Regent’s Canal, London in the Month of April. Photo K Flude
The name of the Month of April comes from Latin. From Aperilis from aperio meaning ‘to open’. This is the month when the Earth opens up, the blossoms bloom, buds budding, the flowers flowering.
In Anglo-Saxon times, the Venerable Bede mentioned that they called the month Eostremonath. But there really is no other evidence for the Goddess Eostre. But it is from her that we get our word ‘Easter’. In Gaelic it’s the Cuckoo’s month ‘Ceitein na h-oinsich’. In Welsh it is Ebrill which comes from the Latin.
Title Page of the Kalendar of Shepherds for the Month of April
The image from the medieval Kalendar of Shepherds shows all the beautiful flowers blooming and a female sitting on the grass embroidering. The star signs of the month are shown in the roundels. (This section was moved from its original April Fools Day post home)
Aries sign of the ZodiacTaurus sign of the zodiac
Star Signs as Greek Deities
Astrological signs and their associated Dieties.
I can’t remember where I found this illustration nor its justification. But, surely there something wrong when the God Aries is not the patron of the Star sign Aries? Hestia is the Goddess of the Heath. In other words, she is the Goddess of all those wonderful things that are encompassed by the word ‘Home’. (You’ll find more on Hestia in my reflections-on-the-solstice/)
The Month of April in the Kalendar of Shepherds
The Kalendar of Shepherds as usual gives a lyrical insight into the countryside in the month of April:
It continues with a poem, and then the text describes what happens to the child in the fourth set of 6 years. January represents 0 – 6, February 6 – 12, so April 18 – 24 – the spring time of Man.
Sketch from an old print. Francis Drake being knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. In fact, the Queen delegated the dubbing to a French Diplomat
The Queen’s half share in the profits of the Golden Hind’s circumnavigation of the world, amounted to more than her normal annual income. So it is no wonder she knighted the Captain, Sir Francis Drake, in the dock in what is now South East London at Deptford. The Spanish were furious that a Pirate should be so honoured. The Queen may have given a French man the honour of dubbing Sir Francis. She did this, perhaps to encourage the French to support the English against the Spanish.
The annual Royal Income for King Charles III is £86.3 million. This is paid in the Sovereign’s Grant. It gives you an idea of Drake’s booty. But I imagine she had a greater share of the nation’s wealth than Charles, as she was the Government not just a honorific cutter of ribbons.
Francis Drake. Hero or Bloodthirsty Pirate?
Francis Drake was one of the British heroes I read about as a child. I had a thick book with stories about people like Hereward the Wake, Drake, Charles II, Bonny Prince Charlie, David Livingstone etc. Many of them horrifically Imperialist and racist!
Drake was remembered for being the first English person to sail around the world. And his exploits in ‘singeing the beard of the King of Spain’ on his piratical raids on the Spanish Main.
In the books I read, the Spanish were the bad guys and we were on the side of the Angels. Drake was one of the swash-buckling heroes who turned Britain from a not very important country on the edge of Europe, to one of the World’s Great Powers.
Portrait of Francis Drake with Drake Jewel given to him by Queen Elizabeth I
On the other hand, he was also a pioneer in the Slave Trade, was involved in atrocities in Ireland and in the Spanish Territories. He summarily executed one of his crew in dubious circumstances. Perhaps more significantly, his contemporaries did not entirely trust him.
Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada
As the Spanish Armada sailed along the southern coast of England, the English Navy sniped at the heels of the Spanish. Drake was tasked with leading the night time pursuit of the Armada up the Channel. The idea was to stop them landing and to drive them away and into the North Sea. Drake in the Revenge was leading the pursuit, and the other ships were told to follow. He was to keep a single lantern alight in the stern of his ship. But the Lantern went out, and the British pursuit was disrupted.
The next morning, Drake comes back having captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario, flagship of Admiral Pedro de Valdés. The ship contained the gold to pay the Spanish Armada, which Drake seized. Was this a fortuitous accident which rebounded to Drake’s considerable financial advantage or something more deliberate?
In the end, the lantern incident did not stop the British forcing the Spanish to flee around the North of Scotland. On this perilous voyage only about 60 of their ships returned to Spain out of about 130. Britain was saved.
Nuestra Señora del Rosario and Agatha Christie
I used to lead an Agatha Christie program which included a visit to the Agatha Christie Poison Garden at Torre Abbey. And it was here that the captured Spanish ship’s crew were imprisoned after Francis Drake captured it.
The Abbey is now a lovely museum with the Poison Garden amidst the ruins of the Premonstratensian Abbey. Its tithe barn was used to hold the prisoners of war from the Ship. There were 397 of them. .
The Spanish Bar, Torre Abbey. Photo 2012 Kevin Flude
Sir John Gilbert, who was Sheriff of Devon at the time, used 160 Spanish Prisoners of War to develop his estate above the River Dart. The Estate is in a magnificent position, overlooking the drowned valley of the Dart. It is now enjoyed by those millions of visitors to what became the summer home of Agatha Christie (Greenway).
