Category: Europe

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Stone of Destiny Attacked with a Hammer at Perth Museum July 13th 2025

Screenshot of BBC Webpage annoucing the attack on the Stone of Destiny

I just tried to book a visit to see the Stone of Destiny, at Perth Museum. But I was told it was closed until at least the end of August. The reason being that a case had been damaged. A quick search revealed this notice that an Australian had attacked the case containing the Stone with a hammer. They are now repairing the Case, and double checking the condition of the stone, which is thought to be undamaged. The Stone is well protected in a special room of the Museum. But, until now, those booking to see it are not searched. So I imagine that this will become more formal in future.

Below is my post of 2024, updated on March 30th 2025.

New Home for the Stone of Destiny

Old Photograph of the Stone of Destiny beneath the Coronation Chair.
Old Photograph of the Stone of Destiny beneath the Coronation Chair.

Last year, the Stone of Destiny was set up in its new permanent place. The Stone was unveiled in a room at the centre of the redeveloped Perth Museum, in Scotland. This is near to its ‘original’ home at the Palace of Scone.

The Museums Association reported:

‘£27m development project ….funded by £10m UK government investment from the £700m Tay Cities Deal and by Perth & Kinross Council, the museum is a transformation of Perth’s former city hall by architects Mecanoo.’

As well as the Stone of Destiny, the Museum has Bonnie Prince Charlie’s sword and a rare Jacobite wine glass. Both on public display for the first time. This is the first time the sword has been in Scotland since it was made in Perth in 1739. https://perthmuseum.co.uk/the-stone-of-destiny/. Since I first wrote this I have visited about 5 times. Entry is free but needs to be booked. It is held in a separate structure in the open space at the heart of the Perth Museum. There is an excellent-animated introduction, and then the doors open and the Stone is revealed in a glass cabinet. It is very effective.

Webpage of the Perth Museum show a photo of the Stone of Destiny
Webpage of the Perth Museum show a photo of the Stone of Destiny

The Stone of Destiny in the Modern Era

Before Perth, the Stone was in London for a brief visit for the Coronation of King Charles III (6 May 2023) . It was put back, temporarily under the Coronation Chair. Before that it was on display in Edinburgh Castle. Tony Blair’s Labour Government sent it back to Scotland as a symbol of the devolution of power from Westminster. This was on the occasion of the restoration of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in November 1996. Until then the Stone was under the Coronation Chair, where Edward I put it after he stole it (1296) from Scone. Virtually every English and British King has been crowned upon the Stone of Scone.

However, the Stone had a brief holiday in Scotland in 1950/51.  Four Scottish students removed it from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950. After three months, it turned up at the high altar of Arbroath Abbey. It was briefly in a Prison Cell, then returned to Westminster for the Coronation of Elizabeth II.

Poor photograph of a press cutting on display at the Palace of Scone (Photo by me!)
Poor photograph of a press cutting on display at the Palace of Scone (Photo by me!)

Declaration of Arbroath

I’m guessing the-would-be liberators of the Stone, thought Arbroath was the most suitable place to return it. For it was the Declaration of Arbroath which is the supreme declaration of Scottish Independence from England.

Following the Battle of Bannockburn the Scots wrote to the Pope of their commitment to Scotland as an independent nation. They said:

“As long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be subjected to the lordship of the English. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself”

The Pope agreed and Scotland remained independent until voluntarily joining England in the United Kingdom in 1707.

For an analysis of the Stone of Scone please look at my post here.

The Stone of Destiny at Scone Palace

Before Edward 1 stole the Stone, it was at Scone Palace. Here most of the Kings of Scotland were crowned, including Macbeth (August 14, 1040).

Moot or Boot Hill where Scottish Kings were crowned. Palace of Scone Photo Kevin Flude)
Moot or Boot Hill where Scottish Kings were crowned. Palace of Scone Photo Kevin Flude)

Those who attended the coronation traditionally shook their feet of all the earth they had brought from their homelands.  This over the centuries, grew into Boot Hill, aka Moot Hill. So the mound represents the sacred land of Scotland. 42 Kings were crowned upon its soil on its Stone. (but not Mary Queen of Scots she and her son were crowned at the Chapel Royal of Stirling Castle).

Where was the Stone of Destiny before Scone?

Before Scone, it was, possibly, in Argyllshire where the Gaelic Kings were crowned. Their most famous King was Kenneth MacAlpin. He united the Scots, Gaelic people originally from Ireland, the Picts, and the British. And created a new Kingdom which was originally called Alba, but became Scotland.

