Month: Sep 2022

#343 theoldmortuary ponders

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This is the first actual wreath we have seen to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth the Second,and possibly one in one of the most unusual locations. It is hung outside a ‘Thunder Box’ . It is important to read the link below to understand the context of this site. It is considered to be a living War Memorial and is where tributes are always placed in Heligan, the place we visited today.

Heligan – The Thunderbox Room

Heligan is a fabulous place to hang out for the weekend. Sunshine and cooler weather are definitely heralding autumn.

It is always an early autumn pleasure to spend time with pumpkins before they are incorporated into the dreadful, trashy, import of Halloween, a festival with no merits,in my opinion, that ruins everything about pumpkins and the gorgeous season of Autumn.

Small, warty pumpkins.
Plump, audacious pumpkins including my favourite ‘Turks Head’

Autumn may well be rattling, respectfully, under the circumstances, on the door but bees are still busy with summer business.

Although these bees live in ancient homes called Bee Boles.

We’ve walked many miles today and listened to some lovely history lectures, which were a fine excuse to sit down for an hour or so. The coffee and comestibles have been perfect. Welcoming Autumn with bright sunlight and gorgeous flowers is very satisfying.

#342 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, Ten Days of Mourning1 Comment

The Thames and its river banks are the focus of news in London for the next two days. The Queue is taking the media strain off the Royal Family. The banks of the Thames are some of the easiest and historically significant walks that can be done in Britain. 22 hours in the dark and cold would be pushing my tolerance but every inch of the queues locations are familiar to me and some hold especially fond memories. College green where the infamous ‘snake’ part of the queue compresses is a green park like space where TV crews often broadcast from. It was also one was of my dads shortcuts when he was working locally. He could occasionally be seen scuttling past in the background, when the TV news was being filmed. Today College Green was the place when many people realised they were queueing with David Beckham, former England football captain and generally considered, lovely chap.

He had arrived at the start of the queue at 2am and had managed many hours largely unnoticed. When he was spotted he bought doughnuts for large numbers of people on the green. Not pulling any strings to take a short cut and buying doughnuts certainly suggests he is a really nice chap.

And yes ,there really is a ‘Live’ feed for a dead person.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62921700

Link above to video of whole queue.

Trust me there was nothing like the complexity when I saw Churchill.

#341 theoldmortuary ponders

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I did not anticipate some observations on class today. The Queens coffin is resting on a purple catafalque- a decorated wooden structure supporting the coffin of a distinguished person.

When we took over the mortuary, prior to renovating the space, we had a very similar catafalque, same colour everything. But of course the good people of St Stephens in Cornwall were not distinguished so their coffins rested on a bier!

Some sources say the two words are synonyms with no mention of any distinguished differences.

The bier or catafalque of St Stephens held a secret. Beneath its purple drapes there was an old chest of drawers with a door nailed on top.

What lies beneath the purple drapes of the catafalque in Westminster Hall is likely to remain a mystery to those of us not involved in distinguished funerals. It is unlikely to be an old door and a chest of drawers, but you never know.

#340 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Ten Days of Mourning2 Comments

Todays blog has , once again, written itself. The plan was to have a bit of a natter about the architecture and history of The Great Hall, Westminster. But something more organic has grabbed my attention.

#QueueForTheQueen

Overnight the British love for an orderly queue has reached its zenith. Could there be anything more gloriously, gorgeously, British than a queue with a life of its own.

The Queue has its own website, live tracker and constant streamed wencam.

I woke up for a wee at a moment of unfortunate activity.

A guard took a tumble during his duty.

Twitter, as can be the case, is the place for witty comments. Visual jokes that will only improve over the five days of The Queue’s life.

I am not an innocent in this queueing malarky, only two weeks ago I chose a restaurant in Chicago “Because it had a queue” I don’t know why those words came out of my mouth or even where the thought came from. I was not wrong though, our lunch was excellent.

It is not an exaggeration to say that people have travelled from the four corners of the earth to join #QueueForTheQueen. Just like Glastonbury there are wrist bands, portable toilets, and no sleep.

But here, perched on the edge of my bed there is definitely sleep. Five more days of the greatest queue on earth, An unexpected pleasure!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/14/queen-coffin-queues-30-hours-london?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

#339 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Kings and Queens of England, Ten Days of Mourning1 Comment

A bright, brief, flash of colour is my only connection with our recently deceased Queen. Like a Kingfisher she flashed past in my life rarely but brightly in a car or carriage. Other times, when she was dressed to not be recognised, the recognition nearly always came after the moment had passed. How will King Charles the third follow that. Men habitually dress in clothes that are less colourful, no wildly exuberant hats apart from his uniform days, or Crown days. Not that this really matters but in part the Queens success was that, when she wanted to be, she was spectacularly visible.

A tough sartorial act to follow.

©Facebook

#338 theoldmortuary ponders

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In these days of rolling news and constant posts on Social Media it is easy to get sucked into Royal news almost without realising. Beyond news, accurate or not, there are poems and pieces of Art. Accuracy seems irrelevant and sometimes the quality of the homage pieces is a little questionable. One that stood out because it worked on a few levels was this Queen tribute, almost always falsely attributed to Banksy.

© Anat Zahavi

Anat Zahavi, grew up in Tel Aviv and currently lives in the Netherlands. I hope her name is not wiped from history but there is every chance. Lazy research by many contributes to one of my favourite quotes.

