The Rhone River and "La Venoge"

The Rhône River is a major river in France and Switzerland, which flows from the Rhône Glacier in Switzerland (in the Canton of Valais in the Swiss Alps) down through Lake Geneva and out to the Mediterranean sea. 

The river's name comes from the Latin word Rhodanus and reflects the fact that this was an important waterway in the time of the Greek and Roman empires.  

In 1948 the French started construction of dams and diversion canals along the Rhône.

The river has many tributaries (a stream or river flowing into a larger one) such as:

• The Venoge (subject of the poem "La Venoge" (1954) by Jean Villard) 
• The Aubonne (which gives its name to the Aubonne municipality and Aubonne Castle) 

Both  of the above can be found around Lake Geneva. A translation of the poem "La Venoge" can be found here. It begins beautifully "On a un bien joli canton, des veaux, des vaches, des moutons" - "we have a lovely canton, it's got cows, calves, sheep".

Djed Pillar

The djed is a symbol in ancient Egyptian religion.  It is a pillar-like symbol representing stability. It is commonly understood to represent the spine of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife. It is speculated that it is modelled on the sacrum of a bull's spine.

Qawra

Qawra is in the Northern part of Malta, an island country in Southern Europe, between Sicily and North Africa. Official languages are Maltese and English.

Cult of Mithras

The cult of Mithras was a Roman "mystery religion", centring around the god Mithras, which originated from Mithras of Indo-European origin. Mithras was associated with contracts, friendship and cosmic order. 

Mystery religions, or mystery cults, sometimes shortened simply to mysteries, were religious schools participation in which was reserved to initiates. A famous cult of pre-Greek origins was the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Mithraism became popular in Italy, Britain and North Africa and survived prior to the advent of Christianity. 

Rituals took place in underground temples called mithraea. There are a number in the city of Rome. There are remains of one near Hexham in Northumberland, England, and also one in London.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge was opened on 30 June 1894. It was originally chocolate brown. It was painted red, white and blue in 1977 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee (25th anniversary). It is a bascule bridge (French for seesaw), which uses weights and pulleys to operate a drawbridge mechanism.

What is a Fabian war without Fabian means to support it?

This phrase is used by Thomas Paine. What it means is that a long drawn out struggle is unviable without sufficient resources to sustain it. A shorter, sharper approach may be required if resources are scanty.

William Pitt

William Pitt (1759-1806) was the last Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800 and the first official Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from January 1801. He was born in Hayes. He was the sound of William Pitt the Elder, Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768. The family fortune was made in India. Their house was later lived in by Everard Hambro, son of the founder of Hambros Bank (founded by a Danish banker), and demolished in 1933.