church before the present ruined one, the first endowed by Walter de Clare and the second by the Earl of Norfolk, Lord of Chepstow, Roger Bigod, and we ended with the Dissolution and later Romantic interest in this picturesque site.<br />
<b>Daily life</b><br />
<b> Brother Thomas </b>was in his role as Cellerer who would have looked after the supplies of beer and wine (the water was not safe to drink) conducting his business in the large open square of the main cloister. Here, too, would have taken place other activities: any dentistry; attention to minor wounds by the barber-surgeon (the red and white striped pole signifies blood and bandages); tonsure shaving; regular bleeding to balance the 4 humours of the body; some study and reflection and the financial dealings connected with the wealth arising from the 3000 sheep and 3 granges. Money was collected in buckets and the monks served generally as accountants and writers of contracts because they were literate. There was a vegetable garden here also.<br />
Time was measured at mid-day and from then on by water or candle clocks. There was no warmth except in the Warming House (a huge fire was lit on 31st October and extinguished on Good Friday regardless of the weather) where monks could pass through but not linger, and in the Infirmary, Parlour and Abbot's house. This was a silent order to prevent gossip as a distraction but conversation was allowed in the Parlour and speech permitted if a monk were learning from a superior.<br />
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The 3rd service began the day and all would come to the Chapter House to be given daily duties and small punishments. They would study lessons from the Bible and might be required to do some writing or D.I.Y. repairs. The library contained very few books by modern standards as they were all hand-written on vellum or parchment and the monastery's wealth was assessed by its holdings. Brother Thomas had an example for us to handle carefully. Windows were glazed and Sister Mary showed us some high-up remnants which she had devoted much time to finding. (If you can spot them you can have extra CAKE!)<br />
Every stone was brought by river, unloaded at Tintern Quay and cut by hand. The only coloured glass was over the High Altar and we were shown where it had been with the arms of Roger Bigod who hoped to smooth his way to heaven.<br />
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The flooring would have been tiled and the masons were probably the same as those who built Chepstow Castle. We paused to look at the arrow-head marks which indicated individual mason's work and putlog holes which were - you've guessed it - where they put logs as joists.<br />
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Food was consumed in 2 main meals: a breakfast and large mid-day lunch consisting of fish, cheese, eggs, bread and vegetables, a healthy diet which enabled many monks to live into old age. (I wickedly wondered if they sometimes poached a tasty mutton chop from one of those sheep.) A light supper was allowed in case of illness but meat was otherwise considered to inflame unwanted passions. Cats and dogs as pets were forbidden but this rule was broken because of the need to keep down rodents and also because such animals afforded much-needed comfort in austerity. They were hidden away in a room when the Abbey was inspected as there was always warning of such a visit. Imagine the moment when they were all let out again!<br />
It was believed that illness was transmitted by impure air and there was a medicinal herb garden in the rear cloister near the Infirmary. In the later stages of the Abbey's history paying guests were admitted to be cared for and cured and the monks would also pray for their souls.<br />
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Henry VIII dissolved the monastery as part of his huge programme of destruction: the monks did receive a pension and the Abbot a large allowance. The many lay brothers who did the agricultural labour were evicted and the building fell into ruin - to be much admired by Victorian seekers of the picturesque.<br />
I can thoroughly recommend this tour, particularly for its sense of immediacy: it happens almost every month and details are on the <a href="http://cadw.gov.wales/splash?orig=/" target="_blank">Cadw website.</a> For my earlier post on <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/visitng-tintern.html" target="_blank">Tintern Abbey, click here</a>. There is a brief discussion of the Victorian notion of the picturesque. I have also written an account of <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/chepstow-castle.html" target="_blank">Chepstow Castle</a> with internal links to aspects of its history. Tintern is easy to reach by the hourly 69 bus from Monmouth through beautiful scenery: some of these conveniently become the 63 at Chepstow and take you on to <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/usk-castle.html" target="_blank">Usk, where there is another fascinating castle</a> and the <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/adam-of-usk-unsung-local-hero-or-was-he.html" target="_blank">burial church of Adam of Usk</a>. CAKE is available in the nearby café at TinternBarbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-79014829539084337582017-07-16T07:41:00.000-07:002017-07-16T07:41:27.440-07:00Adam of Usk: an unsung local hero - or was he?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Whenever my microadventures take me abroad into England, I always try to find a Welsh connection to famous sites. Even when overawed by the Tower of London I still looked out for this link and was thrilled to realise that Adam of Usk had been here on a historic mission: to visit the imprisoned King Richard II. He also met with other kings as well as popes but is little recognised in his home town although he maintained ties with Usk and the surrounding area throughout his life. At one time he was the incumbent of St. Cybi's Church, Langibby, in Monmouthshire near Usk.<br />
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<b>His reputation</b><br />
He is probably buried in St. Mary's Church, Usk but, if you want to pay homage - and I hope to convince you that he is worthy of it - you have to go down the right-hand aisle, pass behind the choir screen to the eastern side, clamber over a lectern cunningly placed as an obstacle and peer at a small brass plaque in ancient Welsh. To be fair, there is a leaflet which translates this in the words of a Mr. T.R.N. Edwards: "Bring praise to the grave of one noble in learning. A celebrated London lawyer and a 'Judge of the World' privileged in wit, may heaven be thine, a scholar. A Solomon of wisdom, a wonder. Here sleeps Adam of Usk, eloquent, wise man of ten commotes. Behold, this place is full of learning." Even then the Welsh were not renowned for the succinctness - and neither was he.<br />
