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  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 220

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 220

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

    Neck Verse

    This phrase is defined by Grose as “formerly the persons claiming the benefit of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a Latin manuscript psalter: this saving them from the gallows, was termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of the fiftyfirst psalm, Miserere mei,&c”. Firstly, as an aside, &c is the archaic version of etc, which I found interesting in its own right. I do need, as I may have mentioned, to get out more….

    This whole concept is fascinating, dating back to the times of when the two great powers in the country were the Church and the Monarchy. Both had their own legal systems, their own lands, their own powers and the Church didn’t like interference from Monarchs, and Kings and Queens were generally respectful of God. But, anyway, to cut a long story short, clergy could be tried in the secular courts, but they could also claim the ‘benefit of the clergy’.

    This claim allowed them to either get off the crime, or for the sentence to be modified (in effect, initially the case was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Courts which were more favourable), but it was also abused. So, the aim was to read Psalm 51, which Grose mentions, to prove that they were a member of the clergy. There were some big flaws in this system, notably that non religious figures could just learn the passage. The courts over time wised up to this, so they could ask the defendant to read another passage from the Bible, a useful mechanism as the clergy could read and write, whereas many others at the time couldn’t. If someone couldn’t read a passage, they could be killed or sentenced as planned.

    King Henry VIII didn’t like this whole set-up (there are plenty of things he didn’t quite like), although he did still respect the principles of the code, although he added more restrictions and limitations. The whole process lingered for longer than might be expected (well, longer than I had expected), although by the eighteenth century, the cases were no longer transferred to the Ecclesiastical Courts and were just treated more leniently in the secular courts.

    So, when Grose wrote about the “neck verse”, the law still favoured anyone at that time who could read that verse from the Bible and it could save their life. The matter was finally dealt with in 1823, and reinforced in 1841, so that this ‘benefit’ was struck from the legal code in the country. It’s a wonderful example of how power waxed and waned between the church and the monarch though over the centuries, and just how long the church’s influence lasted for.

  • Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Thomas Swindell)

    Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Thomas Swindell)

    Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

    This grave commemorates the lives of three people, Hannah Swindell, her husband Thomas Swindell and his second wife, Caroline Swindell.

    Thomas Swindell was born on 1 February 1815 and was baptised at the Baptist Church in Knutsford on 26 February 1815. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Swindell and he married Hannah Witter on 4 February 1843. They had five children, which I’ve listed on the post I wrote about Hannah, with Thomas working as a Primitive Methodist Minister.

    There’s a mass of material on Thomas, not least that provided at https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/people-2/primitive_methodist_ministers/s-2/thomas_swindell where there’s a photo of him. There’s no point my copying material over from that very useful site (which also has information about his son, Theophilus Witter Swindell who became an important figure in Great Yarmouth), but it’s of note that he travelled around the country with his preaching, including Preston, Bolton, Wrexham, Great Yarmouth, Docking, Upwell, Aylsham, Swaffham, Cambridge, Thetford and ending up in Norwich in 1875.

    At the 1871 census, Thomas was living on Arnold Street in Lowestoft, along with his wife Hannah and three of their children. He had moved to Norwich in the 1870s to live at Bloomsbury Place, before moving to Essex Street in Norwich by the 1881 census, when he lived with his son Arthur Swindell (by then a Professor of Music) and his second wife, Caroline Swindell. Hannah had died on 23 January 1876, with Thomas marrying Caroline Simpson (1828-1899) in the summer of 1878.

    By the time of the 1891 census, Thomas was living with Caroline at a property on Grove Road in Norwich. He was still living at this residence when he died, on 8 November 1897. Caroline was to die a couple of years later, but I can sort of picture her at Rosary Cemetery at what was likely a well attended funeral given the size of Thomas’s family and his reputation in the Methodist Church.

  • Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Hannah Swindell)

    Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Hannah Swindell)

    Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

    This gravestone, which is leaning forwards hence the slightly strange camera angle, commemorates the life of Hannah Swindell. It’s in rather good condition, other than where the weeds have attacked the base, and also commemorates Hannah’s husband, the Reverend Thomas Swindell and his second wife, Caroline Swindell. More on these two other individuals in separate posts, as I find it a little unusual that they’re all on one grave.

    Hannah was born on 20 March 1819, the daughter of Thomas Witter and Mary Witter. She was baptised at the Baptist Church in Knutsford on 25 April 1819 and she met her husband Thomas Swindell and they were married on 4 February 1843 in the same church (I mean the same church she was baptised in, obviously the husband and wife were married in the same church….).

