I still want to call a person who goes out with a metal detector a metal detector. Of course I know that it is the machine that does the detecting but detectorist is such a silly word. Even spellcheck refuses to recognise it but underlines it in red and suggests “detector 1st”.
Anyway, a detectorist, not even a longstanding follower of that hobby as he’d only had his metal detector for about 6 months by all accounts, found a gold heart-shaped pendant on a gold chain in a field in Warwickshire. They believe that it belonged to Henry VIII:
“The heart-shaped pendant, attached to a chain of 75 links and made of 300 grams of 24-carat gold, is decorated with a bush bearing the Tudor rose and a pomegranate, Katherine’s symbol, and on the reverse the initials H and K. Ribbon motifs carry the legend TOVS and IORS, which King called “a beautiful early English Franglais pun” on the French word “toujours” and “all yours”.”
Some people think it might be a bit soppy forHenry VIII, who we tend to think of as the overweight chap we see in most portraits but he was a young man when he was married to Katherine of Aragon, a slim young redhead! With romantic inclinations, no doubt! And besides, a noble gent would have worn expensive jewellery, just as he would have played musical instruments and sung soppy songs like “Greensleeves”, even if he didn’t actually write it.
Some people are really lucky with their metal detecting!
But there must be something in the air at the moment. It seems to be the time for finding ancient riches. Archaeologists working on ancient Roman baths near Hadrian’s wall have found engraved gemstones, known as intaglios, almost certainly fallen out of rings worn by rich bathers and then washed down the drain. I suppose of you were a rich Roman you had to show off your wealth, even when you went to the baths. They had the usual problem at such places: if you took your rings off, where could you leave them so that they weren’t stolen but if you kept them on there was the possibility that the hot water would melt the glue holding the setting in place. Oh! It was a hard life! But just think, without that we would probably know a bit less about rich Romans!
I also like the idea of ‘curse tablets’: “Intaglios have previously been recovered from drains at York and at Caerleon near Newport. The Romans faced the dilemma we still face today of either losing their valuables in the water or to a sneak thief while they were bathing. This is reflected in several “curse tablets” found in Bath and elsewhere, which wished revenge on the perpetrators of such crimes.”
I hear that protestors have squashed chocolate cake into the face the waxwork of King Charles. They had to shut the waxworks while they cleaned the king up, thus losing the custom of hundreds of visitors. And so the perpetrators, environmentalists, have been ordered to pay huge fines and do s certain amount of community service.
They’re lucky they got away with fines and community service orders. A couple in Iran who danced in front of a monument in protest against restrictions both ended up with 10 years in prison. She did not wear the headscarf and danced … with a man … in a public place! Ten years in prison seems rather harsh!
We went out litter-picking yesterday, armed with a carrier bag (plastic I’m afraid!) and our trusty litter-picker. Does that make us litter-pickerists? We really filled our plastic bag, not so much with paper and cardboard packaging as with cans and bottles. If I had realised how many cans and bottles there were, I would have found 2 carrier bags and then we could have put all the cans and bottles in our brown bin for recycling glass and plastic and tin cans. As it was all the rubbish was mixed up together and thrown away together. I suppose we could have sorted it before throwing it in the bin but the prospect of rummaging in all the mess was too daunting. But at least it’s no longer at the edge of the road.
It’s quite amazing how many cider cans we collected, often in clumps of four or five. It must be the local youth, those not old enough to have moved on to beer yet. I imagine groups of spotty 14 and 15 year olds huddled together on a cold evening drinking their cider before giggling their way home. I wonder, though, who are the sophisticates who drink bottles of wine al fresco on a winter’s evening and dump their empties in the grass,
The MacDonald’s packaging and the cardboard coffee cups thrown from car windows I can understand, but not appreciate or condone. The crisp packets likewise, and the Cadbury’s blue chocolate wrappers. But those wine bottles are a bit of a mystery.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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