LONDON. Borough, County, City. London. Westminster Abbey. History, Royal Wedding, Immigration, Mithra Elements

LONDON
Westminster Abbey
A Window on History, a Royal Wedding, Immigration, and
 William and Kate Marry
Photos, Side Issues

Westminster Abbey Boy's Choir. Assimilation, immigration, colonialism in the positive.
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1.  On location.

London:  A City of vast history, remaining its own distinct entity, divided into several London Boroughs, rather than participating in an overall county system.  Counties and boroughs. Those apparently in the know say that parts of London may happen to be in a particular county geographically, it may be in another London borough economically. See http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichCountyDoesLondonBelong/zjmjr/post.htm.  And a basic source, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_London

2.  An Event.  The Wedding.

London is, of course, the site of Royals.  Here is our update on London:  a look at old Mithraism showing there, the Telly and the Wedding, Immigration seen in Westminster Abbey, and Hats.  We sat with coffee, in bed, snapping pix.  Credits. Photos by This Commoner at the Telly, fair use of tiny snaps. Wavy lines by Telly people going up and down the screen probably to discourage home photos.  Undaunted, see here,

• The Balcony Kiss. 
• Topics at the wedding: 
• Integration and immigration at the Boys' Choir,
• Mithraism
• The Telly and Changing mores (Elton John);
• Institutional religion's compromises with Mithraism early on, leading to non-christian beliefs.
• Hats.  These also attend the Wedding:  Royal, Wedding, Commoner, Clergy and Queen Victoria. 

 Then the rest of the wedding. Telly view of wedding.

I.  Events After Westminster

Best first. Nice cuppa, a little toast, a few pillows and enjoy. This, in case you could not tell, is a Commoner's home.

William and Kate, balcony kiss, Buckingham Palace after.

Snap, snap. Have to get between the sliding black line always going up, like a barrier at a wooden duck shoot at a carnival.

William, after.

William.  One ringy-dingy. This an update, upon hearing that Rupert hacked his phone.

Hats on the balcony.  Whose hat to the left? Camilla? Okay.  She's entitled.

William and Kate, Balcony Family 

And, before the momentous topics, see the couple on to live their lives, like the rest of us, but different.

William and Kate, leaving for happily ever after.

II.  Real Life Observations at Westminster

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Common global issue:  immigration, multinationalism, cultural identity, religious hold-overs that hold us all back.

Immigration. Assimilation, forced, encouraged, none.  Ethnic identity. Gains, losses for whom, what. 

Regular photos at section III.  As to multiethnicity,  England did it, at least for the course of the musical section of the wedding. Chorister choice.  Depends on voice and talent, as it should

The Boys' Choir.

Some 30 boys are in the Boys Choir at Westminster Abbey, see http://www.westminster-abbey.org/music/choir/ ; they attend the Choir School there, see http://www.westminster-abbey.org/choir-school.  There is also the adult male choir.  Ladies need not apply.

Choir, Westminster Abbey

Can any country with a colonial past, or one that thinks itself superior to others, ever foster opportunity for others, while retaining the best of our heritage, and letting others do the same with theirs.  

Multi-racial Boys' Choir, Westminster Abbey, Wedding of William and Kate

Not assimilated.  

Women can and do teach and do other staff positions at the School, see sites and photos above. Typical selectivity under the guise of "history." So, it is indeed historical (hysterical?) that certain parts of anatomy are determinative -- more important to whether someone has opportunity to serve, than talent and smarts.

Multi-ethnic Westminster Boys' Choir, 

Yet the prevalence of ruffles suggests ambivalence. History crossed gender lines, but no on admits it.

Westminster Abbey, Boy in Choir, Wedding of William and Kate

Ruffles.

See FN 2; and an overview of Mithraism.  Was that among the first major religious system that excluded women from participation, that primary religion of Rome, old as 2800 BCE.  It appears that that element, among others of the old Roman State Religion, its militance, administrative skill, turf interest, was simply absorbed in order to get more converts for salesman Paul, regardless of its consistency with theology of the new Founder, whom Paul never knew.

Our traditions are more Paulian influenced Mithra, to woo Rome;  than Christian, so it would appear.

So there it probably is.  It appears that discrimination against women was not Jesus' idea, but was Paul compromising on theology with the Mithraists.  Anything to get a convert, even misrepresenting a founder and twisting into a new doctrine.

