751
Edith of Wilton may have been the daughter of King, but she did not behave like one in the Abbey or the town.
Flemish monk Goscelin spent much of his life in England just after the Conquest of 1066, researching the lives of Anglo-Saxon saints. One of his favourites was St Edith of Wilton (?961-984), a daughter of King Edgar. He often felt her presence on his visits to the Abbey where she had lived a century before.
Posted February 10 2019
752
An austere Bishop of Winchester scolded St Edith for her comely nun’s habit, but the young woman’s eyes saw further than his.
St Edith of Wilton was a daughter of King Edgar (r. 959-975). The nuns of the convent, which was ruled by her mother Wulfthryth, wore rather nice habits and the Bishop of Winchester did not did not think them suitable. Edith, however, was not one to judge a book by its cover.
Posted February 9 2019
753
Blake throws heart and soul into an impassioned expression of his dream of a new England.
In a fiery Preface to his epic poem ‘Milton’, William Blake scolded Georgian Britain’s materialistic Establishment for making idols of war, empire, science and money. He ended with a stirring appeal to rediscover the country’s soul, drawing on a legend that Jesus Christ once visited England.
Posted February 7 2019
754
Self-confessed Scottish Nationalist John Buchan warned Scots that there was more to democratic prosperity than having a Parliament.
In November 1932, John Buchan MP told the House of Commons that he supported Home Rule for Scotland in principle, but warned that no Parliament has a magic wand, and that an over-mighty and bitterly anti-English Parliament might leave Scots as much a race without a country as no Parliament at all.
Posted February 6 2019
755
Sir Walter Scott takes his daughter Sophia to see the newly-rediscovered Honours of Scotland, and suffers an embarrassment.
In 1817, the Prince Regent appointed a Commission to search the Crown Room of Edinburgh Castle for records of Scotland’s crown jewels, unseen since the Act of Union in 1707. Sir Walter Scott had been a prime mover in the campaign and was one of the Commissioners, but not all his fellows felt the sacredness of their quest.
Posted February 5 2019
756
Sir Walter Scott described how the long-forgotten crown jewels of the Scottish Kings came to light again.
After the Union of Scotland and England in 1707, Scotland’s crown jewels were locked away in Edinburgh Castle. Almost at once, the Jacobites who so bitterly opposed the Union began spreading rumours that the ‘Honours of Scotland’ had been stolen, and in 1794 King George III sent a party up to Edinburgh to prove them wrong.
Posted February 5 2019