#Marie Farthing

[macaronis-telegraph]

This was what he loved most about his profession - that moment when the dead waited for the living to wake them, bring them home again.

- Mary Paulson-Ellis, The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing

[poirott]

Agatha Christie's 'Towards Zero' tv series: First Look

The BBC has released the first pictures of Towards Zero, based on the classic mystery by Agatha Christie.

England, 1936. After a scandalous celebrity divorce, Nevile Strange and his ex-wife Audrey make the unthinkable decision to spend a summer together at Gull's Point, their childhood home and the coastal estate of Nevile's aunt, Lady Tressilian.

With unfinished business between the former childhood sweethearts, plus the presence of Nevile's new wife Kay, tensions are running high. Add to this a long-suffering lady's companion, a mysterious gentleman's valet, an exiled cousin with a grudge, a venerable family lawyer, an inquisitive orphan and a French con man, and soon there will be murder. A troubled detective must rediscover his purpose to untangle a toxic web of jealousy, deceit and dysfunction. Can he solve the crime before another victim meets their death?

The new pictures give a first glimpse at Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston), Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys) and British tennis star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) - seen in the pics with the two ladies in his life: ex-wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland) and new wife Kay (Mimi Keene). The series is also starring Clarke Peters as Mr. Treves, an old friend of Lady Tressilian, Anjana Vasan as Mary Aldin, another party guest caught up in this disastrous mess, Jack Farthing as suspect Thomas Royde, Jackie Clune (Motherland), Grace Doherty (Call the Midwife), Khalil Gharbia (Mary & George), and Adam Hugill (Sherwood).

Towards Zero is expected to premiere on the BBC over the 2024 holidays and arrive on BritBox in early 2025. It's been adapted for screen by BAFTA-nominated Rachel Bennette (NW) and directed by the Olivier Award-winning Sam Yates (Magpie).

Source: BBC, Agatha Christie Official Instagram - October 1 2024

[scotianostra]

On November 18th 1870 a riot broke out at Surgeons Hall Edinburgh.

A direct follow on from my post last week regarding Edith Pechey and Sophia Jex-Blake.

Jex-Blake, Isabel Thorne, Edith Pechey, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans, Mary Anderson, and Emily Bovell were studying medicine at Edinburgh University, at a time when most of the establishment considered the idea of women undergraduates, let alone doctors, preposterous.

Several hundred male students pelted the women with mud and rubbish as they arrived. The women struggled through the crowd until a supporter unbolted a door to hurry them inside. The rioters shoved a live sheep, used by the medical faculty, into the exam hall, causing further chaos. Jex-Blake was later sued by a student, Mr Craig, who she claimed was at the root of the riot, but she defended his claim. The court awarded him one farthing instead of the £1,000 he sought in damages and the case was seen as a victory for the Edinburgh Seven. Public support for the women started to grow with a report in The Scotsman urging “all…men…to come forward and express… their detestation of the proceedings which have characterised and dishonoured the opposition to ladies pursuing the study of medicine in Edinburgh.”

The decision to allow them to study was later overturned on an appeal by Claud Muirhead, Senior Assistant Physician at the Royal Infirmary, supported by around 200 students. Unable to graduate, the battle moved to London. Jex-Blake was instrumental is setting up the London School of Medicine for Women. In 1876, the Enabling Bill gave medical examining bodies the right to admit women. Jex-Blake and Pechey did their MD in Berne, Switzerland, then sat the Irish exams with the College of Physicians in Dublin, finally becoming registered doctors in Britain. In 1877, Jex-Blake opened Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women the following year.

The pics include first hand accounts written by Sophia Jex-Blake and Edith Pechey respectively outlining the abuse received from male students.

[youryurigoddess]

The Nice and Accurate Observations of Your Local Yuri Goddess

Obligatory disclaimer: most of my Good Omens meta is written on an ad-hoc basis on Twitter. If you’re looking for something specific that isn’t listed below, try there. Hopefully I’ll upload it here before that forgotten by God Herself app will finally end its existence though.

