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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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To all mayors, sheriff's, constables, and other head officers within the county of Middlesex. After our hearty commendations, whereas we are informed that one John Seconton, poulter, dwelling within the parish of St. Clement's Danes, being a poor man, having four small children, and fallen into decay, is licensed to have and use some plays and games at or upon several Sundays, for his better relief, comfort, and sustentation, within the county of Middlesex, to commence and begin at and from the 22nd of May next coming, after the date hereof, and not to remain in one place not above three several Sundays; and we considering that great resort of people is like to come thereunto, we will and require of you, as well for good order as also for the preservation of the Queen's Majesty's peace, that you take with you four or five of the discreet and substantial men within your office or liberties where the games shall be put in practice, then and there to foresee and do your endeavour to your best in that behalf, during the continuance of the games or plays, which games are hereafter severally mentioned; that is to say, the shooting with the standard, the shooting with the broad arrow, the shooting at twelve score prick, the shooting at the Turk, the leaping for men, the running for men, the wrestling, the throwing of the sledge, and the pitching of the bar, with all such other games as have at any time heretofore or now be licensed, used, or played. Given the 26th day of April, in the eleventh year of the Queen's Majesty's reign. Queen Elizabeth I; licence issued April 26, 1569 |
Chernobyl area, taken from the Russian Mir spacecraft in
1997 |
Each generation takes the Earth as
trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and
orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.
J Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day, USA
Beauty in things exists in the mind which
contemplates them.
David Hume, Scottish
philosopher and historian, born on April 26, 1711; Essays, 'Of Tragedy'
Question: At what age to take children into your mills?
Robert Owen: At ten and upwards.
Question: Why do you not employ children at an earlier age?
Robert Owen: Because I consider it to be injurious to the children, and not beneficial to the proprietors.
Question: What reasons have you to suppose it is injurious to the children to be employed at an earlier age?
Robert Owen: Seventeen years ago, a number of individuals, with myself, purchased the
New Lanark establishment from Mr. Dale. I found that there were 500 children, who had been taken from poor-houses, chiefly in Edinburgh, and those children were generally from the age of five and six, to seven to eight. The hours at that time were thirteen. Although these children were well fed their limbs were very generally deformed, their growth was stunted, and although one of the best schoolmasters was engaged to instruct these children regularly every night, in general they made very slow progress, even in learning the common alphabet. I came to the conclusion that the children were injured by being taken into the mills at this early age, and employed for so many hours; therefore, as soon as I had it in my power, I adopted regulations to put an end to a system which appeared to me to be so injurious.
Question: Do you give instruction to any part of your population?
Robert Owen: Yes. To the children from three years old upwards, and to every other part of the population that choose to receive it.
Question: If you do not employ children under ten, what would you do with them?
Robert Owen: Instruct them, and give them exercise.
Question: Would not there be a danger of their acquiring, by that time, vicious habits, for want of regular occupation?
Robert Owen: My own experiences leads me to say, that I found quite the reverse, that their habits have been good in proportion to the extent of their instruction.
On April 26, 1816, Robert Owen
(1771 - 1858), Welsh-born philanthropic social reformer, pioneer of the
cooperative movement,
founder of New
Lanark and New
Harmony communities, appeared before Sir Robert
Peel's House of
Commons Committee, UK
Men talk about Bible miracles because there is no
miracle in their lives. Cease to gnaw that crust. There is ripe fruit over your
head.
Henry David Thoreau, who moved into
Ralph Waldo Emerson's home, April 26, 1841
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not
only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple
and meagre life than the poor.
Henry David Thoreau
To regret deeply is to live afresh.
Henry David Thoreau
The world is but a canvas to the imagination.
Henry David Thoreau
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Henry David Thoreau
Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
Henry David Thoreau
I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which
these things would be by me unavoidable.
Henry David Thoreau
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where
they should be. Now put foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau
It takes two to speak truth – One to
speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau
I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances
confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life
which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
Many go fishing all their
lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry
David Thoreau quotes
There's no such thing as a bad
Picasso, but some are less good than others.
Pablo Picasso, one of
whose paintings sold on April 26, 1967 for a record US$532,000
April
26 is
the 116th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (117th
in leap years), with 249
days remaining.
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Hocktide (2004)
(Two weeks after Easter, English customs with a Viking background)
A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac
(Also
known as Hoke-tide. In the 15th and 16th
centuries, in London it was called Hob-tide.) In the English
tradition, Hocktide is the Monday and Tuesday following the second Sunday
after Easter (Low
Sunday), though the Tuesday is considered the main day. ('Tide'
is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'time, period or season', and is
obsolescent, if not obsolete, in most senses except when referring to the
oceans' rise and fall.)
