In the Vernacular of the Time...

 

Pictured, a book I picked up this afternoon at Yarborough House in Bishop's Castle, a bookshop we've been frequenting for the past twenty-eight years or so, and will continue so to do for as long as both we and it are around. I noticed it on the shelf there the other day, and decided, on reflection, that I might not stumble on another copy for a while as it's forty-odd years old now. I first encountered it back in about 1981, when the friend from whom we bought our first house, John, was studying for a degree in Archaeology. He was conducting a detailed survey of Plas Penmynydd on Anglesey, built in 1576, the estate originally the home of Owain Tudur, who married the widow of Henry V, Queen Katherine, and whose grandson eventually became Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. A friend or acquaintance of John's had recently acquired Plas Penmynydd in a fairly parlous state, and was forensically peeling back the layers of centuries of development and decay and John was recording the data, whilst I took photographs for the report. The book pictured was one of the references we used at the time, and I haven't seen a copy of it since that time. More of a connection with my past than anything, but an interesting and useful little tome, nevertheless...