General observations

The summer that was never supposed to end

The Good Omens designers really took a paint swatch book and said “Let’s see how much pain can we get out of this”

Teal We Meet Again 🚨

Maggie’s pendants and good omens

Opening sequence

On love and sacrifices

Gabriel’s (missing) cross

The biggest Easter Egg yet

The Resurrectionist

The Archers mausoleum

Edinburgh Epitaphs

1941

“The farthing… has vanished”

Welcome to the Magic Shop

A nightingale sang in the London Blitz

Final Fifteen

No Nightingales

Let there be Light

Aziraphale and Crowley

Chaos and order

Dysfunctional family dynamics

The stuff dreams are made of, or the interesting case of Anthony J. Crowley

Crowley’s main objective

Snake courtship behavior

Aziraphale’s most powerful weapon

Aziraphale’s favorite books were hinting at the S2 plot all along

Aziraphale, Raphael, and other angelic names you should probably know

Aziraphale’s bookshop

Aziraphale’s wine

Aziraphale’s desk

Aziraphale’s cottage 🚨

A. Z. Fell & Co. bookshop and its statues

A. Z. Fell & Co. bookshop and its statues, part 2

Regency silver snuffboxes

Wounded Bird

Aziraphale’s boots and a certain royal engagement

Jesus Christ and His Second Coming

Aziraphale and Crowley’s elevator photo shoot is inspired respectively by Mary and Jesus

Be kind (or nice) to each other

Crowley’s slippers, nightmares, and predictions for the future

The Number 90, or Agag, Two Witnesses, and Tzaddikim

Good Omens Finale

Edinburgh filming locations (February 2025) 🚨

Location One deep dive (February 2025, before the filming) 🚨

Location One’s address found both in-universe and in real life (February 2025, after the filming) 🚨

The Kingdom Airways 🚨

Books and crumbs 🚨

Food for the angels 🚨

Intertextuality

No Nightingales

The Glenn Miller’s Story

The Sound of Music

Nothing Lasts Forever

The Small Back Room — Hour of Glory

Other

Terry Pratchett and Good Omens

The 1992 Good Omens movie screenplay and the WGA strike

Demon's guide to angelic beings who walk the Earth

Angel's guide to demonic beings who walk the Earth

You can use the “Yuri is doing her thing” tag to see more of my artworks, replies, and fandom-related posts.

[anastpaul]

One Minute Reflection – 13 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Saints Hippolytus and Cassian (Died c235) Martyrs – Our Lady Refuge of Sinners – Hebrews 10:32-38; Luke 12:1-8 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/ “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Yes, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore, do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.” – Luke 12:6-7

(via One Minute Reflection – 13 August – ‘ … Do not worry … but entrust to Divine Providence …  – AnaStpaul)

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson: The Beryl Coronet

Case and Themes: Yet more women's inheritance!

Holmes appears to have either dismissed some portion of Mary Holder's possible motivations, or told her uncle the version that would comfort him most, so it's my job to discuss Mary's situation. Mary is orphaned and adopted at nineteen. Old enough to marry, but with no prospect of achieving independence any other way. It's not mentioned whether her father left her an inheritance, but it is likely that her uncle, either by default or upon adopting her, became its custodian. For five years, she's done her duty as society sees it to her uncle, taking on the management of his household and becoming his confidant. However, this same uncle wants her married to her foolish, spendthrift cousin, and this has likely discouraged other suitors. Whether she doesn't go out because she has no friends of her own in London, or because her uncle would disapprove is completely unknown.

What is known is that she's decisive and ambitious, as well as sneaky. Shes been seeing George Burnwell for some time and agreeing with her uncle that he seems untrustworthy. This is not the behavior of a woman who thinks her beau will win her guardian's approval eventually: she's placating her uncle until there is an opportunity to get what she wants. And it's obvious that at least part of the plan was hers: she's very willing to cast suspicion on Lucy Parr and her sweetheart. If Arthur hadn't caught her red-handed, and then been caught in turn, suspicion would probably have fallen on the maid. Whether she originally thought of running off with Burnwell as a viable path to her relative independence or whether the coronet was too tempting to pass up can't really be known. Nor can we know how taken in she may have been by him, or how much he bothered lying to her.