MacAlpin was the first king to be crowned on the Stone at Scone in 841 or so. He made Scone the capital of his new Kingdom because it was a famous Monastery, associated with the Culdees, an early sect of monks. MacAlpin brought sacred relics from Iona to sanctify the new capital. And Scottish Kings were by tradition crowned at Scone and buried on the holy Island of Iona.

Legend has it that the Scots bought the Stone from Ireland when they began to settle in Western Scotland (c500AD). The Scots, it is said, got the Stone from the Holy Land. Jacob lay his head on the stone to sleep. He had a dream of Angels ascending and descending a ladder to Heaven. Jacob used the stone as a memorial, which was called Jacob’s Pillow (c1652 years BC).

Fake, Copy or Genuine?

But, questions about the Stone remain. Firstly, would the Monks of the Abbey meekly hand over the stone to a raging King Edward I?  Sacking the Abbey was one of the last events of Edward’s failed attempt to unite the two countries. Isn’t it more likely that they hide the original and gave him a fake?

Secondly, was the Stone brought to Scone from Western Scotland in the 9th Century? Or was it made in  Scone?

These questions of doubt are based on the assumption that the Stone is made of the local Scone sandstone. If it were brought to Scone from somewhere else, it would be in a different type of stone, surely? So, either it was made in Scone, possibly for MacAlpin’s Coronation or the Monks fooled the English into taking a copy. The English would then have been crowning their Monarchs on a forgery.

Ha! Silly English but then the Scots have spent £27m on the same forgery.

Before bringing the stone to Scone, Historic Environment Scotland undertook a new analysis  of the stone. This confirmed:

‘the Stone as being indistinguishable from sandstones of the Scone Sandstone Formation, which outcrop in the area around Scone Palace, near Perth‘.

It also found that different stone workers had worked on the stone in the past. It bore traces of a plaster cast being made. It had markings which have not yet been deciphered. There was copper staining suggesting something copper or bronze was put on the top of it at some point in its life.

So it seems the Stone of Destiny was made in Scone. The simplest explanation is that it was made for MacAlpin in the 9th Century. But it does not rule out that it is a copy given to Edward I. But if this is the case it is still an awesome relic of history as so many Kings and Queens, Scottish and English, have been crowned upon it.

For more about MacBeth and St Margaret of Scotland see my post here:

 

First published in 2024, republished in 2025

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Eels, Pies, Islands, the deep Sargasso Sea & Rock and Roll July 23rd

Photo by Natalia Gusakova on Unsplash
Photo by Natalia Gusakova on Unsplash, Eels

Summer is the best time to fish for Eels. Mid May to the end of July. But they can be caught all year around. Jellied Eels have been a staple of East End diets since the 18th Century. They were to be found in many stalls dotted around the East End, from vendors venturing into pubs and in Pie and Mash shops. Tubby Isaacs is perhaps, the most famous. Jellied eels are still sold in a diminishing number of places in the East End. Manze’s Eel, Pie, and Mash shop at 204 Deptford High Street, London was listed in December 2023. The shop opened in 1914 and was a pioneer of commercial branding. This is the fourth Manze’s shop to be listed: Tower Bridge Street, Chapel Market Islington, and Walthamstow High street. The current owner of the Deptford shop is retiring and so the shop will close.

There are three Pie and Mash shops near me in Hackney. The one in Dalston has become a bar. In Broadway Market it is now an optician. But the one in Hoxton Market is surviving, and all three have retained their distinctive interiors. On the River Lee Navigation is another piece of Eel history which is the excellent Fish and Eel Pub at Dobbs Weir.

Pie and Mash Shop. Established 1862, closed down 2021. Broadway Market, Hackney (photo, copyright the author)

My mum loved jellied eels. It took me until I was over 60 before I could bring myself to try them. And I have no wish to repeat, what for me, was a revolting experience.

By JanesDaddy (Ensglish User) - English Wikipedia - [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1663124
By JanesDaddy (Ensglish User) – English Wikipedia – [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1663124

Gervase Markham in his ‘The English Husbandman’ of 1635 provides instructions on how:

To take Eels in Winter, Make a long bottle or tube of Hay, wrapped about Willow boughs, and having guts or garbage in the middles. Which being soaked in the deep water by the river side, after two or three days the eels will be in it and you may tread them out with your feet.