View of the River Dart from GreenwayView of Greenway from the River Dart
The Golden Hind & Deptford
Queen Elizabeth I decided that the Golden Hind should be permanently docked in Deptford. So the ship was placed in a ‘dry’ dock filled with soil. The ship decayed slowly with time, and by about 1660 nothing much was left.
I remember as a young archaeologist that some of our team took time out to work with Peter Marsden. He is one of the great experts in Naval archaeology, and he led a search to find Drake’s ship. There was a huge fanfare in the London newspapers. But, rather embarrassingly, given the build up, they failed to find anything of significance.
Another attempt was made in 2012. This also failed to discover any significant traces of an Elizabethan Galleon.
From an old history book
Golden Hind souvenirs
The Keeper of the Naval Stores at Deptford made chairs from the ruins of Drake’s ship, and one of them is on display at the Divinity Hall, Oxford.
Chair made from timbers of the Golden Hind in the Dinity Hall, Oxford, photo K FludeChair made from the ruins of the Golden Hind, photo K Flude
Sir Francis Drake and Middle Temple Hall
In London, Sir Francis Drake was a regular visitor at Middle Temple Hall, off of Fleet St. A table (called the cupboard) is reputedly made from the hatch cover of the Golden Hind. This is where the newly qualified barristers stand to have their registration entered into the Inn’s books. Sadly, it did not survive the bombing of 1941.
Middle Temple Hall. Photo K Flude 2021
The lantern which hung in the entrance to Hall allegedly came from the ship’s poop deck (so not the one he failed to keep lit!). Other famous mariners are also associated with the Middle Temple including Sir Martin Frobisher and Sir Walter Raleigh. Shakespeare’s company performed Twelfth Night in the Middle Temple Hall
The Romans celebrated the Great Mother, the Cybele in the festival of the Megalesia. To celebrate bringing of meteorite of Cybele to her temple in Rome in 204BC. Celebrated by the Games of the Great Mother
Bill for the 1796 play Vortigern and Rowena Public Domain Wikipedia
Vortigern was chosen as leader of Britannia immediately after the Romans withdrew in the early 5th Century AD. His name means Great Leader in Brittonic. He is one of the few leaders we know to be a real person in what used to be called the Dark Ages. We accept him as real, as he appears in the near contemporary source by the Monk Gildas.
However, very little is known of him except legends. He was associated with Merlin. Legend accuses him of betraying the British for the lust for Rowena. She was the daughter of the Saxon Leader Hengist. Whatever the truth of this, he continued the late Roman policy of hiring Germanic mercenaries. They were used to defend against the many barbarian threats to the Empire. The threats to Britain including the Picts, the Irish, and, of course the Saxons. The legends say that Hengist and Horsa were hired with their three ‘keels’ of Saxon mercenaries. In payment for services rendered, or for lust, Vortigern surrendered the sovereignty of Kent to the Saxons. Thus began the so-called ‘Adventus Saxonum’, and the destruction of the power of the Britons.
Kent and the Survival of pre-Saxon names
Medieval portrait of Vortigern
How much of this is ‘true’ we have no idea. But the name of Kent survives from the prehistoric, into the Roman. And unlike most tribal names survives to the modern day. This is probably because it was the first Roman Civitas to be taken over by the Saxons. Most likely still largely a working political unit. So it kept its name. The other Roman political units mostly lost their names in the anarchy of this period. Who now has heard of the Trinovantes, the Catuvellauni, or the Atrebates? The political boundaries from the Prehistoric period survived through the Roman period. But mostly did not survive the fall of Rome.
In 1796, a great cast at the Drury Lane Theatre, owned and managed by Sheridan, put on a newly discovered play by William Shakespeare. The cast included Kemble, Barrymore, and Mrs Jordan who was the mistress of Prince William (aka William III). Rumours swirled around about the authenticity of the play. Shakespeare was interested in Britain’s legendary history having written Cymberline and King Lear. But critics thought it was too simple to be genuine. Eventually, William Henry Ireland admitted he was the author.
‘A London Year’ by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison has a great quote from a visit to the play. It took place on April 2nd 1796 and is recorded in Joseph Farington’s diary. Compare this description to your last polite experience at the Theatre.
Shakespeare’s forgery staged
Island’s play of Vortigern, I went to. Prologue, spoken in 35 minutes past six, play over at 10. A strong party was evidently made to support it, which clapped without opposition frequently through near three acts. When some ridiculous passages caused a laugh, which infected the house during the remainder of the performance, mixed with groans. Kemble requested the audience to hear the play out about the end of the fourth act, and prevailed. The epilogue was spoken by Mrs. Jordan, who skipped over some lines which claimed the play as Shakespeare’s
Barrymore attempted to give the play out for Monday next, but was hooted off the stage. Kemble then came on. And after some time, was permitted to say that ‘School for Scandal’ would be given, which the house approved by clapping.
