boss@awugabunnies.co.uk
THE PERPETUAL CHOIRS OF BRITAIN
- TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN

In 1796 AD, an edition of a translation of FABLIAUX (TALES) appeared
annotated by George Ellis, sometime Fellow of both the Royal Society and the
Society of Antiquaries, and a close friend of Sir Walter Scott.  On Page 265, Ellis
discusses SIR LANVAL with references to Glastonbury.  Included are a four line
Welsh text (known as a Triad - or 'triade' here) and an English translation of it. 
The theme is the Perpetual Choirs of Britain, and the three (hence Triad) sites given
in the translation are Isle of Avalon, Salisbury and Bangor Iscoed (which is a few
miles south-east of Wrexham, basically).  Here is the relevant page c/o the British
Library - and my thanks!















You can find the same in the 1815 edition (page 231):

http://books.google.com/books?id=rsAtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq
=lanval+way+ellis&source=web&ots=0L_HL0QvwZ&sig
=6uDWxzoGx7fb-kVNUDVaReTlqjA#PPA231,M1


The Welsh text repeated above is very similar to that carried by the current
Triads authority, Dr. Rachel Bromwich.. Regarding the three sites named,
Bromwich carries no textual identification of Bangor Iscoed site either in the
actual Welsh text she gives or its translation - a manuscript of Robert Vaughan,
mid C17th AD, from his Hengwrt Library collection, Meirionshire, and now
known as Peniarth 185. Where Ellis ends 'Mangor is y coed.', Bromwich ends
'Mangor'.  That's commonly 'Bangor'.

Bromwich's notes on the texts (and alternative authorities/sources/versions),
however, acknowledge the Iscoed site as identification of this Bangor (Mangor):
Peniarth 228, "Thos. Wiliems, Trefriw" (and the oldest version of the triad), just
gives "Bangawr" - as does Robert Vaughan, Peniarth 185 (the Bangor/Mangor
doc. mentioned above) - but John Jones, friend and contemporary of Vaughan,
gives "Bangawr vawr yn fford y Maelawr" (Maelawr ... both 'plain' and places in
the marches of Wales where trading could take place/market whilst 'fford' means
river-crossing/ford - presumably the Dee, as in Bangor-on-Dee (Bangor Is-y-Coed,
Wrexham)*.  The MS BM/BL Addl. 14873 (Wm. Morris)** carries "Bangor Vawr
yn Iscoed ym Maelawr" (Jones, again, cited Bromwich p.217, this manuscript being
attributed to his great friend Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt whose other version - the
Bangor/Mangor above - is held by Bromwich to be an abridgement). 

*Nicholas R. Mann, THE ISLE OF AVALON , Sacred Mysteries... (2001 AD),  and now on googlebooks,
manages to locate a Bangor Is-coed in "South Wales".  Neat trick - given Wrexham's up near Chester!  But at
least he puts a ? against the identication of Caer Garadawg with Stonehenge.  Like several others, Mann mentions
12 Perpetual Choirs.  Others cite John Michell as the source for the idea ... but he also thought 10. (See pp. 129-30).

I also note the Latitude of the Bangor Iscoed monastery - pretty much 53 degrees north.  A road called 'Abbey' at this
Bangor is at 53 00 03.  So if you like 53 ...

**Martin/NLW (my thanks!) notes Bromwich consistently attaches Wm. Morris copy to BM/BL Addl. 14873
rather than 14867 - I note elsewhere that Mary Jones, say, attaches Wm. Morris to 14867.

The last version of John Jones appears to source George Ellis, above, but NOT
Iolo Morgan(n)wg et al - Series 1 of Y MYVYRIAN ARCHAIOLOGY, p.17,
1801.  Textually, the Iolo Series 1 Triad agrees with Vaughan's OTHER version,
the abridged one, in Peniarth 185 - and NLW* has been very helpful in pretty
much establishing that it is the almost exact copy of this abridged version, by Evan
- Ieuan Fardd - Evans, a man with access to both Hengwrt and Peniarth, plus the
one whose copy was made available to Iolo Morganwg's Myvyr.** co-authors,
Pughe and Jones, c/o Panton (Jnr.), which seems to source the Perpetual Choirs
triad in that book's Series 1 (Myvyr. Series 1 80, Bromwich TYP*** 90). 

*National Library of Wales ** Y MYVYRIAN ARCHAIOLOGY ***Trioedd Ynys Prydein.

William Owen Pughe finds mention in MABINIGI, A BOOK OF ESSAYS, by
Charles William Sullivan, p. 6: 'prime informant on Welsh Literature to ... (our)
George Ellis'.  Not here, though, one suspects - but he did have access to the
alternative to the Wm. Morris copy of the Lewis Morris 1738-dated text mentioned
above and copied from Vaughan, Peniarth 185.  It's called Panton MS 13 (Evan
Evans, acquired in 1787 by Paul Panton Snr., son-in-law of William Morris) - and
Iolo Morganwg's co-authors, Pughe and Jones, were lent it by Paul Panton Jnr. 
That authors of Myv.had access to both the Evans and Wm. Morris MSS.,
Bromwich notes, 1978 ed. (and carried independently, elsewhere), is clear from
text  therein, but  Bromwich, 1969, makes no mention of Panton 13 (NLW 1982B).
It is noted as a source in her 1978 edition, though.