And here is a fascinating article on Eel fishing.

Eel traps at Bray, on the River Thames (Henry Taught 1885)

Romans, Saxons and Eels

Eels have been eaten for thousands of years. Apicius, author of a famous collection of Roman Recipes tells us of two sauces for eels:

Sauce for Eel Ius in anguillam

Eel will be made more palatable by a sauce which has​ pepper, celery seed, lovage,​ anise, Syrian sumach,​ figdate wine,​ honey, vinegar, broth, oil, mustard, reduced must.

Another Sauce for Eel Aliter ius in anguillam

Pepper, lovage, Syrian sumach, dry mint, rue berries, hard yolks, mead, vinegar, broth, oil; cook it.

Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, which tells of Britain as a land with “the greatest plenty of eel and fish.” Several fish traps have been found in and around the Thames, one for example in Chelsea.

Aristotle, Freud and the Deep Sargasso Sea

But eels had a great mystery no one knew where they came from or how they reproduced. Aristotle thought they spontaneously emerged from the mud. Sigmund Freud dissected hundreds of Eels, hoping to find male sex organs. It was only on 19th October 2022 that an article in the science journal Nature disclosed the truth. The article was ‘First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea‘. Ir proved beyond doubt that the theory that Eels go to the sea near Bermuda to spawn was, incredibly, true.

Eel Pie Island

Eel Pie Island . Ordnance Survey In 1871 to 1882 map series (OS, 1st series at 1:10560: Surrey (Wikipedia)

But Eels also have their place in Rock and Roll History. Eel Pie island is on the Thames, near Twickenham and Richmond. It is famous for its Eels. But was home to an iconic music venue. The Eel Pie Hotel hosted most of the great English Bands of the 50s. 60s, and 70s. The roll call of bands here is awesome. The Stones, Cream, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, you name it, they were here:

David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Champion Jack Dupree. Buddy Guy, Geno Washington, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger. John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Ten Years After, Chicken Shack, and one of my all-time favourite bands. the Savoy Brown Blues Band. And I have forgotten the Nice, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Joe Cocker, and the Who. And many more!

The Rolling Stones played at the Railway Tavern, Richmond on Sunday, February 24, 1963. Here they were spotted by people from the nearby Eel Pie Hotel. They were booked for a 6 month residency, which they began as virtually unknown and ended as famous.

Here is a recipe for Baked Eel pie from Richmond, near the famous Eel Pie Island.

This was first published as part of another post in 2022, and revised and republished on 28th November 2023, 2024.Moved from November 28th to July 23rd in 2025

(I moved it to make room for a post on Mrs Shakespeare. Also, because I cannot find anything to substantiate the opening statement that the Eel Season had its second day on November 28th. All evidence I find says the best fishing is in the Summer.

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Swan Upping July 16th

Swan Upping By Philip Allfrey Abingdon 2006 – CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2464315. The Royal Uppers are to the right and the Vintners’ Uppers on the left.

Swan upping takes place on the 3rd Week of July. It is an annual census of the Swans on the River Thames. This year it began on Monday, July 14th. It began in the 12th Century.

In theory, the King has the ownership of all unmarked Mute Swans on open water in the UK. Swan Upping is an ancient ceremony during which Swans are upped, checked for health and ringed if they do not belong to the King. In fact, it is the Cygnets which are upped. They are checked for weight and health. Their parents are checked for an ownership ring. If the parents are ringed then the young cygnets will be ringed accordingly. If the parents are not ringed, then they belong to the King and remain unringed.

This ceremony now only takes place on the Thames. It begins at Sunbury and progresses to Abingdon. The Swan Uppers have traditional wooden rowing skiffs and a scarlet Upping Shirt. They are managed by the Swan Marker. The Royal Uppers are accompanied by Swan Uppers from the two City Livery Companies that still have rights to ownership of Thames Mute Swans. These companies are the Dyers Company and the Vintners Company.

If you want to catch Swan Upping this year you will find them upping Swans at the following places:

Thursday 17th July 2025 
Sonning-on-Thames 09.00 – Departure point 
Caversham Lock 10.15 
Mapledurham Lock 12.30 
Goring Lock 17.00 
Moulsford 18.00 
  
Friday 18th July 2025 
Moulsford 09.00 – Departure point 
Benson Lock 10.00 
Clifton Hampden Bridge 13.00 
Culham Lock 16.15 
Abingdon Bridge 17.00 

King Charles is Seigneur of the Swans and you can find more details at https://www.royalswan.co.uk

Swans moult in July and August, and this renders them flightless. This can last for a period of up to 6 weeks. So it makes them a lot easier to up!