Sturt of Dorsetshire was a Stage Box drunk and exposed himself indecently to support the play. And when one of the stage attendants attempted to take up the green cloth, Sturt seized him roughly by the head. He was slightly pelted with oranges. Ireland, his wife, a son and a daughter and two others were in the centre box at the head of the Pitt. Ireland occasionally clapped. But towards the end of the fourth act, he came into the front row and for a little time, leaned his head on his arm. And then went out of the box and behind the scenes. The Playhouse contained an audience that amounted to £800 pounds.
April 2nd 1796 from Joseph Farington’s Diary, (I have changed some of the punctuation.)
On This Day
Today is St. Urban of Langres Day.
He is the patron of Langres; Dijon; vine-growers, vine-dressers, gardeners, vintners, and coopers. And invoked against blight, frost, storms, alcoholism, and faintness. (www.catholic.org/saints/) But is also called upon to make maid’s hair long and golden.
On the feast of St Urban, (forsooth) maids hang up some of their hair before the image of St Urban, because they would have the rest of their hair grow long and golden.
Reginald Scott, the Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584. (Thanks to the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly.) For more on Reginald Scott and Witches see my post.
1744 – First Golf Tournament. No, not at St Andrews but at Leith Links, Edinburgh.
The Famous Spaghetti Tree April Fool’s Joke (from facebook)
April Fools Day and Spaghetti Growing on Trees
I nearly always forget to honour April Fool’s Day (or April Fish Day as the French call it). But in Britain, somewhere in our newspaper or TV station there is a April Fools Joke slipped in. The most remembered is the BBC piece showing film of Italian Farmers picking spaghetti from trees.
First Reference to April Fools Day
The first unambiguous British reference to April Fools Day is by diarist John Aubrey’s “Fooles holy day” in 1686 – although he might have been referring to Germany.
‘We observe it on ye first of April… And so it is kept in Germany everywhere.’
But there is a possible earlier reference in Chaucer in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. This I find quite compelling but most Chaucer scholars don’t. This is the text:
When that the monthe in which the world bigan That highte March, whan God first maked man, Was complet, and passed were also Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two
So, if you have been keeping up with me, you will know that the first lines are referring to March 25th, (when the world began see my post here) when God made Adam and Eve, and when the Church started the New Year and the year number moved one on. This was a major Church festival, usually followed by a week of holiness. The Roman New Year, January 1st, ended with a light-hearted festival called Saturnalia, and it is suggested that April 1st was, similarly, a day of release after the festival of the official Church ceremony of the New Year.
Chaucer’s last line says ‘Since March began thirty-two days have passed.’ A foolish person would not realise this is a reference to April 1st. Hence, this suggests a Fool’s Day already existed. Some scholars think that Chaucer was referring to May 2nd, counting the 32 days not from the beginning of March but from the end of March. I think they look at the second and third lines which read ‘That high March…. was complete’ and so add the 32 days to the end of March. Foolish in my opinion and not reading what actually Chaucer wrote which is ‘Since March began….
April Fools Day in Recent Years
I have had a quick look at the Guardian for their 2025 April Fools Day Story and I think it is this one:
Guardian April Fools Day Joke article or the world gone mad?
£4,440 for a Coffee cup shaped handbag?
In 2023, Harry and Megan proved irresistible and the Guardian reported that:
‘The Sun published a piece announcing the launch of Prince Harry and Meghan’s new video game “Megxit: Call of Duke-y” in which the royal couple try to reach California while dodging obstacles, including rival royals and the media, along the way.‘
‘Meghan Markle was criticised after it was revealed that when you put her lifestyle brand name – American Riviera Orchard – into the What3words location service, it points to a statue of Oliver Cromwell, who famously had a King Charles executed‘
Hunting the Gowk
Generally, in Britain, we play a prank and say ‘April Fool’ with great delight. But we are not allowed to continue beyond midday. The Scots used to call it ‘Hunting the Gowk’ and the main prank was to give someone a letter to deliver, and the person who opened the letter would read:
“Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile” and send the fool onto another leg of his or her’s fool’s errand. In Ireland the letter would read ‘send the fool further’.
First published March 25th 4004 BC and republished yearly on every April Fool’s Day.
Section on the meaning of April moved to my post April on April 7th
The expression ‘Mad as a March Hare’ comes from the displays of hare boxing that takes place as the Hare mating season begins. And no, it’s not the male March Hare fighting in the spirit of romantic rivalry. It is the female hares fighting off unwanted attention from the males. Hares are solitary creatures, and the mating season is, perhaps, particularly difficult for them. The Country File website has more on the subject. www.countryfile.com
Not only March Hares but March Kittens too
There are also March Kittens and March Chickens. Edward Topsell in his ‘History of Four-footed Beasts‘ 1607 says the best Kittens to keep are those born in March. ‘The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened‘ 1669 says:
‘Keep a black cock hatched in March as a protection against evil spirits: his crowing terrifies them.’
