7th September 2024 - Lillie off to London

 It is the big move today,  Lillie the last grandchild is moving to London to start her course in drama.  Her father will bring a van and all her stuff will be carted to her rooms at her accommodation.  Three large Ikea bags house all her new kitchen stuff.

It is a big day for my daughter also, the last chick has flown from home but as she has to work needs to catch the coach to Manchester.  This weekend on the M62 a railway bridge is going to be taken down, so not only the motorway disrupted but also the trains.  I can just imagine the trouble with Saturday traffic.  The journey for my daughter adds an extra hour on to travelling time.  According to the news it will only take two weekends on the motorway to dismantle the bridge, maybe they are being over optimistic.

A quiet weekend for me, though a friend is coming on Monday and Matilda is also coming down on Wednesday, she has already moved into the new flat with her friends, eyewatering rent to pay of course.  I have bought a ticket on Omaze (they are expensive) this time for a North Yorkshire house.  If you remember I bought one for a London house to accommodate the grandchildren.  Yes I know winning is nigh impossible but some of the money goes to charity.

There is a scandal over Ticketmaster upping the ticket prices for the latest tickets to the Oasis show, Marina Hyde wrote a scathingly funny piece on it in the Guardian.  Ticketmaster is a 22$ billion dollar company, obviously profit orientated ;) and don't forget the ticket touts selling on as well.

My book came - The Excavation of the Shrine of Apollo at Nettleton, Wiltshire, 1956-1971.  Though published in 1982 it is a perfect example of a an archaeological excavation neatly laid out in the form of reports.  Speculation kept at bay, with none of the who-ha of excited publicity we experience today whenever a 'new discovery' is made.

The funny thing Wedlake, the author, noted that there seemed quite a special feel to this little valley, as I had found out and perhaps the Romans as well.  The land originally belonged to the Dobunni tribe but they made peace fairly early on with the Romans in AD 43, their capital being Cirencester and Roman administration reverted the area to its control.

I have just discovered the following in the Wiki article which perhaps proves the special nature of the valley.  One piece of statue is of Diana the hunter with a hound.  Though the top half is missing

"Stephen Yeates asserts that a study of the religion of the Dobunni has shown that there was a focus on the worship of the natural world. It is possible to identify deities associated with the landscape, for example *Cuda, a mother goddess associated with the Cotswold Hills and its rivers and springs, and Sulis Minerva at Bath. Other cults were defined by social action, such as mining, for example at Lydney Park, and hunting, for example at Pagan's Hill near Chew Stoke."

So does 'Genius Loci' exist I wonder? or indeed the modern day version of it, the 'Spirit of Place'

And another question did the Romans build their temples over existing native places of worship, as did the Christian church on some stone circles?  The Romans cut down the sacred trees to be found in pagan towns, see France?? Also the tree being carried on the Gundestrup Cauldron

A reconstruction drawing of the Pagan Hill temple

Notes:  The search engine is such a good addition and I have just found what I was looking for in sacred trees chopped down.  It was St. Martin of Tours AD 3l6 to AD397 and this is what I culled from this Wiki...

"As bishop, Martin set to enthusiastically ordering the destruction of pagan temples, altars and sculptures. Scholars suggest the following account may indicate the depth of the Druidic folk religion in relation to the veneer of Roman classical culture in the area:

"[W]hen in a certain village he had demolished a very ancient temple, and had set about cutting down a pine-tree, which stood close to the temple, the chief priest of that place, and a crowd of other heathens began to oppose him; and these people, though, under the influence of the Lord, they had been quiet while the temple was being overthrown, could not patiently allow the tree to be cut down".

In one instance, the pagans agreed to fell their sacred fir tree, if Martin would stand directly in its path. He did so, and it miraculously missed him. Sulpicius, a classically educated aristocrat, related this anecdote with dramatic details, as a set piece. Sulpicius could not have failed to know the incident the Roman poet Horace recalls in several Odes, of his narrow escape from a falling tree."