<i> Who's Who in Late Medieval England</i>, in an uncharitable summary, notes his tendency to self-aggrandisement: he "was once silenced by a bishop for an untimely display of learning. Vain and boastful, he probably exaggerated the eminence of his friends, the quality of his advice, and his influence on decisions and events, for he revealed himself to be a man without tact, sense of timing, discretion or judgement." You'd meet him in any Welsh pub any evening - and enjoy his company!<br />
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<b>His life</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Usk Castle</td></tr>
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<b> </b>What did he actually do then? Born probably in 1352 in the Gatehouse of Usk Castle, he wrote a Chronicle in Latin, though apparently not in the purest form of that language, and not in strictly chronological order, starting with the coronation of Richard II and closing during the reign of Henry V. The value lies chiefly in the fact that he was present at many of the important events he describes. When he visited Richard II, he records: "I was present while he dined and I marked his mood and bearing." He went to Oxford under the patronage of Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, and took the degree of Doctor of Laws and canon law. He pleaded in the court of the archbishop, Thomas Arundel for 7 years and writes of the trial of his brother, Richard giving the detail of how he was made to remove his belt and scarlet hood before being led off to his beheading on Tower Hill.<br />
His opinion on the downfall of Richard II is that one cause was the unruly behaviour of his 400 Cheshire guards "very evil; in all places they oppressed his subjects unpunished and beat and robbed them." An account of the famous encounter between the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk has again the ring of an eye-witness version as he notes the wet ditch surrounding the appointed place as well as the fact that Hereford "appeared far more gloriously distinguished with diverse equipments of seven horses." We read also: "the matter of setting aside King Richard and of choosing Henry, Duke of Lancaster, in his stead and how it was to be done ... was commissioned to be debated on by certain doctors, bishops and others of whom, I, who am now noting down these things, was one." Momentous - as any reader of Shakespeare will agree.<br />
<b>The mundane side</b><br />
There are stories of a more domestic nature such as that of King Richard's greyhound which lay at his side "with grim and lion-like face" until that owner fled whereupon it found its way from Carmarthen to Shrewsbury to Henry IV where it crouched before this new master "with a submissive but bright and pleased aspect" and was allowed to sleep on his bed. The deposed Richard took it "sorely to heart" when the dog then refused to acknowledge him. This tale is mentioned also by Froissart.<br />
My favourite narrative is that surrounding the death of John of Usk, Abbot of Chertsey, who, with 13 brother monks, died of the plague. A brother, William Burton roused him from sleep, bidding him to be of good cheer for he would do well. The abbot replied: "Blessed be God! I shall fare well. Be silent and hearken!" The monk said: "Unto what shall I hearken?" I love his questioning mind as it is just what I would have asked. It seems he was supposed to hear angels singing but was unworthy and failed.<br />
<b>His troubles</b> <br />
Adam seems to have fallen from grace - probably for the theft of "A horse, colour black, saddle and bridle, value one hundred shillings, together with the sum of fourteen marks in cash, all the property of one Walter Jakes." In addition, he had unwisely been remonstrating with Henry IV on the faults of his government and vanished to Rome where he was well received by the Pope and given positions. He was deeply involved with the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr and writes about it - there are other elements of roughness in his life such as his presence in Oxford broils leading to loss of life between men of the South and Wales on the one hand and men of the North on the other. For this he was indicted "as the chief leader and abettor of the Welsh, and perhaps not unrighteously." There is much to like in this honest summary. On his return from Rome, he was again in trouble and had to go into hiding. He was prone to dreams and visions which were always notably apt and he seems to have been of a superstitious nature. The Chronicle ends on an anxious note concerning the rebellious attitude of the people over the taxation imposed by Henry V because of his French wars.<br />
<b>His Will</b><br />
<b> </b>He probably died in 1430 and had requested to be buried in Usk Church, though no-one knows exactly where.<br />
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Amongst other bequests, he left the <i>Historia Policronica </i>of Ralph Higden to his kinsman, Edward ap Adam and another book of theological wisdom to the church in Usk, the vicar receiving a legacy worth a few pounds in modern money. Some of the nuns of Usk Priory were related to him and they all received about half that: he had secured for them important concessions from the Pope in his lifetime. His main gift is the Chronicle of events from 1377 to 1421, with its vivid, if somewhat disorganised, sense of immediacy and personal involvement. It is available in a scanned edition plus translation by Edward Maunde Thompson which is admittedly quite hard to follow, originated by the Royal Society of Literature.<br />
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I fear I may have absorbed by osmosis some of his garrulousness and lack of cohesion here but I have become intrigued by him and will pursue my research further and let you know what I find. I'd like him to become better known although much what we believe of his life is speculation.<br />
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To read about the planting of Usk town by the Normans, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/usk-town-planted-by-normans.html" target="_blank">click here</a>. There are 3 posts about Owain Glyndwr, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/usk-owain-glyndwr-and-hollow-crown.html" target="_blank">you could start with this one</a>. <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/usk-castle.html" target="_blank">Usk Castle is also of great historic interest</a>. My visit to the Tower of London led me <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/the-tower-of-london-megagerie.html" target="_blank">to write about the menagerie</a> that was once part of its identity. For more about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/llangybi-village-half-hidden-gem.html" target="_blank">Llangybi, click here.</a><br />
