The Grand European Tour

Royalty Sighting: Princess Anne, the Princess Royal

2008-02-11T18:54:00.000-08:00

The Honour of the first British royal to be sighted by me goes to Princess Anne, the Princess Royal. Only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, she is an Olympic Gold Medalist in horesbackriding and an avid Scottish rugby fan.

So I must tell of an important story from my recent travels to Cardiff. Unbeknownst to us, there was a major Rugby game in Cardiff the day we visited between Scotland and Wales. The town was flooded with kilted Scotsman and Welshmen. So Kristen and I are standing on the sidewalk waiting for the rest of the group to emerge form a store when a series of police officers on horesback come by to clear the street. Now, I had a gut feeling someone important was coming by so I told Kristen to pay attention to the car. And would you believe it? It was Princess Anne, the Princess Royal! I was three feet away from her and she exchanged a wave with us. I must say I was overcome with emotion that I saw my first royal! And Kristen turns to me and says, "Who was that lady?"

More fun news from Wales when I finish with my American Revolution research on Wednesday.

Wales: Cardiff Castle

2008-02-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

The Entrance to Cardiff Castle

A View of the Nineteenth Century Part from the Norman Battlements

The Norman Keep

New Acquisitions for My Library

2008-02-10T05:45:00.000-08:00

My newly acquired books for the Phillips Library since arriving in the United Kingdom are as follows (by location retrieved):

From the Convent of the Incarnation (Church of England) in Fairacres, Oxford:

The Liturgical Year, Dom Gueranger, (Complete Fifteen Volumes, books ranging from 1860-1918), L10

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost by the Rev B. Kelly, CSSp. (Sheed and Ward, 1941) - 30pence
France Pagan? The Mission of Abbe Godin by Maisie Ward (Sheed and Ward, 1949)- L1
Prayer for All Times by Pierre Charles, SJ (Sands and Co., 1930)- 30p
The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Archbishop Goodier, SJ ( Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1933), L1
The Pefection of Man by Charity, H. Reginald Buckler, OP (Blackfriars, 1954), -80p
The Nature and Use of Prayer, Msgr. Maurice Nedoncelle, (Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1964), L1
Prayer and All That, Sister Mary Laurence, OP (Blackfriars, 1958), 20p
ORDO Missae, 1968 (C. Goodliffe Neale) 40p
MISSALE ROMANUM ET ANGLICUM (C. Goodliffe Neale, 1966), 70p
No Abiding City, Dom Bede Jarrett, OP (Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1933), 30p
Holy Wisdom, Father Baker, (Burns and Oates, 1900), 20p
Inward Vision, RHJ Steuart, SJ, (Longmans, 1931), 20p
Father Steuart, Katharine Kendall, (Burns and Oates, 1950), 80p

From St. Joseph's Missionary College at Mill Hill

No Popery! Chapters in Anti-Papal Prejudice by Herbert Thurston, SJ (Sheed and Ward, 1930), L2

From the Bede House Library

The Spiritual Teachings of Father Louis Lallement, SJ (Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1928), 50p
The Prayer of Faith by Leonard Boase, SJ (Apostleship Publications, 1945), 10p

From the Catholic Libraries for Her Majesty's Forces

In Soft Garments, by Msgr. Ronald Knox, (The Catholic Book Club, 1941), 10p

From the Public Library of Chelsea

The Royal Historical Manuscripts Commission 18th Report (1917) L3

From Blackwell's Booksellers,

RITUS SERVANDUS, 1926 (Bound in Leather and Gilded, used for Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament) L10

From the Episcopal Library of Birmingham:

The Holy Year of Jubilee by Herbert Thurston, SJ ( Sands and Co, 1900) L10

Le Priere des Eglises Byzantin, Intro by Cardinal Tisserant (1934), 3op

A Catholic Catechism of Social Questions, by Rev. T.J. O'Kane, (The Catholic Social Guild, Oxford) 1941, 10p

Pope Pius XII on World Order: The Way to Real Peace, by Rev. Lewis Watt, SJ (The Catholic Social Guild, Oxford), 1941, 10p

Graduale Romanum, (H. Dessain, 1922), L10

MISSALE ROMANUM, 1948, (Desclee et Freres), L4
MISSALE ROMANUM, 1844, (Desclee et Freres), L10

A View from My Bedchamber

2008-02-07T18:02:00.001-08:00

A View from my Bedchamber

Wesley Memorial Church, the Chapel for St. Peter's College, and Oxprint can be seen.

A Moment with Sir Robert Walpole

2008-02-07T17:26:00.000-08:00

An Excerpt from The Robinocracy of Sir Robert Walpole By S. P. Phillips:

Lady Fortune asked Sean, "Who Killed Old Cock Robin?"