I term Panton 13/Peniarth 185 'Basic' and Wm. Morris BL/BM Addl. 14873
(?14867)/Peniarth 216 'Elaborate':

*  The problem here - Bromwich appears to give BM (BL) Addl. 1873 Wm Morris as the source for Series 1 -
but this carries no 'Iscoed' which therefore makes it more like the Vaughan abridgement of John Jones than the
Vaughan copy attrib. Wm. Morris.  Peniarth 185 would seem a more accurate source for Iolo whilst BM (BL)
Addl. 1
4873 would seem the most likely source for Ellis, above. I tried to put the details together below:
























Note: John Michell really does seem to have been on the receiving end of a whole 'history' of some quite
remarkable rubbish:  Stonehenge, Glastonbury and Llantwit - from a standing start of Caer Caradoc, Glastonbury and
Mangor, and where the Caer is Old Sarum and the Mangor is Iscoed, Wrexham!

Look at http://www.celtictreealphabet.co.uk/perpetualChoir.aspx
This highly promising, beautifully-presented and developing site is only marred in that it trots out Michell's CPC drivel.

Note 2;  Iolo claimed a provenance for Series 3 from a (supposed) volume of one Rev. Richards of Llanegwad c/o his Dad,
I think.  Indicated here as 'Source claimed'. (Apols. for the rogue "L" in Stukeley!!!!)

!NOTE: I need to more fully acknowledge the sustained contribution and scholarship
of Dr. Rachel Bromwich, her TRIODD YNYS PRYDEIN (TYP) editions sourcing
much of the 'endeavour' contained here.She is the deservedly acknowledged expert
in this area and I owe her an unreserved debt of thanks here. 

I need to explain that Peniarth, Panton, BL, NLW etc are names of collections of
manuscripts sometimes also indicating their 'home'.  BL, for instance, is British
Library, but Peniarth and Panton are at NLW, National Library of Wales (NLW),
Aberystwyth.

Salisbury, too, finds mention in the Bromwich commentary (but not texts).  The
Welsh texts given are virtually identical here; C(h)aer G/Caradawg/Gariadawc. 
There are quite a number of Caer Caradocs dotted about, not least at Church
Stretton and Clun, so why Salisbury?  The answer seems to lie in Geoffrey of
Monmouth - he writes of a Kaercaradoc NOT FAR FROM Sarum/Salisbury. 
NEAR, not AT (which Old Sarum, say, is - noting Ellis, 1796, has 'at').  But that's
the likeliest source of the Ellis 'Salisbury', I'll hazard, and Bromwich also notes this
Geoffrey of Monmouth reference and calls it 'more natural' (TRIOEDD YNYS
PRYDEIN, Rachel Bromwich - for all references see pp. 217-218).  John Jones
acknowledges using Wiliems (circa 1545-1623, and of Gunpowder Plot connection)
as his source and, Bromwich further notes, the Jones version is likely to be the base
for that of Vaughan..  Notice, too, that Ellis, above, quite explicitly identifies Caer
Caradoc
with Salisbury (and perhaps, thus, implicitly, with Old Sarum) - as does
Iolo Morganwg, it seems, quite explicitly (see below).

Note: There seems to be no provenance for the Bromwich Triad 90 much before
the late C16th AD. It is not a triad from the older Red, Black and White Books
(of mid C13th-C15th AD provenance) - Hergest, Caermarthen and Rhydderch.

That both triad traditions, Elaborate and Basic, prospered is evidenced by the
Wm. Morris-Ellis-Panizzi strand and that of Evan Evans-Series 1.  A deviant
variant of the latter, appears in Robert Sewell's 1847 THE CATECHISM OF
THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY CHURCH IN ENGLAND, p. 33, where
he cites Bangor Widrin/Glastonbury, Cor Emrys/Ambresbury and Bangor Illtyd,
Glamorganshire and this is the line that leads us towards the later, John Michell,
threesome of Llantwit, Glastonbury and Stonehenge:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XhIEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=
PA31&dq=perpetual+choirs+of+Britain&source=web&ots=
Igb_DOKDew&sig=R6H9MPw9gb_QhcLWzVDE7oLtHvI&hl
=en#PPA33,M1

Sewell seems to be building on William Probert, 1823, of whom more below.
By way of 'elaborate' tradition contrast, and more accurately reflecting the sites
in pre-1800 MSS, see the Rev. William Barnes, NOTES ON ANCIENT
BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS, p. 90,1858 (and also available online at
googlebooks):

"A Triad says there were three in the island of Britain one in Ynys Avallach
Glastonbury another at Caer Caradawc Old Sarum and the third at Bangor
and at each of those places twenty four divisions of singers ..." 

Another Rev., Lionel Smithett Lewis of Glastonbury, indicates our first mention
of "Stonehenge", itself, building on the  'Ambresbury'.  This is from the 2003 edition
of the 1922 ST. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA AT GLASTONBURY .... (2003
available online at googlebooks), noting he mentions just 2 of the Choirs (and in
a Druidic tradition, to him):

"It is extremely significant that, of the "Three Perpetual Choirs" of Britain,
Glastonbury ..... and Ambresbury, close to Stonehenge ..."