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Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-55684591571292176862017-06-19T09:10:00.000-07:002017-07-08T08:28:37.710-07:00Kenilworth Castle: a huge stunning ruin <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Kenilworth Castle </b>is ruinous and stunning to visit: it challenges the imagination to recreate it as it was and overwhelms you with its grandeur. Firstly you have to see it in your mind's eye as encompassed by a massive 111 acre artificial sheet of water, exceeding that of Caerphilly and vastly bigger than that at Bodiam. Then you can envisage it when it was refashioned by John of Gaunt and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. You can add mentally - if you are sufficiently gifted - the masques and revelry that the latter, a side-kick of Queen Elizabeth I, (literally as they did many dangerously jaunty dances together) organised in her honour.<br />
Warwickshire is not rich in castles as is the Marches area of Wales but Kenilworth is a star. On a windy sunny day it is unforgettable. Plus, walking round it leaves you hungry for CAKE, always a good thing.<br />
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<b>Early history</b><br />
Between 1122 and 1129, Geoffrey de Clinton built a castle here, probably a motte and bailey structure where the present inner ward is now. The mighty keep, called Clinton's tower, is later and its impressiveness as a Norman structure is affected by the enlarging of its windows by Dudley. The kings Henry II, John and Henry III (he was probably the one who added the lake) spent vast sums in making the castle a strong fortress with 5 mural towers: Mortimer's; the Water Tower; the Warden's Tower; the Swan Tower and Lunn's Tower. John of Gaunt's Great Hall was the architectural masterpiece of the castle and was the only part that Dudley left unaltered 200 years later, presumably because it suited the grand and powerful image he wished to project.<br />
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<b>2 exciting stories</b><br />
<b> </b>When Henry III had finished making the castle virtually impregnable, he unwisely gave it to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and his wife Eleanor in 1254. Ten years later, de Montfort headed the opposition of the barons even though he was a previously unpopular foreigner. He became almost the ruler and held the king's brother, Richard, captive in the castle. Prince Edward escaped, marched his forces back overnight and, because he had reliable intelligence, fell upon the younger Simon de Montfort and his superior troops as they were camping, exhausted and without posting sentinels or sending out scouts. Simon the younger swam the lake in his night shirt to enter the castle. In 1266 the royalists besieged the castle - it was extremely violent, using the latest technology - and finally succeeded in agreeing the <i>Dictum of Kenilworth</i> and the castle was once again royal.<br />
The Tudors are now a much worked-over family and we all know that Dudley was a "favourite" of Queen Elizabeth who gave him Kenilworth, one of her many indiscretions with this dashing, ostentatious <i>beau. </i>He lavished her bounty on the castle, demilitarising it and building Leicester's Gate-house, which is more of a house over a gate than the usual fortifying structure. He added Leicester's Building and entertained the queen on several occasions, the most noteworthy being a 19-day revelry in 1575 which cost Leicester £1000 a day in maintenance to say nothing of the incredible sum of £100,000 in entertainments which included masques, plays, tilting, sports, Morris Dancing, ceremonies and pageantry. Elizabeth was greeted by the Lady of the Lake, Mars, Apollo, Neptune and Bacchus and later enjoyed (we hope) fireworks, tumblers, Latin orations, bear-baiting and a laugh-a-minute drama about the massacre of the Danes. She never came back here. You can read an imaginative recreation of all this in Sir Walter Scott's novel, <i>Kenilworth. </i><br />
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<b>The present</b><br />
What you see and ramble round is a ruin which had begun to decline before it was slighted in the Civil War. The castle and manor were given to Colonel Hawkesworth and other officers who "pulled down and demolished the castle, cut down the king's woods, destroyed his park, and divided the land into farms for themselves." The lake was drained at this time by cutting the dam. Our pile is not a monument to democracy although it it represents one of the early stages in our slow progress towards that system. You can also see John of Gaunt's hall and chamber block and have tea and CAKE in the lovely café in the stable block. There is a path to what was Henry V's Pleasaunce (private pavilion) and a Tudor garden.<br />
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I visited Kenilworth the day after Warwick Castle and much preferred the ruin. The staff are particularly friendly, it is not in any way commercialised and there were groups of well-behaved school children with clip-boards and learned faces. There is a bus connecting the 2 and so both come under my heading of History on the Buses - although Monmouthshire has many more castles. Tee hee!<br />
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I have written about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/caerphilly-castle-huge-and-imposing.html" target="_blank">Caerphilly Castle and its great lake</a> as well as <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/bodiam-castle-film-star-with-enigma.html" target="_blank">Bodiam set in its ravishing waters</a>. There is also a post about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/warwick-castle-imposing-with-long.html" target="_blank">nearby Warwick Castle.</a> To read about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/six-weapons-of-war-in-castles-in-welsh.html" target="_blank">medieval siege engines click here</a>. For <a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenilworth-castle/prices-and-opening-times" target="_blank">opening hours of Kenilworth</a>, click here.Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-71803080145693215442017-06-04T09:00:00.000-07:002017-07-08T08:25:18.383-07:00Pembroke Castle - moody and magnificent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Situation</b><br />
<b> Pembroke Castle </b>stands proud on<b> t</b>he tip of a rocky limestone headland at the end of a town between 2 arms of the Pembroke river. The castle has always been more heavily fortified on the landward side - for obvious reasons. The site has been occupied for the past 12,000 years, although not continuously. In a cavern underneath the castle, called The Wogan, have been found stone tools left by Palaeolithic inhabitants and Roman coins. It might also have been an Iron Age fort and there have been suggestions that, in pre-Norman times, there may have been a palace or <i>llys </i>of a Welsh nobleman since the Normans went straight to it as if it were an existing stronghold. My camera chose to turn to sepia as I photographed the castle from the river but this only underlines its foreboding and unyielding aura.<br />