    Hannah and Thomas had five children, Mary, Thomas, Theophilus (a marvellous name), Frederic and Arthur. Hannah died on 23 January 1876, at the age of 56. The inscription on her grave reads “she was a Christian of unblemished reputation, considerable usefulness and eminent piety, and now sleeps in Jesus till the morning without clouds shall dawn”.

    There’s one thing that’s evident here, which is that there is reams of material on Thomas Swindell, her husband, and his work and contribution to society. There’s nearly nothing relating to Hannah, so I’d say that in terms of who she was as a person, the best we have to go on is that inscription on her gravestone and that she seems rather dutiful. Thomas travelled extensively during his career, and perhaps that “usefulness” was in supporting him with his work. Too often women are a footnote in history, and that’s happened here as well, so hopefully I’ll find out at some point in the future some more information about her as a person. Indeed, I’m quite intrigued as to what she would have thought about Thomas’s second wife being added to her headstone.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 219

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 219

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

    Neck Stamper

    This is defined by Grose as “the boy who collects the pots belonging to an alehouse, sent out with beer to private houses”. The phrase dates from the early part of the seventeenth century, but the word origins are confused, it’s not known whether the boy stamped about with bottles around his neck or whether the boy stamped about carrying bottles by their neck (I can think of someone who would do that, stamped is a variant of stomped). It’s also interesting to establish why this job was necessary, who were these boys delivering to? There would have been no end of pubs near to where people lived, so maybe it was to the ill, infirm or those who didn’t fancy heading off into a busy pub.

  • Bologna – Asinelli (Photos from the Top)

    Bologna – Asinelli (Photos from the Top)

    I’ve posted about my bravery climbing this thing in another post….

    Here are some photos of the views…..

            

     

  • Bologna – Asinelli (The Two Towers)

    Bologna – Asinelli (The Two Towers)

    Back to October 2011 with these photos, so the quality of the images isn’t particularly good as I used my phone.

    This was when I decided to climb the Asinelli, which is one of the Two Towers (Le Due Torri Torre degli Asinell) in Bologna, the shorter and more leaning one is the Garisenda. The basic concept of these is that families would build their towers tall to show off their wealth and influence, with the Asinelli standing 97 metres in height.

    This image sort of highlights what went on during my little walk up here, which I think it’s fair to say was mild panic and an inability to take clear photos. I’m not sure why I thought climbing this bloody thing was a good idea, I don’t like heights. I probably thought that there was a nice lift, not the most rickety old arrangement of stairs that I found were the only way up. However, I’d just paid €3 to climb the damn thing, so I couldn’t just go back out again.

    This is not what I really wanted to see.

    And it went on for what seemed like eternity.

    About half-way up, there was a platformed off area where I could have a little think about the predicament I had placed myself in. Getting half-way up and going back down seemed to be a poor compromise, so I battled on up.

    This was more vertical than it looks in the photos.

     

    I was relieved to get to the top after climbing the 499 steps…. I’ve put photos of the views in another post and I admit that there were extensive views of Bologna from the top of the tower. Was the climb up there worth it? Hmmmm, probably, but I can’t say I was thrilled on the ascent (the descent was easier, but I was still glad to be back at ground level), but it is one of the city’s icons.

    This review is the most recent on TripAdvisor, and sums up the difficulty of this quite well I think.

    “If you are unfit or have any fear of heights or confined spaces, avoid this tower. The climb is very steep and the stair treads in many places narrow and at an angle.”

    Yes, the treads were narrow and at a complete wonk. Frankly, the civil engineers on this project didn’t take as much care as I would have perhaps liked, although, to be fair, the towers are still standing. I would say that I was fortunate that the tower wasn’t particularly busy when I went, I just remember telling some English-speaking Italians at the top about how brave I’d been.

  • Scottow – Scottow Cemetery (Tadeusz Szymanski)

    Scottow – Scottow Cemetery (Tadeusz Szymanski)

    The grave of this Polish airman who served in the City of Warsaw Squadron (No. 316 Polish Fighter Squadron) is located at Scottow Cemetery, and there’s an excellent biography of this man, Tadeusz Szymanski (1917-1992), at http://aircrewremembered.com/szymanski-tadeusz.html. His record as an aircraft pilot is exceptional, with more details at http://polishsquadronsremembered.com/316/44/Mustangs1944.html.

    Tadeusz married his wife Betty (nee Kay) in 1942, and she is now buried next to her husband.

    The wonderful Imperial War Museum have a photo (© IWM FRE 14842) of Tadeusz, this was taken on 12 July 1944 and he was checking the wing of his P-51 Mustang.

    A photo from the same day (© IWM FRE 14843) of Tadeusz carrying the damaged wing tip from his aircraft.