The Swannery at Abbotsbury

Now I didn’t find that fact on any of the web sites I consulted about Swan Upping. For many years I gave a wonderful programme called Literary Landscapes where we explored lanscapes associated with Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Agatha Christie, Conan-Doyle and Charles Dickens. On it, we went to the Swannery at Abbotsbury in Dorset. This was founded by Benedictine Monks in the time of King Cnut. The Strangeways family acquired the Monastery after the Dissolution and still own the Swannery. So they are the fourth authority in the UK who own Swans.

It is a remarkable place, in the heart of Hardy’s Wessex and by the glorious Chesil Beach. Every other year, the Mute Swans are checked and ringed during the flightless period. When Pavlova was working on Swan Lake, she took the dancers to Abbotsbury to observe the behaviour of the Swans.

Photo by the author of a panel at Abbotsbury showing Pavlova’s dancers posing by the Swans of Abbotsbury

Feathers are collected during the moulting season. They are used by Lloyds Registry, the Society of Calligraphers, illuminators, and other scribes for writing-quills. Other feathers are used by the Plummery to make headdresses for the Royal Bodyguard. They are also used for artists’ brushes, brushes for sweeping bees from honeycomb and arrow flights! (Source: panel at Abbotsbury).

Ringing the Swans at Abbotsbury 2018 Photo by Kevin Flude

Cartmarking is taking place On Saturday at the Guildhall in London 19th July. For more details of the historic vehicle events: https://thecarmen.co.uk/history/cart-marking/

Created July 16th 2025

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Twin, Twins – Festival of Castor and Pollux July 15th

The Ashwini kumaras twins, sons of the sun god Surya. Vedic gods representing the brightness of sunrise and sunset Wikipedia

The Divine Twins, aka the Dioscuri, were horsemen. Patrons of calvary, athletes and sailors, one of many Indo-European twin gods.   They had many adventures including sailing with Jason and the Argonauts.

And are they well connected?! Pollux is the son of Zeus  His twin brother has a different and mortal father, the King of Sparta.  But the boys share the same mother, Leda.  She was raped by Zeus in the guise of a swan.

This makes them examples of heteropaternal superfecundation as Mary Poppins didn’t sing.  But their different paternity had consequences. The most important is that one was (is?) therefore immortal and the other wasn’t. 

According to some version of the story, Castor (the mortal one) was mortally wounded. Zeus gave Pollux the option of letting his brother die while Pollux could spend eternity on Mount Olympus. The alternative was to share his immortality with his brother. Pollux did the good thing. So the twins spend half their year as the Constellation of Gemini and the rest, immortal, on Mount Olympus.  Thus, they are the epitome of brotherly love.

Divine Twins or Sisters from Hell?

The Dioscuri’s sisters were no less than Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Never mind the Brothers, what Sisters! Helen of Troy you know. And Clytemnestra! They were also twins, Helen the divine daughter of Zeus, husband of Menelaus, lover of Paris. Sister, Clytemnestra, mortal daughter of the King of Sparta, husband of Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus).

It happened like this.  The Swan was being pursued by an eagle, so Leda protected the Swan and took it to bed.  On the same night she slept with her husband Tyndareus of Sparta. Two eggs were fertilised, each split in two to give two sets of twins.

Leda and the Swan, 16th-century copy after the lost painting by Michelangelo

Clytemnestra

She was the wife of Agamemnon, the arrogant leader of the Greeks.  On the way to retrieve Helen from Troy, the Greek Fleet was becalmed. So, following his seers’ advice, Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigenia, on the island of Aulis.  The Gods then set the winds fair to Troy. (Read Iphigenia at Aulis by Aeschylus, a great play which I studied in Classical Studies at University).

Meanwhile, Queen Clytemnestra, abandoned at home, broods on her husband’s heartless fillicide. She takes a lover. After 10 years of war, Agamemnon comes back, in triumph, from the destruction of Troy. He brings with him his prize, the Trojan Princess, Cassandra, sister of Hector.

Cassandra has been gifted with the ability of accurate prophecy. But, as often in the case of prophecy stories, the gift came with a sting in its tale. She was also cursed with the inability to get anyone to believe her!  She prophesies disaster and that she too will be a victim.