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<b>The Normans </b>soon turned their attention to Wales after 1066 and created a system of Marcher lords who had unilateral powers to aid them in subduing the unruly natives. Roger de Montgomery, cousin of William I, provided 60 ships for the invasion and was rewarded with the earldom of Shrewsbury in 1071. He headed to Pembroke after the death of King Rhys ap Tewdwr and founded an earthwork and timber fortification which did not have a motte. The defeat of his son, Arnulf, caused the castle to fall to Henry I.<br />
He appointed Gerald de Windsor as sheriff and encouraged him to marry his own discarded mistress, Princess Nest: she was the beautiful and intelligent daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr and this marriage symbolised the attempt at unification. Nest was also quite a gal and went on to have numerous affairs and offspring.<br />
The county of Pembroke acquired Palatine status which gave it independence and the ability to make important decisions quickly. Of the de Clares who held the castle, the most famous is Richard "Strongbow" who also founded Usk town in his spare time. He successfully invaded Ireland from Pembroke and declared himself Lord of Leinster and Governor of Ireland. The castle's fortunes were greatly improved in 1189 when his daughter and heir, Isabella, married the renowned ideal knight, William Marshal, who, as soon as he had full control, started the rebuilding in stone, beginning with the huge cylindrical keep which may be the largest in Britain. This popular family was succeeded by the hated William de Valence who, though cruel, boastful and arrogant, continued the transformation of the castle into stone as did his son, Aymer.<br />
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<b>Later </b>the castle declined until a temporary reprieve by Jasper Tudor, whose nephew, the future King Henry VII was born here in 1457 to the young teenager Margaret Beaufort. Anne Boleyn was Marchioness for a brief period. The next excitement was the Civil War in which Pembroke was Parliamentarian, unlike the rest of Wales. Its mayor, John Poyer, strengthened the castle but changed sides along with disaffected soldiers who had not been paid and declared for the king. Oliver Cromwell arrived around 24th May, 1648 with 6000 troops and besieged the castle, also burning nearby houses, cutting off the water supply and offering safe conduct to the garrison. He commented: "The fire runs up the town still: it frights them." After 2 months the castle surrendered to the threat of heavy guns and Poyer was unlucky in the drawing of lots for execution, being shot in Covent Garden in 1649. The castle was then slighted as was the custom so that it could no longer act as a fortress. It had never fallen to the Welsh, not even to Owain Glyn Dwr. Only restoration in the 19th and 20th centuries by J.R. Cobb and the family who still own it, the Philipps, makes it the attraction it is today.<br />
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<b>Your Visit</b><br />
<b> </b>You enter via the restored barbican and are soon on the vast outer ward or enclosure over which loom the many towers and the massive keep which dominates the inner ward. A regular guided tour leads you throughout, up and down, but I am less than intrepid in my senior years and I stayed on the grass. There was a knight school for children who were dressed up and happily pretending to ride horses and give battle, accompanied by thrilling war-whoops, when I was there. There is every sense of trying to attract visitors, particularly the young, but it is done in a pleasantly uncommercialised fashion and, if they can enthuse modern kids with a love of castles, I am only too pleased.<br />
No-one would claim that the castle has charm: it is a bastion of past French imperialism and uncompromising in its severity. So too, unfortunately, was the choice of CAKE in the agreeably situated cafe but I settled for small Welsh cakes and my waistline is the better for it.<br />
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I travelled by bus and rail, changing to a small train at Swansea which stopped every few minutes at tiny stations. Pembrokeshire seems to belong to another calmer, slower era - and don't expect too much of the sandwiches either: my plumping for smoked salmon with Philly was gradually transmuted into chicken and cranberries but it was freshly and willingly made.<br />
For opening times <a href="http://pembroke-castle.co.uk/pages/opening-times-prices" target="_blank">click here</a>. I have written about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/william-marshal-lord-of-chepstow-castle.html" target="_blank">William Marshal</a> as lord of Chepstow on this blog as well as <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/owain-glyn-dwr-assessment.html" target="_blank">Owain Glyn Dwr</a>. There is an article about <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/usk-town-planted-by-normans.html" target="_blank">the founding of Usk Town</a> and another on the creation and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-welsh-marches-history-castles-and.html" target="_blank">history of the Marcher Lords</a>. Enjoy!Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-2109807505514704482017-05-29T08:54:00.000-07:002017-08-17T09:27:57.335-07:00Gloucester Cathedral - ancient and magnificent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Gloucester Cathedral </b>soars magnificently into the heavens and is perfectly proportioned to my eyes. It is one of 5 cathedrals founded by Henry VIII from some of the monastic churches that he had disendowed. Before that rebirth in 1541, it had a long history dating from its ancestor, a religious house dedicated to St. Peter. This owed its inception in 678-9 to King Ethelred of Mercia who assigned to Osric, a prince in the province of Hwicce, an area of land for the purpose. Benedictine monks were installed there in the early 11th century by Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester but nothing remains of this Anglo-Saxon monastery, in which the men slept, worked, ate and died, being buried in the cemetery in the South East of the church. Pilgrims were admitted for devotions which included kneeling at the tomb of King Edward II.<br />
<b> The Norman period.</b><br />
