Another of those beautiful Longwood Sand Hill Cranes–the rest of the pics that are mine are from all over.
Still working on odds and ends–pounds should be here on time….only getting few hope to get decent rate in England thru our Virgin membership….so…..got house about half cleaned..two days to do the rest….I am deciding on how to bring stuff two suit cases and small carry on or what????? I am like seriously stressed which is usual for me when I’m getting ready for major travel.
I have the clothes just about done—doing last min. laundry on Thurs and have just a few things to add once they’re washed.
Edward (III) outlived his successes: by the time he died, plague had ravaged his kingdom, most of the French territory was lost, and the enormous cost of his campaigns had made him unpopular and indebted….he is (now) remembered as one of England’s greatest warrior kings. Richard Cavendish
and Dianna on the series and her newest book: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-st-outlander-author-diana-gabaldon-starz-20150109-story.html
There was a tempting price on his head, but not a soul betrayed him. After his restoration in 1660 the oak tree (where he hid after loosing a battle) flourished as the Royal Oak of many an inn sign, while the day of Charles (II)’s return to London was celebrated as Oak Apple Day. Richard Cavendish
https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/DragonLaire/tools/listings/243126622
London’s pubs often have a long history: Take for instance the Silver Cross….despite it’s exterior that looks like hundreds of newer pubs trying to look old, it was actually founded on this spot in the 17th century and it was multi-purpose–having been granted a brothel license in 1673. Try the fish & chips—oh and watch out for the ghost said to be a girl in Tudor dress—though that would make her pre-date the pub as Elizabeth I–the last of the Tudors–died in 1603.
And while we’re about Tudors–Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) was a friend of Henry VIII but he was also a devoted Catholic and so he parted from Henry (because he wouldn’t agree with Henry’s taking England from the church), and eventually his head and became a Catholic martyr and eventually a saint (1935), as he was Henry’s Lord Chancellor he is now the patron saint of lawyers and politicians–the man can’t seem to get a break. There’s a statue of him on Old Church Street in Chelsea (outside the church were his first wife is buried) as well as a corner memorial to him in the legal district on Carey Street as he was a member of the Lincoln Inn. His decendents live at Loseley Park near Guildford (More-Molyneux family) whose stones were plundered from Waverley Abbey. He was questioned at Lambeth Palace (over the Thames at Lambert Bridge in Westminster) by Thomas Cromwell (who Henry also had executed in 1540). More by the way is buried at Canterbury.
“Much of the future queen’s (Victoria) girlhood was actually spent in lonely unhappiness in a run-down set of apartments in Kensington Palace, where she felt unloved.” Richard Cavendish
In Padstow (an old fishing village in Cornwall) they have a bizarre festival, on May Day, which some believe is the oldest folk festival in Europe. The horse (yes that is it above) is on a boat shaped frame covered with black oilcloth trimmed in red and white (symbol of new life).
If you see the word Temple in a town’s name (as in Temple Balsall) it often means that the town was built on land belonging to or near to such property of the Order of the Knights Templar, a religious military order (founded 12th century) to guard shrines and pilgrims in the Holy Land. Though originally they appear to have meant to be an order of brotherhood and poverty they seem to have went the other direction and became massively rich and powerful throughout Europe. They wore white with red crosses (while another order of similar founding the Knights Hospitaller–similar but less military– who also became rich and famous– wore white crosses on black). Eventually they became too powerful and charges from heresy to blasphemy were brought against them and with the loss of the Holy Lands and no need for their services they were suppress (read murdered by the powers that be who wanted their riches and feared their powers–primarily the French king) and disappeared from the grid, but have been the subject of legend and movie themes, not to mention treasure hunter, ever since. Much of their property in England went to the St. John Knights, who’s history you can see at a museum in Clerkenwell, London. To see one of their few remaining church with several effegies of the Templer Knights, themselves see the Temple Church also in London.
One of the famous captive of the 1847 London Zoo Jumbo went on to further fame when the elephant was purchased and shipped to the US by P.T. Barnum to become part of Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. A later small boy became famous here too, when Harry Potter learned the language of snakes here at the reptile house. The zoo is also home to over 600 endangered species and their breeding program helps keep them from becoming extinct.
Henry (II) has been described..as the greatest king that England ever knew. The only shadows on his reign were the grisly murder of his chancellor (those people most have bulls eyes on their backs) and friend Thomas Becket (who was also made a saint and a martyr and Henry VIII had his shrine destroyed–him and More had a lot in common, including a Henry or so) and the rebellion and the treachery of his own family. Henry died, at the end of a magnificent reign, the enemy of his wife and sons. Richard Cavendish
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Henry (V) was the last of the great warrior king of the Middle Ages. In his short but extraordinary reign he expanded England’s territory in France, became heir to the French throne and led his army in one of the most iconic victories in English History at Agincourt. Richard Cavendish