Long before the Industrial Revolution when people became ensnared in the long working week that still prevails for the benefit of our idle masters, work was hard but feast days were plenty. Weekends, as yet uninvented, would never have been enough for our forebears. As one sees each day in the Almy, scarcely a week – scarcely three days – went by in medieval Europe without a holiday with feasting and frolicking. (There are still societies today clinging to such lifestyles in defiance of globalization's juggernaut, but they are labelled 'primitive'.)
Hocktide was for our Western ancestors such a day of high festivity and pranks. The best known of these was 'ransoming'.
On the Monday, men would go out and about and capture women, binding
them with cords and holding them for small ransoms, which was usually
given to church restoration funds or charity (though a kiss was often accepted). There was equality in these fun and games, however – on the Tuesday
the women could take their revenge on the men in the same way. The
meaning of the word is unknown, but the custom can be traced back to
the 13th century. In 1450 a bishop of Worcester inhibited
these 'Hoctyde' practices. It prevailed in all parts of
England, but pretty much died out early in the 1700s.
You can't keep a good prank down, though, and although not nearly so widespread as before, ransoming is still played in some places at Hocktide. One of the places to keep the tradition alive is Hungerford, where another custom is to grab any dignitaries attending the Hocktide feast and for a blacksmith to put horseshoes on their feet.
It may be that these games evolved to commemorate the
dreadful massacre of thousands of Danes (Vikings) on St
Brice's Day, November
13, 1002, the 1,000-year anniversary
of which passed in recent years without war between
England and Denmark. (King Aethelred Unraed
[Ethelred II; Æthelred II; Ethelred the Unready, or 'ill-advised'] ordered
"to be slain all the Danish people who were in England ..." [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle CDE].)
For it is fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known that, since a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading men and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination, and thus this decree was to be put into effect even as far as death, those Danes who dwelt in the afore-mentioned town, striving to escape death, entered this sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and bolts, and resolved to make refuge and defence for themselves therein against the people of the town and the suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to the planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its books. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me.
From a royal charter by King Aethelred Unraed (968 - 1016)
On the Feast of St
Brice (successor to St Martin of
Tours), the Anglo-Saxon people rose up and massacred all the Danish
people living in England (mostly merchants and mercenaries), under whose
Danelaw
the Anglo-Saxon people were required to live. It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for the year
1002 that on St Brice's Day the Danish
community in Oxford, fearing for their lives, took refuge in St Frideswide's, the minster church of the
female
saint who founded Oxford (Cardinal
Wolsey later transformed her monastery into Christ Church College, and
King Henry XIII made her church into Oxford
cathedral). The townspeople burnt down the church building with
considerable loss of life. Among those said to have been murdered were
Gunnhild (Gunhilda), sister of King
Sweyn I ('Forkbeard') of Denmark (circa 965 - February 3, 1014; father of King Canute
the Great, 994/995-1035), her husband and their son.
This act of carnage, ordered by King Æthelred II ('the Unready') so outraged the Vikings
that it led to a full scale invasion by them the following year. Æthelred's
anger derived from the fact that
he was paying protection money – Danegeld
– to Danish warriors or Vikings, who were
becoming, as he saw it, much too greedy in their demands. Both king and
subjects became exasperated with the financial burden imposed on them.
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This year the king and his council agreed that tribute
should be given to the fleet, and peace made with them, with the
provision that they should desist from their mischief. Then sent the
king to the fleet Alderman Leofsy, who at the king's word and his
council made peace with them, on condition that they received food
and tribute; which they accepted, and a tribute was paid of 24,000
pounds. In the meantime Alderman Leofsy slew Eafy, high-steward of
the king; and the king banished him from the land. Then, in the same
Lent, came the Lady Elfgive Emma, Richard's daughter, to this land.
And in the same summer died Archbishop Eadulf; and also, in the same
year the king gave an order to slay all the Danes that were in
England. This was accordingly done on the mass-day of St Brice;
because it was told the king, that they would beshrew him of his
life, and afterwards all his council, and then have his kingdom
without any resistance. |
Aethelred penny from around the year 1000 CE, |
Regrettably,
President Æthelred, his Defence Department and his Office of Homeland
Security had a pre-modern, limited apprehension of human nature, and did
not foresee that their action would incense the Danes, who returned to
England in 1003 to exact cruel revenge.
[John
of Wallingford suggests that the Vikings had to be killed because they
combed their hair daily, bathed every Saturday and regularly changed their
clothes – helping to undermine the
virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles and make
them their mistresses.
As another wayward point of
interest, Æthelred, according to William of Malmesbury, as a child
defecated in the baptismal
font
leading St Dunstan to prophesy that the English
monarchy would be overthrown during Æthelred's reign; King Sweyn's reign fulfilled the prophecy.]
Other theories of the origins: Read on at the Hocktide page at the Scriptorium
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