travel
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Finding the original town plans of London, before the Great Fire of 1666, is always intriguing, and very rewarding indeed for those of us who love all things medieval. So, in this respect, I welcome the Tudors. I already have books of London maps, published by the London Topographical Society, of our capital in the…
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Last night I watched (on PBS America) a BBC2 Timewatch episode entitled The Mysteries of the Medieval Ship. It concerned the discovery, in June 2002, of a foundered/scuttled medieval vessel of some size, buried in the oozing mud of the Severn Sea – well, the oozing mud of the River Usk, at Newport, to be…
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The other talents of Sir Clements Markham
Abyssinia, Antarctic, Arctic, Edward VI, explorers, India, India Office, Inland Revenue, James Gairdner, Lazarille de Tormes, Peru, Richard III, Robert Falcon Scott, Royal Geographical Society, Royal Navy, Shackleton, Sir Clements Markham, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir John Franklin, Sir Peter Scott, Spain, translationTo historians, Ricardians in particular, Clements Markham is best known as the writer who built on the earlier research of Horace Walpole and others to rehabilitate the last Plantagenet during the Edwardian era. In this capacity, his rivalry with James Gairdner is legendary and he wrote a biography of Edward VI, however Markham was a…
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Here’s Legends an interesting book of Leicestershire folk tales for children. It includes the intriguing story of the griffin of Griffydam. Oh, and it also relates the “legends” about King Richard III !!
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So tomorrow’s royal wedding will involve a fleet of carriages – should be great to see, and I really hope the weather comes up trumps for the occasion. In this article, I noticed the following passage:- “….The original Mews was built at Charing Cross to house King Richard II’s hawks in 1377, and was named…
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UPDATED POST ON sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/05/22/murder-and-mayhem-in-medieval-london/ Here is a link to an interesting map and article on the murder hotspots of medieval London. Click on a dot and details pop up of that particular murder. Most of the culprits either just simply disappeared pronto or skedaddled into sanctuary and frustratingly the outcomes are…
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This article begins: “London is usually seen as a one-river city, just big old Father Thames. The city breathes with the rise and fall of its tide, and for centuries the Thames has posed patiently for tourist drawings, etchings and photos. But what of London’s other rivers, the capital’s unseen waterways? Twenty-one tributaries flow…
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Here is a question that has bugged me for some time now. If, during medieval centuries, a journey could be made around the English coast, rather than across country, was the sea option likely to be chosen? I will take a particular example. It’s from the 14th century, but could be from the 13th or…
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More musical connections?
Archbishop Cranmer, Balliol College, BBC Radio, executions, Gloucester, Hadleigh, heresy, Hugh Latimer, Ian Hislop, John Foxe, John Hooper, Marian persecution, Martyrs’ Memorial, Mary I, Nicholas Ridley, nursery rhymes, Oxford, Patrick Hamilton, Robert Ferrar, Rowland Tayler, Scotland, St. Andrews, St. David’s, Three Blind Mice, WalesThis nursery rhyme, although not mediaeval, is early modern and is supposed to refer to a monarch just a few places after Richard III. Here (left) we have the Martyrs’ Memorial near Balliol College, Oxford, that commemorates three of Mary I’s most prominent victims: Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley. They were not the only…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 