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  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Five

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Five

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Bub

    This is defined by the dictionary as “a strong beer”, and a couple of dictionaries say that the word derived from the sound of drinking. I’m not entirely convinced….. Sometimes the definition is a little different, such as “an alcoholic malt liquor”. There is a phrase that is “bub and grub”, but I think that derives from champagne, or a bubbly drink, rather than its archaic meaning. It is though perhaps where the second half of the word syllabub comes from.

  • London – British Museum (Cloth Seal)

    London – British Museum (Cloth Seal)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    I probably need to get out more given that I’m intrigued by an object in the British Museum that I’ve never seen and isn’t even on display there. But this is a cloth seal that was found in the River Thames, but it’s thought that it might have been made in Norwich by the Dutch immigrant community. Made out of lead, it would have secured clothing and the two holes are the rivet marks. The description of the seal is quite complex (by this, I mean I don’t understand it, although I’m not an expert in cloth seals to be fair), but it’s probably a portcullis.

    The seal was made in the late sixteenth or seventeenth century, but what is perhaps interesting is the size of the Dutch community in Norwich. It made up around 45% of the city’s population at one stage, but the community was welcomed in, despite their different language and culture. By all accounts that I’ve seen, the integration went well and the Dutch were welcomed and contributed financially to the city, which had been suffering a little economically.

  • Streets of Norwich – St. George’s Street (Colegate to Blackfriars Bridge)

    Streets of Norwich – St. George’s Street (Colegate to Blackfriars Bridge)

    Part of my Streets of Norwich project….

    St. George’s Street is a little complex as chunks of it have been renamed over the centuries and the route at the north has changed. And, it once wasn’t called St. George’s Street, it was instead known as Gildengate and it runs along the line of a Viking defensive ditch and bank which was constructed in around 900.

    As it’s such a long street, this post is just the section between Colegate and Blackfriars Bridge. Moderately surprisingly for such an historic street, there’s only one listed building in this section of road, suggesting how much the buildings have been mauled about and demolished over the last couple of centuries. This section of the street was probably more often known as Bridge Street in the nineteenth century, rather than St. George’s Street.

    This was historically a built-up area of the street, but is now St. George’s Green. Near to the river, the Blackfriars Tavern was a pub which traded between the mid-eighteenth century until its final closure in 1911. It was also known as the Cellar House and the Friars Tavern, and probably overlooked the river.

    Norwich Playhouse, which is housed in what was built as a nineteenth century maltings building, which became a theatre in 1995. This former building is set back a little, with the roadside section once taken by the Crown public house, which closed in 1928.

    A former shop, now used as offices. Somewhere behind these buildings there was a pub known as the Cork Cutters Arms, which was a licensed premises between around the early 1860s until 1898.

    Cafe Pure on the right-hand side.

    The Last Wine Bar on the left. Somewhere on the left-hand side of the photo was the Two Quarts pub, which traded between the 1760s and was closed down in 1907. It sounds like a pub of some considerable character and it had rooms to rent.

    The building to the left, numbers 25, 27 and 29, are the only listed properties on this section of the street. They date to the sixteenth century, which were added to in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although the shopfronts are from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The frontages of the buildings have been heavily restored, the photos George Plunkett took in the 1930s show much more character. Although the buildings would have probably fallen down if they weren’t restored…. Number 25 was a cafe for quite a period, run by Alfred and Emily Aldridge in the late 1930s and all of 25-29 is now By Appointment, which I think was a cafe and is now a hotel.

  • Norwich – Blackfriars Bridge

    Norwich – Blackfriars Bridge

    There has been a bridge across the Wensum River at this site since St Margaret Newebrigge was constructed in 1289. It was replaced with a stone bridge in 1587 and then a more substantial stone bridge in 1783. This latter bridge was needed as the previous construction had three narrow arches which was causing problems with the current of the river. The bridge is also sometimes known as St. George’s Bridge, and in the past, New Bridge.

