Text this colour is a link for Members only. Support us by becoming a Member for only £3 a month by joining our 'Buy Me A Coffee page'; Membership gives you access to all content and removes ads.
Text this colour links to Pages. Text this colour links to Family Trees. Place the mouse over images to see a larger image. Click on paintings to see the painter's Biography Page. Mouse over links for a preview. Move the mouse off the painting or link to close the popup.
All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
St Lythans Burial Chamber is in St Lythans, Glamorganshire, Prehistoric Wales Neolithic Burials.
St Lythans Burial Chamber [Map] is a tall Neolithic tomb chamber with large capstone which would originally have been covered in earth and stone. The massive capstone is supported by three unusually tall uprights.
Archaeologia Cambrensis 1874 Pages 59-. The St. Lythan's Cromlech [Map] is certainly a fine one, and, with the exception of the eastern end, presents a perfect chamber. Not a vestige remains of the tumulus, as might have been expected, as it was probably composed of earth. It stands east and west, and presents a chamber 7 ft. 10 ins. by 5 ft. The south wall is formed of a stone measuring 11 ft. 4 ins., while the north one is only 10 ft. 1 inch; so that it seems to have lost a stone which would have made the two side- walls of equal length, a necessary consideration if it were desirable that the eastern slab should fit as closely as possible, so as to leave few interstices to be filled up with small stones. It is generally thought that the three sides of a chamber were first erected, and the capstone placed thereon; then the interment took place, and the fourth side placed last, and the tumulus completed. That such was the practice there can be little question, if it is conceded that the proper course would be to complete the chamber as far as possible before the interment took place. To erect the four sides, then inter, and finally place in position the capstone, would be more inconvenient; and in the case of large capstones, risk to the remains interred would be incurred in case any accident happened in the moving of the capstone into place. As arrangements, moreover, for future interments were necessary, one side must be capable of being removed,which must, therefore, have not supported the capstone; so that it was far more convenient to build up only three sides on capstones, and complete the fourth after the interment. Hence it is that this part of a chamber is almost universally wanting, the other parts generally owing their preservation as contributing to support the capstone.
Cut No. 3 is from a drawing of Mrs. Traherne of Coed-riglan, who has kindly placed it at the disposal of the Society.
Cut No. 4 presents the western view, or back of the cromlech, and is copied from a stereoscope of the Eev. Walter Evans, by Arthur Gore, Esq., to whose ready pencil the Association has been on so many occasions indebted. The general view of this cromlech is exceedingly fine, presenting a grand, massive appearance which any engraving must fail to reproduce.
Become a Member via our 'Buy Me a Coffee' page to read complete text.