<b> </b>In 1072, when there were only 2 monks and 8 novices, William the Conqueror appointed a Norman monk as Abbot of Gloucester. His name was Serlo and I imagine him as sturdy, inspiring and not a little bossy as he was responsible for invigorating and expanding the community as well as organising the building of the eastern part starting in 1089 with the nave, the crypt, its apse, its encircling ambulatory, its chapels and the choir above it. This section was dedicated on 15th July, 1100. Then he organised the building for the monks before dying in 1104. There was a serious fire in 1122 but the work on the nave was completed in about 1160. Further additions were made but the body of the building is largely Norman and its plan is excellent for allowing circulation between its various parts.<br />
<b>Henry VIII </b>dissolved the monasteries and this one was changed into a house of secular clergy who lived as ordinary priests, not as monks. The old Latin services were replaced with the English Prayer book which meant that worshippers could understand what was happening - and I sometimes wonder if the minor clergy were not similarly aided in comprehension.<br />
<b>The nave </b>has pillars 30 ft 7 inches high to the eye but are even taller since the present pavement was raised in 1740 by several inches. The glass is mostly modern. The <b>South Transept </b>is reputedly the birthplace of Perpendicular architecture as, in about 1330, the Gloucester builders placed straight up-and-down tracery over the old Norman work. <b>The tower</b> rises above the choir to the height of 225 feet.<br />
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<b>The East window, </b>assembled<b> </b>during the<b> </b>1350's,<b> </b>has the largest area of any cathedral window in Britain and was in essence a war memorial commemorating the deeds of barons at Crécy (1346) and Calais (1347). It is not flat but has bayed wings.<br />
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<b>The Cloister </b>is famous for the fan vaulting on its walls and this is where the monks worked, taught, walked and meditated. Unusually it lies to the North and so these men had a cold time of it. There is a <i>lavatorium</i> or washing place and there were 20 <i>carrels</i> or study closets along the walls. (I was interested to find this lovely word still in use in libraries in the U.S.A.) The chapels are fascinating also and the large bell, Great Peter, is the only Medieval Bourdon bell remaining in England and weighs in at a hefty 59 cwt plus, ringing out over the city marking the daylight hours.<br />
<b>The Effigies. </b>I am always on the look-out for the Welsh connection when I go abroad and sought out the tomb of the eldest son of William the Conqueror, Robert Curthose, made from Irish bog oak a century after his death in Cardiff Castle in 1134, where he had been imprisoned by his younger brother, Henry I. More magnificent is the tomb of Edward II who was brutally murdered in Berkeley Castle in September 1327, but the reasons and the supposed method are not mentioned in any of the discreet guide-books I have read. The effigy is made of alabaster and rests on a tomb chest of oolitic limestone clad in Purbeck marble.<br />
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Of the many famous people and events connected with the cathedral, I warm to the story of the hasty coronation in 1216 of the boy King Henry III using, according to legend, his mother's bracelet.<br />
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After this I enjoyed my CAKE in the café garden and then I wandered outside, gazing again at the tower, realising that part of its stunning effect derives from the presence of smaller towers around it, imitating its proportions. The doorway is splendid.<br />
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With a couple of hours to spare before my train to Newport to take me home on a Monmouthshire bus, I had a look at the city and was underwhelmed to find it largely a chain-store shopping mall. Hoping that Gloucester Quays might be more atmospheric I took a bus down there to find another soulless mall dedicated to designer outlet retail therapy. I can be a keen devotee of purchase power and snapped up a bargain but it does seem a great pity that our cities and towns are now so much alike and lack any individuality or connection with their richly textured history. Sad.<br />
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I am indebted to 3 guides for my research: one written by the then Dean, Dr. Henry Gee who died in 1938; the Pitkin Guide and one by David Verey and David Welander. Opening hours and other information may be checked by <a href="http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/" target="_blank">clicking here</a> and my articles on <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/cardiff-castle-central-and-fascinating.html" target="_blank">Cardiff Castle</a> and <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/berkeley-castle-beautiful-and-so-rich.html" target="_blank">Berkeley Castle</a> might be of interest to you also. I do hope so. All readers are allowed a large piece of CAKE after a visit either to a historic site or to my blog! A visit to <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/hereford-cathedral-imposing-yet-intimate.html" target="_blank">Hereford Cathedral</a> and Mappa Mundi is very worthwhile.<br />
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<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-62111117772052926772017-05-16T09:19:00.002-07:002017-07-08T08:11:05.904-07:00Warwick Castle: imposing with a long history<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Warwick Castle</b> has a dominating position on a cliff which has been eroded by the Avon: Sir Walter Scott, who saw it before the fire of 1871, described it as the "fairest monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which remains uninjured by time." In fact, during its long history it has been extensively remodelled, fallen into disrepair and been renovated again and again: time and man have injured it and so - metaphorically - have the present owners who allow a burger tent in the bailey and loud music to distract from the grandeur.<br />
When I first entered, I was struck by something odd in its proportions and attributed this to the delicate fairy-tale buildings on top of the motte but later discovered another reason during the excellent guided tour. Read on!<br />
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<b>Motte, bailey and towers.</b><br />
<b> </b> The mound you see is called Ethelfleda's motte after the doughty daughter of Alfred the Great, who founded a burh here in 916 to help defend Mercia from the attacking Danes, but it is Norman, not Anglo-Saxon. She was aided by a legendary Saxon earl named Guy who resolutely fought dragons and rescued distressed maidens and then married the daughter of Rohand, the first true Earl of Warwick.<br />