Burnwell has some recommendations beyond not being her cousin: he's hot and cultured, and probably easy for Mary to cast as the kind of man who just needs one big break to make good. She doesn't see his spending or attempts to wheedle money out of people, the way she constantly sees them with Arthur. If she wants to travel, Burnwell has, or claims to have, experience. There's also the fact that she may have more access to her own inheritance as a wife than as a daughter. But she's also in a prime position to be duped by him. She doesn't have friends who might be able to pass on the man's "evil reputation among women" or any female relatives, or confidants among the staff, to give their own opinions of the man. (We don't know the position or age of the maidservants, but I would imagine her widowed uncle had a housekeeper before she arrived - a housekeeper would likely be a mature woman with experience that the maids probably lack.) She's also running on at least a perceived time limit: at four and twenty she's not an old maid, but her opportunities to find a suitor are going to decrease with age, and there's no indication that her uncle and cousin will ever stop pressuring her into the marriage they want.

In the end, the idea that Mary's betrayal was a character flaw, that she was a woman "in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all other loves" is clearly more comforting to her uncle than the possibility that she may have resented him, or that his actions in pushing for a marriage she didn't want may have soured their relationship. And I'm sure that the "sufficient punishment" for her sins that he imagines is merely not being happy in a marriage to a financially imprudent man with no reputation. What's more likely is that Burnwell will never marry her and she will have no income to support herself: after all, the man was either so desperate for cash or so inexperienced a criminal that he fenced his loose, unidentifiable high quality beryls extremely cheaply. She's never going to see a farthing of that four thousand pounds.

[frodothefair]

꧁ The Flowers of Mordor ꧂

Chapter 1 - The Compromise

READ ON AO3

SUMMARY : Sam knows he cannot tear himself in two, but Frodo's struggles after the quest are worsening. Marigold Gamgee gets a job at Bag End, and grows close to its enigmatic master. J. R. R. Tolkien meets Jane Austen. PAIRING : Frodo/Marigold Gamgee, Frodo/Sam secondary GENRES : hurt/comfort, angst, slow burn romance, slice of life, girl next door WARNINGS: PTSD, depression, panic attacks, eating disorder, eventual spicy scenes RATING: M CHAPTER SUMMARY: After the quest, Sam has a job in mind for his sister. Marigold recalls when she first met Frodo.

PREVIEW:

“Let’s get you home.”

The hobbit’s chest was clad in soft linen. His body was warm and smelled clean, mixed with the smell of pipeweed and of something else nice: not tree bark or leather, but a softer cousin of the two. She looked up, and through the white pain that clouded her vision, she saw a pair of blue eyes, dark hair, and a tall, well-etched nose and cheeks. She wondered if the creature who had found her was a hobbit after all, or perhaps an elf from Mr. Bilbo’s stories.

Marigold Gamgee had always done everything exceptionally well. To be good, thorough and useful – that was the best path to take for the youngest child of a large and hardly well-to-do family, or so she had gathered early on. From her days as a wee lass tending to the bumps and scrapes of her family, a role she had assumed entirely on her own and that had earned her the pet name “our little healer,” to folding the napkins for her father’s luncheon as the only child, at 35, who had not yet married or gone off – as Samwise had – to parts unknown, there was nothing in the world that Marigold did half way. In fact, in her life she had given up on just one thing.

When it happened, the midwife, Mrs. Bracegirdle, lost no time in telling the Gaffer – in the middle of market, and within earshot of half of Hobbiton – that her last apprentice, Marigold Gamgee, had been the biggest disappointment she had ever known, and if all he did was marry her off, consigning her to a life of cooking and wet nappies, he would be the biggest idiot in all the four farthings. The Gaffer had scratched his head and likely forgot her words just as soon, except to complain to the other gaffers at the pub of ungrateful daughters and the time it took to educate a healer – all gone to the dogs. But Sam, once he had gotten back from his adventure and heard the news, had set the gears in his mind to turning.

