A great garden is an image of paradise, in more than one religious outlook. Perhaps this is because within such a garden, all the very best of the natural world is taken by human ingenuity, and then gifted and skilled gardeners weave their own design and creativity into it. Our dreams become realised through aContinue reading “Great Gardens of England: Hidcote Manor Gardens, near Chipping Campden”
Tag Archives: SC Skillman
The Royal Naval College Hospital, Greenwich – Place of Refuge for Sick and Disabled Ex-Sailors between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries
As you disembark from the Thames clipper at Greenwich you will enter a grand building in which is housed the excellent Visitor Centre for the Royal Naval College – built above the foundations of King Henry VIII’s favourite palace, Greenwich Palace. Magnificent and imposing as the college buildings are, they were used as a hospital toContinue reading “The Royal Naval College Hospital, Greenwich – Place of Refuge for Sick and Disabled Ex-Sailors between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries”
The Sugar and Slavery Gallery at the Museum of London Docklands – Stories of Great Suffering Upon which our Privileged Lives Are Founded
The International Slave Trade was in force between the mid seventeenth and the late nineteenth centuries. Although it was abolished in 1838 it didn’t magically stop on that date. And in that time millions of men, women and children from Africa were treated as if they were subhuman, disposable objects, moving parts of a machine,Continue reading “The Sugar and Slavery Gallery at the Museum of London Docklands – Stories of Great Suffering Upon which our Privileged Lives Are Founded”
Ian Hislop’s Search for Dissent: ‘I Object’ Exhibition at the British Museum – Brilliant and Cheeky Tribute to the Spirit of Independent Thought
Free will means that even in the most totalitarian regime, individuals keep within their hearts and minds their secret thoughts and views: but with ingenuity they will find a way of expressing it. When Private Eye editor and TV personality Ian Hislop stepped out of his Private Eye offices – as shown on video atContinue reading “Ian Hislop’s Search for Dissent: ‘I Object’ Exhibition at the British Museum – Brilliant and Cheeky Tribute to the Spirit of Independent Thought”
The British Library and the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms
Recently I found myself in the British Library in London, and among the large number of visitors who had flocked there to see the exhibition on The Anglo Saxon Kingdoms. There displayed for us to see were certain treasures of the age before the Norman Conquest. Here were the magnificent original illuminated manuscripts, the highlyContinue reading “The British Library and the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms”
The Museum of London, Docklands: a Beguiling Talk About the Social History of the English Pub
The English pub is such a well-loved institution. I know when I lived in Australia for four years, this wonderful institution was much prized for its almost legendary status amongst the Australians, even if they did think we British are a bit weird to go around drinking warm beer all the time. And at theContinue reading “The Museum of London, Docklands: a Beguiling Talk About the Social History of the English Pub”
London Stories, a Rich and Complex Tapestry
I’ve just spent a week in London, near the Tower, and my mind is full of London stories… stories of many different aspects of life in the city. First of all, I think of the tales we were told on the walk from Whitechapel tube station, the Hidden East End walk, led by one of LondonContinue reading “London Stories, a Rich and Complex Tapestry”
Book Review: Out of the Forest by Gregory P. Smith
Over Christmas a biography came to me which is one of the most compelling and moving accounts I have ever read. Out of the Forest (published by Penguin Australia) is the memoir of a man who spent ten years living as an alcoholic drug-crazed recluse high in the New South Wales forest, (with occasional forays downContinue reading “Book Review: Out of the Forest by Gregory P. Smith”
The Virgin Birth and the Power of the Supernatural Truths in the Christian Faith
The Christian faith rests on the awesome truth of several supernatural events – the Virgin Birth, the Incarnation, the Transfiguration, the Resurrection and the Ascension – and last year, I watched again “The Nativity”, the TV mini series first broadcast by the BBC at Christmas 2010. I remember the series had a strong impression onContinue reading “The Virgin Birth and the Power of the Supernatural Truths in the Christian Faith”
Stoneleigh Abbey – a Glorious Restoration and a Fascinating Historical Tour
We recently made another visit to Stoneleigh Abbey, very near where we live in Warwick: a stately home that has been beautifully restored since it was devastated by fire in 1960. Originally home to an order of Cistercian monks granted land by Henry II in 1145, this later evolved into a gracious seventeenth century residence,Continue reading “Stoneleigh Abbey – a Glorious Restoration and a Fascinating Historical Tour”
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