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I wonder if she was a chicken lady

This is from the church I posted about Friday. The floor of this large church is covered in ancient burials, with unusually nice covering stones.

I hate stepping on these things. I mean lack of respect for the dead is one thing, but rubbing your shoes over a lovely ancient piece of art is another.

It was almost impossible to get around this church without walking all over the dearly departed, though. I guess the locals get used to it. I did a lot of undignified hopping.

Nothing very special about this stone, except the chicken-themed family crest. I want one.

Comments


Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: May 7, 2019, 10:12 pm

Oh, looks like there are two bodies in that hole: Anne and Charles, both children of Benjamin and two of his wives… have I got that right? The burials were 17 years apart, as evidence of which is the difference in script and size (font) of the inscriptions.
~
There are a damn lot of missing bones and remains in Merrye Olde, even of important people and historical figures…. Alfred King of the Anglo-Saxons and All England, for instance.


Comment from p2
Time: May 7, 2019, 10:36 pm

The church in Orford was the same way. It dated to the 900’s or so; about the same time as the castle keep a few hundred yards away. There were folks inside and in the churchyard outside the side door who’ve been buried since before the Mayflower sailed. It was really something.


Comment from Armybrat
Time: May 7, 2019, 11:59 pm

You should check out the floor at St John’s co-cathedral in Malta. The marble tomb covers are spectacular. Some are somber, many are playful with skeletons and pithy words of advice but all are stunningly beautiful.


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: May 8, 2019, 5:54 am

I googled HMS Castilian and turned up a very detailed report of the naval action in which Lieutenant Cobb was killed (Naval History of Great Britain, vol. V, pp 337-339). It was quite interesting.

On 20 September 1811, Napoleon himself visited Boulogne, and toured the French fleet there. A single British frigate, HMS Naiad, was anchored outside the harbor. Napoleon ordered the Boulogne flotilla to attack her: seven “prams” (flat-bottomed craft mounting 18-20 guns), ten four-gun brigs, and a bomb-sloop.

Naiad didn’t even weigh anchor; just waited for the French to come up and exchange fire. After two hours of that, she raised anchor and tried to close with the French, who retired under the protection of shore batteries. Naiad was completely undamaged.

On the 21st, the French tried again. Naiad, joined by four other British ships including Castilian, turned in and engaged at close quarters. They shot up one pram, which Naiad boarded and captured while the the other Brits kept the rest of the French busy.

Naiad had two men killed and 14 wounded in the boarding action; the rest of the fleet had two men wounded and one killed (Lieutenant Cobb).

Apparently, French naval gunnery was epically bad. That the British were better is common history – but the French were that bad? Amazing.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: May 8, 2019, 10:38 am

I wonder if sacking the nobles who composed the original French Fleet had anything to do with that.

The French gave decent account of themselves 40 yearsish earlier, or we’d be Her Royal Majesty’s American States.
I know we mock the French mercilessly (French rifles for sale, never been fired, only dropped once!) but without them it’s pretty questionable that we’d have gained our independence the way we did.
The French fleet played a hefty part in that.
The French Royal fleet.
Not whatever was left when the Corsican Emperor, who was a splendid general, but demonstrateably not admiral quality, came to power.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: May 8, 2019, 8:43 pm

The quality of the French fleet was indeed ravaged by the French Revolution. However it actually destroyed as a fighting force by some guy named Nelson off the coast of Alexandria Egypt in 1798, if you’ll believe that. Nelson, whose first name was apparently “Lord”, (although he understandably preferred to use his middle name, “Horatio”) destroyed some 11 French ‘Ships of The Line’, including the 118-gun French flag ship, The Orient.

It is safe to assume that after this little fiasco recruiting for the Citizen Navy of France fell off for some years.

A Sidenote:

Sadly, Nelson chose to attack on the French “Bring your child to work day” and so the French Admiral had his son on board The Orient with him… or at least on board with him until the ship exploded.

You are probably familiar with the first stanza:

This incident was publicized by publication of a poem, Casabianca.

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck
Shone round him o’er the dead


Comment from DurnedYankee
Time: May 8, 2019, 9:18 pm

Ah yes, at the famous “Battle of Denial!”

No?
(-15 points from WafflePuff for bad puns)

“Kiss me Hardy!”

Also no, that came later when Nelson thrashed the French fleet by taunting them a second time at Trafalgar.

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