wiki-illiam #107: q11
Jan. 6th, 2012 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dubdobdeeWhere:
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)
This statue of Christ is in Llandaff Cathedra, made by Jacob Epstein in the 50s (JW)
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)
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)
"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)
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)
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)
George Borrow, Victorian polyglot author of Wikd Wales, practiced his Arabic at HOLYHEAD (AT)
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)
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)
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)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 10:54 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 01:19 pm (UTC)I have been across it! It must be at least 100 years old so 1906 is possible?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-06 01:20 pm (UTC)