wiki-illiam #107: q11

[dubdobdee]

Where:

i: is the aluminium Majestas?
This statue of Christ is in Llandaff Cathedra, made by Jacob Epstein in the 50s (JW)
ii: has the gondola been suspended since 1906?
Designed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin, the NEWPORT TRANSPORTER BRIDGE was built in 1906. Kat's mum walked across it in 1967, and I built a version of this kind of gondola structure in Meccano in the early 70s (by following instructions) (KS)
iii: can the bells be heard ringing beneath the water?
The Bells of Aberdovey (Welsh: Clychau Aberdyfi) was written by John Ceiriog Hughes in the 19th century, referring to the legend of a submerged former kingdom of Cantre'r Gwaelod (English: Lowland Hundred) beneath Cardigan Bay: its bells can be heard, so it's said, ringing beneath the water (DDD, PM)
iv: where could 30 candles be lit across a flat stone?
"The Brecon cresset stone [a flat stone with cup-shaped hollows, each being used to hold a quantity of tallow and a wick, which were burned to produce light] is the only one so far known in Wales, and is the finest yet discovered... It has thirty cups" (SB)
v: was there a fatal derailment on the first day of service?
In 1896, on the opening day of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, a locomotive derailed and plummeted down a steep slope: driver and fireman jumped clear, and the carriages were stopped by the guard, but one passenger, jumping off the moving train, fell under the wheels and later died from his injuries (concept by an Aber-addled PM, google corrective by DDD)
vi: was the iron-work protected from corrosion with linseed oil and not, as Alice was told, with wine?
The White Knight singing the song 'Haddocks' Eyes' to Alice, in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass: "I heard him then, for I had just/completed my design,/To keep the Menai bridge from rust By boiling it in wine" -- apparently linseed oil is the material used to counter corrosion on this and other structures (DDD semi-got this, JA looked it it up)
vii: did the polyglot Victorian traveller try out his Arabic?
George Borrow, Victorian polyglot author of Wikd Wales, practiced his Arabic at HOLYHEAD (AT)
viii: did Babs lie buried in the dunes for 42 years?
Parry Thomas attempted the Land Speed Record in his car Babs at Pendine Sands, in April 1925: Thomas was killed when Babs went out of control at 120mph: the car remained buried in the dunes until 1969 (SB via google)
ix: did Baldwin meet Rhys for the second time?
Acc. PJ's ancestor Giraldus Cambrensis, future Archbishop of Canterbury Baldwin first met Rhys ap Gruffydd, Prince of the Welsh, while negotiating with him on behalf of the English King in 1184; secondly in 1188 in RADNOR, while fundraising for the crusades (SB here, PJ on the other thread; both via google)
x: did the French surrender at the Royal Oak?
In 1797, at the Battle of FISHGUARD, the Revolutionary French, led by the Irish American Col.William Tate, were defeated by John Campbell, 1 Baron Cawdor, after discipline broke down among the invaders (SB, via google)

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

iii: rhymney? aberdovey? think there's several other places: wherever a village has been drowned by encroaching sea (or reservoir)
vi: think this is in the scene with the griffin and the mock turtle -- anyway it's that alice

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

re: iii there is an actual place you can hear something like bells, it's a natural phenomenon I saw about it on Coast innit -I have the feeling it is indeed Aberdyfi.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It might be but there was also a programme on R4 about a different underwater bell place the other week AND myself and Mr Badgers went there the other year!

I am SO PLEASED that I knew this straight away without scrabbling for an answer, poss a first in Wiki-illiam history.

Clue: it is a site of PILGRIMAGE for MENTALISTS (nb that is not why me & Mr Badgers went there the other year tho)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Unless they are all Welsh in which case I am wrong (although we went there too!)

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

vi - yes and I'm afraid I accidentally googled this one and the connection is, of course, wales again. a very literal connection ;-)

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

and ii is of the same kind (and featured in the fillum Tiger Bay). hope i'm not spoiling the fun doing this?

[sbp.livejournal.com]

PS could you unscreen my answers on Q9 please? Ta.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

done!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Is ii San Francisco ftb cable car was built then I think? (so a gondola was suspended by wire DO YOU SEE)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

haha so the theme to this question is: "relevant to piratemoggy's interests"

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I think you will find gondolas are HIGHLY IRRELEVANT.

