This old dog tries to learn new tricks

Following an article in this week's New Scientist, and a link to the website memrise.com , I'm trying to learn to recognise some well-known pieces of classical music.

Yes, I knew a few already, but I have enormous gaps in my knowledge. Time to plug a few.

It's like a massive quiz that I can sign into whenever I feel like it, and it goes over and over stuff - even sends you the odd email to remind you you need to revise. 

I figure that if it can teach me this, it's got something! Will report back on progress from time to time.

Agnes Archer Evans

from the Leicester Lit and Phil Society web page.

This plaque is at 6, St Martins, where Agnes Archer Evans lived for some time after her marriage.

Born in 1851,  Agnes Archer Kilgour became headmistress of the Belmont House School on New Walk in Leicester in 1882. As well as being a founder member of the Women's Suffrage Society, she was active in the School Board and helped establish kindergartens.

She was also involved in the Leicester branch of the National Union of Women Workers, and became president of the Health Society, aiming to reduce infant mortality in the town, by educating mothers. 

She died in 1924.

Thanks to Ned Newitt's The Who's Who of Radical Leicester for the above information.

She was also the first woman president of Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society . She was born in Tasmania, and was the first of thirteen children born to Susan Anne Archer and Dr John Stewart Kilgour, a Scottish physician working on the island.  The family returned to Britain in about 1860.

Agnes married William Evans in 1895.

Fanny Fullagar

Since we were in tourist mode on Wednesday,  I snapped a couple of Leicester's blue plaques and decided to find a out a bit about the people honoured in this way.

This plaque is on the wall of the former Registry Office in Pocklingtons Walk. It celebrates Fanny Fullagar.

For my information I am indebted to this article in the Western Park Gazette online and to a short article in The Who's Who of Radical Leicester compiled by Ned Newitt.

There is a photograph of her in the Western Park Gazette article.

Fanny Fullagar was a doctor's daughter, born in 1847 in Leicester, and she made a huge contribution to  society, in a very Victorian way.  

She campaigned for better training for midwives, and helped create the Bond Street Maternity Hospital.

She stood for election for Poor Law Guardian in the All Saints/Newton Ward in 1889 and was elected every year until 1904, when she lost by one vote. 

She was a member of the local Women's Suffrage Society, a founder member of Leicester NSPCC, and also worked for St John Ambulance and the RSPCA.
She never married though she was reputed to be engaged for seven years.

She died in 1918 - the year when women over 30 got the right to vote in the UK.

Leicester Cathedral - a glimpse

I didn't know there was a cathedral in Leicester until a couple of years ago.  No reason for me to know - I don't go to church, and to me Leicester has just been a place to go to the shops when absolutely necessary,  and a good excuse to wander around and explore the coffee shops, and soak up a dose of city atmosphere.  

The cathedral is not a grand edifice like Lincoln, Salisbury or Winchester.  It's full title is the Cathedral Church of St Martin, and it became a cathedral in 1927, after the diocese of Leicester was recreated in 1926.

Most of what we see today is the result of a Victorian renovation.  From the outside it looks like a very large church, and the grounds are not extensive, though there is a garden in front.  

from the Guildhall window

My first view of it in 2011 was the back entrance next to the Guildhall, with enough place for two small cars and a notice - "Parking for the Bishop". 

I think it's become much better known as a result of the King in the Car Park stories.

The spire seen through the windows of the Guildhall

The Vaughan Porch - at the main entrance on the south side.

The interior is light and airy - no pews, but chairs, which can be moved as needed.
Two particular points of interest inside the cathedral are the Richard III memorial stone, and the Herrick chapel.  The Herricks were the family of the poet Robert Herrick, of "Fair Daffodils" fame, a prosperous and well regarded family.

Leicester Guildhall

The Guildhall

It is a fine example of a timber-framed hall, and dates back six centuries. 
It was originally built in 1390 as a meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi, but soon became the meeting place of Leicester Corporation, who bought the building in 1548 for £25 15s 4d.

This room contains a library of old books, chests, chairs and a desk as well as the long table.

Mirrors are always tempting.

The Bible - not to be touched though.

By 1563 Assizes Courts were held in the Guildhall and the Recorder of Leicester was authorised to hear various cases.

In 1580 this room was fitted up as a bedroom.  The furniture is not original, but is of the sort used in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Great Hall - used as a courtroom, for theatrical performances, civic events and banquets.

After a new Town Hall was opened in 1876 the Guildhall fell into disrepair. It was restored and renovated, and opened as a museum in 1926.

At present the Guildhall is used for performances, and is also a museum open to the public.

Richard III exhibition in Leicester

The facial reconstruction is on display in Leicester until 9th June 2013. It will then tour the country.  

The exhibition   "Leicester's Search for a King" continues until 2014.

 For further details check  Leicester City Council's web page  .

I have to confess to a teenage predilection for Josephine Tey's book The Daughter of Time, in which she argued that the princes in the Tower were more probably murdered by Henry VII than by Richard III.  I am far less convinced by Richard's essential goodness these days. They were rough old times, and he would have been no better than the rest of the bloodthirsty and ambitious power seekers. Blood relations who were in the way were frequently disposed of, as was anyone else.

Nevertheless the story of his short reign and death captures many people's imagination, and we have a slightly morbid fascination with the possibility of discovering so much from a 500 year old skeleton.  The computer aided reconstruction of his head, and its resemblance to near-contemporary portraits is remarkable.