    File:Blackfriars Bridge Norwich.JPG

    I didn’t take a photo of the actual bridge, but this is the one from Wikipedia until I do take one….. The current bridge is the 1783 bridge, built by John de Carle, designed by Sir John Soane and made with Portland stone with iron balustrades on the side.

    Photo: © Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, and there are some more images at http://collections.soane.org/OBJECT1804. This is Soane’s design and at the bottom right is the signature of John de Carle, the local builder. The bridge cost £1,250 and the design means that the stones are tightened together by use of the iron clamps.

    This bridge was only fully pedestrianised a few years ago, although there was once a separate iron footbridge on one side which was removed in the 1970s when single direction traffic only was implemented.

    The bridge was one of the earlier constructions designed by Soane, who is better known today for designing the Bank of England, although there’s not much left of his work there. Soane put in a design for the Hellesdon Bridge in 1785, clearly hopeful after the success of the Blackfriars Bridge, but the design by James Frost was chosen instead.

    The view to the east from the bridge, the building to the right is the Norwich University of the Arts.

    And a view to the west, with the building to the left also being part of the Norwich University of the Arts and Dukes Palace Wharf behind that.

  • London – British Museum (Iceni Coin)

    London – British Museum (Iceni Coin)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    The quality of these images is incredible (click on it for more detail), the British Museum has done a wonderful job here. This is an Iceni coin which was minted in Norwich and dates to around 5AD-20AD and is made up of 45% copper, 39% gold and 16% silver. It was discovered in Norwich in the early nineteenth century and purchased by Harry Osborn Cureton, before being owned by Clifton Wintringham Loscombe and then acquired by the British Museum in 1855. Unfortunately, this rather lovely coin isn’t on display.

  • London – British Museum (13th Century Coin from Norwich Mint)

    London – British Museum (13th Century Coin from Norwich Mint)

    I usually visit the British Museum three or four times a year, something which is a little difficult to do with the current virus situation, primarily because it’s shut. However, they’ve placed hundreds of thousands of images on their web-site, so this will have to do me for the moment. The images can be used non-commercially, as long as the British Museum is credited. So, this is their credit.

    I like this, it’s a coin which was minted in Norwich between 1201 and 1207, when this city was one of nine mints across the country. It’s known as short cross coin and it was minted by the moneyer who was known as Renaud (or Renald). I’m not sure that anyone knows where for sure this mint was, but it was probably at what is now known as Old Mint Yard, off Fishergate.

    The coin was part of the Eccles Hoard, a huge collection of over 6,000 coins which were discovered in November 1864, mostly silver pennies, and it’s thought that they were buried in around 1230. The coin was purchased by Sir John Evans, and then acquired by John Pierpont Morgan (better known today for being the force behind JP Morgan) and then by the British Museum in 1915 after Morgan died.

    And, I wouldn’t have seen it if the British Museum was open, as this coin isn’t on display.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Four

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Forty-Four

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Brewes or Browes

    The dictionary defines this as “the fat scum from the pot in which salted beef is boiled”, which sounds quite delicious…. The word likely comes from the French ‘breu’ meaning broth, which is also where the word brewis comes from, which is bread soaked in broth or a stew.

    On the subject of fat scum, here’s a recipe for cabbage soup from the 1930s…..

  • Heathrow – Flying Chariot

    Heathrow – Flying Chariot

    This was one of the few times that I’ve ever visited Heathrow T2, and I still haven’t flown from that terminal, my experiences being limited to the Oneworld airlines who are at T3 and T5. The Flying Chariot is the JD Wetherspoons that is located landside and it takes its name from John Wilkins, who was a vicar at Cranford Parish Church, who predicted in 1638 that it was possible “to make a flying chariot, in which a man may sit, and give such motion unto it, as shall convey him through the air”.