The underlining is mine.  We've moved from Probert's Emrys at Ambresbury,
1823, to Smithett's Ambresbury, close to Stonehenge, 1922.  That just leaves
the using in/at to put us at Stonehenge itself.

In 1830, an edition of ORLANDO (Charlemagne's Roland) appeared.  On Page
244 is an identical (?borrowed) annotation.  The credit is Antonio Panizzi, sometime
Professor of Italian at the fledgling University of London and, later, Librarian at the
British Museum Library.  But suspicious activity is common where Perpetual Choirs
are concerned! 

http://books.google.com/books?id=Nn4XAAAAMAAJ&dq
=orlando+1830+boiardo+panizzi+triades&printsec
=frontcover&source=web&ots=G6a6Npd8Pz&sig
=bJbkn7sAslITsl7SVSt-u2dhzBk#PRA2-PA244,M1

In the period 1801-07, one Iolo Morgan(n)wg produced a fraudulent version of
the Choirs Triad: Series 3.  His sites are commonly translated as being Glastonbury,
Stonehenge and Llantwit Major (near where he lived!).  This is said to be the
source for the John Michell CITY OF REVELATION/DIMENSIONS OF
PARADISE (et al) insight: the Circle of Perpetual Choirs (CPC)*.   But is it?

*Probert's  THE ANCIENT LAWS OF CAMBRIA ...., 1823, is supposedly
a translation of Iolo - he changed details, like substituting 'Ambresbury'
(possibly the 'Stonehenge ' commonly given as the identification for it, as above)
for Iolo's 'Caer Caradoc' in the Iolo Triad 84.  Unless Caer Caradoc and
Ambresbury are somehow interchangeable - more (much, much more!) on this
below.  Did Probert's translation source (and inspire) Michell rather than the
Iolo original?  It would seem it (and he) did - along with other possible influences.
Probert calls the different triad versions in Iolo et al's Y MYVYRIAN ARCH
-AIOLOGY Series 1 and Series 3 of little significant difference from each other. 

I can't help thinking that the threesome Glastonbury, Bangor (?Iscoed) and Caer
Caradoc (?Old Sarum) is markedly different from that of Probert:  Glastonbury,
Bangor Illtyd (Llantwit Major) and ?Stonehenge (Caer Emrys in/at Ambresbury)

I think I repeat this observation below.

A note on Druidy and Stonehenge:  the identification may date back to the
Romans and was about in the mid-C16th AD (Aubrey, TEMPLA DRUIUM,
1649, for example) to the extent that Inigo Jones, notes published 1655, et al,
decry the notion.  It survives as a chapter in Aubrey's MONUMENTA
BRITANNICA, publ. early C18th AD, a work possibly inspiring William
Stukeley, FRS.  He appears to bring together the Stonehenge site with Druidry
and Ambresbury.  Subsequently, the Rev. Smithett. 1922, actually makes this
into a Perpetual Choir site identification (along with Glastonbury, noting the
- utterly fallacious/spurious - Druidic tradition at both as a kind of combining
idea 'glue'). 
Did Smithett's 'Stonehenge' identification ('near') become conflated
with Iolo's in/at of Series 3 of Y MYVYRIAN ARCHAIOLOGY*?  *Mvy.

These are not the only versions: Yarker (1909), claiming Freemasonry tradition,
cites Caer-Salog (Salisbury), Avillon (Glastonbury) and Great Bangor* - and makes
mention of Culdees.  His terms Caer-Salog and Avillon seem rooted in circa 1470
Sir Thomas Malory's MORTE D'ARTHUR. Others claim  Druidic/Culdee traditions
citing Glastonbury, Iona and Mona.  But what exactly was a Perpetual Choir?  

*If I remember, Yarker was a rogue Freemason, of sorts.  His threesome is strikingly similar to Jones/Vaughan Peniarth
216 'Elaborate' with only the Maelawr bit missing, really, thus allowing Bangor Vawr to be just Great Bangor (=,
normally, the Menai Strait one!).

The answer lies in Orpheus - harmonising the land with the Stars and the Seasons
through music.  The SERIOUSLY BC Orphic tradition is carried in Plato.  Its
Christian renaissance started in the East.  Didn't reach here until C5th-C6th AD. 
There's no tradition in these Islands before that that I'm aware of (that can be
provenanced) and Marie Trevelyan of Llantwit Major quite explicitly stated this in
the context of Llaniltud Fawr/Llanilltyd (LLANTWIT MAJOR: ITS HISTORY ...
1910 AD).  So, no Choirs, no Celts, no Druids - not in this context.  When it did
finally arrive, it consisted of shift-systems of monks keeping up a neverending
chanting.  The texts reviewed in Bromwich's TRIOEDD ... tell of 2400 monks
working a shift system of 100 an  hour "in prayer and service to God ceaselessly
and without rest forever" in "a harmonious song, uninterrupted choir", laus
perennis, custom of Agaunum, louange perpetuelle, perpetual psalmody
etc. 
The CodexCeltica site (link given - but quite a way down!) also touches on the
theme in the context of Apollo worship - and a history (of sorts) of "24/7" (and the
unique North American Christian Triad threesome of Bangor, Ireland, Bangor
Iscoed and Iona) can be found at:

www.transformmi.com/247prayerhistory.php

Notice that the Ellis triad specially tells us of 'The three', not the four, seven or
thirty-one, no, just the three.  Iolo also carries just three.  How strange, then
to read of 'the three' at 1911 LoveToKnow, 'with bangor Illtud being a fourth':

www.1911encyclopedia.org/Bangor

And '420 Saints' - to the more common 2400?  Whatever. John Michell goes
6 better ... and turns 'The three' into ten: the Circle of Perpetual Choirs (CPC).*