In fact, Sam could not help but notice that Marigold still did her work with speed and efficiency: nimble fingers pressing gauze onto wounds and spoonfuls up to lips as she tended the wounded in the Scouring of the Shire – and this with her being fresh out of the Lockholes herself, a fact that made Sam want to resurrect Lotho Sackville-Baggins so he could kill him all over again. She was more subdued than usual, certainly, but still the same old Marigold, particularly as she ate and gained back her charms. So the fact that she staunchly refused to work for Mrs. Bracegirdle – or for Dr. Boffin, who had called upon her personally and offered to teach her a different healing art – seemed to her brother passing strange.

Sam had always been shy around lasses, even his own sisters, so Marigold could tell that he was wrestling with how to ask her what went wrong. But in the end they had settled on a wordless understanding that she would tell him when the time was right. And then Mr. Frodo had offered for Sam and Rosie to come live with him, to which Sam and Rosie had replied that they couldn’t possibly accept such an honor, and then the three hobbits had gone back and forth like the passing of a cup of tea between them until it all turned to steam. In the end, a compromise was reached. That compromise was Marigold.

“You’re a right capable lass, Mari,” Sam had said as she cleared up after supper, the two of them staying back as the rest of the family, a rambunctious group, had scattered to perform their evening ablutions. This was a routine they had settled into after Sam’s return. “I know it didn’t turn out as planned, that midwife work of yours, but there’s still a lot you can do with yourself…”

Bit by bit, Sam had explained what had happened to him and Frodo in their travels, and what would now be expected of her. And Marigold had acquiesced easily. Perhaps too easily. She ought to have been put out that the whole thing was essentially planned already, except for the little matter of her consent, but she was not.

She had “met” Frodo Baggins when she was but a wee lass, some time after he had moved to Hobbiton to live with Mr. Bilbo from a place called “Buck-Land.” She had known of him before, of course, but tied to her mother’s apron-strings and occupied with Sam in learning her letters by drawing them in the sand, she at first had paid little mind to the new young master.

One day, though, as she had strayed from her playfellows, a little older by then and allowed to go farther from home, she had taken it into her head that it would be nice to climb a tree and see all the way to Eastfarthing, and perhaps even beyond. For Sam had been coming back more and more from his lessons with odd words on his tongue - place-names that weren’t easy to pronounce or remember, but whispered like the wind and danced like fireflies on a midsummer evening.

It was, as she recalled, a linden tree that she had climbed.

She had climbed nearly to the top, singing a song about the love of a Tookland lad - a cautionary tale of the places he’d take your heart, learned from her sisters - when all of a sudden the branch under her went “snap” and the leaves around her began to move, all upward. Before she knew it she had hit the ground with a heavy thud, a white-hot pain slicing through her leg. Her vision went white as well.

When she came to, her leg still hurt, and so did her head. But she was being lifted up from the forest floor by a pair of strong arms, though they were not her Gaffer’s or her brothers’.

“Shh, I’ve got you.” The voice was not immediately familiar, though not wholly strange. She had heard it in the past, in polite greetings and kind comments on a fun game, a pretty dress, or ball returned to the snot-nosed bairns of Bagshot Row. The accent was strange — more rolling languor than most hobbits she knew, but also a deliberation to every word.

He spoke to her like she was his own.

“Let’s get you home.”

The hobbit’s chest was clad in soft linen. His body was warm and smelled clean, mixed with the smell of pipeweed and of something else nice: not tree bark or leather, but a softer cousin of the two. She looked up, and through the white pain that clouded her vision, she saw a pair of blue eyes, dark hair, and a tall, well-etched nose and cheeks. She wondered if the creature who had found her was a hobbit after all, or perhaps an elf from Mr. Bilbo’s stories.

Ever since that day, Frodo would visit the Gamgees often. Marigold, too, would go from time to time to Bag End to bring her father and Sam their luncheons. They all became good neighbors and friends, and soon the story of how Mari met Mr. Frodo by falling out of a tree became a jolly good joke to both families.

In retrospect, as Marigold had learned about the hobbit body, it struck her as strange that in a moment of pain she could remember such details so clearly. She had thought back to that moment many times over the years, as others spoke of Mr. Frodo as odd, fey, and much too given to reading books and wandering far from home. At times, when such talk came up she even felt compelled to defend him, but being by nature shy and accustomed to fading into the background of her large and boisterous family, she often could not find the words.