Strutting with arrogance, Agamemnon demands Clytemnestra prepare him a bath. And, so she runs it for him, and she gives him the hottest bath possible. With the help of her lover, she hacks Agamemnon to pieces with an axe. Cassandra is butchered.

painting of Clytemnestra after she has slaughtered her husband Agamemnon _by_John_Collier,_1882 (Wikipedia Guildhall Museum)
Clytemnestra by John Collier,_1882 (Wikipedia Guildhall Museum)

Attitudes

I visit John Collier’s painting of Clytemnestra at the Guildhall, in London, regularly. I am fascinated by her grim, yet satisfied, expression.

In the 18th/19th Century, rich people were into ‘attitudes’.  For example, Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton, would be invited to present an attitude in front of a dinner party of mostly male aristocrats.  She would dress up in a flowing, revealing unstructured classical gown.  Then she would stand on a table or pedestal, and present herself as Helen or Andromache or any other classical beauty guests might fancy an eyeful of.  She would assume an appropriate facial expression and posture for everyone’s pleasure. 

Detail of Emma Hart modelling as Iphigenia by George Romney in ‘Cimon and Iphigenia’

Being Clytemnestra is, surely, the most difficult? I imagine Collier’s model being prompted to look both sad at the loss of the daughter. Outraged at the arrogance of the husband. Horrified at the gore of the murder. But, overall, she has to portray a grim satisfaction that the bastard got exactly what he deserved.

Dorothy Dene

Lord Leighton had a famous model who was exceptionally skilled at adopting poses for his paintings. He determined to help her with an acting career. As part of the plan he helped improve her cockney accent. It is said this inspired Bernard Shaw’s story Pygmalion, which, in turn, inspired My Fair Lady and Eliza Doolittle. 

Leighton’s model was Dorothy Dene.  She became a famous actress, outstripping the fame of Ellen Terry and Lily Langtry. For more on Leighton and Dene look at my post here.

John Collier

Before we finish, do have a look at John Collier’s Wikipedia because he is the most ridiculously well-connected painter you can imagine! Related to half the Cabinet and married to TWO daughters of Darwin’s Bulldog, T.H. Huxley (grandfather of Aldous Huxley).

For more on Flaming June see my blog post of 12 July 2024

European Twin Gods

It is suggested that twin male gods are a feature of Indo-European religions. The divine Twins are associated with horses/chariots and are responsible for moving the Sun and the Moon. Their use of a horse above the water means that they can rescue people lost at sea.  

St Elmo’s fire was said to be the way they manifested their divinity to sailors.   Diodorus Siculus records that the Twins were Argonauts with Heracles, Telamon, and Orpheus. Further, he tells us, in the fourth book of Bibliotheca historica, that the Celts who dwelt along the ocean worshipped the Dioscuroi “more than the other gods”.

First written in 2023 updated in July 24 and 25

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Fête Nationale Française. Le 14th Juillet. Bastille Day July 14th

French Revolutionary Month of Messidor (June-July) Bastille Day

Today, is the French National Day, le Quatorze Juillet. Bastille Day, celebrating the storming of the infamous Bastille on 14 July 1789. It was a symbol of Royal oppression, but only held 7 relatively insignificant prisoners on the day it was stormed. 200 attackers and 1 defender were killed in the first round of the battle.  Then the Commander, de Launay, surrendered to avoid more deaths.  But the angry attackers dragged him from the Castle to the Hôtel de Ville. He was beaten and shouted “Enough! Let me die’, kicking a cook in the groin. He was killed with 7 of his soldiers. However, inglorious a victory it was symbolic of the collapse of the old order.

The French Revolutionary Calendar introduced a rational non-christian calendar to France. The months were given new names as reported, satirically in Britain in 1811, by John Brady as Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Hoppy, Croppy and Poppy. (starting with ‘October).

In fact, the real French names were: Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire; Nivôse, Pluviôse, Ventôse; Germinal, Floréal, Prairial; Messidor, Thermidor, Fructidor.

The official name of July was Messidor (or ‘hoppy’). You might like to have a look at my post on the fascinating details of the Revolutionary Calendar to celebrate the French National Day. The 14th July was the day named after Sage in the Month of Messidor.