*Notes (10-12-07): Ani Williams refers to the idea of 'twelve different
sanctuaries' she gleaned from .... John Michell, NEW LIGHT ....  And that
ties to Nicholas Mann, THE ISLE OF AVALON ... (above).  Find the Ani
Williams at www.aniwilliams.com/avalon_songlines.htm  Another relevant
'find' here is www.lexiline.com/lexi234.htm
  The lexiline idea is evocative
of the 12 round a central point - zodiac signs, months ...  Ani Williams  gives
an interesting 7-12 connection (elsewhere on her site): a musical scale (of 7)
to a musical octave (of 12). I explore the (comparatively recent!) invention
of this 12-note scale elsewhere.  Of note re Michell, his New Jerusalem plan
and his CPC 12 (and carrying the '51' degree sunrise line ... but not the 321
moonset that delivers 90 ... because this is 2008 and not 2006, perhaps?),
a fascinating site:

http://www.sunrisecelebration.com/news/article.php?docid=96

http://philosopherforpeacetruthandreconciliatio.gaia.com/blog/2007/12/perpetual_choirs_of_britain

This last is another Michell "12" mention and one that gives the correct threesome of Glastonbury,
Salisbury and Bangor on Dee (the Iscoed site).

The Michell Circle of Perpetual Choirs (my graphic)

Note:  given the Michell 'Ten' CPC
has little (of any substance) to do
with any kind of Triads tradition that
can be provenanced - and found, 
much beyond Probert, 1823 AD -
then what, if anything, is going on? 
And, if something is going on, then
who. exactly, dunnit?  This given that
the Ambresbury Choir site
identification exists nowhere,
it seems, before Probert,
1823, whilst the Bangor Illtud
(Llantwit) identification exists
nowhere as a Triad Choir site before 1801. Smithett, 1922, mentions Druids
and Stonehenge - do these inform Michell?  The 'Bangor Vawr', cited in the
John Jones version, incidentally, means Great Bangor - so you can see why
/how some nominate the Menai Strait Cathedral and University College city,
perhaps, as, indeed, you can understand the great Bangor Abbey, County
Down?  I don't get 'Iona' at all, though.

The surprising thing, to me, is that the dimensions used by Michell in 1972
(and those he subsequently abandons in later forays*) actually evidence some
kind of esoteric tradition of shape and number (albeit imperfectly/stylistically**)
- and these properties are utterly in keeping in themes he advances elsewhere. 
So why does he chuck 'em when what he started with kinda actually seems
to deliver relevant insight his later 'takes' don't?  I give in - and he doesn't tell
me!  I did ask, once or twice ... and nicely ...  Honest.  John Michell's 'insight',
however, creates a problem: it has very little to do with any tradition of
Perpetual Choirs, let alone ten of them (see below).  And yet, if his original
thinking is explored. things emerge that suggest something was going on. 
And in the frame are some of the early Fellows of the Royal Society.  I note
here John once, rather enigmatically, remarked to me: "Layers of meaning ...."

Please note Glastonbury: this alone seems (almost - noting North American
Christian ?Evangelical "24/7" sites!) above suspicion, if you are happy -
as I am - that Isle of Avallach/Avalon/Avillon/Glass Isle/Bangor Widrin
denote this evocative Somerset town.

*To see the John Neal Appendix 6 list of the latest Michell sites - as
in Heath/Michell's THE MEASURE OF ALBION - combined with a
fledgling/developing investigation of these - take a look at

http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/decagon.htm
The OS equivalents given are not from Appendix 6 but were posted
by me on this site's defunct discussion forum.  I have enquired (without
response to date) as to why these OS sites have not been correctly
attributed.  Please note that, for my purposes, they're wrong anyway!

** And try sticking a sheet of A4 to a football - that's essentially what
Michell's doing here.  Messy!  Decagons are flat, Planet Earth ain't. 
Then there are the relationships pi and phi. What values do we use?

John Michell posited a decagon of choir sites (the ten corners with significant
centre) as based on the (supposed) Iolo Morganwg threesome of Stonehenge,
Glastonbury and Llantwit Major.  I dubbed this (appropriately) the Michell
Decagon, but, firstly, it must have been very drafty and oft-times wet at Stone
-henge doing all this perpetual chanting (let alone somewhat Romano-military
at its Old Sarum alternative) and, secondly, it is the threesome of Salisbury
(Cathedral), a chapel west of Glastonbury and St. Illtyd at Llanilid that lends
itself more readily to decagonal maths.  They almost work* -  and Llanilid has
a very respectable (and Arthurian) past, granted Adrian Gilbert, Alan Wilson
& Baram Blackett - THE HOLY KINGDOM.  The 'Ilid' is said to derive from
(Man of) Gilead, Joseph of Arimathea.

