A fascinating view within the cloisters of Lacock Abbey. Every item a beautiful thing in its own right. Something I can’t say about my own house, but perhaps it would be a helpful aspiration.

#Environment #Conservation Gerrard was right, wasn’t he?

Gorgeous woodland in the heart of Kew Gardens 😍 the bluebells looked amazing too!!

21 Apr 1521: Assembly of theologians summoned by Cardinal Wolsey condemns Luther's doctrines #otd To commemorate the occasion, they commissioned a sundial for St. Mary's University Church #Oxford (CCO)

So, heresy averted. Now here's a timepiece.

Cover of book ‘THIS PRINCELY HABITATION’ THE HAFOD ESTATE UNDER THE 4TH DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, 1832–1846: image is Hafod House with woods and mountains in background

Back cover of book on the Hafod estate. Text: Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle (1785–1851), of Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, bought the Hafod estate in Ceredigion in 1832. Hafod had achieved its fame under the Welsh antiquarian and bibliophile Thomas Johnes (1748–1816), who developed its landscape to picturesque principles and made it a seat of private learning. Newcastle’s ownership of Hafod from 1832 1846, and his delight in its possibilities, is recorded in the extensive personal diaries which he maintained during the last three decades of his life. This edition publishes, for the first time, all the entries relating to Newcastle’s ownership of Hafod and his comments on the people and places that he encountered on his wider travels in Wales. The diaries offer fascinating insights into Newcastle’s motivations for purchasing and improving Hafod, his own devotion to picturesque principles and his attempts to make the estate well-managed and financially viable. Newcastle considered himself to be an adopted Welshman and immersed himself in aspects of Welsh life and culture at a time when the area was being opened to tourists. He also gave encouragement to these efforts, both through investing in new hotel facilities at Devil’s Bridge and by actively promoting improvements at Aberystwyth, particularly its harbour facilities and urban infrastructure. ... Dr Richard A Gaunt is Associate Professor in British History at the University of Nottingham where he has worked since 2000. A historian of British politics, culture and society in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century, he has published widely on the politics and personalities of the period, including three related volumes of Newcastle’s diaries. Dr Gaunt is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society of Antiquaries of London and is currently the co-editor of the journal Parliamentary History and of the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series.

Really looking forward to launching this - Aberystwyth Arts Centre at 2pm on Saturday 6 June. Come and learn more about the history of this famous Picturesque landscaped estate.

Twilight on the iron road between Brussels and Lille. The view from the back cab of the last eurostar of the day from Amsterdam to London. On average, CO² emissions are 95% lower by train on this route.
www.eurostar.com/uk-en/sustai...

#TrainsNotPlanes

The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.

The Choice.

By W.B. Yeats.

Virginia Woolf, more than a hundred years ago:

Rather lovely portrait spotted in the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum in Lichfield this weekend. Elizabeth Hunter (later Seward), 1712-1780: daughter of Johnson’s headmaster at Lichfield Grammar School, painted in 1755 by Henry Pickering. Her daughter Anna Seward (1742-1809) was a poet & critic.

Tomorrow night is the peak of the Lyrids meteor shower. 🔭 🧪

Carmarthen park looking lovely today

Trump admits his "working class" moments for the cameras were all staged. He calls the photo ops "a little bit tacky" and "embarrassing” - which is ironic since Trump is so tacky and embarrassing all the time. All the rich do is lie to workers. That’s America.

The image shows the cubist painting "Seated Woman in a Garden" (Femme au Jardin), created by Pablo Picasso in 1938

The image shows the cubist painting "Seated Woman in a Garden" (Femme au Jardin), created by Pablo Picasso in 1938

Facing the blue sea, a woman with long hair and a bare back, above her head a crescent moon in the sky.

René Magritte, The evening gown / La robe du soir - 1955.

1929
Wedding portrait of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Well, at least the BBC is covering this.

Before & after: Humphry Repton, English picturesque landscape designer, born #OTD 1752; mentioned in Austen’s Mansfield Park & satirised by Peacock as Marmaduke Milestone; his famous red books suggested improvements to country house owners in overlay watercolour views.
Wentworth Woodhouse Yorkshire

#PhotoShare
Paris
1932

Bridgnorth diary 20/4/1866

Warning - a bit of blue😮

Indeed…a splendid day…though not so much for Susan! And Mr T. Must have been an impressive violinist!

#MonumentsMonday Tomb of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1533-1588) and Lettice, Countess of Leicester, his second wife. From the Beauchamp Chapel at St Mary's, Warwick.

Bridgnorth diary 19/4/1866

Someone (Germaine Greer?) said it was the only novel in English written for adults!

Old Man, beautifully portrayed in 1485 by Filippino Lippi, d. OTD 1505.

A vivid digital artwork of a planetary nebula resembling a glowing cosmic eye, with a bright central star surrounded by concentric rings of blue, gold, and white gas. Wispy, luminous filaments radiate outward into a dark star-filled background, creating a dramatic, swirling halo effect.

The void blinked, and in the gap between darkness and forever, an iris of azure flame and gilded interstellar dust unfolds. Tendrils of dying starlight comb the black for a last embrace—a universe-wide sigh dressed in a halo of final, radiant breath.

Merman forming the tail of the initial 'P'(rincipia)

BnF MS Latin 17246; Petrus Lombardus, Collectanea in epistolas Pauli; 1160-1180; Paris; f.1r @gallicabnf.bsky.social

An array of 19th century stained glass at St. Eustachious, Tavistock, including one by William Morris from designs by Edward Burne-Jones.

#StainedGlassSunday

Tree in water

Local Boys in Bradford, 1972, photo by Don McCullin.