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Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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A Second Walk Through Wales is in Prehistory.
A Second Walk Through Wales by the Reverend Richard Warner, of Bath, in August and September 1798.
We proceeded to the mansion of Plas-Newydd through the park, an inclosure of no great extent, but extremely beautiful, gently sloping to the Menai, and covered with venerable oaks, and noble ash trees. In the midst of this fine sylvan scene, stand two august and most appropriate ornaments, relics of Druidical superstition, and monuments of the rude art of the ancient British, by far the greatest and most perfect specimens of Druidical remains [Plas Newydd Burial Chamber [Map]] in the whole island. They are what antiquaries call cromlechs.
These huge piles stand contiguous to each other, (as is, I believe, generally the case with respect to the cromlech) but the eastern is considerably the larger of the two. This seems originally to have consisted of seven stones, six uprights supporting an immense superincumbent one, (with its flat face lying upon them) thirteen feet long, nearly as much broad, and four feet thick. When first constructed, it would probably have admitted a tall man to stand upright in it. The western cromlech is a child to its mighty neighbour, little more than five feet long by four and half broad; originally supported by four stones, one of which is fallen from its proper situation.
Whether or not these prodigious piles of stones were raised to the honour of the Deity, or to the memory of the departed hero, would lead us into a field of enquiry too wide for a letter to investigate. Both opinions have had their able advocates; but the weight of argument seems to preponderate on that side which ascribes the cromlech to the purposes Whether or not these prodigious piles of stones were raised to the honour of the Deity, or to the memory of the departed hero, would lead us into a field of enquiry too wide for a letter to investigate. Both opinions have had their able advocates; but the weight of argument seems to preponderate on that side which ascribes the cromlech to the purposes
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