Thursday, 24 December 2020
Monday, 21 December 2020
Mari Lwyd -- gruesome but jolly.......
A fabulous painting of the Mari Lwyd, posted today on a Facebook page. Artist unknown......
Sunday, 20 December 2020
Rebecca and the Angels audiobook
We now have a link to the two Bolinda audiobook versions of "Rebecca and the Angels". It's also available from Audible and other specialist audiobook outlets. Enjoy!!
Wednesday, 2 December 2020
Two New Videos
That makes three videos featuring the voice of Janine Cooper Marshall as Martha Morgan and little snippets of Steve's music.
If you like, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel! Enjoy ......
On Angel Mountain
https://youtu.be/Htl64L-aTwA
House of Angels
https://youtu.be/dQb5wZDrofA
Dark Angel
https://youtu.be/0q66OpDIayo
Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Regency Christmas in Wales
A charming drawing of a Regency Christmas in Wales -- from Nanteos. Note the old folks sitting by the roaring fire in the simnai fawr, the string orchestra, the children looking on, and the hanging holly and mistletoe festive ormament! This looks like a relatively modest house -- maybe Plas Ingli around 1800 would not have been so different.......
Tuesday, 24 November 2020
A farm kitchen in Wales
This is a very touching and respectful painting entitled "Welsh Peasants Reading the Franchise Bill". The artist was Jenny Bond and the date was 1884. It will have surprised many who saw it, around the time it was painted, since the idea that Welsh peasants could read must have been surprising to say the least. But many of them could read, thanks to the chapels, the Sunday schools and the circulating schools -- and many were quite aware of what was going on in the world. And many small farmers and labourers were members of the nonconformist chapels too -- where they read the scriptures and even became involved in matters of theological interpretation as deacons and congregation members.
Actually the building in this painting is not a peasant's hovel -- it is a substantial stone interior with beams, reasonable furniture and a simnai fawr. I would say that this is a typical kitchen of a tenant farmer who maybe had his own animals and who aspired to greater things. Just like some of Martha's tenants in the Angel Mountain saga.
Saturday, 21 November 2020
Ceffyl Pren and Rebecca Riots
A 2017 thesis on the Rebecca Riots has just been made available via the Gutenberg web site. It's a good introduction as to what happened between 1839 and 1843, and why. It's written in good simple language and is mercifully free of academic lingo. Below is an extract which deals with the influence of the "ceffyl pren" tradition on the manner in which the Rebecca Riots were conceived and carried out. The main emphasis of the study is on the reasons for the "hiatus" in rioting in the years 1840, 1841 and 1842, but there is a lot here which is of interest, with a good citation of sources.
Finch, A. C. (2017). Rebecca’s Silence: The Rebecca Riots and Why They Vanished for Three Years.
Retrieved from https://ir.una.edu/hmt/1
https://ir.una.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=hmt
Extract:
Another example of civil unrest - the common man taking laws into his own hands - and precursor to the Rebecca Riots was what was known as the ceffyl pren, or the “wooden horse.” Events such as these foreshadowed the desire for the theatrics and costumes that were so prevalent in the riots. During the ceffyl pren, the events that usually occurred involved an effigy of a person who had broken what was then considered to be the “moral code;” this effigy was carried either on a wooden stick or chair that was held up by the people involved in the event, or on a ladder at the front of a procession.
This procession would parade outside the house of the “guilty” person, to the accompaniment of various noises made by the group, such as the beating of saucepans and other utensils. The purpose of this procession was to draw attention to the breaking of the moral code and to make a laughing stock of the person who had supposedly done the offence. In reference to the view of the ceffyl pren by the people of the time, the newspaper The Welshman notes that:
"Some married parties in the parish of Newchurch, in this County, having been suspected of matrimonial infidelity, the disgraceful exhibition called ceffyl pren, and known in some parts of England by the term riding stang, was paraded through our streets on Wednesday night last, with the usual paraphernalia of torches, &c., at a late hour, and was accompanied by actings……"
This form of the common people taking the law into their own hands naturally was aimed toward fellow citizens and not the government, but it is considered to have inspired many aspects of the Rebecca Riots.
It was not only the style of events such as the ceffyl pren that inspired the Welsh commoners to take the law into their own hands, but the success of these events. Had the ceffyl pren been ineffective, and those involved punished to some extent by the law enforcement of the time, the desire to continue taking the law into their own hands and commit acts of civil disobedience may have waned. However, while the acts involved in the ceffyl pren were ultimately successful, the results were often unpredictable.
No matter the unpredictability, “as a means of social control...there can be no doubt that the ceffyl pren was generally effective. An old woman, who was aged ninety-six in 1858, reported that she had often seen the ceffyl pren in Breconshire used ‘with great effect, as quarrelsome women had a great dread of its appearance’.” The purpose, use, unpredictability, and, yet, ultimate effectiveness of the ceffyl pren is seen by many to foreshadow why the Rebecca Riots were so popular among common people, why the attacks were often sporadic and unpredictable, and, finally, why the people felt their actions would be effective to make some kind of difference regarding the tollbooths of southwest Wales.
This procession would parade outside the house of the “guilty” person, to the accompaniment of various noises made by the group, such as the beating of saucepans and other utensils. The purpose of this procession was to draw attention to the breaking of the moral code and to make a laughing stock of the person who had supposedly done the offence. In reference to the view of the ceffyl pren by the people of the time, the newspaper The Welshman notes that:
"Some married parties in the parish of Newchurch, in this County, having been suspected of matrimonial infidelity, the disgraceful exhibition called ceffyl pren, and known in some parts of England by the term riding stang, was paraded through our streets on Wednesday night last, with the usual paraphernalia of torches, &c., at a late hour, and was accompanied by actings……"
This form of the common people taking the law into their own hands naturally was aimed toward fellow citizens and not the government, but it is considered to have inspired many aspects of the Rebecca Riots.
It was not only the style of events such as the ceffyl pren that inspired the Welsh commoners to take the law into their own hands, but the success of these events. Had the ceffyl pren been ineffective, and those involved punished to some extent by the law enforcement of the time, the desire to continue taking the law into their own hands and commit acts of civil disobedience may have waned. However, while the acts involved in the ceffyl pren were ultimately successful, the results were often unpredictable.
No matter the unpredictability, “as a means of social control...there can be no doubt that the ceffyl pren was generally effective. An old woman, who was aged ninety-six in 1858, reported that she had often seen the ceffyl pren in Breconshire used ‘with great effect, as quarrelsome women had a great dread of its appearance’.” The purpose, use, unpredictability, and, yet, ultimate effectiveness of the ceffyl pren is seen by many to foreshadow why the Rebecca Riots were so popular among common people, why the attacks were often sporadic and unpredictable, and, finally, why the people felt their actions would be effective to make some kind of difference regarding the tollbooths of southwest Wales.
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