The New Murrey and Blue blog

Roman culture

♫♫ “Oh, the holly blooms in summer, as white as any snow….”♫♫

Jul 24, 2024

anniversaries, culture, religion

Celtic myths, Christmas carols, crafts, crown of thorns, dioecious, duke of argyll, fairies, foretelling, Halloween, holly, James II holly, Midsummer Day, New Year, Norse gods, plants, preston candover, robins, Roman culture, Saturnalia, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Holly and the Ivy, thor, thunder

Today, 24 July, is my granddaughter’s birthday, and her name is Holly. Why was she given that particular name? Because her existence was first anticipated at Christmas. So my Holly is linked to both Christmas and Summer. She, like the holly in the above photograph, first actually bloomed at the height of summer. And her…
Dan Jones hits the road …

Dec 17, 2020

archaeology, battles, buildings, humour, law, religion

5Select., Bath, bath houses, Dan Jones, David Starkey, Dere Street, Ermine Street, Exeter, Hadrian’s Wall, Leicester, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, London, Richard III, Roman culture, Roman invasion, tattoos, Walking Britain’s Roman Roads, Watling Street, York

… Walking Britain’s Roman Roads, in fact. It is quite a good series, in which Jones explores some of the most important of these, together with some aspects of Romano-British Society. The first episode takes him the length of Watling Street, the first part of which is now he M2, during which he visits the…