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Store cupboard of quotes

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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed by the Acts of Union with Scotland (1707) and Ireland (1801). This was amended in 1921 with the partition of Ireland. Wales formally became part of the UK in 1536 when Henry VIII passed the Laws in Wales Acts which effectively incorporated Wales.

All of which seems pretty clear cut – apart from the fact that the Treaty of Rhuddlan in 1284 and the union of the Scottish and English crowns in the person of James VI of Scotland I of England also had their part to play as did other events, treaties and relationships down the centuries.

There is no such thing as a written constitution, or so I learned when I did O level politics many moons ago. This week’s store cupboard therefore has to do loosely with the puzzle of the British constitution:

  1. If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more or less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government’s being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend. These thoughts come from an American president.
  2. …taxation and representation should be co-extensive. Do not women pay taxes? As you might guess this quote comes from a time when women were seeking the vote. This philosopher and political thinker was a key mover and shaker of the period.
  3. …she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle. This writer was influenced by the history of the region in which he wrote – and darkling thrushes.
  4. [The British constitution] presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it. One of Victoria’s Liberal prime ministers.
  5. Necessity hath no law. A warts an’ all kind of politician.
  6. I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England. I’m not giving a clue for this one!
  7. A store of traditions and presidents. KBO.
  8. I am not a reluctant peer but a persistent commoner – this famous 20th century politician died in 2014.
  9. To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay right or justice – on its first outing it lasted 10 weeks.
  10. We are not interested in the possibility of defeat; they do not exist. She may or may not have been amused at the time!

Store cupboard of quotes – week 7

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Dylan Thomas is associated with Laugharne Castle who leased the nearby Castle House during the 1930s and 1940s. Therefore thinking slightly out of the box this week the store cupboard of quotes this week features Welsh authors:

  1. “Don’t worry about the bits that you can’t understand. Sit back and let the words wash around like music.” Quote can be found in a sequel to a very famous children’s book – The author is of Scandinavian descent but was baptised in Cardiff in 1916.
  2. “The function of posterity is to look after itself.” A hard drinking Welsh poet.
  3. “Woe be to him who reads but one book,” Seventeenth century poet associated with metaphysical poetry.
  4. “Why do I feel so exercised about what we think of the people of the Middle Ages? … I guess it’s because so many of their voices are ringing vibrantly in my ears – Chaucer’s, Boccaccio’s, Henry Knighton’s, Thomas Walsingham’s. Froissart’s, Jean Creton’s… writers and contemporary historians of the period who seem to me just as individual, just as alive as we are today. We need to get to know these folk better in order to know who we are ourselves.” Historian and actor who informed the Romans that Brian was not the Messiah – just a very naughty boy.
  5. “I do love the past but wouldn’t want to live in it.” The best selling novelist of Tipping the Velvet and The Fingersmith fame.
  6. “Men are born ignorant not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” Nobel prize winner of many talents.
  7. “It’s people with obsessions who do the real harm in the world.” This writer is associated with crime and horses.
  8. “When all’s said, and done, if civilisation drowns the last colour to go will be gold -the light on a glass, the prow of a gondola, the name on a rosewood piano as silence engulfs it.” Which famous ship and which Welsh poet?
  9. “The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the twentieth century.” This Welsh born novelist created Kingsbridge and built a cathedral of words.
  10. A girl from the Welsh Marches who wrote under two names wrote the Brothers of Grynedd but wrote this line in a book about a battle of 1403: “He sat staring before him, seeing nothing but a long line of Mortimers, inexhaustable and prolific to the end of time.”  What are the names by which the authors known and what famous battle took place in the Welsh Marches in 1403 that became the title for one of her novels

Why not take a virtual visit to the British Museum at www.britishmuseum.org/collection or visit the Courtauld Gallery online at www.courtauld.ac.uk

Store cupboard of quotes castles 1

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How did you do? I hope that you realise that there’ll be at least two more castle themed challenges – next week’s History Jar Challenge will be Welsh castles.

Ivanhoe is associated with Conisburgh Castle created by Sir Walter Scott.

2. 

Peveril Castle in Castleton, Derbyshire, is part of the title of another Sir Walter Scott Novel.

3.

Ian Flemming the creator of 007 described Dover Castle as “the wonderful cardboard castle” in Moonraker.

4.

Brave Dame Mary, a novel by Louisa Hawtry featured Mary Bankes defence of Corfe Castle for the Royalists against the Parliamentarians.

5.

Men of Harlech was sung by the defenders of Rorkes Drift in the film Zulu which starred Michael Caine.

And just to finish – Victor Hugo said that “if we don’t build castles in the air we don’t build anything on the ground” – Fictional Castles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_castles

Store Cupboard of quotes week 6 – castles

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George Herbert the seventeenth century metaphorical poet said that castles are “forrests of stone” (I’ve not spelled it wrong.) And that’s your first quote for the week. Your challenge is to answer the ten questions linked to the castles in the five pictures:

Name the fictional knight associated with this castle created by Sir Walter Scott.

2.

This castle is part of the title of another Sir Walter Scott Novel.

3.

A famous author of a famous secret agent described this castle as “the wonderful cardboard castle,” – which author, which secret agent and which castle…it’s in a book that has the word moon in it’s title.

