dumnonia

Saturday 15 September 2018

For besides King Arthur, and Lancelot du lake,


ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND.
 THE FIRST PART. I 
(Tills ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys collection.] | 
W h y doe you boast o f Arthur and his knightes, 
Knowing ‘ well ’ how many men have endured fightes ? 

For besides King Arthur, and Lancelot du lake, I 
)r Sir Tristram de Lionel, that fought for ladies sake;
 It cad in old histories, and there you shall see I low St. George,
 St. George the dragon made to flee, hi, George he was for England;
 St. Dennis was for France j
 Sing, IToni soit qui mat y pense. 

Mark our father Abraham, when first he resckued Lot I inely with his household, what conquest there he got:
 I hivid was elected a prophet and a king, I le slew the great Goliah, with a stone within a sling :
 Vet these were not knightes of the table round; I Nor St. George, St. George, who the dragon did confound. Ill, George he was for England ; St. Dennis was for France ; 
Sing, Honi soit qui mal y pense. 
.biphthah and Gideon did lead their men to fight,
 I hey conquered the Amorites, and put them all to flight I (ercules his labours ‘ were ’ on the plaines of Basse;
 J And Sampson slew a thousand with the jawbone of an asse,



 * Suffer.

Tuesday 4 September 2018

4000 years

(1)
Dartmoor is an area unequalled in Southern Britain for its collection of visible remains of human occupation covering some 4000 years.
The preservation of these remains has been due to their existence in a large area of high moorland, but little disturbed by later agricultural or other activities, that involve the breaking of the soil.
The nearest comparable collection is on the western slopes of the mountain mass of Merioneth in North Wales.
But Dartmoor, which lies nearer to the Continent from which successive groups of settlers came, is likely to yield the more valuable information.
Scientific study requires that the area be considered as a whole.
Irreparable damage has already been done in the part farther north, including the Tavy Valley, and it is therefore the more necessary to preserve what remains. (2) The Plym valley is one of the richest areas in the whole of Dartmoor in respect of antiquities. Detailed evidence is being Submitted on behalf of the Council of British Archaeology and the Devon Archaeological Exploration Society.
Their schedule and map list over 60 sites of pre-Roman date.

Monday 3 September 2018

one willing to murder flowers and behead wild rosebuds

Trippers ready to believe that their name denotes: a rider in bangs, a litter distributor, one willing to murder flowers and behead wild rosebuds with paper streamers: not “one who walks nimbly, or dances with light feet.” Motor horns seem to be “The passing bell, also called the soul bell, ” sounding the knell of better days. 
Country Contentments 
STO LEN goods are sweetest when a title is needed for extracts from the “ Cunynge Curiosities” of 10th- to 18th-century writers; books “wherein, thou o Reader (if thou canst but read) art sure to finde abundance and plenty of matters most dainty.” Gervase Markham, the author of 16th-century Country Contentments, writes, like Sir Hugh Platt in The Garden of Eden, “to the pleasuring of others,” and title thief though I am, I can not feel that kindly Master Markham grudges me my stolen heading. “ I shall not blush to tell you I had some ambition to publish this book” for the “ pleasing” of “ all Gentlemen and Ladies and others delighting in God’s vegetable creatures.” 
“When the greate books at large are not to be had but at greate price,” or after hours of search in ancient libraries, many modern readers must be denied access to the “Truths and Mysteries” early writers deemed all important, and occasionally, as Platt says, “rolled up in the most cloudy and darksome speech” after having“wrung them from the earth by the painfull hand of experience for your good entertainment.” Surely in a world which pessimists insist is being given over to the devil all should hear of a reliable Anglo-Saxon Salve against “Temptations of the Fiend”? A famous politician begged for the inclusion of a “Leechdom against a man full of elfin tricks,” and suggested that certain citizens of the U.S.A. would welcome “A lithe soft drink against a devil and dementedness,” and might not Scotland Yard consider the possibilities of a prescription said to be infallible “If any evil tempting occur to a man” ? Such simple remedies, brewed, pounded or devised from garden herbes— “honest wortes,” mingled with Holy water, prayers, and flowers whose very names bring healing:— Love o’ the ground, All healand True Love, 
Mothers wort and Queen of the Meadows. As for a salve wherewith to anoint the forehead against visits from “Elf or goblin night visitors,” our nurseries still need it, while an ointment inducing Elves to return and restore our lost childish faith in them would be of even greater value to some of us. 2


Miss Rohde in her exquisite Garden of Herbs quotes a 16th-century receipt 


“ To enable one to see the fairies,” 

a charm I never saw written down, 
though one very similar was told me over thirty years ago by an old woman in the West Country.
 As in Miss Rohde’s version,
 Rosewater and Marigold water, herbs and flowers gathered to the East, played their part, but first in importance
           — or perhaps first in my memory— was, thyme and grass from a fairy ring.
 I often wanted to test its magical properties, but never succeeded in waking at dawn. 