  The reconstruction is on display until 9th June 2013.  The exhibitiont "Leicester's Search for a King" continues unitl 2014.

The exhibition in the Guild Hall is clear and informative, and well worth visiting - it gives details of the search for the body below the car park, on the site of the Grey Friars Church, the tests that were carried out which prove as near as dammit that these bones were Richard's.

Alongside this are historical items, including weapons, coins and jewellery from the fifteenth century, and a reconstruction of the Blue Boar Inn where Richard is supposed to have spent the night before the battle of Bosworth, where he died.

All this links in to my recent walk around Market Bosworth area, including the battlefield site and Ambion Hill, as well as the church at Sutton Cheney, where Richard is said to have prayed before the battle.

I took my tiny cheap point and shoot camera, and as a result didn't take many pics here.

Looking at the familiar through the eyes of a tourist

We discovered the existence of Leicester's cathedral and Guildhall quite recently.  Leicester has always been an occasional shopping destination, rather than anything more, and an excuse for coffee and cakes, and a visit to the Art Gallery and museum on New Walk.
We have often looked up at the architectural details above eye level.

Today our first stop was for coffee in the old grammar school, now a restaurant near High Cross Shopping Centre.  Nearby is a plaque showing where the original High Cross stood.

So that's why it's called High Cross . . .

. . .not just because Mr Wetherspoon has a pub there.

Leicester has been in the news recently with the discovery and investigations of the remains of Richard III under a car park, on the site of the old Grey Friars church.  We dropped in to the exhibition, the Guildhall and the Cathedral.
On the way we passed Mr Wyggeston or Wigston's  house.

and his hospital and boys' school - not usually behind bars, I think.

William Wyggeston set this up in 1513.  It housed 12 poor men and 12 poor women; the hospital moved to Hinckley Road in 1869.

I shall post about our visit to the Richard III exhibition, and the cathedral and guildhall later.

wild in the country

Here with a camera and two lenses, interchangeable.  And usually the wrong lens in place.  An arm, could be steadier.  Today I offer two tolerably pretty pics of flowers, two distant shots of birds, and one of a hare.  They’d be better used as quiz questions than as tools for education.

note that one flower is beautifully focussed – the second artily blurred

Ooh – it’s a . . . ch . . . . . .
.

I think it’s a yellow wagtail
l

spot the hare

Bluebells and more

We go to see the bluebells in Barnsdale woods again. The sun is sulking behind the clouds. The trees are showing shades of new green,  yet the wind blows chill.  Summer's almost here, but she's forgotten something.

In the air above the grassy slopes are the first swifts I've seen this year, diving and swooping.

Blackthorn trees, their blossoms beginning to brown, as close by the creamier pink tinged hawthorn flowers are taking over.

Over the cattle grid into the woodland. By the path a few bluebells, mixed with cowslips and pink campion, and now the blue mist and the sweet smell as we walk deeper into the wood.

On our left the ground slopes down to the water - trees stand knee deep, like mangroves out of their comfort zone - of course they're willows.   We walk past memorial benches,  fallen trees,  tepee-shaped stacks of branches.

Birds sing. People walk, talk and cycle.  In a car park fishermen are putting their gear into a van - N29 FLY.  It crawls past us as we climb the hill.

Up there is a bench I haven't seen before.  And an orchard, planted for the Diamond Jubilee and open by "HM" the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland - in honour of "HRH" Queen Elizabeth.  Is this a red plot hatched by crazy egalitarians?

We walk down the grassy slope, back to the woods.  Stop to look, take photographs, even though the sunlight is still AWOL.

Woodland turns to grass, and here the air is thick with dancing midges - I swallow one, then disguise myself as a Western outlaw, with a handkerchief round nose and mouth, tied dashingly behind my ears.
Where are the swifts?

As we begin the drive home the sky turns blue and five miles later the sun comes out.

A Peakirk wander

Not a walk this time - I offered to take some photographs of Peakirk village for my third cousin in NZ, and since I was feeling antsy and over screen-lagged this morning, I drove myself fen-wards.

The route I took was through Helpston, birthplace and burial place of the poet John Clare.  Then I followed the road to Glinton, where his first love, Mary Joyce,  died in a house fire at the age of 41.

Glinton Church

 She is buried near the church porch, under a plum tree, but I couldn't find the stone.

On to Peakirk then.
At one time the place was well-known for its wetland bird centre, but alas, that is all in the past.  It closed in 2001 and the birds redistributed among the other Wildfowl and Wetlands sites.

 The church is interesting - have you ever heard of St Pega? Nor had I  - but she was the sister of St Guthlac of Crowland, and died in 719 AD.  She had a hermitage in the area, and the church is dedicated to her.  The village name means Pega's Church.

It's a little tricky to find, hidden among the trees across the village green, and with no spire, just an open belfry, it's nowhere near as ostentatious as neighbouring All Saints in Glinton.

St Pega's church, Peakirk

Inside are some medieval wall paintings - one series representing the Passion of Christ is thought to be from the early 14th century.

There are two allegorical paintings - The Living and the Dead, and the Gossiping Women. These may be a little later, but are from before the Black Death of 1349.

There's a notice board with the history of the village.

I drove around then, trying to plan a walk, calling at the tiny village of Etton. We did the walk the following day

Enough was enough, so I drove back.  The level crossing was closed, so I had the opportunity to sit quietly for ten minutes, while 5 trains went by.