North To Northumbria

AM visiting the Durham town of Darlington.

In the parish churchyard is a Boer War memorial, dedicated in 1905 by Earl Roberts, a winner of the Victoria Cross who later led the British army in South Africa, where his son died while winning a posthumous VC.

The gun's bayonet is missing - broken off sometime in the 1950s by children swinging on it

THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY 5,576 SUBSCRIBERS AS A TRIBUTE

TO THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE MEN OF DARLINGTON WHO VOLUNTEERED

AND SERVED THE EMPIRE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR, 1899 - 1902
There are 100 names on the memorial, of whom 11 died on service.
The church is dedicated to St Cuthbert, who was born in 634 in Dunbar, which was then part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, but is now part of Scotland.
He may have been a soldier before taking monastic orders, rising to become bishop of Lindisfarne in 684, dying three years later.
He seems to have led a particularly frugal existence, enjoying the life of a hermit or traveling preacher.

The church dates back to the early 1100s, but has been much-modified over the centuries, including by adding a spire in the 1300s

The sundial looks a modern addition

The chimney was a vent for Victorian boilers installed in church cellars

Great

AM making my annual visit to Olomouc, which was an important settlement - possibly the capital - of the Greater Moravian Empire in the late 800s and early 900s.

Its walls defied Mongols and Hungarians, but proved less successful at stopping Swedes and Prussians.

Much of the defences still exist, partly because the town's predominantly German-speaking population kept the walls to ensure the city's population did not become dominated by Slavs.

The following photos are all from a short section of the walls near Olomouc's botanical garden.

Big Disappointment

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S Atlas Of The Bible, contrary to my expectations, proved a huge let-down.

The pithy summaries of key biblical stories are OK, but the maps are next-to-useless, and in many cases downright inaccurate.

Instead of showing the lay of the land when the events took place, the maps show modern coastlines and routes of rivers, etc.

In other words, any modern atlas could have done as well, and probably would be better, as the detail on the National Geographic maps is pretty sparse. 

The magazine is also liberally illustrated with photos of old paintings, which give a completely misleading impression of what life was like in biblical times, eg depicting men in Renaissance armour and clothing. 

Basically I feel as though I have been tricked into buying a cheaply produced cut-and-paste job.

I shall certainly be much more wary about purchasing future National Geographic publications.

Mapping The Bible

I FLY quite a lot - most months, in fact - but at airports I almost always find time to browse bookshops and similar.

Yesterday, flying from Stansted to Prague, I spotted what should prove useful for my long-term biblical-battles project.

National Geographic's Atlas Of The Bible includes 17 maps and what look to be pithily entertaining summaries of the stories connected with them

I have yet to start reading the magazine, but feel sure I will find it £9.99 well spent.