* About 41.1 and 41.4 miles at an angle of about 142.7 degrees (v. necessary 144 degrees) - but bear in
mind plane geometry is only conventionally applicable to distances of about 30 miles or so.  The Glastonbury
site is a small chapel uncovered by excavation on Beckery Hill (Bride's Mound as in Brigit.  Apparently, this
once stood on a pre-Christian site, was dedicated firstly to Mary Magdalene and later, secondly, to St Bride,
there possibly being a covent there, too. It's circa ST484383 OS and by an Old Way. I note a church just south
of Llanilid at 'St Mary's Hotel', Lat. 51.51(3-ish), by-the-by, whilst Old Sarum/Salisbury = Virgin of the
Assumption.

Credit for Beckery Hill (and thanks):

http://www.zodiactours.co.uk/articleBridesMoundRevisited.php

And also, apparently, there's something to do with anti-gravity:

http://books.google.com/books?id=IFikVd65GeMC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=
beckery+hill+taurus&source=web&ots=yiyscs8Tnw&sig=yv1j9J1t9Km0fB5enr-x4don3qc

More below .... But, for now,  back to Michell's Decagon: it can comprise two
interlocking pentagrams, Lady and Goat.  There would be 10 'Precious Gems'
(phi points) and one of these will be on the Vale of Berkeley by the River Severn
- a 'where-the-lady's-legs-meet' site.  "Berkeley Hunt", note, is Cockney rhyming
slang (for this exact geographical area and that exact biological spot* - and, also,
hence, the derogatory 'berk' as in "e's a proper/right berk").  Its mirror, where the
horns meet (Goat/Devil), would be at/by Shenstone, Kidderminster (as in goat/
kid):

         LADY                  GOAT

The green dots denote multiple
phi points - "precious gems" to
Kepler. (Where the chords cross
is easier to see?)

Two signify here - and both are
on the (or, more accurately, a)
model line of symmetry (the black line).  It is exactly 15 degrees off OS 'up'.

Place one atop t'other and you'll have ten gems on a 10-horned 'beast'. You need
to use the geometry of circles, squares and hexagons to develop these shapes a la
straight edge and compasses construction.

*But I can only date the idea to the 1930s to date!

(For Michell's idea investigated elsewhere visit http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/decagon.htm for example). 

Note also that the tenfold (decagonal) division of a circle into the 36 X table is called the 'Gematrian Wheel',
apparently http://www.greatdreams.com/numbers/1111/1111.htm

These pentagrams can also be expressed as "Phi Chalices":

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a symbol for St John the Evangelist, one of the two Sts John of Jerusalem
- another is eagle.  Noting that some believe 3, 11, 13 and 33 are significant in
Freemasonry (Robert Howard for one), this happens (and see Robin Heath:
www.skyandlandscape.com/Article%20by%20Robin%20Heath.htm):

THE "PHI" CHALICE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


The 'chalice' is made of 4 of 5 corners of a 'Lady' pentagon/pentagram star,
with the 5th point being where the line from Point St. John enters the circle.* 
Is this, perhaps, the real Holy Grail?  Note a where-the-lady's-legs-meet site
one of 5) where the two blue lines intersect (and the black one): it is a
multiple phi point, shorter cut blue line to longer - and it's just geometry (of a
sort), nothing else - except that 3113 (51 53)!

Between Queenhill (Cun Hill) and Puckrup are where the river cuts the axis -
and there is a church at Queenhill dedicated to St. La(/u)wrence.  Now he's
the one who, traditionally, carried a non-Zimbabwe drum Holy Grail (no. it's
the Valencia Chalice) - but this is a changed dedication from the earlier St.
Nicholas, someone specifically identified with 'pure manna .... pure water'.
A "pure river of water of life", of course, is in REVELATION, 22,1.  But
"clear as crystal", the River Severn?** 

Note re. Queenhill: I read the church was called"St. Nicholas in the Middle Ages"
- but it's on OS as such in 1884-6 and 1889.

Perhaps a William Camden's BRITANNIA entry for Gloucester, might have
informed someone, once-upon-a-time, however?  Sitting on the eastern side of
the Severn, its name is said to derive from one Glywys or mean bright (noble/
famous) place.  But Camden wrote (allegedly):

" ... founders called it Glaiuon ... from Caer Glosgii iis, "the City of the
   pure waters"
.

www.britannia.com/history/city/glos.html

Or did he?   The quote is from the 1870 John Timbs,  Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls
of England and Wales.... The  British Library - helpful as ever! - to me, 27-02-08 (and my thanks):

Thank you for your reply.  I have now checked the 1695, 1722 &
1789 editions of Camden but none of them appear to give the
nformation that John Timbs quotes.  I have attached copies of the
1722 & 1789 editions; unfortunately I do not have access to a
digital copy of the 1695 edition.

I have also checked Timbs but he fails to give any reference other
than the words ‘according to Camden’.

This follows an earlier send from BL of relevant BRITANNIA 1586, 1607 (1610)
editions whilst I found the 1970  - no Caer Glosgii iis there either, in any of them. 
So where does Timbs get this 'Camden' from?  Only Timbs c/o BRITANNIA ON-LINE
and me c/o it carry Caer Glosgii iis.  I've asked David Nash Ford - the on-line editor
and also of the invaluable to me EARLY BRITISH KINGDOMS (ebk) site to help.
But nothing so far ... 