The French Revolution’s Solar Year — January 2nd

First published in 2024, revised 2025

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June & July – Street Parties in London on the Vigils of Feast Days

Image from the Agas Map of London Civitas Londinum is a bird’s-eye view of London first printed from woodblocks in about 1561
Civitas Londinum is a bird’s-eye view of London first printed from woodblocks in about 1561

John Stow tells us that there were bonfires and street parties in London throughout June and July. These were held on the Vigils of Saints’ Feast Days. The Vigil is the evening before a festival. A custom that might owe a little to the Celtic choice of dusk as the beginning of the new day.

Front cover of the Survey of London by John Stow
Front cover of the Survey of London by John Stow

Stow was the author of the ‘Survey of London‘ first published in 1598. Unfortunately, he does not give a list of the vigils thus celebrated. He only mentions those of St John the Baptist and of St Paul and St Peter. For these he gives a very vivid description, which I included in my post on June 24th here.

The other festivals would be for prominent Saints, particularly those with London Churches or Chapels named after them. These might include: St Botolph, St Alban, St James, St Thomas, St Margaret, St Wilgerfortis, St. Mary Magdalen, St Bridget, St James, as well as Saints John, Peter, and Paul. I’m guessing that City wide street parties would be reserved for the most important Saints. But with local celebrations for the Saint on the local Church. I am assuming these celebrations were ended or much reduced after the Reformation.

This is what Stow says of the Vigil celebrations.

‘In the months of June and July, on the vigils of festival days, and on the same festival days in the evenings after the sun setting, there were usually made bonfires in the streets, every man bestowing wood or labour towards them; the wealthier sort also, before their doors near to the said bonfires, would set out tables on the vigils, furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry with them in great familiarity, praising God for his benefits bestowed on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst neighbours that being before at controversy, were there, by the labour of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving friends; and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection of the air. ‘

John Stow is one of the most important sources for Tudor and Medieval London. He was a Londoner, buried in St Andrews Undershaft (see map above), who wrote up all he could glean about London. I use him all the time – for example, on my Wolf Hall Tudor London Walk. Stow’s Survey of London can be accessed online, in full, here: or via the wonderful online Agas Map, from which the map above came from.

First Published 2022 and republished 2025

John Stow, London’s Historian 22nd April
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July Julius Caesar’s Month

July – Kalendar of Shepherds 15th Century

July is named for Julius Caesar. Originally, the Roman Month was called Quintilis, as it was the fifth month of the Roman calendar, which originally started in March. Caesar reformed the calendar in 44BC and the Senate renamed the month after him. For more on Roman Months, see my post here.

The 7th month is called Lúil in Irish and Gorffennaf in Welsh. In Anglo Saxon it was Æfteraliða, or “after-mild;”, Liða, means “mild” or “gentle,” or the period of warm weather around Midsummer. June is Arraliða, or “before-mild”.

It is on average the warmest month in most of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the second month of summer. The star signs are: Cancer (until July 22) and Leo (July 23 onwards),

‘

July is the month of Haymaking, as you can see from the image (above from Kalendar of Shepherds). To find out more about haymaking, wait for the next post.

From the Kalendar of Shepherds comes this description of the month.

First published, in 2023 and republished in 2024, 2025

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Ovid abandons the ‘Fasti’ June 30th

OVID 19TH CENTURY ENGRAVING BY j w cOK
OVID 19TH CENTURY ENGRAVING BY J W COOK

If you want to read Ovid’s almanac of the year, the ‘Fasti’, for yourself, this is the translation I am using. Fasti is very valuable because it tells the stories of the main religious and folk festivals of the Roman year. It also tells the story of the Gods and Goddesses behind the festivals,

Fasti is sadly unfinished because Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō was exiled by the Emperor Augustus. The last entry is for 30th June where Ovid writes: ‘put the last touches to my undertaking’. It suggests he knew he was finished, despite only being halfway through the year.

He was exiled to the Black Sea at Tomis where he died ten years later. It is not clear exactly why he was exiled. Ostensibly it was for the immorality of his book ‘The Art of Love’. But that was published almost a decade earlier. So, it seems a strange, delayed, cause for exile.

Was he involved with a plot against Augustus that saw the Emperor’s own daughter exiled? Her lover was Lullus Antonius, son of Mark Antony. Unlike Julia’s other lovers, he was forced to commit suicide.

Sculpture of Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus, divorced wife of Tiberius Public Domain . Musée Saint-Raymond in Béziers

But this also happened years before Ovid’s exile. Julia’s daughter, Julia the Younger, was herself exiled closer to the time of Ovid’s exile. Her husband, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, was executed for treason. So, might this be the context of his exile? No one knows. Ovid said the reason for his exile was a ‘poem and a mistake’. The nature of that mistake is not recorded, but he said the crime was worse than murder and more harmful than poetry.