She thought of it even now, as she stood outside of Bag End, having arrived some minutes early as was her custom. She liked to catch her breath before starting a task. But it would not do to dream too much when there was a job to be done, so she squared her shoulders, adjusted her bag, put on a bright smile and knocked on the round green door.

[apinchofm]

Fic Rec Friday!

there for the party, but not when it ends by @jaeberry-smoothie

some really good edwina angst with a dash of supportive mama mary!

Every farthing of the cost shall be paid (but from this night not a kiss or look be lost) by @hydriotaphia

a pressured to marry au!! love it. it's so angsty and getting interesting!

A Short Trial by WildWren (@thesophiawestern)

tom and sophia after the season finale and i love it so much!! we got angst, we have sexual tension and yearning!

rumors fly through new skies by me!

friedrich and edwina fluff! featuring presents, a dog and being nursed back to health.

under the covers by izzyyylightwood

such a cute fic!! gregory and lucy fluff and also a 5+1 fic!

[faeriemarie]

introducing my fame dr 💫💫

name: persephone eunjae harvard

nicknames: seph, sephie

birthday: december 29th, 1992

known languages: english, korean, mandarin, welsh, french, british sign language, portuguese, spanish, russian

occupation: ballerina, actress

best friends:

francesca hayward

colin farrell

rose williams

jack farthing

juno temple

lily james

felicity jones

ellise chappell

significant others:

toby regbo (2007-2008)

thomas brodie-sangster (2010-2013)

callum turner (2015-forever)

movies:

500 days of summer as summer finn

tangled as rapunzel

ruby sparks as ruby sparks

god help the girl as eve

love, rosie as rosie dunne

phantom thread as alma

shows:

skins (uk) as effy stonem

ballet productions:

the nutcracker as clara & sugar plum fairy (in different years)

mayerling as mary

la sylphide as the sylph

coppelia as swanhilda

onegin as tatiana

the red shoes as victoria

swan lake as odette

[the-six-fingered-villain]

Managed to make it to the Dicken's Fair this year! Twas the last three hours of the closing day but we still got our meat pie (delicious!), caught Brass Farthing (enjoyable even with only 5 members in attendance), basked in the glory of Edger Allen Poe's recitations, and caught the last run of 'The Naming of Uranus'.

The play was, as the name suggests, about the naming of the planet and an unending joke about its pronunciation. Was also a musical with an all ladies cast performing mostly male roles. It was dumb but it was fun and I did laugh out loud several times. It also sparked in my heart a desire to familiarize myself with more historical women of note.

Came home and unearthed the 1975 book Women in Mathematics by Lynn M. M Osen that I'd picked up years ago at a Friends of the Library booksale. Had only read one entry prior (the very depressing tale of Hypatia) and breezed through the rest of it in two days. Kinda' enjoyable, to my surprise?

The typesetting is rather hideous (blindingly white paper, funky margins) but easy to read language with very high level takes on various ladies. What I particularly enjoyed was how old several of the women were when doing a majority of their work. Enjoyed learning about Mary Somerville (1780-1872) and Caroline Herschel (1750-1848, whose brother discovered Uranus). I kinda' want to know more about Emilie de Breteuil (1706-1749) and am bummed I can't find a free, translated version of her "Discours sur le Bonheur" online.

Anyway, note to self: I should get ahold of a copy of Seduced by Logic by Robyn Arianrhod and read that next.

[ihopesocomic]

Speaking of lion media. I hope this isnt too offtopic but i have wonderful memories of getting up at 6am to switch on animal planet to watch big cat diaries j haven't watched it in like 10 years so i cant speak on the quality but iwas curious if you also share this formative childhood expirence?

