The Pink Flamingo :: A Typical Autumn Day

I am so totally late posting. I have a slew of good articles, all of them seemingly coming together in the past two days. I'm going to trickle them out through Thursday because of my travel schedule. I've already set one up to come out on Tuesday morning. There's one I plan to release tomorrow afternoon. It contains some rather juicy gossip about the Obamas that I've not seen elsewhere.

Back in Ruidoso we really don't have "fall" days. We go from summer to winter, with only the wind in between. Here in Denver there is very much a seasonal change. Yesterday it was summer. Today the wind and rain blew a cold front into the region and a nip is in the air. The wind and rain brought with it falling leaves all nice and slippery and wet. I absolutely loath autumn and wet windy days with falling leaves. Tome it is death. The year is dying and no one can stop it. The days are getting short, cold, snowy, windy, and miserable. I'm a spring and summer person. I dread the day when I must put up my ever present sandals and start wearing shoes again.

The family all went up to Estes Park to see the rutting elk. I stayed behind and did something patriotic to help the economy. In other words I went shopping. I am distressed to say that I am out of mall shopping condition! I've not been mall shopping in nearly a year. The parents were fascinated by the elk. I was fascinated by the Apple store.

THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS

Born: Jonathan Edwards, eminent Calvinistic divine, 1703, Windsor, Connecticut; Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, celebrated virtuoso and man of letters, 1717, Wareham,, Dorsetshire;. Dr. William Wilkie, author of the Epigoniad, 1721, Dalmeny, Linlithgowshire; Lloyd, Lord Kenyon, distinguished lawyer, 1732, Greddington, Flintshire.
Died: Justin, Roman emperor, 578; Henry III, emperor of Germany, 1056; Philip III, the Bold, king of France, 1285; Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert, killed at Fagher, Ireland, 1318; Augustus III, king of Poland, 1763, Dresden; Charles, Marquis Cornwallis, governor-general of India, 1805, Ghazepore, Benares; Bernard, Comte de Lacépdè, eminent naturalist, 1825.
Feast Day: St. Placidus, abbot, and companions, martyrs, 546. St. Galla widow, about 550.

HEART-BEQUESTS

Some curious notions and practices respecting the human heart came into vogue about the time of the first Crusade, and were by many believed to have originated among those who died in that expedition. As the supposed seat of the affections, the heart was magnified into undue importance, and, after the death of a beloved or distinguished person, became the object of more solicitude than all the rest of his body. Thus the heart was considered the most valuable of all legacies, and it became the habit for a person to bequeath it to his dearest friend, or to his most favourite church, abbey, or locality, as a token of his supreme regard. And when no such bequest was made, the friends or admirers of deceased persons would cause their hearts to be carefully embalmed, and then, enclosing them in some costly casket, would preserve them as precious treasure, or entomb them with special honor. This remarkable practice, which has been continued more or less down to the present century, was most prevalent during the medieval ages—numerous instances of which are still on record, and many of them are curious and interesting. Our space will only permit us to give a few specimens:

Robert, the famous Earl of Mellent and Leicester, died in 1118, in the abbey of Preaux, where his body was buried, but his heart, by his own order, was conveyed to the hospital at Brackley, to be there preserved in salt.

He had been among the early Crusaders in the Holy Land, and was, says Henry of Huntingdon, 'the most sagacious in political affairs of all who lived between this and Jerusalem. His mind was enlightened, his eloquence persuasive, his shrewdness acute.' But he was rapacious, wily, and unscrupulous, and acquired much of his vast possessions, which were very extensive, both in England and Normandy, by unjust mancoeuvres, and acts of cruelty and violence. When he perceived death approaching, he assumed the monastic habit, the usual act of atonement in such characters at that period, and died a penitent in the abbey of Praeux, but, while he founded the hospital at Brackley, where his heart was preserved, he stoutly refused to restore any of the possessions which he had unjustly acquired.