In 1068 William the Conqueror made Henry de Newburgh an earl and he enlarged the mound and constructed a Norman motte and bailey fortification which was later rebuilt in stone to replace the timber. The open space is now dominated by Caesar's Tower (also called Poitiers Tower) and Guy's Tower (probably not after the monster-slayer, unfortunately), the work of the Beauchamps, father and son, both called Thomas. Caesar's Tower has an oubliette (thrillingly horrible thought!), the walls of Guy's are 10 feet thick and they are masterpieces of 14th century military architecture. Both were probably inspired by French models and are machicolated. Other towers, Bear and Clarence, each with its own well and ovens, were instigated by Richard III and unfinished at his death in 1485.<br />
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<b>The State Rooms</b><br />
Warwick Castle has several splendidly huge chambers including the The State Dining Room, The Great Hall, (62 x 45 ft and 40 feet high) The Red Drawing Room, The Cedar Drawing Room, The Green Drawing Room and others. There are paintings in most of these by famous artists such as Raphael, Van Dyck, Rubens and the castle is worth visiting for these alone. The armour in The Great Hall is considered by some to be second only to that in the Tower of London and includes a touchingly small suit said to have been made for "the Noble Impe", the young son of Robert Dudley, who died in early childhood. Here you can also goggle at "Guy's Porage Pot", made in the 14th century as a garrison cooking utensil, apparently holding 136 gallons which is reputed to have been refilled 4 times with punch at a coming-of-age party. There is also a massive Beauvais tapestry showing Marlborough's army on the march and the famous picture of Queen Elizabeth I in her coronation robes. In the Cedar Room is a fireplace made by the Adam brothers in Carrara marble with the symbols of life and death, the egg and the arrow, as well as an Aubusson carpet with the Warwick bear and staff in each corner and the Greville swan on the centre edge. I normally prefer the exterior of a castle to sumptuous domestic rooms but there is no burger tent in here and I found the waxworks, which might have been naff, quite appealing.<br />
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<b>Other famous connections</b></div>
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<b> </b> <b>Piers Gaveston</b>, as we all learned in school, was the "favourite" of King Edward II and my shy history teacher never explained what that might have meant - I am also of modest disposition and will not illuminate the matter further. He flaunted himself and grew in power, was exiled but returned, until his presence became unsupportable: he nicknamed Guy, Earl of Warwick "the Black Hound of Arden" but Guy retorted that "one day the hound will bite him." Gaveston was tried in The Great Hall for stealing royal treasure by a committee of the Barons, was sentenced to death and beheaded by 2 Welshmen on 19th June 1312 on nearby Blacklow Hill. </div>
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I also emerged from my "O" level (shows how old I am!) history course having heard of <b>Warwick the</b> <b>Kingmaker</b> (22 November 1428 - 14th April 1471) but was unsure why he was so-called. Shakespeare said that Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, was "the proud setter up and puller down of kings" and he was a powerful leader in the Wars of the Roses, originally Yorkist but then switching to the Lancastrian side. He was by far the richest nobleman of the 1460's with a splendid household, retinue, fleet of ships and train of artillery. Thwarting the Duke of York's usurpation in 1460, he engineered the accession of Edward IV the following year and, falling out of favour, later restored Henry VI to the throne. </div>
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<b>"Capability" Brown </b>was employed in 1753 to beautify the courtyard and may have also helped landscape the gardens. I now regard him as a castle vandal since he destroyed ancient walls and Medieval buildings in the bailey at Cardiff Castle and here he did something even odder, as our guide explained. Thinking that the walls and towers were unduly looming and forbidding (that is the purpose of such items in my opinion) he was told that the cost of remodelling them was prohibitive and so he had the ground level raised ten feet. This was an immense undertaking and is the reason why the courtyard looks slightly disproportionate and why some of the windows (to the left of the entrance to the State Rooms) are half basement. </div>
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<b>My Trip Advisor Hat</b></div>
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Take the family and enjoy all the attractions but please do NOT patronise the burger tent and encourage further monstrosities. Listen to one of the excellent history team on a tour and engage with all the fun things outside such as the Horrible Histories Maze, the Birds of Prey Arena and Mews, the peacocks, the Mighty Trebuchet (largest working model in the world) and The Castle Dungeon. There is plenty to do and I quite see why the owners need to attract visitors to pay for the ongoing building works but wish they would keep any modernity outside the walls. That's all - and toot if you agree. Then visit nearby Kenilworth, ruined, wild and magnificent. I shall write about that soon. Yes - you are right in thinking I didn't do all this on Monmouthshire buses but I managed on public transport which is the main thing! Yet my New Year's resolution is never to go through huge Birmingham New Street Station again although I loved little old Moor Street Station.</div>
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For opening times etc <a href="https://www.warwick-castle.com/plan/plan-a-visit.aspx" target="_blank">click here</a>. For my article on <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/cardiff-castle-central-and-fascinating.html" target="_blank">Cardiff Castle</a> click here. Another early fort founded on instructions of William the Conqueror is <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/chepstow-castle.html" target="_blank">Chepstow Castle</a> which is possibly even more forbidding but then, it was built to deal with the Welsh!</div>
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Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-47360997905126803812017-04-30T23:46:00.000-07:002017-05-01T23:34:23.231-07:00The Tower of London: the Menagerie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This granddaddy of all keeps is instantly recognisable and the history of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London is comparatively well known and much repeated. As it is the first of the castles built by William after the Norman conquest and founded towards the end of 1066 (with the White Tower, which gives the site its name, being constructed in 1078) I could hardly ignore it in a blog largely about castles and Roman remains. I was wary of visiting, fearing the crowds, although I had joined them for the stunning and moving poppy creation in the moat to commemorate WWI - and dead and wounded soldiers of all times.<br />