This was me but with The Animals of Farthing Wood lol. I remember being first exposed to it via a VHS from a box of random junk that my granddad gave to me and it was just a VHS with only the first episode on it. Which still makes me laugh because I thought it was a movie and then it ends after they make the decision to leave. Such a let-down. lol

Then, a few years later: it starts having re-runs on the morning children's show on BBC but it's at like 6AM. Still got up to watch every episode before school. AOFW ended up being the first community on the internet I interacted with and I still have friends from the community to this day. And they've all known me from being a random af 12-year-old. Amazing. - RJ

My earliest memories are of watching a VHS of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin, and thus began The Gendering of the ages. As for animal related stuff, when I was a kid, koala cartoons were all the rage. And then of course David the Gnome, which started my earliest existential crisis. Those were the days. - Cat

[macaronis-telegraph]

But life was life, wasn’t it. One more spin off the dice couldn’t hurt.

-Mary Paulson-Ellis, The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing

[sleepingswift85]

Good morning, got an early start… #CloudGrab captures from the Summer at Farthing Common and St Mary’s Bay, Kent - 11.07.22 🌲 (5 takes) 💎

[scotianostra]

On 9th April 1747 Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, the leading Scottish Jacobite rebel was beheaded on Tower Green.

A longer post than normal from me as in my opinion Simon Fraser was one of the most interesting characters in Jacobite history. A man of contrary, he was known to be very kind to the lesser clansmen taking a paternal interest in their affairs. A quote regarding him says that….“Generally he had a bag of farthings for when he walked abroad the contents of which he distributed among any beggars whom he met. He would stop a man on the road; inquire how many children he had; offer him sound advice; and promise to redress his grievances if he had any”

In his own estimate, he took care his clansmen were ‘always well-clothed and well-armed, after the Highland fashion, and not to suffer them to wear low-country clothes’ Lovat was also a brute of a man forcing a young woman into marriage and raping her in an attempt to legitimise the union. Lovat has become more well know lately thanks to Outlander, where in their world he is grandfather to the main protagonist Jamie Fraser and played brilliantly by the fine Scottish actor Clive Russell. Back in the real world he has been in the news in the recent past, I shall cover that at the end of this post.

Born in 1667 into the ancient clan who fought with distinction in the Wars of Independence – Sir Simon Fraser was one of the co-victors of the Battle of Roslin and his sons were close friends of Robert the Bruce, Alexander marrying Bruce’s sister Mary – Simon was the second son of Thomas Fraser of Beaufort who was closely related to Lord Hugh Fraser of Lovat, chief of clan Fraser.

Simon became his father’s heir when his elder brother was killed fighting alongside Bonnie Dundee against the forces of King William III at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. He was still nowhere near being clan chief, however, and took himself off to Aberdeen University from which he graduated in 1695. Lord Hugh Fraser, the 9th Lord Lovat, was a weak man who unexpectedly signed over the clan leadership to Simon’s father in 1696.

Lord John Murray, Earl of Tullibardine and the most powerful man in Scotland, disputed the succession and fell out spectacularly with Simon in Edinburgh. The young Fraser hothead duly went north to Castle Dounie to try and persuade Hugh’s widow Amelia to give him the hand of her daughter, also Amelia, in a dynastic marriage that would seal his succession. Tullibardine was having none of it and moved his niece to the Murray stronghold, Blair Castle, where he planned to marry her off to Alexander Fraser, heir to the Lordship of Saltoun.

Simon retaliated by kidnapping Alexander and frightening him away, and to make matters worse in October, 1697, he went back to Castle Dounie and forced the widow Amelia into a sham wedding, raping her to consummate the “marriage”.

Tullibardine ensured Simon and his father were declared outlaws and when old Thomas died in 1699, Simon was unable to legally claim his title as 11th Lord Lovat which later passed to one Alexander Mackenzie who had legally married the younger Amelia.

Simon Fraser somehow managed to persuade King William that he was no threat, despite having his own personal army, and he was pardoned in 1700, only to be declared an outlaw again the following year over the forced marriage and rape.

Simon went off to the court of the Stuarts in France where he devised the plans that were eventually used in the 1715 and 1745 uprisings. Long before the former, however, Simon was double dealing, giving Queen Anne information about the plans of James, the Old Pretender. He was found out and King Louis XIV clapped him in jail for three years.

