This review article discusses three recent volumes: Edmund Harris, The Rogue Goths: R L Roumieu, Joseph Peacock and Bassett Keeling (2024); Peter N Lindfield, The Intimacies of George Shaw (1810–76): diaries and letters of a Gothic architect, antiquary and forger (2024); Nicholas Olsberg (photographs by James Morris) The Master Builder William Butterfield and His Times (2024). Taken together, these books show that the architect-monograph can still make an important contribution to our understanding and appreciation of the Gothic Revival. Nicholas Olsberg’s book is a tour de force, contextualising this great master and, at the same time, writing with great sensitivity about his aesthetic genius. The accompanying photographs commissioned specially for the book capture the strange presence that distinguishes so much of Butterfield’s architecture. Peter Lindfield brings to life an important regional figure who entered the field without any real training. Shaw was self-taught and his career combined dealing, decorative arts and interiors and architectural design, spanning the gap between amateur and professional. Finally, there is Edmund Harris’ insightful analysis of three architects known for their stylistic invention but whose careers to this point have been little understood. The present review contextualises these studies in the modern historiography of the Gothic Revival.
Francis Drake’s journey around the world between 1577 and 1580 is renowned as one of the most famous voyages in history. The circumnavigation was a great achievement for England, but the official story Queen Elizabeth and her Privy Council maintained for nine years was that Drake was a pirate, and that the treasure he captured on the voyage would be returned to Spain. Upon his return, information about the voyage and his route were suppressed and the crew was sworn to secrecy: they were not to reveal where they travelled on ‘pain of death’. Here I present the case that perhaps the most important state secret of all was that the official land claim record falsified the position of Nova Albion, Drake’s claim on the west coast of what is now the United States. Between the draft and the published version, the claim was moved south by several degrees to the northern border of New Spain. It is not likely that the differing latitudes were a scribal or typographic error. The Chinese porcelain sherds once thought to be from vessels in Drake’s cargo that proved he was in the San Francisco Bay area can now be considered artefacts from a later Spanish shipwreck, and Drake’s true ‘fair & good bay’ known as the bay of Nova Albion may be found six degrees further north. This ruse enabled England, by the rules of the time, to claim the lion’s share of uncharted territory north of Spain’s colonial boundary.
The presence of early medieval millefiori insets on metalwork found across the British Isles has long been noted, as has the manufacture of millefiori canes in Ireland. However, attempts to classify, date and provide provenance for the glass, as opposed to the metal into which it was set, have been limited. New research on glassmaking waste from Barking Abbey, complementing that already published from Jarrow, suggests that millefiori production was not limited to Ireland, and a more complex pattern of supply existed. This paper presents a review of the evidence for millefiori production across the British Isles and a comprehensive classification of the designs found in England from the end of the sixth to the early ninth century. Three broad phases of millefiori use can be identified, which are characterised by developing styles and differing locations of manufacture.
Whilst much attention has been paid to Sir John Soane's public buildings, notably the Bank of England, the growing commercial and financial class in London also provided many opportunities for smaller-scale work in the private sphere. For example, his career mirrored the era of private banking in the metropolis, and his influence on the emergence of an architectural style appropriate for the London private banking house deserves greater attention. Drawing on new evidence from Soane's office, this paper explores the ways Soane engaged with his private bank clients in the following ways: first, remodelling, where Ransom & Co. of Pall Mall and Down, Thornton & Free of Bartholomew Lane employed Soane to adapt their existing sites to meet changing requirements; second, rebuilding, where he worked for Prescott, Grote & Co. in Threadneedle Street to reconstruct their principal banking house and associated partners houses into a private bank compound around a small City court; third, reimagining, where Soane designed a new building for Praed & Co. in Fleet Street, unconstrained by pre-existing structures. In all these ways, Soane refined and refocused the Georgian town house model, integrating the banks' public image with their distinctive requirements for business space and domestic residence.
This review article discusses five volumes that provide the final report on the excavations in Insula ix at Silchester (the ‘Town Life Project’), which began in 1997 and were completed in 2014: M Fulford, A Clarke and H Eckardt 2006. Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester: excavations in Insula ix since 1997 (Britannia Monogr no. 22), Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London [henceforth Vol 1] M Fulford and A Clarke 2011. Silchester: city in transition. The mid-Roman occupation of Insula ix c AD 125–250/300. A report on excavations undertaken since 1997 (Britannia Monogr no. 25), Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London [henceforth Vol 2] M Fulford, A Clarke, E Durham and N Pankhurst 2018. Late Iron Age Calleva: the pre-conquest occupation at Silchester Insula ix (Britannia Monogr no. 32), Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London [henceforth Vol 3] M Fulford, A Clarke, E Durham and N Pankhurst 2020. Silchester Insula ix . The Claudio-Neronian occupation of the Iron Age oppidum: the early Roman occupation at Silchester Insula ix (Britannia Monogr no. 33), Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies London [henceforth Vol 4] M Fulford, A Clarke and N Pankhurst 2024. Silchester Insula ix : oppidum to Roman city c 85–125/150 (Britannia Monogr no. 37), Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London [henceforth Vol 5]
Antiquarian records provide indications that shamanic rituals and practices, though fragmented, were still being actively performed in Wales during the nineteenth century. These antiquarian ethnographic records display striking parallels with global shamanic traditions, especially from the northern hemisphere, suggesting a similar if not shared spiritual framework, supported by archaeological evidence for its origins dating back at least to 12,000 bp. A study of Welsh folklore, magico-religious traditions, place-names, rock art and megalithic structures suggest they might include substantial shamanic influences, warranting more detailed interdisciplinary investigation.
