buildings
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In this instance I refer to St George’s Chapel, Windsor. In this article you can read all about its history and see some beautiful photographs. The other royal peculiar which immediately leaps to Ricardian minds is, of course, Westminster Abbey…which harbours That Urn. The last time we all saw St George’s Chapel at its…
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Here’s a tale of treachery and the cowardly theft of a throne. Such a shame though, because Powis Castle today is extraordinarily beautiful. I lament that Tudor‘s invasion with his foreign army didn’t take him into a particularly gluey and bottomless Welsh bog, or over a cliff on to jagged rocks in the middle of…
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Above is the cover of a new book about Richard III – at least, about his time in the North of England, during which he was a popular, loved and just ruler. So I guess M.J. Trow’s work has to be pro-Richard, because you can’t write about his Yorkshire years and not be favourable. Which…
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Henry Bolingbroke (Duke of Lancaster, soon-to-be the usurper Henry IV) was in mourning for his father John of Gaunt when he returned to England from exile and stole the throne of his first cousin, Richard II. I won’t go into all the details because what I’m about to write is rather, um, facetious. Apparently on…
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If there’s anything in the notion that all the different spellings of one name means all the folk of those various spellings are related, then I (as a Machin by birth) must have something (vaguely!) to do with the astonishing memorial to Thomas Machen and his family on the wall of Gloucester Cathedral. I’ve ended…
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Lady Eleanor Talbot’s family was long connected with ‘bottomless’ Blakemere/Blackmere/Black Mere, near Whitchurch in Staffordshire. Their manor house was on the shore of the mere, and was where Lady Eleanor may have been born. I once had reason to research Blakemere, but my prying did not turn up the legend of the Blakemere mermaid. Well,…
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… on the Bayeux Tapestry are featured in this excellent journal, Peregrinations by the International Society for the Study of Pilgrimage Art. The first relevant article, which also discusses Viking longboats and the Battle of Fulford, earlier in 1066, starts on (pdf) page 196. The second starting on page 238 compares the Tapestry with Trajan’s…
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Why are we so fascinated by the thought of lands and cities lost beneath the sea? Such tales are both compelling and a little frightening, but have always been around. No doubt they always will be. I’ve always been particularly intrigued by stories of the land of Lyonesse, but this article is about Dunwich, which…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 