But why would the highly-respected Timbs make it up?  He's a marvellous editorial
career coupled to publishing over 150 volumes.  In 1834 he was elected Fellow
of the Society of Antiquaries at circa 33 years of age.  He frequently cites Camden -
and on one occasion, in another book, he even criticises a Camden observation on
the subject of Edward, the Black Prince (CURIOSITIES ...) for his lack of the provision
of an authority
!  

Is the ref. above, then, a post 1798 BRITANNIA or some other Camden book entirely
- like the Gloucester Visitation?   Camden - after some thought by me! - seems to use
Camden the way I use my own reference library.  Did he have a library with (a)
Camden as a part .... Um!  Or is the 'Camden' the Earl of Camden FSA contemporary
of Timbs, Sir John Jeffreys Pratt (whose father was FRS, 1742)?

Mr Marjoram - my thanks - of Rare-Books, BL, has been of remarkable assistance and
not only trawled the BRITANNIAs and Timbs for me but also took a look at Camden's
1605 REMAINES.  Nothing presented itself, unfortunately, but the point is made that
this (1605) is but the first of many, many editions - as there are more BRITANNIAs twixt
1789 and the 1870 Timbs' publication.  Again, BL, my thanks - geoffss, 28-02-08.

I note that all BRITANNIAs looked at carry the Timbs' 'Glaiuon' - 'bright', and therefore
Gloucester is the same/similar Bristol (Brightstowe/Bristow).  Both Bride places once,
perhaps?  There's also an idea that the Glou/Glow/Glovus/Gloui/Gloiu may be an
ancestor of Vortigern,  There was a post-Roman kingdom called Glovia. and I note too
- as others have - the possibility of/in glanum, pure.  Here is a thorough review sans Caer
Glosgii iis:

http://marikavel.com/angleterre/gloucestershire/gloucester/accueil.htm

*Note: Mouth of the Severn and Lat. 360/7 pretty much defined by a vertical line through LLANTWIT. 
If you look at Ptolemy, though, C2nd AD ...  Those sitings on 3 of the 4 'King's Peace' roads of these
Isles, Ermine being the 4th, are precise to a few hundred metres or so (3-400 metres Stony Stratford and
Enderby, 5-600 Goring).  The Glastonbury site is just slightly south-easr of the Abbey and south-west
of theTor - Fisher Hill, at the eastern end of Wearyall..  The Latitude drop-on 3113' N is exact.  What's
more, John the Divine/Evangelist was a noted virgin - and 7 is noted as being the virgin number.

**Um!  Clear as mud, more like ... or is this actually fair?  I read of "the pure waters of the river" on
the Gloucester City Council website et al*! (I also considered springs and brooks - notably the 'pure'
Alewife Brook and the Our Lady's Well at Llanthony Secunda Priory and the Robin's Wood springs
supplying  the Gloucester Abbey and Gloucester, itself).

*www.gloucester.gov.uk/Content.aspx?URN=3323
www.severnway.com/Route.shtml

There was no "Bristol Channel" until maps of early C18th AD*.  The term seems to
develop from Waghenaer's Canael de Brostv, 1583, waters above Cornwall.  It is
de Ram, 1680, who identifies the current area as Channel of Bristol.  The invention
of "Bristol Channel" has the effect of limiting what becomes, officially, the River
Severn's mouth to the Virgin Latitude spread of 51.4-51.5, 360/7.  Note that the
Severn derives its name from Sabrina - a drowned princess in Geoffrey of
Monmouth, a "sad virgin innocent" in Spenser's FAERY QUEEN, and variously
'virgin goddess', 'virgin chaste' and 'virgin pure' in drafts of Milton's COMUS.  I
find one writer, meanwhile, refers to the 'dragon' that is the River Severn.  And it sure
looks
like both wriggling snake (= dragon) and sperm.  Doesn't it?  And 515 (as in
Lat.51.5) has a Gematrian value = to parthenos, virgin.

Consider the Ordnance Survey grid below and how it fits to the Snake-in-a-cup
of  St. John.  In fact, it covers the Severn, including the river well before anyone
ever invented 'Bristol Channel.  That led to the 360/7 Virgin Lat/SS7/ST7 - pretty
much defining the Severn Mouth:


OS GRID

HJ
NO

ST

ST John?



SS7, ST7, Lat. 360/7
The 'Virgin' Lat.

 

You have to rotate it clockwise to match the to phi chalice.  Note, too, that
this ST JOHN is part of the a bigger one - the 6 major OS 'boxes', as shown
by the first letter ('S' here) are also HJNOST.

