Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 9, 2011 21:48:47 GMT
Inside the tenants hall, where they all came to pay the tythe. No 500 year old oil paintings, so I could take a photo. The little cart at the front was used to pull the infirm around the grounds. Blerdy steep climb!! Chrissie, I am thinking of training my little pack Hoss to fetch cut wood from the local woods. People are going back to the old ways of retrieving lumber, without damaging the ground, and she needs a job. I was thinking about it when we tried to negotiate the Pack Horse pub car park!
|
|
|
Post by Chrissie on Jul 9, 2011 21:59:00 GMT
I agree Kat, get quite a bit of free wood myself, either from my own garden or the trees next door & form other neighbours - will have to train my cats to be pack cats Lol, that car park does take some negotiating Where else in Cornwall did you get to see after staying overnight in Bodmin?
|
|
|
Post by Perpetua on Jul 9, 2011 22:00:38 GMT
Great pictures Kat! Did you do Cheddar Gorge or brave Wookey Hole instead?!
|
|
|
Post by jerryrm on Jul 9, 2011 22:08:43 GMT
Will have to train my cats to be pack cats I can picture that, Chrissie. Nine cats marching in line down your road, each one with a stick tied to it's back. Pics, we want pics !!!!!
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 9, 2011 22:13:11 GMT
The outside of the tenants hall, Photo taken from the keep above the castle, (another monster of a climb) Jerry the castle crypt steps are worn down by the footsteps of thousands of people through the centuries, and I think you would (like me) let your imagination run wild, with the thought of stepping on stone that others stepped on in the 12th century. America may be the new world, but chances are that one of your ancestors ran up those steps, or some very similar, some where in the world, that is the joy of history. It is in the blood, sweat and tears of people, and we are very lucky in the British Isles, to have so many lasting monuments. I would love to visit the Pyramids some day, now that is history
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 9, 2011 22:25:17 GMT
Perpy, the bottle went! No gorge or wooky. We went for a breeze around the Quantocks....ouch! Chrissie, we didn't go to polkerris, we went north to Widemouth bay, (I thought the name suited ) We watched maniacs,...er people surfing, a bit too much screaming for me! I think the water was a bit cool It was all beautiful, except for the sheer drop that is always on the passenger side....OH PANTS!
|
|
|
Post by jerryrm on Jul 9, 2011 22:25:47 GMT
I know exactly what you mean, Kat. We have an old Cistercian Monastery here in Cumberland. It's now town property. It's made of stone and the buildings were raised between 1920 and 1935. It's not old compared to what you have in Europe, but for us, it has some history.
I love looking at the stones and trying to picture the persons who put them there and what this area looked like back then. There is also an "historical" house at the top of my street, I was built around 1680. That's rare around here, since buildings older than 50 or 60 years, are usually torn down and replaced with new ones. When I see that home, I try to picture it at the edge of farmland, the now main highway, just a narrow dirt road.
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 9, 2011 22:38:49 GMT
I find your history fascinating, because you had to make it up as you went. You weren't invaded by the Romans or Saxons, etc. You had to build everything. We on the other hand were always at war with someone, (including you ) I find it amazing that America has become such a massive power in such a short spell of history!
|
|
|
Post by jerryrm on Jul 9, 2011 23:15:32 GMT
I really don't know how to explain us, Kat. Winston Churchill once referred to us as the "American Race", but we are not a race, there is no such thing as an American Race. Most who came to the new world, came here for a better life for themselves and their descendents. Some were adventurers, looking for quick riches, or explorers, always curious as to what lie over the next hill, or across the river. Whatever it is, Kat, we are fiercely independent. We don't march to anyone's tune, including our own government's. BTW, we forgive you for burning down Washington D.C. in 1814.
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 10, 2011 12:51:25 GMT
You are a proud American Jerry, and rightly so!
I am a proud English woman, unfortunately I am not allowed to have English on my any of my documentation. I am British according to the government, tut ???
|
|
|
Post by jerryrm on Jul 10, 2011 16:36:03 GMT
Kat, I think we both have the same appreciation of history. The big stories are important, but we also appreciate the little stories. Buildings and roads and canals didn't just happen, people created them. I always wonder who were the people who created them, so long ago. What was their story, what were they like, etc.
I envy you, because your history goes back so much further than ours does. I can imagine the thrill you must have felt, walking on those worn out steps and thinking about those who walked them, long before you did.
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 11, 2011 15:34:51 GMT
Agreed Jerry!
You can lose yourself in the history of people. Whilst we were looking around the castle, I said "They must have thrown the piss pots over the walls, I wonder if they shouted FOUR or summat." My OH said "Only you could say something like that in public."
But I was genuinely interested in how everything worked. All my questions about how they got water and food were answered, but no-one had any idea how and where the effluent was removed.
On crime and punishment, there is a huge hole that offenders where lowered into and left to die on top of old corpses. This must have been the ultimate deterrent, and hazzardous to everybody elses health I would imagine. So many questions? Did they empty it often? What did they do with it? Did they feed it to the hunting hounds? What sort of crime warrented this punishment? No answers, I'm afraid, as everyone was listening to the romance of the Lovers Bridge and the lovely furnishings inside the castle. It wasn't all hearts and flowers, and I think it broke the back of many a poor spirit, but they weren't mentioned!
There is a pet cemetery in the grounds and a crypt for the rich folk, but the surfs must be in the neighbouring church yards!
|
|
|
Post by jerryrm on Jul 11, 2011 16:34:10 GMT
Kat, if we had a time machine and could visit medieval Europe, we would be horrified at the lack of sanitary conditions. People rarely bathed and didn't wash their hands after relieving themselves. Louis XIV of France, bragged that in his entire life, the only thing that he washed was the tip of his nose. It is believed that poor sanitation by the kitchen staff, is what led to Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert's death.
Did you see any tiny rooms in the castle, usually just off of the bed chambers ?? Many castles had crude bathrooms, with a small seat and an opening that led down to either the moat or a river. Many German castles on the Rhine River had this setup and the effluent went straight down into the river. In London, the effluent was dumped into the Thames. It got so bad over time, that the smell from the river was overwhelming. In the smaller towns and neighborhoods, the chamber pots were dumped into the streets and a window sill served as a convenient toilet.
I don't know if they still exist, but in the older towns, there were shallow trenches on either side of the street, where the waste was dumped into and the rains washed it away. Suffice to say, people did not walk on the side of the streets, for fear of being "dumped" on.
As for executions, many horrible forms were invented. It was thought that a horrible death, helped atone for the persons crimes/sins. In the U.S., our Constitution strictly prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, although some argue that our use of the death penalty is cruel and unusual.
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 11, 2011 17:00:41 GMT
No Jerry, there weren't any small rooms next to the bed chambers, but that isn't any surprise, because the the walk ways to the castle are circular. If you threw anything out, it would land on a walkway below! I imagine very much like that hilarious Mel Brookes film, history of the world part 1, there must have been a piss boy, and indeed a pooh boy, yuk Henry VIII had a royal bum wiper, so he never had to bother, oh how the other half lived
|
|
Katfish
Super Member
Joined:February 2011
Posts: 535
Location:
Likes: 14
Recent Posts
Last Online Sept 21, 2020 16:43:03 GMT
|
Post by Katfish on Jul 11, 2011 17:07:35 GMT
As for cruel and unusual punishment, there is not enough of it around for my liking. OK steeling a sheep does not deserve death, when you are trying to feed yourself, but murdering a child IMHO should always deserve a noose.
|
|