He also give a recipe for Cock Ale:
Eight gallons of Ale, a boiled March Cock, four pounds of stoned Raisins, half a pound of dates, nutmegs, mace. Beat the ingredients in a mortar, add to two quarts of Sherry. Add to the ale. Stop it in a container for 6 or 7 days. Bottle it, drink after a month.
Very weird. I challenge my readers to try it and let me know how it goes?
Was the March Hare Sacred?
But its not only March Haries, because the hare itself was a sacred animal. It was sacred to Aphrodite because of their prodigious ability to have offspring:
‘For you know, I imagine, what is said of the hare, that it possesses the gift of Aphrodite to an unusual degree. At any rate it is said of the female that while she suckles the young she has borne, she bears another litter to share the same milk; forthwith she conceives again, nor is there any time at all when she is not carrying young.’
Classical Texts Library. Philostratus the Elder, ‘Imagines’ Book 1.1-15 c 3rd Century AD. Translated by Arthur Fairbanks.
Divine Celtic & Neolithic Hares
Research reported by Exeter University suggests that hares were worshipped in pre-Roman Britain.Julius Caesar wrote:
“The Britons consider it contrary to divine law to eat the hare, the chicken, or the goose.”
‘The Battle for Gaul’ Translation by Wiseman, Anne, Wiseman, T. P. Published by Penguin Random House, 1980 ISBN 10: 0701125047 (TP Wiseman was my professor for Classical Studies at Leicester University).
Hares are thought to be the original Easter Bunny. But finding good evidence before Germany in the early modern period is difficult. There is a tradition that witches can be scared away at Easter. Exactly, how this works is not at all clear to me. But it has been said that witches could take on the form of a hare. So eating Hare Pie at Easter help rid the land of the witches.
You could have a jugged hare. Jugging is cooking a whole animal in a container over water. Follow this link for a recipe for jugged wild hare. Remember, you are not allowed to shot or trap them on a Sunday or on Christmas Day! For a discussion of hares and folklore, click here:
Hare’s Feet Totems
A jointed hare’s foot was considered very lucky and a remedy against gout, stomach pains and insomnia. (The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore by Charles Kightly, which I have used several times in this piece.) You can buy one on eBay. (Don’t click the links, it’s not an advert but a picture of an advert). I remember friends having rabbit feet which they carried around with them often on key rings?
Study for Lady Lilith, by Rossetti. 1866, in red chalk. Now in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Wikipedia)
This is my second most popular post. March 25th is the Annunciation—the day that the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary she is pregnant. (to see some very fine paintings of this meeting, look at my other March 25th post march-25th-feast-of-the-annunciation/
March 25th is also the anniversary of the birth of Adam and Eve (and Lilith); the death of Jesus Christ; the anniversary of the Immolation of Isaac; the Parting of the Red Sea; the Fall of Lucifer; and, (until 1752 in the UK) the beginning of the Year.
Of course, it isn’t. Or to put it another way, no one can, or ever could, prove any of these dates except the last one. So what they speak to is the way the Church saw the world as logically structured by God. Christian thinking about the year, the world, the universe, creation, developed over many years and took influences from many cultures. It is also very complicated to work out the sequence, so I’m going to summarise what I know (or at least what I think I know).
Christians chose Christmas Day as the Birthdate of Jesus probably because it was a prominent birthday already shared with several Gods. Particularly, Mithras and Saturn. It was approximately at Solstice, the beginning of the Solar Year, and close to one of the main festivals of the Roman World, the Saturnalia. So it made it easier for new converts who could retain elements of their festivals after conversion.
December 25th might have been chosen by the pagan religions because it is the time when the Sun begins to rise further north each day. The days stop shortening and start lengthening, light increases with the promise of warmer weather and budding plants.
So, Jesus was born on/or around the Solstice, so he must have been conceived approx. 9 months earlier. This is approximately at the Spring Equinox.
Ah, you are thinking! But today isn’t the equinox. Surely God doesn’t do approximately?
I have always thought that the 4 or 5 days difference between the Solstice, the Equinox and the Christian festivals was down to the fact that the Calendars were not well coordinated with the actual movements of the Sun (because the Sun does not circle the earth in 365 days, or in 365 and a quarter days, but 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes which makes lunar Calendars hard to align with the Sun).
But when I first wrote this a sudden revelation dawned upon me which will be revealed in the next few paragraphs.
So, God sends his Son to save the human race. God is a logical being, so she would send her Son at an appropriate time. If the Child is born at or near the Solstice, which is an appropriate time for the Son of the Creator, then conception 9 months earlier, March 25th, is near the Equinox. This is the beginning of Spring. For many people, Spring is a new beginning, for example, the Anglo-Saxons saw Winter as the death of the year, and Spring as the young Year. It all makes sense.
So to the Creation. God, having a free choice, would have created the world at the beginning of Spring. In fact, if you think about it, God creates everything necessary for life at the creation in 6 days. So as soon as it has all been created and put together it is bound to immediately spring into new life. The first season must, therefore, be Spring? Right? So March 25th.