Here is one of my favourite Ovid quotations. Here he recommends how the aspiring male should dress for a night out on the town:

Don’t torture your hair, though, with curling-iron: don’t pumice
Your legs into smoothness. Leave that
To Mother Cybele’s votaries, ululating in chorus
With their Phrygian modes. Real men
Shouldn’t primp their good looks …

… Keep pleasantly clean, take exercise, work up an outdoor
Tan; make quite sure that your toga fits
And doesn’t show spots; don’t lace your shoes too tightly,
Or ignore any rusty buckles, or slop
Around in too large a fitting. Don’t let some incompetent barber
Ruin you looks: both hair and beard demand
Expert attention. Keep your nails pared, and dirt-free;
Don’t let those long hairs sprout
In your nostrils, make sure your breath is never offensive.

Avoid the rank male stench
That wrinkles noses. Beyond this is for wanton women –
Or any half-man who wants to attract men.

Ovid, The Art of Love i

The translation is from Green, Peter (Trans) ‘Ovid The Erotic Poems’ Penguin Classics, London 1982‘

Mother Cybele’s votaries were castrati, hence their high-pitched voices. The Cybele, the Mother Goddess, fell in love with Attys, who made her jealous. She made him mad, whereupon he castrated himself and bled to death. The Goddess had him resurrected body and soul. They enjoyed divine bliss ever after. A Cybelian castration device, dredged out of the Thames, can be seen in the Roman Gallery of the British Museum.

photo of Castration Device from the River Thames at London Bridge British Museum Photo kevin flude
British Museum Castration Device from the River Thames at London Bridge Photo: K Flude

The paragraph above is a quotation from In Their Own Words – A Literary Companion To The Origins Of London‘ D A Horizons, 2009.  by Kevin Flude. To buy the Kindle or Paperback version click here.

To read my post on Ovid’s Metamorphosis-crocus-and-saffron/

First Published in 2024 and revised in 2025

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World’s First ATM Honoured. Digital Heritage June 27th 1967

World’s First ATM. Screenshot from Londonist Web Page

On the 10th April 2023, Heritage England announced on its webpage, that they had listed a Bank which contained the world’s first ATM Machine. On 27th June 1967 Barclays Bank open the first ATM at its Enfield Branch in London. Above, you will see local celebrity, Reg Varney (in hat), a star of a very popular and ‘corny’ sitcom called ‘On the Buses‘ opening the new machine. It miraculously delivered a £10 note without any human intervention, and offered access to money after banking hours.

1967 Ten pound note

Barclay’s had previously launched the UK’s first credit card, and selected Enfield to be the place where they launched an automatic machine to dispense money. They are nicknamed ‘money machines’ in the UK. The customer was issued a ‘punched card’ and had to enter a PIN for the magic to be initiated. Barclays were developing the idea of a magnetic strip on a card at the same time.

Google Street View image of the Enfield Barclays Bank (screenprinted 15/07/23)
Google Street View image of the Enfield Barclays Bank (screenprinted 15/07/23)

The building, which now has a plaque and a gold-painted modern ATM, is Grade II listed and so should be protected from development in future. The building itself is an interesting, almost typical, late Victorian red brick commercial building, with fine details in the Flemish Renaissance style by William Gilbee Scott. Scott lived in Enfield.

I look forward to visiting it on my next visit to Enfield Lock on my narrow boat Mrs Towser.

For more on Digital Heritage see my post and for more on Mrs Towser see my post here

First published in June 2023 and republished in 2024, 2025

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Festival of St John the Baptist June 24th

Two of the biggest feast days in London were held in late June. The Feast Days of St John the Baptist (June 24th) and of St Peter and Paul (29th June) were remarkable in the scale and the expense of the celebrations.

Here is what John Stow tells us about the processions on the night before the feast of St John (24th June) and St Peter and Paul (29th June):

On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, and on St. Peter and Paul the Apostles, every man’s door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St. John’s wort, orpin, white lilies, and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oil burning in them all the night; some hung out branches of iron curiously wrought, containing hundreds of lamps alight at once, which made a goodly show, namely in New Fish street, Thames street, etc.