According to my informer, dawn, or just before set of full moon, was the correct hour at which to make one’s first bow to the little unseen folk. 


At that time of my life the inner wonder of her beliefs and friendship with the fairies— which none of her neighbours seemed to doubt— was just as it should be, and nothing much out of the ordinary. 


Now, when I could better appreciate it and have no unsympathetic nursemaid to scoff at pleadings to be allowed a hedgehog in bed to keep me awake on important business, the old lady sleeps forever, and the wood where she said the fairies could be found was cut down in 1916. 

To have missed collecting all the details for preparing such a truly content-giving charm still makes me “monstrous melancholy” ; old adjectives, “prodigious,” “vastly,” and their like, express better than modern words the seriousness of such a loss.
 The loss of enjoyment and belief in ancient charms and customs, not to mention courtesies, has spread like a pest amongst country-folk since Trippers “boomswisshed” into their midst, 

Trippers ready to believe that their name denotes: a rider in bangs, a litter distributor, one willing to murder flowers and behead wild rosebuds with paper streamers: not “one who walks nimbly, or dances with light feet.” Motor horns seem to be “The passing bell, also called the soul bell, ” sounding the knell of better days. 
The above paragraph was gently censored by one with a knowledge of “ Gardens and their Godly treasure to be found therein” that ranks him kin to Thomas Hill, who wrote as finale to The Profitable Art of Gardening, “The favour of God be with thee always.”
 At his suggestion I add a quotation from Grose: 4
“ The passing Bell was antiently rung for two purposes, one to bespeak the Prayers of all good Christians for a Soul just departing; the other to drive away evil Spirits who stood at the Bed’s foot, and about the House, ready to seize their prey, or at least to molest and terrify the Soul in its passage: but by the ringing of that Bell (for Durandus informs us Evil Spirits are much afraid of Bells) they were kept aloof and the Soul like a hunted Hare gained the start or what is by Sportsmen called Law.” Even if many of the old Contentments are gone beyond recall, we can, as he says, loudly “ring the funerall peale” over such fiendish customs as the games of “Mumble Sparrow” and “Cat in Bottle”— inflicting intense suffering on helpless animals.
 The charm and sheer word magic of most of the old writers incline one to forget that the Country Contentments of our ancestors generally were balanced by discontentments.


 The New Art and Mystery of Gossiping and early issues of The Tatler and Spectator hint that 17th- and 18th-century Housewives were faced with difficulties similar to the troubles of a Maisonette wife or Flat-wife of to-day. 5

Friday 31 August 2018

The monument includes a tin blowing mill

Blowing mill 260m south east of Teignhead FarmList Entry SummaryThis monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Name: Blowing mill 260m south east of Teignhead Farm
List entry Number: 1019217

Location

The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County: Devon
District: West Devon
District Type: District Authority
Parish: Dartmoor Forest
National Park: DARTMOOR
Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.
Date first scheduled: 09-Feb-2001
Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: RSM
UID: 28757

Asset Groupings

This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description

Summary of Monument

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country.
 The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards.
 The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time.
 Blowing mills (also known as blowing houses) survive as rectangular drystone buildings served by one or more leats and are characterised by the presence of granite blocks with moulds cut into them - bevelled rectangular troughs known as mould stones - and on occasion by the square or rectangular stone built base of the furnace itself.
 During the medieval and early post-medieval period, black tin (cassiterite) extracted from streamworks and mines was taken to blowing mills to be smelted. At the blowing mill the cassiterite may have been washed a final time before being put into the furnace together with charcoal.
 To smelt tin the temperature within the furnace had to reach 1150 degrees C. 
This was achieved by blowing air through the furnace using water powered bellows. Once the tin had become molten, it flowed from the furnace into a float stone and was ladled into the mould stone, in which it cooled to form an ingot of white tin. The original number of blowing mills on Dartmoor is unknown, but at least 26 are believed to survive, whilst a further 41 are known only from stray finds and documentary sources. All examples with a clearly identifiable surviving structure are therefore considered to be of national importance.