However, I went early, as soon as it opened one July morning, and had the place virtually to myself for a while. I was suitably impressed.<br />
<b>The Menagerie</b><br />
I did all the enjoyable touristy things, goggling at Henry VIII's armour (just TOO much for first thing of the day!) and wondering why I do not particularly like gold and jewels (that's perhaps the reason I have never married a royal). Then I recalled afterwards that, near where one enters was perhaps the place where a variety of exotic animals was once kept. I thought a few stories about that would be less dog-eared (pun intended.) Nothing now remains of the Lion Tower, constructed by the Leopard Prince, when Edward I, but no CAKE prizes for guessing why it was so called, although we do not know exactly where the animals were housed. A small area here was excavated in 1999 but only domestic animal bones were found, some with (shiver) "gnaw damage". The wild creatures must have been buried elsewhere.<br />
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<b> Two famous animals</b><br />
We could guess that one of the earliest inhabitants, a pale or white bear, (probably a polar bear) was kept quite near the river because this gift from King Hakon IV of Norway to King Henry III in 1252 foraged for its own food. The cost of 4 sous a day (i.e. twopence) for feeding the animal for its first year had been felt by the Sheriffs of the City of London to be too great and so the people of the city were told by the king (safely in Windsor) to buy "one muzzle and one iron chain to hold that bear without [outside] the water, one long strong cord, to hold the same bear fishing or washing himself in the Thames." His keeper was also given a thick wrap to wear when he accompanied the fortunate creature to feast on the "far and sweet salmons" later recorded by Holinshed.<br />
Another later cost was for wine for the elephant which arrived in 1623 for King James as a gift from the Spanish king. Its keepers claimed that, between September and April, the animal would drink nothing but wine, a gallon a day, to protect it from the cold in a foreign land. When it keeled over and died there was speculation that it had not been given enough - but its maintenance would have cost over £275 a year apart from that amount of its regular and abundant tipple.<br />
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<b>Stray facts</b><br />
During the more than 600 years of its existence, the Tower housed a huge variety of animals in a haphazard and unsystematic fashion, nothing like a modern scientific zoo. The list cannot be complete but there were also: leopards, tigers, panthers, hyenas, wolves, racoons, jackals, a lynx, camels, brown bears (used in baiting), a grizzly called Old Martin, eagles, a porcupine, owls, a rhino and an antelope. The monkey room is of special interest since, for a brief time, visitors were allowed in to wander about despite the damage they suffered from the inhabitants who could pull off their wigs or bite them. It is good to think that, in this case, humans amused animals. Some individual creatures were regarded with great public affection - as they are occasionally today.<br />
The popularity of the Menagerie as a tourist attraction waxed and waned but there were periods when it was on most people's bucket list: they could either pay the admission cost or offer the family pet. I will spare my sensitive readers the reason for this and prefer the story of the lion which, encountering a spaniel dog in a baiting session, "cherished it, and contracted such a fondness for it, that he would never suffer it to be taken out again, but fed it at his table till he died, which was not till several years after."<br />
Geoffrey Chaucer - yes, that one - was Clerk of the King's Works for a couple of years and would have had responsibility for the upkeep of buildings connected with the animals.<br />
The creatures were threatened and terrified by the approach of the Great Fire: Pepys who watched the flames with tears in his eyes had taken the Crewes children to see the lions in 1662: they were so entertained that he described them as being "as pretty and the best behaved that ever I saw of their age." Or did they wonder what would happen to them if they misbehaved?<br />
For nearly 75 years from 1698 an April Fool hoax was perpetrated: rumours and sometimes posh tickets were issued for the annual ceremony of Washing the Lions. People paid to be taken out in boats for a good view - and to be splashed by the merry oarsmen. That spaghetti harvest has a long tradition.<br />
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<b>Attitudes</b><br />
The fascinating book from which I have taken most of this information, <i>The Tower Menagerie </i>by Daniel Hahn, documents changing attitudes towards animals over the centuries, from the untutored belief that ostriches could digest iron, to curiosity coupled with an extreme and nauseating cruelty, to a more knowledgeable and enlightened approach. I sometimes think we have swung too far and view them anthropomorphically or value them for their perceived cuteness but that is so much better than the horrors or neglect inflicted on them in earlier eras.<br />
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Do visit the Tower when you are in London: go early and afterwards walk along the bank of the Thames to see if you can glimpse the pale ghost of that salmon-eating polar bear idling in the sun or swimming in the water. Do NOT frighten those ravens! You can, of course, get to the capital by bus - I use National Express from Newport and travel in inexpensive luxury, saving my money for CAKE - as always! <a href="http://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/#gs.L_cKpu8" target="_blank">For opening times click here</a>. To read about another early castle, founded at Chepstow by William FitzOsbern, close ally of the Conqueror, <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/chepstow-castle.html" target="_blank">click her</a>e.Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8037820326901450844.post-66843374863340980622017-04-20T07:26:00.000-07:002017-07-08T08:17:33.764-07:00Berkeley Castle: beautiful and so rich in history<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Berkeley Castle</b> stands on a low hill in sight of the Severn estuary and is an appealing blend of Norman fortress and later Medieval mansion. The Domesday Book records that it was founded by William FitzOsbern, Earl of Hereford, who was a powerful ally of William the Conqueror and who makes regular guest appearances in this blog. Since he died in 1071, the castle must pre-date that. His sub-tenant adopted the name de Berkeley and the first 3 generation were all called Roger (just to confuse later historians). The last was dispossessed in 1152 for withholding allegiance to the House of Plantagenet during the Anarchy.<br />