*The actual term 'Bristol Channel' first appears in the 1701 AD maps by Robert Morden and Herman
Moll map, this latter cartographer being very close to William Stukeley, client of the 2nd Duke of
Montagu and mapper of Roman Roads (noting a Grenville Collins 1693 reference to "The Severn or
Channell of BRISTOL" where either term represents to water to at least Lundy - which is where Moll
sites his 1701 Bristol Channel, too).  I have explored this in some detal since posting this page:  1701
marks the first appearance of 'Bristol Channel' bur areas like Channell of Bristol and Mouth of the
Severn/Severn Estuary exist on maps of C17th Ad provenance.  The convention now (UKHO) is to have
Channel meet Estuary/Mouth at a line from Lavernock Point (another St. Lawrence Church site) to Sand
Point, roughly Lats 54-53.9.  That's about 2 miles south of Lat. 360/7.  For a detailed study (and some
peculiar Ordnance Survey outcomes) go to:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhsvjc9j_0gd5gzz

Notice that mirror 3113 - and Freemasonry is said to love 3, 13 and 33*! - is
51 53 in Latitude terms. All these 5s, 3s and 1s! The Sq Rt 3 is 153 : 265-ish,
51 X 3 = 153 and 53 X 5 = .... 265.  North-to-south, that the Michell CPC
'lives' twixt Lats. 51 and 53.  And there's one other thing: that circle (given
stylised maths) is bigger than a decagon it could describe by 6.66 miles.  So
the model  could be said to be "dressed with (wearing) the Sun" (see St. John's
'Woman' of REVELATION, 12, 1 - 12, 3).**

Author's note (10-06-08):  over on "Tarot II" there's a developing area
whose origin lies in Dave Brandon's work on rainbow angles, this now
developed (and still developing!) c/o Mick Saunders.  One 'outcome'
is the progression 6, 15, 24, 33, 42, 51, 60, 69, 78, 87, 96 ...123 ... 222. 
The formula is 6 + (9 X n).  Look at all those mirrors - 24 and 42, for
instance.  And, c/o Mick, 6 - (9 X n): -3, -12, -21.  I mention it here
because numbers out of the sequence appear also as angles when a
decagon is tilted at 3 degrees off its axes - 33, 15 and 51 for instance -
as applies in the model I present here.  Note also the curiosity 12, 1 -
12, 3 REVELATION and 12, 21 and 123.

* Note on the Ordnance Survey, ex Board of Ordnance: it is commonly abbreviated to OS.
O is letter 15 and S letter 18 = ... 33.  9 X 33, 297, I note, yields the 'mirror': 3 X 33 X 3. 
7 gets on with the 3, 11 and 33 possibilities:  together they generate Root 2-alikes.  Sq. Rt.
2 is 1.414213562 ... whilst 140/99 (7 X 20)/(3 X 11 X 3) = 1.41414.... (thanks, PMac!). 
There's also the similar! 99/70 (3 X 11 X 3)/(7 X 10) = 1.4142857 ...  The two integer
based values mean to 1.41421356 ... correct to 8 decimal figures. Sq. Rt 2 is called the
"Constant of Pythagoras" by some.  Note: we have a 3113, of sorts, featured at Point St.
John, above. We also have a Severn, of sorts ... a 10-cornered decagon ... nines ...
I also  note my combined Sq rt 2 integer-alike can be expressed by primes 1153 X 17 over
2sq X 3sq X 5 X 7 X 11.

**Click on Geometry/diags to see 'Isis'- a lady twixt two pillars (rather like Samson, I
note, and Tarot 'The World' and the Long Man of Wilmington) - created on a bed of
circles (the Seed and Flower of Life), based on the maths of the solar hexagram, the
Lady pentagram and phi, and utterly consistent with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life whilst
evidencing the "Fruit", the regular polygons and 'hedrons'.  It's just geometry - of a sort -
basically.

(I note here - 5s, 3s and 1s - that 355/113 is Pi correct to 6 decimal places whilst 553 + 113 = 666
Ialso note REV. 13, 18: Here is wisdom ... 666.  13 X 18 = 234,  + mirror 432 = ....
Also, if a right-angled triangle carries 23.5 degrees,  t'other must be ...?).  However .... caution!
There is an MS surviving (the oldest I read) that gives 616 (it seems) and not the now ubiquitous
666.

There is one particular part of REVELATION -12, 15 - "And the serpent cast
out of his mouth water as a flood ...".  Let's go where we are sent with this one:
we need a "great red dragon" - 12, 3 - which is Wales in virtually anyone's
currency, these days, isn't it, and we need a flood from its mouth - and Severn
Bore springs to mind?*

* In the MABINOGIAN, LLUDD AND LLEFELYS, it is clear that the term 'red dragon' identifies the areas
now Wales AND England.  The 'white dragon' signals invaders, presumably firstly Lludd's imminent Roman threat
and, later, Vortigern's Saxons.  The tale is remarkable in that Lludd orders his kingdom measured and no-one asks
how = they knew how?  They just got on with it, anway, and came up with Carfax, Oxford, as the centre.  The 2
warring dragons are buried there - but then dug up and taken to Dinas Emrys, Snowdonia.

(I note also that the CPC 'Llantwit' vertex, Glamorgan, in on Lat. 51.4415 - a mirror of sorts - click on 153 - Mirrors. 
And under 0.9 of a mile off 360/7 Lat - the 'Virgin'.*  It might interest you to learb that Roslin Chapel sits on Lat.
55.855, another 'mirror')  The CPC axis sits on Lat. 51.115, another mirror.  Of course,  you'd need a decimal system
for these to be design-deliberate ... allied to quite remarkable (and/or recent?) ability to obtain Lat. values with some
quite remarkable precision, you think?  Unless the whole thing just looks too 'recent' in origin/inspiration?