Even after he was released he was prevented from travelling to Scotland and thus missed the Act of Union which he opposed.

Still desperate to get his Lovat title and the chieftainship of his clan back, Simon sided with the forces of the new King, George I, during the ’15, and was given back his title as a reward, with Alexander Mackenzie imprisoned for being a Jacobite. The two men would fight in the courts for the next 15 years as to who was entitled to the income of the estate. Simon eventually won and spent his time building up the Fraser estates and wealth, even taking command of one of the Independent Companies of Highland soldiers established by the Hanoverian regime – the Fraser Highlanders.

As I said early Fraser was a man of contrary and to me was very like “Bobbing John” The Earl of Mar another Jacobite who a tendency to shift back and forth from faction to faction, no sooner had Fraser built up this “Hanoverian” army that he started openly campaigning for the restoration of the Stuarts. The Government responded by cancelling his military role.

When Bonnie Prince Charles landed in Scotland he was still playing games.

He allowed his sons to fight for the Stuarts, but stayed at home himself “loudly lamenting the wilful disobedience of children,” as Sarah Fraser has put it. Lovat did meet Charles, however, and expressed his anger at the lack of “siller” which he knew would be necessary for a successful campaign. They met again after Culloden, at which Clan Fraser fought bravely and suffered many casualties, and Lovat advised the prince to get away and re-form his forces. Charles fled through the heather, as we know, and made it to France while anyone associated with the Bonnie Prince was hunted down. The Duke of Cumberland’s troops were not taking any more games from Fraser and burned Castle Dounie.

Lovat managed to make it to Loch Morar but was captured there while hiding in a hollow tree. Although approaching his 80th birthday, The Fox was taken south to London.

He pled not guilty but his trial was a formality and he must have know his fate would be the same as previous nobles, the Earls of Kilmarnock, Balmerino and Derwentwater who were executed for treason the previous year.

At his trial, ever the Fox he insisted strongly upon his affection for the reigning family. Such were the characteristics of Simon Fraser, but of course he was found guilty the sentence, hanging, drawing and quartering was commuted later to a mere beheading by the King.

In a way, Lovat had the last laugh. Newspapers and pamphlets of the time recorded that as he was led out to the scaffold on Thursday, April 9, 1947, a wooden stand that had been erected near the Tower to seat crowds eager to see the execution collapsed sending hundreds plunging down. At least nine people died and dozens were injured, which amused Lovat – the phrase ‘laughing your head off’ is said to date from that event.

According to a woodcut print made on that fateful day, Lovat “with some composure laid his head on the block which the executioner took off with a single blow.”

As I mentioned at the top Lovat has been in the news quite recently. Simon had requested burial at the family mausoleum at Wardlaw near Inverness and the government initially agreed but changed its mind thinking his body could become a rallying point for further trouble. He was therefore buried in the floor of the chapel within the Tower of London, St. Peter ad Vincula. The chapel was refurbished in the 19th century and the floor was relaid. One of the coffins uncovered during the works had the nameplate of ‘Lord Lovat’. The names of those found are now recorded on a plaque on the wall of the chapel.

Fraser folklore, and written in several books says that his body was spirited away from London, the stories even go so far as to name the boat ‘The Pledger’ that sailed north to The Beauly Firth, where he was taken to the family mausoleum, there is even a plaque in the crypt that reads “In this coffin are laid the remains of Simon Lord Fraser of Lovat who, after twenty years in His own Land and abroad with the greatest distinction and renown, at the risk of his own life, restored and preserved his race, clan and household from the tyranny of the Athol and the treacherous plotting of the Mackenzies of Tarbat. To preserve an ancient house is not the greatest credit. Nor is there any honour for the enemy who despoiled it. Although that enemy was strong in his plotting and unrelenting warfare, yet Simon who was also skillful and cunning defeated him in war.“

In 2018 the headless skeleton inside the coffin was exhumed to be examined by experts from the University of Dundee in January this year they announced that the bones in the coffin did not belong to Simon Fraser, but to a young woman. So it looks like his body did end up rotting in The Tower’s Chapel, although the Frasers will still tell you otherwise.