The blowing mill 260m south east of Teignhead Farm survives well and is one of only seven examples known to contain a furnace. Important information concerning tin smelting technology survives within and around this building. The unusual mould stones containing two troughs and the particularly large furnace block are of special interest.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a tin blowing mill situated at the foot of a steep 3m high scarp adjacent to the North Teign river. The mill building is of drystone construction with the wall standing up to 0.8m high. The interior of the mill measures 13.6m by up to 3.5m and access to it was through a clearly mill, two edge set stones represent the site of the furnace, in which the black tin (cassiterite) was smelted. A hollow adjacent to the northern wall denotes the position of the wheelpit in which a wheel powered by water operated the furnace bellows. Molten tin from the furnace was ladled into a large mould stone, containing two separate troughs which stands next to the furnace. A second broken mould stone lies within the entrance. A 5.5m long by 2.3m wide rectangular structure is attached to the south eastern end of the mill building. This is defined by a rubble wall of varying height and width standing up to 1.2m high. In the area south of the mill there is a series of earthworks, some of which are the result of earlier streamworking, but others may relate to dressing and washing activities. Beyond these earthworks and adjacent to the river is a drystone wall of 19th century date. Built into the top of this, a broken mould stone and mortar stone are clearly visible. These features are included in the scheduling 

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Selected Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX68SW46, (1995)
MPP fieldwork by S. Gerrard, (1999)
National Grid Reference: SX 63768 84271


Monday 13 August 2018

southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal

 southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal: Hemerdon Mine (approx. 0.2 km; TUNGSTEN & TIN) Bottle Hill (approx. 0.8 km; COPPER, TIN & ARSENIC) Wheal Mary Hutchings (app...

Monday 4 June 2018

King Henry VIII of England. The king had him executed

Richard Whiting (abbot)

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Richard Whiting
Born1461
Died15 November 1539
Beatified13 May 1895 by Pope Leo XIII
Blessed Richard Whiting (1461 – 15 November 1539) was an English clergyman and the last Abbot of Glastonbury.
Whiting presided over Glastonbury Abbey at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541) under King Henry VIII of England. The king had him executed after his conviction for treason for remaining loyal to Rome. He is considered a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, which beatified him on 13 May 1895.

Early life[edit]

Whiting attended the University of Cambridge, graduating with an MA in 1483.[1]

Career[edit]

View of Glastonbury Abbey from the former location of the North transept in East direction to the choir.
Whiting was ordained deacon in 1500 and priest in 1501.[1] After the death of the Abbot of Glastonbury, Richard Beere, in February 1525, the community elected his successor per formam compromissi, which elevates the selection to a higher ranking personage – in this case Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey obtained King Henry's permission to act and chose Richard Whiting. The first ten years of Whiting's rule were prosperous and peaceful.[2] He was a sober and caring spiritual leader and a good manager of the abbey's day-to-day life.[1] Contemporary accounts show that Whiting was held in very high esteem.
The abbey over which Whiting presided was one of the richest and most influential in England. About one hundred monks lived in the enclosed monastery, where the sons of the nobility and gentry were educated before going on to university.[3]
Whiting signed his assent to the Act of Supremacy when it was first presented to him and his monks in 1534. Henry sent Richard Layton to examine Whiting and the other inhabitants of the abbey. He found all in good order, but suspended the abbot's jurisdiction over the town of Glastonbury. Small "injunctions" were given to him about the management of the abbey property. A number of times over the years which followed, Whiting was told the abbey was safe from dissolution.[1] However, the 1535 Suppression of Religious Houses Act brought about the dissolution of the lesser monasteries and provided a warning of what the future might hold.