This gives a nice symmetry with Jesus’s Life. Conceived on March 25th, born December 25th, and died 30-40 years later, according to the Church, on March 25th. (the only other famous person I know born and died on the same day is William Shakespeare).
Easter, when Jesus is martyred, isn’t March 25th I hear you saying. But remember, Easter is a lunar festival, so its date varies each year. Births and deaths, on the other hand, are fixed to the Solar Calendar. Therefore the Church chooses March 25th as the most appropriate day to pin the death of Jesus, on the anniversary of his conception and the anniversary of the creation of the Earth. I am guessing that this is also the preferred date for the Day of Judgement.
It is also the Birthday of Adam, and his first wife Lilith (or so some say), and Eve. More about Lilith below. I had thought this date was just one of the parallels that the Church liked, Jesus and Adam born on the same day. But, I have just worked out why Adam is born on March 25th, and why these dates are not the Equinox, March 20th but March 25th, which has been bugging me.
Let’s go back to the Beginning of Creation.
The Creation, as described in Genesis, has the following sequence of Seven Days, beginning with the Equinox March 20th. I have added dates to the 6/7 day sequence of Creation:
Day 1: Light – March 20th
Day 2: Atmosphere / Firmament – March 21st
Day 3: Dry ground & plants – March 22nd
Day 4: Sun, moon & stars – March 23rd
Day 5: Birds & sea creatures – March 24th
Day 6: Land animals & Adam, Lilith and Eve – March 25th
So there you have it! Adam, Lilith, and Eve were created on Day 6 with the Land Animals – March 25th. Jesus conceived, also on this date, and so 9 months later is born on December 25th. It all makes sense, and aligns the Christian year fully with the Solar Year.
And that, dear Reader, is the very first time anyone has been able to explain to me why Christmas is not at the Solstice, and why the Annunciation was not at the Equinox. Maybe you all know this, but it is very exciting to work this out for myself. And believe me, I have done a lot of reading about calendars and not spotted an explanation.
When was the Creation?
According to the Anno Munda‘s arrangement of the Year, the world was created 5500 years plus 2023 years ago so 7523 Before the Present. And it was supposed to have ended in 600AD, 6000 years after the Creation. So, they got that wrong.
Dionysius Exiguus replaced the Anno Mundo year with the AD/BC system in the 6th Century AD).
Beginnings of the year
I was thinking about the beginning of the year. The Celts chose October 31st, Julius Caesar chose January 1st, other cultures have other dates, and the Spring Equinox is another choice sometimes made. The Church and Dionysius Exiguus choose March 25th, although secular society also recognised the claims of January 1st. Britain kept to March 25th until 1752 when we adopted the Gregorian Calendar. But people like Samuel Pepys celebrated New Year’s Eve on 31st December. So January 1st was the New Year, but the year number did not change until March 25th. So King Charles I thought his head was being cut off on January 30th 1648; while history books will tell you it was cut off on January 30th 1649. Same day, different reckonings.
December 31st/January 1st is essentially a Solstice New Year Festival. And I have, previously, used the difficulty of keeping calendars as to why these days has slipped out of alignment with the Solstice. But, today I realised that it is as likely that the reason is the Solar/Lunar nature of our time keeping. The year, and its festivals, is largely arranged around the Solar Cycle. But our weekly and monthly cycles are derived from the Moon.
January 1st is the Kalends of January as the Romans would have called it. This day the First New Moon after the Winter Solstice. So, January 1st is a slightly misdated Solstice Festival it is a Festival celebrating the first New Moon of the New Year!
Over time societies give up trying to sync the lunar and solar calendars. Roman and Christian cultures gave up and fixed the moon months, completely abandoning any attempt to keep the months to the actual lunar cycle. This is our current system, in which only Easter remains a true to the moon festival, much to our perennial confusion.
Maybe you all know this, but I’ve learnt a lot in writing these two posts.
Lilith
The April 2023 Issue of ‘History Today’ has a short piece called ‘The Liberation of Lilith’ which suggests that the story of Lilith, a figure from Jewish Folklore, is first attested in a Medieval satirical text called ‘The Alphabet of Ben Sira’. The story goes that Lilith is created using the same clay as Adam. Adam then demands she lies below him during sex. She refuses, saying that they are both made from the same stuff and, therefore, equal. Adam refuses to accept this, and so Lilith leaves the Garden of Eden. So the story goes.
The story of Lilith, Sarah Clegg suggests, is one of a series of similar stories found around Europe and Asia. And Clegg assumes that it is gradually modified to make Lilith a demon who will kill babies unless the names of three angels are spoken out loud.
The story survives as a charm to keep babies safe, and perhaps to remind people of equality among the sexes. But this causes problems for, OK, let’s call them out, the Patriarchy. Lilith cannot be equal to Adam so she becomes a monster, not made from the same clay as Adam but from the scum and waste left over from Adam’s creation. I imagine the story then went on to propose that God creates Eve from Adam’s rib, and so she is created from Adam, and is, therefore not equal, but subservient to him. Lilith is now a significant figure in feminist folklore circles.