Full Choir, with costumes. Westminster Abbey

Faith restored:  Music of a different kind, to a different drummer. Welcome.

Elton John, Westminster Abbey, with civil partner, David Furnish. William and Kate Wedding

New York will permit them to marry now.  Either way.  Their choice.

Now:  Hats.  The Mitre.

Clergy in costume, William and Kate's wedding.  Mitre and ribbons.

 What do the ribbons on the clergy signify?  Curls?  Long hair?  What is the history of the mitre, the hat with two pointies.

These were Church of England clergy, but the two-horned mitre has a long history in the Roman Catholic church from which the protestants Sprang for various reasons.  See its pagan origins at http://www.onlinechurch.com.au/pagan-origins-of-catholicism-the-fish-hat-mitre-2  That site tracks the two-horned mitre to the priests of Dagon, fish god of the Philistines. See also http://www.tofm.org/papacy/pope_mitre.htm.  Of interest also are the vestiges of gnosticism, dualism that had been declared "heretic" because texts were interpreted other than the Roman orthodox wanted, see about horns of Mithra at http://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/grsm_mythra.htm FN 1

Bride's hat:  veil.  Everyman's history is at http://www.veilubridal.com/history-bridal-veil.htm  The sites are commercial, so need to find a more historical view.

Bishop's hat:  Mitre from top view, all red inside. Now, that is weird and rather suggestive.

Why?

Clergy or regular rank do not wear hats and seldom get haircuts. William and Kate's wedding. William got a haircut.

Other hats attract other kinds of attention.

William and Kate's Wedding. Generational difference in Hats. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth; and Fergie's daughter what?

Boaters will slide by, allowing attention to focus on the main event.  The danger of a snaky hat is that people will look at the hat and be more interested in it,  than in who you are. Which of Fergie's are you?

Cinderella Moment.  The shoe fit, he asked, she said yes, and off they go.

The Coach. To the Palace. William and Kate wedding

William about to step into the carriage.  Prince's hat, military.  Is that the Welsh Guard?

More royal hats.  And, in the Commoner's area, is that Queen Victoria?  It looks like a Queen Victoria crown.

Queen Victoria at William and Kate's Wedding

III.  Westminster Abbey, The Rest of the Wedding

William and Kate. Surely we should not be on first name bases with royalty.  But it is more convenient than titles, when one has one and the other does not, yet. Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after, but before that, Prince William and Commoner Kate? 

Most self-explanatory -- 

Vows

Rings

A hand-shake

Mitre, rear view

The ring

Gothic Arches, Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey, red carpet, trees

Kate and William, Westminster Abbey

Wedding guests, Westminster Abbey

Interior, Westminster Abbey, Gothic

Kate and William, at Attention

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Westminster Abbey

Kate and father, Michael Middleton, Westminster Abbey

Choristers, Westminster Abbey (men only need apply)

Recessional, Westminster Abbey, William and Kate

William entering carriage, Westminster Abbey

Telly view.  Excellent.
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FN 1  Mitre and the Two-Horned Hat

Why do traditional churches keep women out, but wear their clothes. Keep the part of history that bolsters your own status, but forget the rest. Progress only on fronts that benefit.  Pass on the ruffles, for a religion founded by an anti-authoritarian itinerant pauper. Wealth.  Hoard it. Show it. Maybe we need that?

Do we?  We do know that the status of women in the Christian church, the traditional ones, is Outside.

Check your theological history.

This reflects, perhaps, Paul's need to placate the Mithra-ists of Rome, Mithraism as the State Religion before Christianization; and that took centuries.  In about 300-400 CE Christianity was adopted (Constantine as emperor 306-337 CE) and a tenet of Mithraism was no participation by women, and much secrecy. The bull (see the double horned hat here?) also featured. See http://mithra2004.tripod.com/Cult%20of%20Mithra.htm.  Click around for history, see also http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/mithraism_and_christianity.htm

See also Horns of Mithra, or other meaning, at Church of Saint Mary in Gdansk, Poland

Black Madonna, Horns of Mithra? Cathedral of St. Mary, Gdansk, Poland

Dartmoor and Bennett Cross - and the baying of the Hound of the Baskervilles

Bennetts Cross, Dartmoor, Devon, England.