4.

A novel by Louisa Hawtry featured a brave dame associated with this castle – which dame? which castle?

5.

This castle, or its guardians, feature in an extremely well known song that Michael Cane sang during an epic film. Which castle? Which song and which film?

And just to finish – Victor Hugo said that “if we don’t build castles in the air we don’t build anything on the ground” – how many fictional castles can you identify. Currently all I can envisage is a very large pink one with fireworks in the sky above it – which isn’t very helpful!

Store cupboard of quotes 5 – monastic (ish) answers

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This week’s quotes were very loosely about all things monastic. How did you do?

  1. “My imagination is a monastery and I am a monk.” John Keats
  2. “Living in a monastery, even as a guest rather than a monk, you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.”  Odd Thomas (what a wonderful name) is the protagonist of Dean Kootz’s series of thrillers.
  3. Francis Grose describes this abbey as “undoubtedly light and elegant, it wants that gloomy solemnity so essential to religious ruins.” It’s Tintern Abbey and the poet is William Wordsworth.
  4. “Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney– and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill.” You can find Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey, penned by the incomparable Jane Austen.
  5. “Here grandeur triumphs at its topmost pitch In gardens, groves, and all that life beguiles; Here want, too, meets a blessing from the rich, And hospitality for ever smiles: ” John Clare wrote these lines at the beginning of Milton Abbey ended his days in a “mad house” in Northamptonshire.
  6. Who says “Get thee to a nunnery?” Hamlet says this to Orphelia in er…Hamlet.
  7. “What ? did not regret, he found grave difficulty in remembering to confess.”  Cadfael has difficulty in remembering to confess and his prolific creator was Edith Pargeter writing as Ellis Peters.
  8. “They told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, of locked inner rooms and secret dungeons, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of footsteps creaking upon staircases and fingers tapping at casements, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman” The writer of The Woman In Black is Susan Hill who gives the gothic a macabre and spine chilling twist.
  9. “The day has come not only to abolish forever those unnatural laws, but to punish, with all rigour of the law, such as make them; to destroy convents, abbey, priories and monasteries and in this way prevent their ever being uttered.”  Martin Luther nailed his ideas to the cathedral door at Wittenburg.

10. Let me take this other glove off
As the vox humana swells,
And the beauteous fields of Eden
Bask beneath the Abbey bells.
Here, where England’s statesmen lie,
Listen to a lady’s cry.

Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans,
Spare their women for Thy Sake,
And if that is not too easy
We will pardon Thy Mistake.
But, gracious Lord, whate’er shall be,
Don’t let anyone bomb me.

The poem is In Westminster Abbey by Sir John Betjeman

And finally novels/that feature a monk or indeed a nun in no particular order :

The Cadfael series by Ellis Peters – set during the Anarchy.

In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End Ken Follett

Dissolution by C J Sansom

The Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne

The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh (children’s)

The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Store cupboard of quotes week 5

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Martin Luther on beer drinking

As always you are more than welcome to add relevant quotes via the comments box. This week’s quotes are very loosely about all things monastic.

  1. “My imagination is a monastery and I am a monk.” The author of this quote was prone to writing odes about urns and autumn days.
  2. “Living in a monastery, even as a guest rather than a monk, you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.”  The protoganist of this novel is call Odd and it’s writer is an American known for science fiction, horror and fantasy.
  3. Francis Grose describes this abbey as “undoubtedly light and elegant, it wants that gloomy solemnity so essential to religious ruins.” History and literature remembers the abbey much better from the lines written by a romantic poet better associated with the Lake District. Where is the abbey and who is the poet?
  4. “Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney– and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill.” Which author penned these words mocking the gothic novel and which fictional abbey is the title of the book where you can find Henry Tilney?
  5. “Here grandeur triumphs at its topmost pitch In gardens, groves, and all that life beguiles; Here want, too, meets a blessing from the rich, And hospitality for ever smiles: ” The romantic poet who wrote these lines at the beginning of Milton Abbey ended his days in a “mad house.” Who is he?
  6. Who says “Get thee to a nunnery?”
  7. “What ? did not regret, he found grave difficulty in remembering to confess.” Which well-known fictional monk located during The Anarchy has difficulty in remembering to confess and who was his prolific creator?
  8. “They told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, of locked inner rooms and secret dungeons, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of footsteps creaking upon staircases and fingers tapping at casements, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman” The writer of The Woman In Black.
  9. “The day has come not only to abolish forever those unnatural laws, but to punish, with all rigour of the law, such as make them; to destroy convents, abbey, priories and monasteries and in this way prevent their ever being uttered.”  He nailed his ideas to the cathedral door at Wittenburg.

10. Let me take this other glove off
As the vox humana swells,
And the beauteous fields of Eden
Bask beneath the Abbey bells.
Here, where England’s statesmen lie,
Listen to a lady’s cry.

Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans,
Spare their women for Thy Sake,
And if that is not too easy
We will pardon Thy Mistake.
But, gracious Lord, whate’er shall be,
Don’t let anyone bomb me.

What is the title of this poem and who wrote it?

And finally just to keep you thinking – how many novels/series can you identify that feature a monk or nun as its main protagonist?