Attached to the watercolour of Lilith by Rossetti (at the top of the page), was a label with a verse from Goethe‘s Faust as translated by Shelley. (Wikipedia)
“Beware of her fair hair, for she excells All women in the magic of her locks, And when she twines them round a young man’s neck she will not ever set him free again.”
The model is Fanny Cornforth, Rossetti’s mistress. He painted another version a few years later, but the model in that is Alexa Wilding. His models are arguably more interesting than the man himself and include: Elizabeth Siddall, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth. Christina Rossetti, his poet sister, modelled for Rossetti’s painting, Ecce Ancilla Domini which you can see here.
For more on the Annunciation, look at my other March 25th post here.
I think I might have enough material to begin my own Cult.
Baptist Hicks and his, wife, Elizabeth in their Chapel at St James Church, Chipping Campden (Photo Kevin Flude)
This anniversary commanded my attention because I spend a few weekends each summer in the Cotswolds. There I see the ruins of Campden House in Chipping Campden. This was was burnt down in 1645. So, when I read about the burning down of Campden House in the 19th Century, it had to be another one. And it turns out there is one in Kensington, London, and another in Chipping Campden. Both were built for Sir Baptist Hicks, Viscount Campden.
Baptist Hicks Rise to Aristocracy
Baptist Hicks is an example of the flexibility of the British system of aristocracy. Hicks was a commoner, the son of a wealthy Mercer from Cheapside in the City of London. His mother is said to have been a moneylender. But when her husband died, she was resourceful enough to take over the business. She made a success of it and eventually passed it on to her son. The family shop was on the corner of Cheapside and Soper Lane, near the Great Conduit. It was signposted by the sign of the White Bear.
Soper Lane was in the Cordwainers Ward. It was the haunt of soap makers and shoemakers (cordwainers as they were called). But Cheapside, itself, was the home of Goldsmiths and generally a wealthy area.
Hicks was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and at the Inner Temple in London. But despite the rudiments of an education as a lawyer, he chose to continue in the family business. He supplied members of the Aristocracy with silk, velvet, taffeta, and other expensive fabrics. He rose to be Mercer to Queen Elizabeth I in 1598, and supplied James VI of Scotland. Indeed, he provided velvet, damask, and satin for the coronation of James 1st on 25 July, 1603.
As his business grew, he was able to lend large sums of money to the aristocracy and the King. He was duly knighted in 1603. He was still running his shop but was elected as an MP. Now, Hicks needed a country estate to transition to the aristocracy. So, in 1608, purchased the manor in Chipping Campden.
Baptist Hicks and Campden House, Kensington
At about the same time, he won a game of cards with Sir Walter Cope of the Strand. Cope was engaged in building himself a mansion (Holland House) on top of the Hill in Kensington. Hicks won a few acres of the Estate at cards. He asked Cope’s architect John Thorpe to design him a house, which Hicks also called Campden House. Thus, Kensington became fashionable, and Campden Hill got its name. Campden Hill continues as Notting Hill.
After Baptist Hicks death there were many tenants of the house. One was Princess Anne before she became Queen Anne. Also Lady Burlington and her son, Richard Boyle, who became Britain’s first Palladian Architect.
Hicks was made a Baron in 1620 and Viscount of Campden in 1628. (a viscount is 4th in the ranks of aristocracy, being below an Earl and above a Baron). He died in 1629. He was buried in a very impressive marble monument in St James Church, Chipping Campden shown above.
Campden house, Chipping Campden
Sketch from a display of Campden House, Chippping Campden. St James Church at the back, House in the Centre, Banqueting Houses in front of, and other side of the house. (A Banqueting House was originally where you had your pudding.)
After his death, the house in Chipping Campden was held by the Royalists in the Civil War. But the Parliamentary Army forced the King’s men to retreat towards Oxford. Prince Maurice ordered the house to be burned down. All that survives of the property are two banqueting houses, and the entrance. All show what a fine building it was.
Sketch from photo of the entrance to Campden House, Chipping Camden.
Behind the wall can be seen the fire reddened ruin of the Banqueting House of Campden House, Chipping Campden. Photo of the other Banqueting House to follow in April
The Fire at Campden House, Kensington.
The fire at Campden House on 23rd March, 1862 gutted the building. It is really well described in this post which I recommend you read. Briefly, a neighbour saw the fire. A fire engine was summoned, but before it could arrive a servant was seen at a window. Her son tried to push past her, and she fell out of the window but survived. When the fire engine arrived, it was too late and the house and its wonderful contents were destroyed. The owner was sued by the Insurance Company for fraud, but they lost the case.
Sketch from contemporary Magazine,showing the servant dropping out of the window. )In reality it was a first floor window.)
