The Origin of Folk-Culture

The legend of Sir Richard ‘Bloody’ Baker, concerning events alleged to have occurred in the parish of Cranbrook, Kent in the sixteenth century, was first recorded in 1850. This legend bears such strong similarities to the English folktale of Mister Fox that it has been suggested it was deliberately fabricated by a Victorian faux antiquary. There are, however, many other oral traditions current in Cranbrook about Bloody Baker which do seem to be authentic folklore, while certain details incongruous in the recorded narrative appear to be survivals from an earlier version. These considerations make it probable that the legend is an organic local variant on the Mister Fox motif, notwithstanding the lateness of its first record.     

Variety and Adventure in the Life of Carl Linden

Abstract

In his long life Carl Linden lived variously and wonderfully. For more than half a century he was a teacher and promoter of Great Books in the classroom and in the neighborhood. Great Books in his hands and mind transformed him into a kind of latter-day Socrates, always questioning, always smiling, sometimes teasingly. As a naturalist he was a hiker/biker on the C&O Canal towpath and promoter of it, as well. His scholarly pursuits took him to Eastern Europe, especially to Russia and Ukraine, about which he wrote and taught for four decades. Finally, he was a bon vivant whose Socratic ways won him laurels in the classroom and friends in the places where good fellows meet.     

Illustrations of Medieval Manners and Costume from Original Documents

The Coningesby family connection with Guy of Warwick is recorded in a pedigree of the family in the Lincolnshire Record Office. The will of Sir Henry Coningesby, knight, indicates that he built the present house at North Mymms Park, probably in the 1580s. It is suggested that the ‘Warwick’ worthy depicts Sir Henry's thirteenth-century ancestor, Sir Roger Coningesby, knight, Steward of the house to Guy of Warwick. There was a connection by marriage between the house at North Mymms, Hertfordshire and Nether Hall, Essex, where similar wall paintings had existed. The association between the Coningesby family, when at the Manor of Weld and the Cutts family, when at Salisbury Hall, both in the parish of Shenley, Hertfordshire, probably accounts for the similarity of the frieze in the Oak bedroom and the frieze in Childerley Hall, Cambridgeshire.     

Notice of a Singular Sculptured Object,Probably a Chess-Piece,Found at Kirkstall Abbey

This article explores the various problems associated with dating brickwork. It does so by combining information gathered from measuring surviving buildings with a survey of recent literature on the subject. Focusing on the seventeenth century, it seeks to show how the various techniques used in making and laying bricks might have changed in the period and to what extent these can be used to provide a tentative dating of surviving fabric. It also outlines the limitations of any such analysis, calling into question various existing recording methods.     

Introduction

The settlement on Nor'nour, a small island in the eastern group of the Isles of Scilly, presents a most unusual complex of at least three structural phases, accompanied by a rich and varied assortment of artifacts in bronze, enamel and pottery. Roman jewellery was made on the site, which was excavated from 1962 to 1966.

The presence of a Bronze Age population was clearly indicated. A room built in the form of a Scillonian Passage Grave, with sherds similar to those of the primary urns at Knackyboy Carn, suggest a date of c. 1200 B.C. for this group. In the early Iron Age, c. 600 B.C., immigrants from western Europe, particularly perhaps from Brittany, reached the island. Room I was altered to the form of a wheelhouse, which still clearly shows the features of its type. At the same time a D-shaped room was added to the eastern side of the wheelhouse and seems to have been used as a kitchen. An extensive kitchen-midden lay east of this additional room and to the north-east a workshop was made containing three well-made pits and an enclosed hearth or furnace area.

The latest phase showed a complete change; the wheelhouse became the finishing-room in the manufacture of Roman jewellery and, probably, a store for the import and sale of objects from western Europe. Roman coins found here date from A.D. 74 to A.D. 383. There is also some evidence for the early and gradual subsidence of the Scillonian archipelago.     

Notices of Certain Bronze Relics,of a Peculiar Type Assigned to the Late Celtic Period

The excavation of four hundred complete and partial in situ burials from the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, represented one of the largest medieval hospital osteoarchaeological assemblages from the British Isles. The significance of the group is enhanced by the detailed investigation of a carefully maintained network of pathways associated with the cemetery, the archaeological sequence that pre- and post-dated its use and a number of contemporary properties that were situated immediately outside its bounds. This evidence allows the cemetery to be placed within its urban context in a way that is rarely possible. The overwhelming majority of the burials were extended west-east aligned supine inhumations without grave-goods. Atypical burials included examples aligned east-west and south-north, a double burial, a prone burial and individuals buried with a jet crucifix and a brooch. Other significant finds included a nearby pit with four bodies in it, an anthropomorphic bone handle and a reused cruciform horse harness pendant. The proportion of males and females in the burial population is similar, whilst individuals who died under the age of sixteen are relatively uncommon and individuals aged under five are completely absent.