Thinking about this more I think (tenuously) that the theme might be ports in Wales- there is a gondola in Newport I think? And the Alice one could be the Severn Bridge. The Royal Oak one rather throws me tho bcuz unless it was eg: yr man Glyndwr or similar prince of the region (there is the KINGDOM BENEATH THE SEA in mid wales which is wot has got me thinkin; cannot remember what it is called though, it is the one sunken in Ynyslas which is vaguely related to the primordial forest that's being washed off the beach) also Rhys = a Welsh name altho no doubt that is literary.

Ceredigion-centrism means I also suspect the FUNICULAR RAILWAY OF TERROR in Aberystwyth to be the culprit for fatal derailment. (The "oldest camera obscura in Europe" at the top proudly announces that the imperialist English health and safety inspectors condemned it in 1983 for having no brakes but the plucky Welsh were UNDETERRED)

Of course it could just be that 99.9% of my stored geographical information is about a small area of Wales.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Hmmm I have just googled my way into another tenuous link for the Arabic question but shall keep schtum for now as I think I am just convincing myself through false association.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Gondola in Newport = the TRANSPORTER BRIDGE HURRAH



I have been across it! It must be at least 100 years old so 1906 is possible?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Also my MUM has walked along the top of that - she told us over Xmas dinner that it was 'for an art project' in 1967!

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

i. is in Llandaff Cathedral and was sculpted(?) by Jacob Epstein in the 50s. Here is a pic.


A 'majestas' is any image of "Christ in Majesty"

[sbp.livejournal.com]

(I've got viii by googlism)

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Viz, Babs was a car that Parry Thomas attempted the Land Speed Record in at Pendine Sands, South Wales, in April 1925. Went out of control at 120mph and Thomas was killed. In the end the car was buried on the beach, and dug up in 1969.

http://people.bath.ac.uk/ensgwo/carsv2.htm (towards the bottom of the page)

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

Is iv about some feature of the maes for the eisteddfod?

[petra jane (from livejournal.com)]

I was quite hoping iii would be Ys, the mythical Breton city that was flooded after the King's daughter contorted w the devil and whatnot.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

v: I just got by googling

"Easter Monday, April 6, 1896 – Llanberis, Wales: On the opening day of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, locomotive No. 1 "Ladas" runs away and derails before plummeting down a steep slope where it is destroyed. The driver and fireman jumped clear and the carriages were stopped by the guard. One passenger jumped off the moving train and fell beneath the wheels. He later died from his injuries. The line then closed for over a year before re-opening on April 19, 1897."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_(before_1900)

[sbp.livejournal.com]

iv looks like the cresset stone at Priory Church, Brecon.

"A 'cresset stone' was a flat stone with cup-shaped hollows, each being used to hold a quantity of tallow and a wick, which were burned to produce light."
"the Brecon cresset stone is the only one so far known in Wales, and is the finest yet discovered. It is rectangular in form ... It has thirty cups"

http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/small/item/GTJ23477/

[sbp.livejournal.com]

ix I think is Radnor

" It was probably during the course of this dispute [of Baldwin's election as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1184] that Baldwin was employed by the king in a negotiation with Rhys ap Gruffydd, prince of South Wales."

"In the Lent of that year [1188] the archbishop, accompanied by Ranulf Glanvill and by Giraldus, the archdeacon of St. David's, made a tour through Wales, preaching the crusade. Entering Wales by Hereford, he spent about a month in the southern and a week in the northern principality. At Radnor the crusading party was joined by Rhys ap Gruffydd"

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Baldwin_(d.1190)_(DNB00)

[sbp.livejournal.com]

x is the Battle of Fishguard in 1797

"The Battle of Fishguard was a military invasion of Great Britain by Revolutionary France during the War of the First Coalition. The brief campaign, which took place between 22 February and 24 February 1797, was the most recent effort by a foreign force that was able to land on Britain"

" two French officers arrived at the Royal Oak where Cawdor had set up his headquarters on Fishguard Square. They wished to negotiate a conditional surrender. Cawdor bluffed and replied that with his superior force he would only accept the unconditional surrender of the French forces"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fishguard

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

Was the polyglot Victoria traveller William Cobbett, in Wild Wales? It's too long since I read it for me to remember where he used Arabic, though.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

Was Cobbett polyglot? Or indeed Victorian? Richard Burton is better both ways, and certainly spoke (and translated) Arabic -- plus Welsh (presumably).

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

Wild Wales turns out to be by George Borrow, which is who and what I meant. (Such are the perils of answering from memory!) Borrow was both Victorian and polyglot. Google Books reveals that he got to speak Arabic in Holyhead.