The English Year Almanac
I came across the anniversary of the fire in a secondhand book I picked up. It is by my old boss, Sir Roy Strong. The book is called ‘The English Year’ and is written with Julia Trevelyan Oman. It is described as ‘A Personal Selection from Chambers’ Book of Days’. Last year I also purchased the Chambers book on Abebooks for £ 2.10!). Both have been a useful source of information for my Almanac of the Past.
Sir Roy Strong was the Director of the V&A. Sir Roy is a dapper dresser you might almost call him a neo-Georgian. Certainly, a bit of a dandy. I always thought he resembled Charles 1, one of our most ineffectual Kings. I didn’t really have much contact with him, being a lowly Assistant Keeper at the V&A. But at the one Keepers’ Meeting I did attend he seemed rather ineffectual as the chairman of the meeting. But this is mere gossip! And I mention it to show how wrong one can be, in judging people.
However, when I consider the revival of the V&A under his tenure, my judgement was facile. Sir Roy transformed the V&A. The Museum had been damaged by years of under-investment in the building since WW2. Sir Roy began a campaign to restore the rich and very beautiful old Victorian architecture. The original Victorian Restaurant was transformed. The shop turned into a retail paradise. Generally, the V&A ceased to be dusty and old under his tenure. The wonders of the Victorian Museum shone again with rich and vibrant colours. It reminds me that good leadership is allowing beneficial change to happen. It’s not about the leader being a dynamic leader. It’s about moving an institution positively forward, which Sir Roy certainly did.
On this day
23 March 1769 Born William ‘Strata’ Smith (died 28 August 1839) was an English geologist, created ‘the first detailed, nationwide geological map of any country’. (Wikipedia). He worked in a town just down the road from Chipping Camden, and there is a plaque to him in Stow-on-the-Wold which I will write up at some point.
Fascinating read about the King’s Evil by Andrew Taylor
Here is a post on the King’s Evil, that I forgot to post yesterday.
Aries & Noses
We have just entered Aries. Now according to astrology, Aries is associated with health issues of the face. This, according to ‘Skin and Astrology Signs‘ is because of the “level of heat in their bodies”. So Arians tend to have problems such as “flushing, heat rashes, skin eruptions, and rosacea”. They suggest using chilled cucumber for the eyes and forehead, and using beauty products with soothing aloe vera in them.
Charles Kightly, in his Perpetual Almanac enjoins us to ‘Observe the features of the face which are ruled by Aries and seek cures for ills of the nose’.
The first example, Kightly gives is from an 18th Century publication which explains how to understand people by studying their noses:
Nose round with a sharpness at the end signifies one to be wavering of mind; the nose wholly crooked, to be sure unshamefaced and unstable; crooked like an eagle’s beak, to be bold. The nose flat, to be lecherous and hasty in wrath; the nostrils large, to be ireful.’
The Shepherd’s Prognostication 1729
A Fungous Nose & the King’s Evil
The second rather revolting tale is from John Aubrey.
Arise Evans had a fungous Nose and said, it was revealed to him, that the king’s hand would cure him At the first coming of Charles II into St James Park he kissed the king’s hand and rubbed his nose with it: which disturbed the king, but cured him.
People believed that Scrofula, could be cured by touching the Monarch. Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis was, thus, known as the King’s Evil. So, the King or Queen would make herself, very reluctantly, available for his sick public to touch her.
Scofula and the King’s Touch
Sketch of Dr Johnson from a portrait.
Dr Samuel Johnson suffered from Scofula and received the “royal touch” from Queen Anne on 30 March 1712 at St James’s Palace. He was given a ribbon, which he wore around his neck for the rest of his life. But it did not cure the disease, and he had to have an operation.
It took place in the winter, between Michaelmas and Easter, when cold weather provoked the disease. The lucky few who were allowed the Touch, would be touched or stroked by the King or Queen on the face or neck. Then a special gold coin, touched by the Monarch, was put around their neck. Readings from the bible and prayer finished the ceremony. Before Queen Elizabeth, the Touch was said to cure many diseases such as Rheumatism, convulsions, fever and blindness, but after it was reserved for Scrofula.
Who Started touching for the King’s Evil?
It was only the French and the English who believed the King’s touch could cure people. The French claimed it began with Philip 1 in the 11th Century. The English claimed Edward the Confessor as the first. But this was denied by the French who claimed that the French King of England, Henry 1 introduced it to the English. The practice lasted until George 1 who resolutely refused to have anything to do with it.
For more on the King’s Evil have a look at this blogpost. Or read the book pictured at the top of the post.
Newark on Trent by Peter Tarleton Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0 Newark & the Penny Loaf Day
On the 11th March 1644, the Parliamentary forces were besieging the Royalist-held Newark-on-Trent. Newark was a strategic centre as it was on the River Trent and on a major road junction. Here, the Great North Road (A1 from London to the North) and the Fosse Way (from Exeter, via the Cotswolds to Leicester) met. It was vital for the King, as the roads linked Chester and York to Oxford. Oxford was the King’s HQ; Chester was the key to Wales and the North West. York controlled access to the North East.
