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Showing posts from March, 2020

Oscar Wilde

House Decoration IN my last lecture I gave you something of the history of Art in England. I sought to trace the influence of the French Revolution upon its development. I said something of the song of Keats and the school of the pre-Raphaelites. But I do not want to shelter the movement, which I have called the English Renaissance, under any palladium however noble, or any name however revered. The roots of it have, indeed, to be sought for in things that have long passed away, and not, as some suppose, in the fancy of a few young men - although I am not altogether sure that there is anything much better than the fancy of a few young men. When I appeared before you on a previous occasion, I had seen nothing of American art save the Doric columns and Corinthian chimney-pots visible on your Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Since then, I have been through your country to some fifty or sixty different cities, I think. I find that what your people need is not so much high imaginative art ...

David Vaughan Thomas (1873 - 1934)

This is an extract is about the life of David Vaughan Thomas from the Discover Welsh Music website.  Further inform about the scores of music written by David Vaughan Thomas can be found on the link at the bottom of the piece. "David Vaughan Thomas is one of the most important composers in the transitional period of Welsh music from the Victorian era to our own times. He was a highly talented individual in several fields, most notably in mathematics which was his first degree at Oxford, and it was while studying there that his pianistic talents came to the fore. After periods teaching in the United Services College and Harrow School he eventually settled back in Swansea where he enjoyed a freelance existence. He took the Oxford BMus in 1906 and the DMus a little later in 1911. The 1912 premiere of The Bard in London was heralded as the ‘first chapter of England’s recognition of Welsh music’ and it followed the composition of other large scale works such as Llyn y...

Talking Stones

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“ Talking Stones ” was an ITV Wales programme broadcast during the early 00s; it was presented by the motor-biking vicar, Lionel Fanthorpe . He toured Wales visiting graveyards and cemeteries, researching the lives of those names inscribed on the headstones. He left no stone unturned, or so he thought! Mr Peter May has kindly given me permission to use his photographs in this article. The first is of the grave of Reginald Herbert Wilberforce-Be ll (above left) and the second of the Arnold family grave (above right). Both graves are located at Danygraig Cemetery. Reginald Herbert Wilberforce-Bell was a member of the Wilberfoss family hailing from Wilberfoss, Yorkshire. Reginald was born in either 1887 or 1889 in Edinburgh, he was the son of Harold Wilberfosse Bell and Lucy Wilson . Grandson of William Henry Bell and Jane Wilberfoss . Harold was a Military Knight of Windsor, a retired Captain who served and saw action during the Second Afghan War (1878-80). It was Harold ...