    Anyway, this was one of JD Wetherspoon’s more exotic meals that they attempted, their Thai green chicken curry with rice on a bamboo leaf arrangement, which was perfectly acceptable. I assume that their efforts at presentation didn’t help sell the dish, since it didn’t seem to spend much time on the menu. It’s quite a large Wetherspoons over two floors, with the usual airport prices for their food and drink. Since my visit was back in 2015, my memory of the experience has suitably faded, although I do remember that the service was all friendly and professional.

    My favourite response to a TripAdvisor review was:

    “We were told by the staff that they would call security because my boyfriend was resting his head on the table! The pub is on the airport for god sake and we woke up 3am to catch our flight so yes we were tired an 7am. I felt so humiliated. I won’t be visiting any Wetherspoon again.”

    I like it when some facts are allowed into the debate to shed some light on the original review….

    “We remember your visit and based on my discussions with the team, and CCTV footage, I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify events. I can see that you arrived at 06:37. By 06:39, your boyfriend had removed his shoes and was lying on the sofa. It took 20 minutes before you were approached by a member of staff, who tried to explain that sleeping/feet on the furniture was not permitted.

    At 07:24, a Team Leader approached you, as your boyfriend now had his head on the table for 5 minutes or so and to all intents and purposes, appeared to be sleeping. When she was told that your boyfriend didn’t feel well, she offered to call security (something we do regularly, for people who are feeling under the weather), as they can be quicker to attend than paramedics and are able to take control of any situations. I apologise for any embarrassment or distress this may have caused you both, but unfortunately we cannot allow people to sleep within the premises, as we are an operator who pays rent to the airport, in order to provide food and drink to passengers. This is a policy within all JDW pubs, and does not change at the airport. Also, at the time of your visit there were people sat on both tables adjacent to yours, and it can make people uncomfortable to be in this situation.”

  • Baltimore – The Walters Art Museum (Hindu Snake Charmers)

    Baltimore – The Walters Art Museum (Hindu Snake Charmers)

    Taken in 2015 on a phone and the image compressed by Google hasn’t done much for this….

    Fortunately, the museum allows free use of their images, so this one is rather more useful.

    Painted by Marià Fortuny (Mariano José María Bernardo Fortuny y Marsal) in 1869 (he lived from 1838-1874), it was inspired by the journey that he made on General Prim’s military expedition to Morocco in 1860. The gallery notes about this painting:

    “The artist, a collector of Islamic decorative arts, includes such accessories as a copper bowl, luster plate, and saddle.”

    Anyway, it looks like an angry cobra which is being charmed by a turbaned man, with what I think is a stork looking on excitedly.

    But, what I still think is exceptional is the sheer amount of information that the museum has provided about this painting. It was revarnished in 1951, had its condition checked in 1980, was examined for a loan in 1988 and then subjected to a technical study in 1989. And the provenance of the painting is also detailed, acquired by DH Foll of Geneva, sold in an art sale auction in New York in March 1887 to William Thompson Walters and then acquired by inheritance in 1894 by his son, Henry Walters. The painting was then given to the new museum in 1931 by Henry Walters, where it has remained since. I find this depth of information about a painting to add so much to understanding it, it’s a shame so few museums offer this level of detail.

  • Norwich – Line of River Cockey

    Norwich – Line of River Cockey

     

    Located at the top end of Westlegate is this stone marker which notes the former route of the Great Cockey river, but also mentioning the now lost Muspole, Dalymond and Freshflete rivers in Norwich.

    The blue stones start at the marker and then head off down Westlegate. The river once started at what is now All Saints Green, which is at the end of Westlegate, down Westlegate and then flowed down under Bedford Street and joined the Wensum River opposite where Norwich Playhouse is located today.

    Flowing down….

    There’s the site of the former McDonald’s on the right-hand side, and the blue carries on to the lower end of Westlegate. I hope that road reconstruction doesn’t cause chunks of the blue to go missing over the next few years, as it’s a rather lovely idea. There was a small nearby river, called the Little Cockey, which ran pretty much parallel, but didn’t join the Great Cockey.