Death[edit]

By January 1539, Glastonbury was the only monastery left in Somerset. Abbot Whiting refused to surrender the abbey, which did not fall under the Act for the suppression of the lesser houses.[3] On 19 September of that year the royal commissioners, Layton, Richard Pollard and Thomas Moyle, arrived there without warning on the orders of Thomas Cromwell, presumably to find faults and thus facilitate the abbey's closure. Whiting, by now feeble and advanced in years, was sent to the Tower of London so that Cromwell might examine him himself. The precise charge on which he was arrested, and subsequently executed, remains uncertain, though his case is usually referred to as one of treason. Cromwell clearly acted as judge and jury: in his manuscript, Remembrances are the entries:
Item, Certayn persons to be sent to the Tower for the further examenacyon of the Abbot, of Glaston... Item. The Abbot, of Glaston to (be) tryed at Glaston and also executyd there with his complycys... Item. Councillors to give evidence against the Abbot of Glaston, Rich. Pollard, Lewis Forstew (Forstell), Thos. Moyle.
Marillac, the French Ambassador, on 25 October wrote: "The Abbot of Glastonbury. . . has lately, been put in the Tower, because, in taking the Abbey treasures, valued at 200,000 crowns, they found a written book of arguments in behalf of queen Katherine." [1]
As a member of the House of Lords, Whiting should have been attainted (condemned) by an Act of Parliament passed for that purpose, but his execution was an accomplished fact before Parliament met. Whiting was sent back to Glastonbury with Pollard and reached Wells on 14 November. There some sort of trial apparently took place, and he was convicted of "robbing Glastonbury church". The next day, Saturday, 15 November, he was taken to Glastonbury with two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James, where all three were fastened upon hurdles and dragged by horses to the top of Glastonbury Tor which overlooks the town. Here they were hung, drawn and quartered, with Whiting's head being fastened over the west gate[3] of the now deserted abbey and his limbs exposed at Wells, BathIlchester and Bridgwater.[2]

Abbot of Glastonbury

Abbot of Glastonbury

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The Abbot of Glastonbury was the head (or abbot) of Anglo-Saxon and eventually Benedictine house of Glastonbury Abbey at Glastonbury in Somerset, England. The following is a list of abbots of Glastonbury:

Abbots[edit]

NameDatesWorksNotes
St Benignus?458–469(reputed)
’Worgret’c.601–?
’Lademund’c.663–c.667
’Bregored’c.667
Beorhtwaldc.667–676/7Archbishop of Canterbury 693–731
Haemgils676/7–701/2
Beorhtwald701/2–709/10
Ealdberht709/10–718/9Church of SS Peter & Paul built by King Ine
Ecgfrith718/19–?
Wealhstod729(rejected by some sources)
Coengils?–737
Tunberht737–?
Tyccea754–760
Guba760–762
Wealdhun762–794
Beaduwulf794–800
Muca802–824
Guthlac824–851
Ealhmund851–867
Hereferth867–891(now thought probably to come before Ealhmund)
Stithheard891–922
Aldhun922–?
Cuthred
Ælfric?
Ecgwulf
St Dunstan940–957+Lengthened Ine's church and added a tower. Raised the level of the cemetery and constructed various monastic buildings.later Archbishop of Canterbury[1][2]
?Ælfricoccurs after Dunstan in some lists[2](probably spurious)[3]
Ælfstanoccurs in some lists after Ælfric(probably spurious)[3]
Sigarc.970–975(?)[2]later Bishop of Wells 975–997[2]
Ælfweardc.975–1009[2][3]
Brihtred (Beorhtred)1009–?[3]
Brihtwig (Brihtwine)c. 1017–1024[3]later Bishop of Wells[3]
Æthelweard (Aegelweard)c.1024–1053[2]
Æthelnoth1053–1078[3]deposed by Lanfranc[2]
Thurstanc.1077–after 1096[2]Began a new church1091. Translation of relics of St Benignus from Meare
Herluin1100–1118[2]Rebuilt Thurstan's church on a grander scale
Seffrid Pelochin1120/1–1125[2]Bishop of Chichester from 1125 to 1145
Henry of Blois1126–1171[2]Built a bell tower, chapter house, cloister, lavatory, refectory, dormitory, infirmary, the 'castellum', an outer gate, a brewery and stablesalso Bishop of Winchester from 1129[1]
Robert of Winchester1173–1180[2]Built a chamber and chapelpreviously Prior of Winchester[2]
Peter de Marcy1186. New St Mary's Chapel consecrated. Work on Great Church begun.1184 (25 May). Great Fire
Henry of Sully1189–1193[2]supposed tomb of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere discovered in the cemetery c. 1190[1]
Later Bishop of Worcester 1193–1195[2]
Savaric FitzGeldewin1193–1205[2]also Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury
(Master William Pica)(1198–1200)(elected 1198 but election quashed 1200)[2]
Jocelin of Wells1206–1219[4]also Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury from 1206–1242
William of St Vigor1219–1223[4]
Robert of Bath1223–1235[4]Deposed 29 March 1235[4]
Michael of Amesbury1235–c.1252[4]Carried work on the choir forward
Roger of Ford1252–1261[4]died 2 October 1261, buried at Westminster[4]
Robert of Petherton1261–1274[4]Built abbot's chamberdied 31 March 1274[4]
John of Taunton1274–1291[4]Choir completed; west end of nave and galilee built. King Arthur's remains transferred to new tomb 1278.died 7 October 1291[4]
John of Kent1291–1303[4]
Geoffrey Fromond1303–1322[4]Spent £1,000 on buildings: completed various parts of the Great Church
Walter of Taunton1322–1323[4]Built pulpitum at west end of choirdied 23 January 1323[4]
Adam of Sodbury1323–1334[4]Completed vaulting of nave of Great Church; worked on great hall and built a new chapel on the TorConcealed Hugh le Despenser and Robert Baldock, Lord Chancellor at the end of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer's Overthrow of Edward II in 1326[5]
John of Breynton1334–1342[4]Completed abbot's great hall and worked on various other related buildings including prior's hall
Walter de Monington1342–1375[4]Extended choir by 40 feet, adding 2 bays. Completed abbot's chapel and infirmary. King Arthur's tomb transferred 1368.
John Chinnock (John Chynnock)1375–1420[4]1382. Restored chapel and rededicated it to SS Michael & Joseph; rebuilt cloisters, erected or repaired the dormitory and fratry.
Nicholas Frome1420–1456Finished chapter house, rebuilt misericord house and great chamber; constructed bishop's quarters and a wall around abbey precincts. Probably responsible for the abbot's kitchen.
John Selwood1456–1493Built parish church of St John Baptist. Erected pilgrims' inn.
Richard Beere1493–1524Began Edgar Chapel; built crypt under Lady Chapel and dedicated it to St Joseph; built a chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at south end of nave; built the Loretto chapel; added vaulting under central tower and flying buttresses at east end of choir; built St Benignus' Church and rebuilt Tribunal
Richard Whiting1525–1539Completed Edgar ChapelHanged on Glastonbury Tor, 15 November 1539.