Isabella, daughter of William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and wife of Richard, brother of Henry III, died at Berkhamstead in 1239, and ordered her heart to be sent in a silver cup to her brother, then abbot of Tewkesbury, to be there buried before the high-altar. Her body was buried at Beaulieu, in Hampshire. 'The noble Isabella, Countess of Gloucester and Cornwall,' says Matthew Paris, 'was taken dangerously ill of the yellow jaundice, and brought to the point of death. She became senseless, and after having had the ample tresses of her flaxen hair cut off, and made a full confession of her sins, she departed to the Lord, together with a boy to whom she had given birth. When Earl Richard, who had gone into Cornwall, heard of this event, he broke out into the most sorrowful lamentations, and mourned inconsolably.' Henry, their son, while attending mass in the church of St. Lawrence, at Viterbo, in Tuscany, was cruelly murdered by Simon De Monfort and Guy de Montfort, in revenge for the death of their father at the battle of Evesham, in which, however, he appears to have had no part. His heart was sent in a golden vase to Westminster Abbey, where it was deposited in the tomb of Edward the Confessor. On his monument was a gilt statue holding his heart, labeled with these words: 'I bequeath to my father my heart pierced with the dagger.' His father, Richard, king of the Romans, having been thrice married, died in 1272, from grief at his son's murder. His body was buried at the abbey of Hayles, his own foundation, and his heart was deposited in the church of the Minorite Brethren, at Oxford, under a costly pyramid erected by his widow.

The heart of John Baliol, Lord of Barnard Castle, who died in 1269, was, by his widow's desire, embalmed and enclosed in an ivory casket richly enamelled with silver. His affectionate widow, Devorgilla, used to have this casket placed on the table every day when she ate her meals, and ordered it to be laid on her own heart, when she was herself placed in her tomb. She was buried, according to her own direction, near the altar in New Abbey, which she herself had founded in Galloway, and the casket containing her husband's heart placed on her bosom. From this touching incident, the abbey received the name of Dolce Cor, or Sweet-heart Abbey, and for its arms bore in chief a heart over two pastoral staffs, and in base three mullets of five points.

Hearts were not only bequeathed by Crusaders, who died in the Holy Land, to their friends at home, in testimony of unaltered affection, but were sometimes sent there in fulfillment of an unaccomplished vow. Thus Edward I, after he ascended the throne, again took the cross, promising to return to Jerusalem, and give his best support to the crusade, which was then in a depressed condition. But, being detained by his wars with Scotland, unexpected death, in 1307, prevented the fulfilment of his engagement. He therefore, on his death-bed, charged his son to send his heart to Palestine, accompanied with a hundred and forty knights and their retinues, in discharge of his vow. Having provided two thousand pounds of silver for the support of this expedition, and I his heart being so conveyed thither, he trusted that God would accept this fulfilment of his vow, and grant his blessing on the undertaking: He also imprecated I eternal damnation on any who should expend the money for any other purpose. But the disobedient son little regarded the commandment of his father.'

It is remarkable that the two sworn foes, Edward I of England, and Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, should have alike decided to send their hearts to be buried in the Holy Land. Each gave the order on his death-bed; each had the same motive for giving it; and the injunction of each was destined to be unperformed; but had their wishes been realised, the hearts of these two inveterate enemies would have met to rest quietly together for ever, in the same sepulchre.

The account of Bruce's heart is very interesting. As he lay on his death-bed, in 1329, he entreated Sir James Douglas, his dear and trusty friend, to carry his heart to Jerusalem, because he had not, on account of his war with England, been able to fulfil a vow which he had made to assist in the crusade. Sir James, weeping exceedingly, vowed, on the honor of a knight, faithfully to discharge the trust reposed in him. After the king's death, his heart was taken from his body, embalmed, and enclosed in a silver case which, by a chain, Douglas suspended to his neck; and then, having provided a suitable retinue to attend him, he departed for the Holy Land. On reaching Spain, he found the king of Castile hotly engaged in war with the Moors, and thinking any contest with Saracens consistent with his vow, he joined the Spaniards in a battle against the Moors, but, ignorant of their mode of fighting, was soon surrounded by horsemen, so that escape was impossible. In desperation, he took the precious heart from his neck, and threw it before him, shouting aloud: "Pass on as thou wort wont; I will follow or die!' He followed, and was immediately struck to the earth. His dead body was found after the battle, lying over the heart of Bruce. His body was carried away by his friends, and honorably buried in his own church of St. Bride, at Douglas. Bruce's heart was intrusted to the charge of Sir Simon Locard of Lee, who bore it back to Scotland, and deposited it beneath the altar in Melrose Abbey, where, perhaps, it still remains.

Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.

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