Dartmoor. Find 368 miles of open space, and two shorelines, expanse in between.  Most recently, this an update 2011, Stephen Spielberg's film, War Horse, was made here.  See http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/below-the-line-green-valleys-golden-sunsets-and-war-horse/?ref=movies.

People get lost out there. Its wide area is a national park. See the location, at Devon, near Cornwall - http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/.

Bennett's Cross.  The history of this particular cross is uncertain, but it could be named -- as many of these medieval landmarks -- for Benedictine monks, Saint Benedict. Spellings vary:  Bennett, Bennet, Bennet's, Bennetts, see http://www.fotothing.com/ThorBeverley/photo/da43f2a71c16117e5be3cf3b8fcb734c/. Park your car anywhere and head down a path.  If you worry all the time, you'll see little.  We found this isolated cross, with a road sign pointing to it, "Bennet's Cross." That is one of many crosses of different kinds that were used to marks certain boundaries, or provide a landmark, or is named after the person with tin rights to the area at an early time: see Bennet's Cross at http://www.dartmoor-crosses.org.uk/bennet.htm.

That site carries the full listing and explanation for all the Dartmoor Crosses. Vast spaces.

Reread Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, or find the 1939 film at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031448/ -- with Sherlock Holmes. Later films are from 1959 and 2002.  Do not cheat and go to Sparknotes at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hound/

 The setting is Dartmoor. Sherlock's statue and museum are in London, not far from Madame Tussaud's. See London post here.

London and Sherlock Holmes; fish 'n chips

Here is Sherlock in London, not far from Madame Tussaud's.

For Sherlock, see www.sherlockian.net/. Howooo. The Sherlock Holmes Museum is in London. See www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/. This fine statue is nearby, and there are many fish and chips places - served in newspaper with vinegar. Recipe at splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/fish_fishchips.html. Further hints for making this delectable tasty snack-meal are forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=91475.

More on hounds: See www.bbc.co.uk/devon/outdoors/moors/hound_baskervilles.shtml

London - Bridge, Tower, Buckingham Palace; World War II Reconstruction

 I.  London Bridge, Tower Bridge

1.  In 43 AD, Romans set up a pontoon bridge across the Thames. 1176, Henry II commissioned a stone bridge where a teetering wooden one had been the only means of crossing for centuries.  The construction consumed 33 years, but stood for 600 years.  It was still inconvenient:  a mere one narrow lane north and one narrow land south. That sounds very high, but see http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-london/london-bridge/.  Then came a series of collapses, London Bridge is Falling Down fame. See also http://www.havasuchamber.com/our-community/london_bridge_history.aspx

2.  In 1212, it burned, and 3000 crossers died.

3. In 1825, a new bridge was constructed; followed in 1962 with a bigger, better, wider, new one.  The old was packed up to the US, Lake Havasu, Arizona. See the Havasu Chamber site above.  The new bridge is a sleek, sloping non-towered modern affair, see images but specify in a search for London Bridge that 1973 is the pertinent one.

4.  London Bridge 1973 is different from Tower Bridge, constructed 1894. Photos often mix the two, calling Tower Bridge by the name London Bridge..



Tower Bridge, London, England










5.  Back to history of crossing the Thames in general. The Thames River used to be about five times as wide as it is now, but shallow so that the tides exposed mud flats. See http://www.barryoneoff.co.uk/html/london_bridge.html/ A ferry near the bridge site in medieval times offered a choice for passage, and the daughter of the last ferryman, one Mary Ovary sometimes spelled Overy, used her inheritance to build a convent called, yes, St. Mary of the Ovaries, says the site. This was before restrictions on women's inheritance were imposed so the men could get at it came later.  As to the Ovaries, clearly we can't have women in such a prominent place, so the men took it over as a college for priests. Plus ca change, and none the better for it, is that so. Perhaps this is a hopeful sign:  Cathedral School of St. Saviour and St. Mary Overy, school for children, see http://www.cathedralprimaryschool.com/

And someone solved the issue:  Overy means “over the water” or “over the ferry”, from a Saxon word overie meaning “over the water”. See https://commonground08.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/st-mary-overy/

6.  Battles.

 Recalling the bombing of World War II, the Blitz of London, the city now shows little of that. See photos of the Battle of Britain at ://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/#britain/. Take your own tour of the remaining sites, and museums commemorating the Blitz, at ://www.citythemes.co.uk/pdffiles/The%20Blitz.pdf