Newark withheld three sieges and only ‘fell’ when King Charles I surrendered. The Castle and other military defences were slighted.
Newark & the Penny Loaf & Hercules Clay,
During the second siege, in 1644, Hercules Clay dreamt that his house was on fire. He ignored the dream at first but as it repeated he took his family out of the house (next door to the Town Hall).
Shortly after, the house was hit by a ‘bombshell’, fired by the Parliamentary side. Because of his miraculous delivery, he left £100 in his will for a distribution of ‘penny loaves’ to the poor of Newark. His will said:
‘Upon the 11th day of March yearly forever upon which day it pleased God of his infinite mercy wonderfully to preserve me and my wife from a fearful destruction by a terrible blow of a granado in the time of the last siege’
And also he left £100 for a commemorative sermon to be read on the anniversary of the incident. The service is normally held on the closest Sunday to the 11th March. But the Church is being refurbished, so instead they had an event in the Town Hall and a procession.
Clay was a Mercer and a Royalist who, post mortem, was fined for lending £600 for the maintenance of the Royalist Garrison. It was paid by his brother.
At the time Churches had poor or bread boxes into which the women of the Parish would place loaves for the poor.
Auction Web site showing 17th Century Poor Box used for holding loaves for the poor
The store cupboards are getting denuded of the fruits, nuts, preserves, pickles, salted and dried foods saved from the summer and autumnal abundance. Of course, this is alleviated by the reduced consumption of the Lenten fast. (I’m continuing my lenten practice of giving up, giving up things for Lent). But nettles are budding. I take a regular cup of nettle tea. Normally, provided by the excellent Cowan’s tea emporium in the Covered Market in Oxford. But I’m running out and not due to visit Oxford for a month or so. So Charles Kightley in his Perpetual Almanac tells me that young stinging nettles are appearing. So, I will watch this YouTube video and collect my own young, juicy nettles.
YouTube Video on making Nettle Tea
Nettle Beer
Or better still, change up the tea for a nettle beer:
Take a gallon measure of freshly gathered young nettles washed well dried and well packed down. Boil them in a gallon of water for at least a quarter of an hour. Then strain them, press them and put the juice in an earthenware pot with a pound of brown sugar and the juice and grated skin of a lemon. Stir well, and before it grows cool put in an ounce of yeast dissolved in some of the liquid. Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for four or five days and strain again and bottle it, stopping the bottles well. It’ll be ready after a week, but better if left longer.
Nettle: Detecting Virgins and Flagellation
A more sinister use is provided by William Coles who gives a method of detecting virginity.
‘Nettle tops are usually boiled in pottage in the Springtime, to consume the Phlegmatic superfluities in the body of man, that the coldness and moistness of the winter have left behind. And it is said that if the juice of the roots of nettles be mixed with ale and beer, and given to one that suspected to have lost her maidenhood, if it remain with her, she is a maid, But if she’s spews forth, she is not.‘
William Cole’s Adam in Eden 1657.
William Camden reported that Roman soldiers used nettles to heat up their legs in the cold of a British winter. (from Mrs Greaves’ ‘A Modern Herbal). Perhaps, I should have sent that idea to PM Keir Starmer? He might have suggested the method to Senior Citizens to alleviate the loss of their Winter Fuel Allowance?
In the early modern period nettles were added to horse feed to make their coats shine. It was used as a hair tonic for humans. Nettle Beer was brewed for old people against ‘gouty and rheumatic pains’. Flogging with nettles was a cure for rheumatism and the loss of muscle power!
Nettle Fabrics
The 18th century poet Thomas Campbell is quoted on the virtues of nettles:
“I have slept in nettle sheets, and I have dined off a nettle tablecloth. The young and tender nettle is an excellent potherb. The stalks of the old nettle are as good as flax for making cloth. I have heard my mother say that she thought nettle cloth more durable than any other linen.”
In 2012, a Danish Bronze Age Burial was found to be dressed in a shroud made of Nettle. Strangely, the nettle was not local, perhaps being made in Austria where other objects in the rich burial came from. However, the person was thought to be Scandinavian. For more have a look at this article on www.nbcnews.com.
In the Irong Age, also in Denmakr, Huldremose Woman was found buried in a bog. She had a severed arm and was buried in elaborate sheep and goat skin clothes, but underneath:
‘she wore a white inner garment made from plant fibres that reached from the shoulders to below the knees. The type of plant fiber is unclear but other evidence from the time period suggests that it could have been made of nettle.’
Greaves tells us that the German and Austrians had a shortage of cotton during the blockade of World War 1. They turned to nettles to replace cotton production believing it to be the only effective substitute. It was also substituted for sugar, starch, protein, paper and ethyl alcohol.
YouTube Video on making fabric from nettles
Nettle Pudding
Pepys ate Nettle Pudding in February 1661 and pronounced it ‘very good’. Here is more on Nettles in history AND a recipe for Nettle Pudding! I can see I’m going to have to get out there and carefully pick myself some nettles! ( For Folklore of Nettles look here).