Scottish actor Clive Russell played The Old Fox in the television adaptation off Outlander.

[ghostsandgod]

A Perfect and Entire Consecration of Oneself to the Blessed Virgin

This devotion consists, then, in giving ourselves entirely to Our Lady, in order to belong entirely to Jesus through her. We must give her (1) our body, with all its senses and its members (2) our soul, with all its powers, (3) our exterior goods of fortune, whether present or to come, (4) our interior and spirtual goods, which are our merits and our virtues, and our good works, past, present and future. In a word, we must give her all we have in the order of nature and in the order of grace, and all that may become ours in the future, in the orders of nature, grace and glory, and this we must do without the reserve of so much as one farthing, one hair, or one least good action, and we must do it also for all eternity, and we must do it, further, without pretending to, or hoping for, any other recompense for our offering and service except the honour of belonging to Jesus Christ through Mary and in Mary - as though that sweet Mistress were not (as she always is) the most generous and the most grateful of creatures.

-St Louis de Montfort

[englishindubellay]

ecg 2

Naissance du bébé royal : William et Kate ne “pourraient pas être plus heureux”

The birth of the royal baby: William and Kate “couldn't be happier”.

Quel soulagement ! C'est un garçon ! Buckingham Palace avait seulement annoncé la naissance pour mi-juillet.

What a relief! It's a boy! Buckingham Palace had predicted the birth for only mid-July.

Après des semaines interminables d'attente, le premier enfant de Kate Middleton et du prince William 31 ans tous deux, un petit garçon, est enfin arrivé.

After endless weeks of waiting, the first child – a baby boy - of Kate Middleton and Prince William, both aged 31, was at last born.

La plupart des citoyens britanniques sont très attachés à leur monarchie, c'est pourquoi la naissance d'un bébé royal est toujours considérée comme un événement exceptionnel.

Most British citizens are extremely fond of their monarchy, that is why a royal birth is always regarded as an outstanding event.

Deux ans après son mariage, le couple princier le plus populaire du monde, devient parent pour la première fois.

Two years after getting married, the most popular royal couple in the world, have become parents for the first time.

Les Britanniques sont heureux : la nouvelle tant attendue depuis des mois est enfin tombée vers 21H30 ce lundi 22 juillet.

The British are happy: on Monday July, 22nd at around 9:30 pm, the news that had been expected for months finally fell.

Le palais de Buckingham a annoncé que l'épouse du prince William, Kate Middleton, avait donné naissance à un garçon, troisième héritier du trône, à 17H24, heure de Paris.

Buckingham palace announced that Prince William's wife, Kate Middleton had given birth at 5:24 pm (Paris time) to a baby boy, third in line to the throne.

Quelques informations sur le bébé, qui est “en bonne santé” : le futur héritier pèse 3,8 kg. Il n'a pas encore de prénom connu mais déjà le titre de prince de Cambridge avec rang d'Altesse royale.

Here's some information about the baby who is “healthy”: the future heir weighs 3.8 kg. His name is still not known but he already has the title of Prince of Cambridge and the rank of Royal Highness.

Admise à 6 heures ce lundi matin, à la maternité de l'hôpital St Mary, à Paddington (Londres), la duchesse de Cambridge accouché dans l'aile Lindo de la maternité.

The Duchess of Cambridge who was admitted at 6 this Monday morning to the maternity ward of St Mary's hospital in Paddington (London) gave birth in the Lindo wing of the maternity ward.

C'est exactement le même hôpital où le prince William est né.

This is the very same hospital where prince William was born.

Elle a été assistée pour son accouchement des plus grands spécialistes, dont l'actuel gynécologue de la reine, Alan Farthing, et son prédécesseur, Marcus Setchell.

She was assisted in childbirth by the most eminent specialists including the queen's current gynaecologist Alan Farthing and his predecessor Marcus Setchell.

En véritable père moderne le prince William a assisté à l'accouchement, qui s'est passé de manière naturelle.

Just like a modern-day father, Prince William was present at the birth which took place the natural way.

D'après un extrait d'un article du journal Le Parisien, 22 juillet 2013