Dateline

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The anonymous writer is the Ripper.[/caption]

Grisly “Black Museum” on First Time Display

Some 500 items from Scotland Yard’s Crime Museum, memorabilia known as the “Black Museum,” will go on public display for the first time this October. The exhibition at the Museum of London, titled Crime Museum Uncovered, will include such artifacts as 19th-century execution ropes, gallstones of an acid bath murder victim and masks used by the first criminals convicted of murder by fingerprint evidence.

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Fawlty Towers Bites the Dust

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="197"] Port Eliot, Cornwall[/caption]

The Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay has closed its doors. The hotel was made famous by John Cleese as the inspiration for the iconic series Fawlty Towers, following a stay there in 1973 with the Monty Python team. Its location in a residential neighborhood away from the seafront was cited as a severe detriment to business, not its reputation for service.

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Prince Charles to Buy Port Eliot House

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="354"] Some folks are upset. Cornwall’s Port Eliot Hall has been in the family since the 1500s.[/caption]

LAST SUMMER, the Prince’s Duchy of Cornwall purchased 800 acres of land at Port Eliot. Now, Prince Charles is investing a further £10 million in Cornwall, negotiating with Peregrine Eliot, the Earl of St. Germans, to acquire 123-room Port Eliot House, which has been the Eliot ancestral home since the 16th century. According to a royal source, the house, which hosts the annual Port Eliot Arts Festival is destined to become a hub for the arts, rather than a royal residence.

South Kensington

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Natural History Museum Shelves Diplodocus

[caption id="Dateline_img4" align="aligncenter" width="523"] Dippy is done in. After 110 years in the Natural History Museum entrance hall, he is going on tour.[/caption]

THE FAMOUS DINOSAUR model, made of 356 plaster cast bones (and known to schoolchildren as Dippy), has graced the Natural History Museum’s central entrance hall for 110 years. It will be replaced with the 83-foot-long skeleton of a giant blue whale, to be suspended from the ceiling in a diving motion. Plans call for Dippy to be sent on a tour of the country.

Liverpool Street

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Bedlam Plague Pit Unearthed by Crossrail

[caption id="Dateline_img5" align="alignleft" width="450"] Two adult skulls lay uncovered at the Bedlam burial ground where the plague pit is being excavated[/caption]

THE CONSTRUCTION OF LONDON’S new Crossrail train line has uncovered a burial ground at the site of the new Liverpool Street Station. Used during the Great Plague of 1665, the cemetery contains some 3,000 skeletons at the site known in the 17th-century as Bethlehem, or Bedlam. It is expected to take a month for a team of 60 archaeologists to unearth and shift the remains, though research on the site will continue through the summer. Thus far, the Crossrail project has uncovered more than 10,000 artifacts at 40 different London sites.

Ham, Gloucestershire

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The Sally Wins Camra Pub of the Year

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="348"] There’s a welcome for all at Gloucestershire’s winning Salutation Inn.[/caption]

JUST TWO YEARS AGO, Peter Tiley quit a successful career as a London business analyst to move to rural Gloucestershire and buy The Salutation Inn. Now, the 31-year-old’s freehouse near Berkeley has beaten off competition from 50,000 British pubs to garner the Campaign for Real Ale’s highest honor. With a heavy emphasis on local beers and ciders, the traditional pub has a log fire, piano and skittle alley—and a warm welcome for all.

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Churchill found much solace painting.[/caption]

Churchill Paintings Given to the Nation

Winston Churchill’s family has donated 37 of the late Prime Minister’s paintings to the nation. The artworks come as part settlement of a large tax bill due upon the death last year of Churchill’s last surviving child, Lady Mary Soames. Most of the paintings will be permanently displayed for the public at Chartwell, Churchill’s home in Kent now managed by the National Trust. Though Churchill’s paintings never received critical acclaim, they are highly prized.[/column]

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Counterfeiting prompted the new coin.[/caption]

New L1 Coin Revealed

The Royal Mint’s design competition for the new 12-sided L1 coin has been won by a 15-year-old school boy. David Pearce of Walsall beat out 6,000 other entrants with his design showing a rose, a leek, a thistle and a shamrock emerging for a Royal Coronet. The new coin itself will emerge in 2017, replacing the present coin that has been in circulation since 1983.

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St. Paul’s

Royals Lead National Service of Tribute

[caption id="Dateline_img9" align="aligncenter" width="762"] Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh led the Royal Family in full regalia into the service of tribute at a crowded St. Paul’s Cathedral.[/caption]

LED BY THE QUEEN AND PRINCE PHILIP, the entire senior royal family joined political dignitaries, military officials and members of fallen servicemen’s families this spring in a memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The tribute to the 435 men and women who died fighting the Taliban marked a ceremonial ending to Britain’s 13-year combat operations in Afghanistan. Archbishop Justin Welby gave the address and Prime Minister Cameron read the Bible text. Prince Henry served two tours during the Afghan conflict.

Oxford

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Genetics Study Reveals Britain’s Modern Tribes

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="290"] Researchers found DNA patterns reflect little change in the genetic makeup of regions over many centuries.[/caption]

STUDIES AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY have found that modern Britain can be divided into 17 distinct genetic “clans.” Most astonishingly, many parts of the country have the same genetic make-up as they did 1,500 years ago. English genomes are almost three quarters German and French, while the Welsh have the most DNA from the indigenous Celtic Britons. Cornwall and Devon have clear genetic differences, separated distinctly by the River Tamar—just as they were from well before the Norman Conquest. There was no genetic footprint left behind by either the Romans or the Vikings.

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PM Backs Repeal of Fox Hunting Ban

In the run-up to Britain’s General Election this spring, Prime Minister David Cameron has declared his personal opposition to the hunting ban introduced by Labour a decade ago. If Cameron wins the elections, he has pledged to offer MPs a free vote on overturning the controversial prohibition on the traditional country pursuit.

Leicester
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R.I.P. – Burial of King Richard III

THE FINAL CHAPTER IN THE 530-YEAR-OLD SAGA has been written, as the last Plantagenet king was laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral on March 26. Events of that week we described last issue (”Honors Due a King,” p. 32).
Richard III was buried in a lead-lined coffin that was handmade by his 17th great grandnephew—the king’s closest living relative. Michael Ibsen, a Canadian-born cabinetmaker, crafted the coffin of oak and yew using tools and techniques of 500 years ago. Ibsen, descended from Richard’s sister Anne of York, had the DNA that provided genetic proof of the skeleton’s identity. In keeping with Richard’s Catholic faith, the body was buried with a rosary.
For the services of compline and reburial, Leicester Cathedral was decorated only with English flowers, consistent with what would have been present in mediaeval Britain. The windows were dressed with white roses—symbol of the House of York. The Royal Family was represented at the reinterment by Her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex.

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King Richard III’s cortege arrived ceremonially at Leicester Cathedral, where thousands queued up for hours in a line snaking through the city to view the coffin holding the royal remains.[/caption]

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