And because we all need an occasional change of reality …
On this day, 18th October in 1242, a ship sailing from France landed on the Scilly Isles carrying Richard, earl of Cornwall, the brother of King Henry III. The intended destination had been England, but a violent storm had whipped around the vessel threatening the lives of all on board. Staring out over the cruel sea straight into the face of death, Richard vowed that if God would deliver him safely from shipwreck he would found a monastery in return. So when his ship made landfall at Scilly and his grateful feet stepped onto dry land, Richard resolved to keep to his side of the divine bargain. Three years later work duly began in a suitably remote location within the lands of a Gloucestershire manor he had just been granted by Henry III, and the result was the imposing Hailes Abbey. But what started as a quiet place of…
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Categories: Anecdote
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Thanks for the reblog, Marilyn! And I love your introduction. You’re so right, we all need an occasional change of reality – particularly these days! 🙂
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Reality has gotten so nasty and mean-spirited. Not that people were much nicer back then, but at least they aren’t in the headlines every day or lurking in the background ready to destroy our world if they have a chance.
How did we wind UP in this world? Yikes!
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How dlid we indeed! I often say I was born 800 years too late. I couldn’t agree more with what you say. Reality is overrated if you ask me.
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Yup. The best part of the old days was the absence of guns. But there was also an absence of medicine, surgery, vaccination, etc. Was there ever a really GOOD time to be human?
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Good question, to which I might be able to offer a suggestion. Apparently, lack of the medicines etc notwithstanding (although I suppose it could be argued that what they’d never had they wouldn’t miss) the best time to be human was in the Bronze Age! No overpopulation, no internecine conflict, good climate, people worked together for the benefit of all and everyone knew where they fitted in. According to several experts, life in the Bronze Age was good. Shame we’ve got to go that far back though, eh?
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I think there was also less disease, possibly because there was less garbage and NO crowded cities. I blame cities for much of the worst of human suffering. Not the physical city, but the crowding, the smoke, the filth … and for a lot of years, HORSESHIT. I love old westerns where the streets are perfectly clean. Where do their horses dump?
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I’m with you entirely on the cities, Marilyn, one of man’s biggest mistakes. As for the horses on those westerns, perhaps they were all constipated, or in Western land they employed a lot of street cleaners! 😉
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