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Languish is the right word. In a corner of a remote museum there languish some ancient human bones. They were discovered by William Buckland in 1823 in Paviland, or Goat’s Hole, one of the many caves that punctuate the limestone…
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Desperate causes: Tristram’s unorthodox circumcision
The early life of Tristram Shandy is marked by a series of unhappy accidents. His conception is badly planned, thanks to an untimely question asked by his mother. At his birth his nose is broken by Dr Slop, the inept…
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Books of poems: gwallter’s top 10
For want of shelf space, I’m having to lay new books horizontally, on top of earlier books. They threaten to warp and then turn solid, like sedimentary rocks. Soon I’ll need to have another cull. I doubt, though, whether the…
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Two Carmarthen portraits
In Carmarthenshire Museum in Abergwili are two portraits painted in 1850 in oil on board by an artist called David Patrick. They don’t seem to have attracted much attention outside the Museum, except by Paul Joyner, but both possess a…
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New Atlantis: the vanishing of Tuvalu
In the daily TV quiz show Pointless, Tuvalu is a regularly pointless answer in ‘countries of the world’ rounds. Even people who’ve heard of it would find it difficult to point to where it is with any accuracy on a…
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Celf gyfoes, heb gartref yng Nghymru
Arddangosfa eithriadol sy’n llenwi Oriel Gregynog yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru ar hyn o bryd. Ei theitl yw ‘Cyfoes’, a’i hamcan yw dangos rhai i’r gweithiau celf – peintiadau a ffotograffau gan amlaf – y mae’r Llyfrgell wedi’u casglu yn ystod…
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St Illtud’s Walk, day 5: Pontardawe to Creunant
Forestry isn’t my favourite walking environment, and today has done nothing to shift that prejudice. It all began so well. Well, fairly well. Today C. and I start out by bus. But since our last encounter with St Illtud, First…
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In praise of indexes
These days librarians belong to a much-diminished profession (they’re not the only ones). But once you’ve become a librarian there are some things that stay with you for good. Among them is a commitment to the ideas of the collective…
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Ruin’d universes: the paintings of George Little
Long before all-year sea bathing became de rigueur with the middle classes of Mumbles, if you were up early enough, on any day of the week and at any time of the year, you’d be able to spot two figures…
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Cymru ar goll yn ‘Union’
Bûm yn gwylio cyfres ddiwethaf David Olusoga at BBC2, Union, a wnaed ar y cyd â’r Brifysgol Agored. Rhaid dweud bod y cymhelliad y tu ôl i’r cynllun pedair rhaglen yn un i’w ganmol: i esbonio sut y daeth y…