    The Air Crew Remembered web-site linked above mentions:

    “We knew that he had been a pilot and was rumoured to have invented the technique of flying along side V1 rockets and ‘flipping them over’ with a wing tip so that they crashed into the North Sea, rather than landing in England. However if you asked him he would just shrug it off with a smile.”

    So, this is perhaps why his wing tip was damaged in these photos. By all accounts, this was a heroic individual.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 218

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 218

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

    Nacky

    A short and sweet definition for this word, simply defined by Grose as “ingenious”.

    Google Ngram suggests that there was a surge in the use of the word in the early nineteenth century, but the percentage use is so low that I suspect that it’s picking up Grose’s book. I’ve wondered before whether Grose just made up words in the hope that they were more widely used, something akin to Shakespeare and the words he seemed to create. Either that or it’s some Scottish word, as it sounds Scottish….

  • Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Richard Andrews)

    Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Richard Andrews)

    Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

    This is the grave of Richard Andrews, and I’m guessing (from the damaged section of the stone) also that of his wife Ann Andrews, the parents of James Andrews whose gravestone is nearby. I don’t feel that I could really tell the story of James, there’s just not enough information I can find beyond when he was born and died.

    Richard Andrews was born in 1786 and I mentioned when writing about their son, James, where Richard and Ann were at the 1841 and 1851 censuses. James was born on 14 August 1814 and died on 18 August 1837.

    I can find details of only one Richard Andrews born anywhere near Norwich in 1786, a child baptised on 12 February 1786 at Great Hautbois church. He was the son of William Andrews, who worked as a farmer, and the christening was probably at St Theobald’s, a church now in ruin. I can’t write with any certainty that it’s the same Richard Andrews though….

    Richard married Ann (nee Long) on 25 November 1812 at Taverham. The actual marriage register, still visible at Norfolk Record Office, notes her name as Anne, but we know from later censuses that the wife of Richard was born in Taverham, and Richard’s home parish is noted as St. Michael Coslany Church, which is where his son was christened a couple of years later.

    Richard died on 11 October 1861 at the age of 75, with this being reported in the Norwich Mercury the week after, noting his address as Lame Dog Road, which matches with the census records. Unfortunately, the newspaper didn’t report anything else about his life, so I feel that this is yet another story where nearly everything of note  is left untold.

  • Colchester – Queen Street Brew House

    Colchester – Queen Street Brew House

    This visit was a few weeks ago, this isn’t a pub staying open during the lockdown…..

    The pub is very well-reviewed in numerous places on-line and there are comments about its quirkiness running throughout those reviews. When we arrived, it also had the most onerous health related rules that I’ve seen in a pub in terms of what they had on posters by the door. They required a face mask when moving around (not required at the time, so they were ahead of the curve here), they required temperature checks, address details and had a complex toilet procedure involving spades. The pub then proceeded to not really enforce these rules, although I’d add that everything still felt safe and they were following what they needed to do.

    I think quirky is an appropriate word for this set-up, which looks like I’ve done it (hence, I approve). It also didn’t serve any obvious point, as customers walked in both directions on both sides, so it more corralled people together if anything. But, then again, it did remind people to be careful and that was useful.

    It’s cheaper than plastic screens and just as effective, so why not? I didn’t buy the round here, so I’m not sure exactly how friendly the service was, but apparently it was all polite and welcoming from what I was told.

    I had an Old Man and The Sea from Mighty Oak Brewing, which I thought was served at a temperature which seemed to me to be nearer to frozen than chilled. It knocked the entire taste out of the beer, there were no flavours evident at all, and I think that’s the first time I’ve experienced that with a beer of this type. There are meant to be flavours of espresso coffee, dark chocolate and dark fruit, but they were indiscernible and the nearest I’ve tasted to this is Guinness Extra Cold (which in itself has rather died away). Rather awkwardly, the pub toasted my rating on Untappd…

    I do know that Mighty Oak Brewing are a decent brewery, they’re local to this pub being from Maldon, and I’ve had their beers at the Hop Beer Shop, United Brethren and the Duke of York, all in Chelmsford.

    Anyway, back to this pub, which was beautifully quirky in very many ways and it clearly had a loyal clientele. It had a community feel to it, with an impressive range of Belgian bottled beers and a number of ciders. Even though some of their arrangements might have felt quirky, it still seemed safe to me, it’s all rather different to what the chains were doing at the time. So, I think I quite liked this pub and the reviews on Untappd don’t suggest any issues with the beer, so I’ll pop back again at some time as their choice of beer and ciders looked innovative and intriguing.