It would make such a great slogan for our Wessex. It is in fact already taken, as the English-language slogan of the Normandy Tourist Board. There is such a thing, based not in one of the great cities – Caen or Rouen – but in a much smaller place, Evreux. It exists despite the factContinueContinue reading “Love the Land, Live the Life”
Tag Archives: Alfred
Our Silent, Supine Cities
It’s been a good week’s viewing for fans of Wessex history. On Monday the BBC ran a repeat of Michael Wood’s portrait of Alfred the Great, warming up for Neil Oliver on Tuesday, who wove a documentary about the king’s bones and their present whereabouts. If it was supposed to be an exclusive, it didn’tContinueContinue reading “Our Silent, Supine Cities”
Anchoring the Future
Popular history has it that the Royal Navy was founded by King Ælfred the Great. It’s not quite accurate – his father, King Æthelwulf also had a fleet of some sort – but the idea of England’s first sailor-king has maintained its powerful hold on the imagination. So if naval shipbuilding in England began inContinueContinue reading “Anchoring the Future”
Serfs For Sale?
“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.” Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack (1738)If you’re going to keep on repeating lies, the risk isn’t that others will start to believe them. It’s that you’ll start to believe them yourself and end up trapped inside them.Thatcherites are now in that position, confronted byContinueContinue reading “Serfs For Sale?”
Non Homo Insula Est
No man is an island. The famous words of John Donne, Dean of St Paul’s in London. Written in English, translated here into Latin.Why Latin? A cloud of celebrities ranging from Joanna Lumley, a native of Kashmir, to Boris Johnson, former MP for Henley-on Thames, has recently been gathered in support of the proposition thatContinueContinue reading “Non Homo Insula Est”
Good Works, Bad Shouldn’t
“Þæt is nu hraðost to secganne, þæt ic wilnode weorðfullice to libbanne þa hwile þe ic lifede, and æfter minum life þæm monnum to læfanne þe æfter me wæren min gemyndig on godum weorcum.””I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should comeContinueContinue reading “Good Works, Bad Shouldn’t”
Mortgaging Democracy
“Will the Tamar Bridge be sold?” That was the question posed by the Western Morning News earlier this month. And not just the bridge. Torquay’s Torre Abbey was mentioned too, though in both cases the relevant local councils denied any sale plans.Gordon Brown’s announcement that he plans to sell off our public assets was, theContinueContinue reading “Mortgaging Democracy”
Bonfire of the Inanities
Should we have a new archbishop? Not just a new archbishop of Canterbury, but a new archbishopric. Of Winchester.Wales separated from Canterbury in 1920 and there is a similar demand for a separate Cornish Church today. So why not a separate Wessex Church? It’s not a new idea. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester fromContinueContinue reading “Bonfire of the Inanities”
Happy King Alfred’s Day
Australians are often characterised as having little time for monarchy but there are folk down under who celebrate King Alfred’s Day. If they can do it, why do we in Alfred’s own land pay so little attention to the greatest ruler in our history?King Alfred died on 26th October 899. It’s the one important eventContinueContinue reading “Happy King Alfred’s Day”
Wessex Regionalists 