Thursday 24 May 2018

Venvill “They do also present that the soil of divers moors

Venvill
“They do also present that the soil of divers moors, commons and wastes, lying for the most part about the same forest of Dartmoor and usually called by the name of the Common of Devonshire, is parcel of the Duchy of Cornwall, and that the foresters and other officers of his majesty and his progenitors Kings and Queens of England have always accustomed to drive the said commons, moors and wastes of other men (lying in like manner about the said forest) home to the corn hedges and leap yeates round about the same Common and forest, some few places only exempted, and that the said foresters and officers have taken and gathered to his majesty’s use at the times of drift within the same commons such profits and other duties as they have and ought to do within the said forest; how be it they intend not hereby to prejudice the particular rights which any persons do claim for themselves or their tenants in any commons or several grounds in or adjoining to the said common or forest, but do leave the same to judgment of the law and to the justness of their titles which they make to the same.
“More they do present that all the King’s tenants which are Venvill have accustomed and used to have and take time out of mind in and upon the forest of Dartmoor all things that may do them good, saving vert (which they take to be green oak) and venson, paying for the same their Venvill rents and other dues as hath been time out of mind accustomed, and doing their suits and service to his majesty’s courts of the manor and forest of Dartmoor aforesaid, and also excepting night rest, for the which every one of them have of long time out of mind -yearly paid or ought to pay 3 d., commonly called agrasewait, and also to have and take tyme out of mind common of pasture for all manner of beasts, sheep, cattle in and upon all the moors, wastes, and commons usually called the Common of Devonshire, and also turves, vagges, heath, stone, coal and other things according to their customs, paying nothing for the same but the rents, dues and services aforesaid, nevertheless their meaning is that the Venvill men ought not to turn or put into the said forest or common at any time or times any more or other beasts and cattle than they can or may usually winter in and upon their tenements and grounds lying within in Venvill.”
It is not always easy to determine precisely those parishes that were described as being in Venville; such parishes were said to be

Venvill