The feudal barony was granted to Robert FitzHardinge, a supporter of the Plantagenets, and he, amazingly, was the founder of the Berkeley family which still holds the castle today. Complex? It gets worse: his father, Maurice, had married Alice de Berkeley and from then on most were called Maurice. He received a royal charter from Henry II giving permission to rebuild a stone castle defending the Bristol/Gloucester road and the Welsh border. All this makes Berkeley Castle the 3rd oldest continuously occupied castle in England after the royal fortresses of the Tower of London and Windsor Castle, and the oldest to be continuously owned and occupied by the same family.<br />
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<b>Architecture</b><br />
The original was a motte castle and, unusually, the keep was not strengthened in stone on top, but the sides of the mound were cut away to form a cylinder, revetted, and the keep constructed around it. Much of the rest is 14th century, built for Thomas de Berkeley (they had thought up another Christian name by then) and visitors can gaze at the battlements dropping 60 feet down to the lawn (all the surrounding area could be flooded in defence), trip steps to cause the enemy to fall over one another (this belies the idea that the door at the top was just large enough for a horseman), murder holes, portcullis slots and huge barred doors.<br />
Inside, there are grand rooms: the dining room with its 18th century silver service on display was converted from a billiard room as can be detected from the lights and the Great Hall boasts a fine 14th century ceiling. The picture gallery, drawing rooms, buttery (nothing to do with butter of course) and kitchen are all of interest and it is well worth taking the guided tour to learn all the details about their history. I found particular interest in the tale of the bosomy Mary Cole, portrayed here, who could have altered the course of history.<br />
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<b>Famous connections</b><br />
<b> </b>The best known is the murder of Edward II in 1327, which took place here, committed by his gaolers, Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gurney, although Berkeley himself was probably absent, being, as Marlowe says, "so pitiful". The alleged method was considered appropriate for what was perceived as his sexual deviancy and also unlikely to leave incriminating marks on the outside of his body - I will say no more. Recently there has been a revisionist alternative to this gruesome bit of history, in which Edward successfully escaped, was not recaptured, and died much later elsewhere. A less well-known and pathetic incident is related in Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle: this concerns the means of making the king less recognisable by the shaving en route to the castle of Edward's head and beard "in a most beastly manner" with cold puddle water. The King said he must have warm water and so "shed forth a shower of tears. Never was King turned out of a kingdom in such a manner." What is generally accepted is that Edward was kept in insanitary conditions above a stinking pile of dead or diseased animals in the expectation that this would undermine his constitution and lead to his death.<br />
Other royal visitors were: King John (the barons of the west convened here before Runnymede); Henry III; Margaret, wife of Henry VI; Henry VII, Queen Elizabeth I; George IV when Prince of Wales and William IV when Duke of Clarence. Horace Walpole came and was unimpressed! There is much ancient furniture including Sir Francis Drakes's cabin chest and Elizabeth I's bedspread.<br />
It is said the <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i> was written for a Berkeley wedding.<br />
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<b>Other points of interest</b><br />
As you walk around you might notice a small breach in the wall, a customary bit of slighting during the Civil War: the family were allowed to remain provided they did not repair this damage and, to this day, all they have done is make the wall safe, since they are still under orders from the original Act of Parliament.<br />
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In the nearby church, St. Mary's, bullet holes can be seen in the doors, dating from the Civil War and, in the churchyard, you can look at the tomb of Dickie Pearce, the last court jester, who died falling from the minstrel's gallery in 1728. Gertrude Jekyll had a hand in planting the terraces - the gardens specialise in scented flowers and sell some of them. The story goes that Elizabeth I, apart from playing bowls on the green, hunted and shot so many deer that the rest were moved to a park some miles away where she failed to find them. (So did we and settled for reasonably priced CAKE in the tea rooms in the attractive little town, which also dates from Medieval times.) There is a Butterfly House with interesting specimens and a café yurt (selling delicious velvet CAKE!) The house of Edward Jenner, whose invention of the small pox vaccine eventually completely eradicated this terrible disease, is close by and can be visited: it contains the horns of Blossom, the bovine heroine of his original experiment.<br />
Gertrude Jekyll described the atmosphere of the castle: "The giant walls and mighty buttresses look as if they have been carved by wind and weather out of some solid rock-mass, rather than wrought by human handiwork". In some evening light "it cheats the eye into something ethereal, without substance, built up for the moment into towering masses of pearly vapour."<br />
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My readers have sharp powers of forensic analysis and always note when I go off the route of a Monmouthshire bus but I assure you that Berkeley Castle can be reached by public transport. (I was taken by car though on this occasion - cheat!) Do check opening times, however, as it shuts in the winter and hosts weddings towards the end of each week. <a href="http://www.berkeley-castle.com/" target="_blank">Click here to find out.</a> <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/chepstow-castle-and-william-fitzosbern.html" target="_blank">William FitzOsbern </a>has already interested us as the founder of <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/chepstow-castle.html" target="_blank">Chepstow Castle</a>, which is not far away, and as a powerful <a href="http://onthebusesm.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/the-welsh-marches-history-castles-and.html" target="_blank">Marcher Lord.</a><br />
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<br />Barbara Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00469357002085692357noreply@blogger.com0