Then had ye besides the standing watches all in bright harness, in every ward and street of this city and suburbs, a marching watch, that passed through the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the little conduit by Paule’s gate to West Cheape, by the stocks through Cornhill, by Leaden hall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch street, by Grasse church, about Grasse church conduit, and up Grasse church street into Cornhill, and through it into West Cheape again.

(Grasse Church Street is Gracechurch Street.)

The whole way for this marching watch extendeth to three thousand two hundred tailor’s yards of assize; for the furniture whereof with lights, there were appointed seven hundred cressets, five hundred of them being found by the companies, the other two hundred by the chamber of London.

(Note a cresset is: a ‘metal container of oil, grease, wood, or coal set alight for illumination and typically mounted on a pole’ (Wikipedia).)

Besides the which lights every constable in London, in number more than two hundred and forty, had his cresset: the charge of every cresset was in light two shillings and four pence, and every cresset had two men, one to bear or hold it, another to bear a bag with light, and to serve it, so that the poor men pertaining to the cressets, taking wages, besides that every one had a straw hat, with a badge painted, and his breakfast in the mornings amounted in number to almost two thousand.

The marching watch contained in number about two thousand men, part of them being old soldiers of skill, to be captains, lieutenants, serjeants, corporals, etc., wiflers, drummers, and fifes, standard and ensign bearers, sword players, trumpeters on horseback, demilances on great horses, gunners with hand guns, or half hakes, archers in coats of white fustian, signed on the breast and back with the arms of the city, their bows bent in their hands, with sheaves of arrows by their sides, pike-men in bright corslets, burganets, etc., halberds, the like bill-men in almaine rivets, and apernes of mail in great number;

There were also divers pageants, morris dancers, constables, the one-half, which was one hundred and twenty, on St. John’s eve, the other half on St. Peter’s eve, in bright harness, some overgilt, and every one a jornet of scarlet thereupon, and a chain of gold, his henchman following him, his minstrels before him, and his cresset light passing by him, the waits of the city, the mayor’s officers for his guard before him, all in a livery of worsted, or say jackets party-coloured, the mayor himself well mounted on horseback, the swordbearer before him in fair armour well mounted also, the mayor’s footmen, and the like torch bearers about him, henchmen twain upon great stirring horses, following him.

The sheriffs’ watches came one after the other in like order, but not so large in number as the mayor’s; for where the mayor had besides his giant three pageants, each of the sheriffs had besides their giants but two pageants, each their morris dance, and one henchman, their officers in jackets of worsted or say, party-coloured, differing from the mayor’s, and each from other, but having harnessed men a great many, etc

John Stow, author of the ‘Survey of London‘ first published in 1598. Available at the wonderful Project Gutenberg: ‘https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42959/42959-h/42959-h.htm’

Pagan Rituals

There are also pagan rituals associated with the Feast of St John. Here is an example of French pagan solstice fires:

“They were lit at the crossroads in the fields to prevent witches and sorceresses from passing through during the night; herbs gathered on Saint John’s Day were sometimes burned to ward off lightning, thunder and storms, and it was thought that these fumigations would ward off demons and tumults.”

For more information, have a look at ‘French Moments’ here:

Summer Solstice?

The Feast of St John is often described as being on the Summer Solstice, it isn’t by modern reckoning, but nor is December 25th the Winter Solstice. But they were celebrated as such by Christians, and the Solstice can be thought of as spread over 3 or 4 days (or more if taking into account Solstice Old style). The major events of the sun and the moon were linked into Christian theology and symbolism. Jesus, son of God, would clearly have arrived at the auspicious time of the Winter Solstice. His cousin, John the Baptist, came to tell the world about the coming of Jesus and so his birthday was exactly 6 months before the Winter Solstice.

St John is also special as most Saint’s Days are linked to the day of their death, but June 24th is the birthday of St John. His beheading by Herod is commemorated on 29th August.

St John Walbrook

St John the Baptist upon Walbrook in the City of London is first mentioned in the 12th Century, burnt down and not rebuilt after the Great Fire of London. The parish was, later, united with St Antholin, Budge Row, The Graveyard survived until 1884 when the District Line destroyed most of the Graveyard and the bones were reinterred below a monument, which can still be seen in Cloak Lane.

A Day Off for Anglo Saxon Freemen

In the Laws of King Alfred the Great, this day was a day off for freemen.  I will be writing about Days off in the Anglo Saxon Calender on August 15th.

First published June 2023 republished in 2024, and reorganised in 2025