Replied He, " 'Twas Jenkin and his ear! "

The Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC

Prime Minister of Great Britain: 1721-1742

..."The particular crisis and paranoia surrounding the Excise of 1733 was an important parliamentary test for the consensus politics of Sir Robert Walpole. A major concern for the propertied classes by the 1730s was the great disparity between population and taxation.[1] The most superior measure for contribution to the government was the Land Tax, which had not been altered since 1697. Walpole, as First Minister of the Treasury, emerged from the class of landowners and sought to alleviate the burden of state expenses carried by the landed classes since the Revolution. Thus, the two facets of Walpolean economics were a desire to increase efficient taxation on internal consumption and to lower direct taxes on propertied income.[2] The period leading up to the 1730s was further troubled with bountiful crop yields that figured poorly for the profits of landowners.[3] In order for Walpole to relieve the propertied classes, the revenue lost from the lowering of the Land Tax needed to be recovered through excise. Excise was not a revolutionary option. Walpole considered the successful passing of a Salt Tax in 1732 as an accurate indicator of public opinion. In 1733 he decided to extend an excise to wine and tobacco in an attempt to alleviate the Land Tax, a “most unequal tax and the most generally complained of…any tax subsisting.”[4]
Following the introduction of the Excise, Colonel Howard could not help but to observe the throngs of popular opposition to the measure, writing that “the court of request, the lobby, and the stairs were filled with people from the city.”[5] With considerable pressure from local interests upon MPs along with a petition from the people of London, Walpole withdrew the Excise before it could be defeated. How could a measure that appeared to help the propertied interests be so thoroughly despised, particularly by the landed country gentry? The prospect of excise was a source of fear not only for the commercial interest, whose businesses were directly affected, but also for the propertied interests. An excise with its concomitant body of government appointee commissioners threatened the practice of trial by jury. A fear of involvement by government officials, especially bureaucracy, in the possession of private property, coupled with a perhaps irrational fear of fluctuations in the Land Tax in the future, eroded the support on which Walpole counted.[6] The Excise of 1733 excited fears for the loss of privacy and property, so important to the landed interests influencing Parliament. The fragile balance of parliamentary consensus was thrown off balance. Of Walpole's many years in office, this was his first major piece of legislation and a losing gamble. This temporary loss of stability on the part of the Walpole government nearly brought down the “Robinocracy” then and there, were it not for his traditional appeal to stability in the face of the ever resurging threats of Jacobitism.[7] Walpole learned a valuable lesson of the importance of maintaining the good graces of the propertied interests as the directors of public opinion."

[1] Langford, Property and Virtual Representation, 85.
[2] Langford, Excise Crisis, 31.
[3] Ibid 24
[4] Ibid 39
[5] Ibid 65
[6] Ibid 155
[7] Ibid 95

A Hearty and Noble Welcome

2008-02-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

Most Noble Peers of the Realm, Gentlemen and Ladies, Reverend Clergy, and all those fortunate enough to happen upon this journal

WELCOME

I have found myself deficient in my duties as a Grand Traveller. I arrived in the United Kingdom nearly a month ago and have not made one post! My dearest apologies, most loyal friends. Please allow me, in the best way I can, to update you on my numerous adventures in this Sceptred Isle as the days pass.

Firstly, due to a lack of a tutor, I switched a tutorial and thus am studying the following:

The British Aristocracy

Music in the Grand Manner: Purcell to Handel

Tudor and Stuart Society and Politics

Some topics I have done some research on include (titles to my papers):

The 'Robinocracy' of Sir Robert Walpole

The Jacobites: Threat or No?

The Rule of Property in Walpolean England

The American Revolution: Lord North and the War That Should Never Had Been (in progress)

The Life of Henry Purcell

The Courtly Odes of Henry Purcell

The Politics of Dido and Aeneas (in progress)

My seminar paper will be relating to: Two Characters of the Marian Restoration: Reginald Cardinal Pole and Bishop Edmund "Bloody" Bonner (with a few sundry notes on Bishop Gardiner and Her Gracious Majesty Queen Mary I). I may be having a historian's crush on Cardinal Pole, a most intriguing figure worthy of a fine research piece. I had the privilege just today of viewing a letter written in his own hand in the Bodelian (of course no touching.) For those of you who do not know, Bishop Bonner was Bishop of London during the Marian Restoration and is the Villain of Foxe's Book of the Martyrs. I am working to revamp his image a little.

Religion: I attend the Daily Office everyday at Blackfriars, the Dominican House of Studies at Oxford. I take Mass at the Oratory at St. Aloyisius at 10AM on weekdays and 8AM on Sundays (according to the Old Rite). I am truly being spoiled in terms of liturgy, I have never seen so many fiddlebacks and biretta...ever! I will be having the honour of serving the altar starting next week.