Buckingham Palace, London, England. Changing of the Guard


II.  Buckingham Palace - the changing of the guard. The palace here is not very old as the Royal Residence.  It was bought for that purpose only in 1761. See http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalResidences/BuckinghamPalace/History.aspx


London Tower. For a virtual tour of London Tower, see www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/RenAissance/TowerofLondon/TowerLondon.html/ Find its history at ://www.castles.me.uk/history-of-tower-of-london.htm/ The Normans started it in the 1100's, with a wooden structure, a raised center area with wooden fortifications around -- motte and bailey. It then morphed and developed into a place for state apartments, but also intrigue, defense ongoing, royal refuge, executions, imprisonments.

Our guide said that so many people had been executed there and others were taken there for burial, and all had indeed been buried under the chapel.  Finally the stone floor began to heave and buckle and smell so they had to exhume and rebury whoever they could find and identify. Do they still haunt? Ask at ://www.hauntedcastlesandhotels.com/England/tower.htm

Where to sleep in London without giving up your fortune:

Sleeping - Last minute and reasonably priced accommodations can be a problem in the big cities,so aim for the main bus and train stations. Behind Victoria Station in London, for example, is a street that is all little hotels. Fine and clean and convenient.

We drove in all the big cities, on most days preferring the hassle of parking to the blind hurtling of the subways. We like learning the layout ourselves.

London, Kensington Gardens, and Peter Pan

Peter Pan statue, Kensington Gardens, London, England

 Peter Pan. Reread J.M.Barrie's story at http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Barrie/Peter/. The statue is in Kensington, the 242-acre park in London.  It is among eight royal parks in the city.

J.M.Barrie put the statue there himself, however, causing some controversy about self-promotion. See The Twentieth Century Society page for Peter Pan statue, once at http://www.c20th.com, but (update) I do not see the link there now for Peter Pan. Keep looking:  One online forum cites that cite as well, noting that Barrie set it up on the last night in April so it would be magically there on May 1, 1919.  Is that so? This site says that the sculptor Sir George Frampton erected it, see http://historiayculturab2010.blogspot.com/2010/04/peter-pan-statue-in-kensington-gardens.html/  According to a regular protocol, or sua sponte?

The little statue is not easy to find, if you happen to park at the wrong end of the park. The walk is well spent, however, in duck-spotting.

The statue is very small. As it should be for a boy, and Tinkerbell, and the other children below.

London: Hammersmith. History in Etymology.

Placenames in London.

History and legend reside in placenames.

1. Start with Hammersmith and Fulham:  These constitute a Borough in London that borders on Kensington, and Shepherd's Bush.  One derivation of the name is Saxon, descriptive as Ham-hythe, a town - harbor.  Another is legendary:  Two giantesses constructing the nearly identical churches at Fulham and Putney eased their tasks by tossing a huge hammer across the river one to the other, Put-it-nigh!  Full home! They shared it well until the claws broke. They took their hammer to the smith, thus.... 

Charles Dickens cites these etymological roots in his weekly journal, shown here at All the Year Round, Vols 3-4 (August 4, 1860); and focusing first at p.391.  There he suggests the name derivation as Saxon, town with a creek or harbor.


Muse:

Hurl to hit. Misdate
Misstate Miss. Date Sixty-One
Home haven updates.

Tomorrow.  Fifty.
Hoerled. Entitlement hammers
Sport-smithed. Dickens. Call.

Do dates matter. Is verification important. No. Events happen and the date comes and goes in significance. Nonetheless, in Europe, our sequence for dates as month-day-year is instead day-month-year. November 21, 1961, is 21 November 1961.  Date-writing is important for statutes of limitation in foreign cases, as a wrong entry loses the lot.  Special dates and films, other important items to England -look up England chronology items at http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/.

2. Westminster. West Monastery. See London place names at http://www.krysstal.com/londname .

3.  Elephant and Castle? A 1760 pub - castle meant the "howdah" on top of the elephant for riding, http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ele1.

4.  People's names - Tekle Gerenas I met. Then a more usually named, but never forgotten, fine fellow, Robert Howard. A new school unsought. See http://www.newschool.edu/about.