” History is a lie agreed upon” or so I thought. In fact the actual quote is.

“History is a set of lies that people have agreed upon,”- Napoleon

Always check your sources especially in these curious times with 24 hours of news. Or just turn it off.

#337 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Kings and Queens of England, Serendipity, Ten Days of MourningLeave a comment

Todays Royal pondering features King John, a monarch best known for creating the Magna Carta at Runnymead in Surrey. The Magna Carta was in fact a Peace Treaty between the King and his Barons.

The Magna Carta was a charter of rights agreed to by King John of England in 1215, and was Europe’s first written constitution. Prior to the implementation of the Magna Carta, English monarchs were considered above the law of the land and ruled with relatively absolute power.

Thankfully this blog is not an Opus Magnum so I need to turn the expectation down a little.

King John was not considered by many to be a particularly good or kind King but in England he scored a sartorial first. King John was the first person to be recorded as wearing a dressing gown. The Kings overshirt for rising in the night.

In his last days there would be a lot of rising in the night. The King was suffering from Dysentry and somewhat foolishly ate an excessive amount of peaches which finished him off.

#336 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Kings and Queens of England, Serendipity, Ten Days of Mourning1 Comment

Todays Royal related blog is perhaps not for the squeamish. I will ease you all in gently. Where does the tradition of flowers come from at funerals? Bodies become odorous, quite quickly, after death unless steps are taken. Flowers and in particular their fragrance can help a bit, as does quick, deep burial or burning. Incense or any other strong smelling fragrance has nothing to do with spirituality and everything to do odour masking. It matters not what any religion dresses the rituals around death up as,the disposal of a body is pragmatic and good for public health.

William the 1st, William the Conqueror had a Royal funeral, planned, quite possibly by Monty Python Funerals.com

Held in Caen, France, things did not go to plan. Injured in battle, possibly a self inflicted injury of a big belly being ruptured by the pommel on the saddle of his horse. William was taken alive to Rouen but died of his injuries. His body was stored in a place that was ransacked and looted. Everything of value was stolen and his naked body left on the floor. There was an attempt at embalming, almost certainly too little, too late and he was transported to Caen for his funeral where a stone sarcophagus awaited him.

There was a kerfuffle immediately when someone claimed the Church and by association the burial site had been built on stolen land but worse was to come. The pre prepared stone sarcophagus was just a little too small. Not enough that the body would obviously not fit, but just tantalisingly too small. The sort of ‘too small’ where a practical person would step up and offer to try and squeeze the King in. This was not a good idea. William the Conquerors damaged and decaying bowels burst at the first application of pressure. All the flowers in the world or Incense for that matter were not going to hide that particular stench. Mediaeval life was not for the fragile…

Where will all this Royal research take us tomorrow.

#335 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Kings and Queens of England, Serendipity, Ten Days of MourningLeave a comment

Saturday morning and Britain has entered a 10 day period of mourning. I thought I might entertain blog readers with snippits of Royal History in these 10 days. While researching one thing I found another which will bubble about unless I let it out immediately.

England once had a King called Sweyn Forkbeard!

Crowned in Gainsborough on Christmas Day 1013 he was dead five weeks later. He was the first Viking King of England.

How did I not know this when I was 10 and unnaturally nerdy. Why has it taken until now. How could I not have noticed on my poster of the Kings and Queens. Sweyn was the father of East Anglian, Poster King Canute and still I had never heard of him when I was growing up there. I demand a refund on my state education, or my free library subscription.

Googling lets me know that I am late to this particular party.

©Sweyn Forkbeard

Sweyn Forkbeard is big in Camden where he fronts up a male grooming company. He has cleaned up his act somewhat in their tagline.

©Sweyn Forkbeard

Their publicity suggests that he was known for his lustrous hair and beard, even in battle. Other evidence suggests that even by contemporary standards he was a cruel and brutal man.

I am rather preferring the fragrant and well groomed image of Camden Sweyn to Gainsborough Sweyn. A man whose only weapons are big pair of scissors and a fistful of shaving balm.

10 days of this nonsense, you have been warned.

https://www.sweynforkbeard.co.uk/sweyn-forkbeard

Link to fabulous male grooming, should you ever be in Camden.

#334 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn EventsLeave a comment

The sun sets on the second Elizabethan era. Hyperlocal, of course, this is a view of Cummulonimbus over the Hamoaze as the sun sets on the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Flags are at half mast over Stonehouse.

I took myself off media for 24 hours once the announcement of her serious health situation was announced. Waiting for the inevitable, for any family, should be an entirely private occasion.

Bobbers had their first bob of the new Carolean Age. We would not be bobbers if we had not had a good old chatter afterwards, we hunted in our heads but not our phones for the title of the new age. Not one of us came up with Carolean. To be honest we favoured the new King using one of his middle names and entering a new Arthurian Age. It was not to be. Surely it is a tough enough act to follow Queen Elizabeth 11 but rehabilitating the title of King Charles is also a historical challenge. On an absolute positive the name Charles may become more popular.

Other subjects touched on, in a wide ranging, Bobbing conversation were the theory of Mother Trees and mushroom music. Appropriate subjects,for the day, I feel.

And the experience of making music with mushrooms.

One thing really does lead to another when bobbing.

Hyperlocal again, as I write this on the Stonehouse Peninsular I can hear muffled bells from the City of Plymouth and soon there will be a gun salute from Devonport Dockyard. A historical moment being marked.