The Past brought to Life
Horned Gods November 4th is dedicated to hunting gods such as Herne, the Horned God, Cernunnos, The Green Man and Pan. Herne the Hunter appears in Shakespeare: There is an old tale goes, that Herne theHunter(sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest)Doth all the winter-time, at still midnightWalk round about an oak, with great ragg’d …
Continue reading “The Horned God & Preparing for Guy Fawkes Day November 4th”
The anniversary was celebrated in London with bonfires and bell-ringing. Lighted fire-barrels were rolled along Cheapside. It was, in a way, the precursor to Guy Fawkes Day (1605 onwards). Protestants celebrated it with such joy as it was the end of the reign of Elizabeth’s sister, Queen Mary I. ‘Bloody’ Mary, as she was named …
The old Shepherd’s saw is: ‘In with a bang and out with the fools’. The bang is Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th, and the fools are a reference to All Fools Day on April 1st. The gestation period of a ewe is 147 days (on average). (sheep-farmers-year). So farmers introduce the Ram into a …
Soon, after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Parliament legislated for an annual commemoration of the Catholic Plot. The date they chose was the anniversary of finding Guy Fawkes with a lantern next to piles of barrels of Gunpowder underneath Parliament. This was the occasion of the State Opening of Parliament, 5th November 1605. The …
Kalendar of Shepherds The 15th Century French illustration in the Kalendar of Shepherds shows October as a busy month. It is the time when the cereals are being flailed, the fields ploughed and sown. Perhaps winter wheat or barley or peas and beans? The 16th Century English text of the Kalendar of Shepherds (read the …
Continue reading “October – Winterfylleth, Hydref, or Deireadh Fómhair”
The Ashmolean is a lovely museum. It’s like a miniature combination of the British Museum, The National Gallery, and the V&A. It has a superb collection including the Cretan Archaeology excavated by the Museum’s Director, Arthur Evans in Knossos. Not only that, but it is Britain’s oldest secular Museum, opening over fifty years before the …
Continue reading “The Ashmolean Museum First Opened May 24th 1683”
The following list consists of events that I have organised. THE ORIGINS OF LONDON Prehistoric London; London Before London, 2000 Yrs of the City of London; Myths & Legends and the Archaeological Origins of London; Celtic London; London: AD43;Roman London; Recent Archaeology in London; Decline& Fall of Roman London; Dark Age London; Rebirth of Saxon …
Continue reading “An Almost Complete List of my Walks, Study Tours & Lectures”
Recent discoveries from Pompeii are being reported in a timely fashion on an interesting website – one of the recent posts is about the discovery of a Roman Electoral Poster. Please enjoy the read! electoral-inscriptions-discovered-in-pompeii Below, I enclose a short section of my book ‘In Their Own Words – A Literary Companion To The Origins …
Continue reading “New Discovery about Elections in Ancient Pompeii”