The Holy Oblation* ?24888 ?miles (Tentative, speculative and latest section)

I want to introduce this as possibly relevant in informing the model - Lats
51.6-7. Note they are nearly adjacent to the Mouth of the Severn range,
above, Virgin 51.4-5:

Since the Planet Earth is not perfectly spherical, its mean
circumference value (EMC, where E = Earth) is not at Lat. 45
degrees.  It actually occurs further north - in the region of Lats
51.6-7.

The parameters are roughly 24902 (Equatorial) miles and 24860.5
(Polar), meaning to about 24881-2.  But how could this possibly
inform this study - I mean, how could anyone have known ... until fairly
recently, that is? Take the late C18th AD and inaccurate French metre
as a for instance here!

Yet it is suggested by Stephen W Dail, of CELESTIAL CHESS
-WORKS, that an ancient Biblical text, employing the Greek
Gematria, refers to and quantifies this 'Oblation' ..  I've asked
Stephen to contribute here.  Why?  Because values he's come
across is quite remarkably similar to the Latitude obtaining at
one of the CPC 'precious gem' sites.  But then it is also - and
coincidentally - remarkably close to the Source of Isis (the River
Thames) Lat. value.  More to follow ... but this is Stephen - and
my thanks - 19-03-08:

Hi Geoffss,
 
That's sounds like a good chapter heading.  I'm trying to recall how it started now. Iit
seems to me it was around the time we were discussing the subject of the OT prophet
Ezekiel, and Gary Val Tenuta's English Gematria and his book the "Ezekiel Code"
which just came out recently. That would have been around Oct of last year now. My
how time flies.  I calculated the Greek gematric phrase, "To Oblation Agion" - The Holy
Oblation - and what immediately caught my attention was the total 1037 x 24 = 24,888
being one of a few variant Earth Mean Circumference values or EMC formulas, that I
had been studying prior to this discovery in connection to your Circle of Perpetual
Choirs investigation.  It resurfaced when I was investigating the Precession parameter
puzzle topic again recently when I started studying the metrological ratio 24:25 that
was originally presented in the works of Livio C. Stecchini in his website material
(www.metrum.org), and also John Michell's and John Neal's study of that ratio in later
metrological studies (www.secretacademy.com).  Their interpretation of this ratio's
meaning led me to discover another one pertaining to the scale variance of the
diameter of the Sun especially, during the Earth's Aphelion and Perihelion distances
during July and January demonstrating this same ratio.  So now a third contender
theory about what prompted this ratio's use has entered the fray so to speak. 
Stecchini's take, was that is pertained to a volumetric ratio of grain in a long and
short measure called Netto and Brutto. In that the cube root of this ratio's difference
amounted to one of 1: 1.0137.  This being 25 cube rt. = 2.924 etc. / 24 cube rt. at
2.884499 etc. = 1.0137. This value was recognized as being another variant EMC
value which multiplied by the 1,296,000 system of 360* x 360 sec. gave a product
of 131375,563.1 English ft. / 5280 ft. Mile = 24881.73544.  That is a very good EMC
value, and it seems to fit your findings of an ancient Henge formation latitude-wise. 
There's more to this picture to present, but that's all I have time for at the present
moment. 
 
Hope this helps!
 
Best regards,
 
Stephen

Thanks, again ... and I await the "more" with interest.

*The phrase 'holy oblation' comes from Ezekiel, notably chapter 48, 'DIVISION OF
THE LAND' (with reference to the portions of the 12 tribes, the Lord, the priests, the
prince and the workers (common land).  There is reference to the 4 sides and 12
gates of the square (groundplan) city and to a sanctuary.  'Oblation' has alternative
translation: offering (such as the Eucharist bread and wine) and allotment/portion.
It comes from 'oblate', dedicated.  There is a different word (of same spelling) that
means ' flattened at opposite .... poles' (CHAMBERS), as in Planet Earth.  This
second 'oblate' possesses no 'oblation' as a noun (note - geoffss, 20-03-08).  There
again ....

The "more" (dated Spring Equinox, March 20th, 2008):

Hi Geoffss,
 
Good rider inclusion! ... As I've already discussed with you in the past, what prompted me to assist you in this investigation was my discovery of the Flagship of the CPC locations, namely Glastonbury Abbey, being established with a ground plan dimension that actually represents not only it's location on a latitude of one of your favorite mirror values, 51.15*, or within a (pardon the pun) Hare's breadth of that latitude point.  It also expresses the entire Earth's sq. mile area in a reduced whole integer multiple of 1/1000th. part of 444sq. = 197,136 sq. ft. I was led to this discovery a few years ago, after studying J. Michell's description of the Abbey being excavated by the architect F. Bligh Bond around the turn of the last century, and also Nigel Pennick's study of the same found on this web site for reference:
 
 
None of these authors however, have presented this connection in their published works so far, although I have conveyed this finding to J. Michell personally last year. Guess he's been too busy with other matters such as his almost year old anniversary marriage back in May last year, LOL!  So we have been looking at other values of EMC formulas since that time, and have accumulated quite a few now, all of which hover around this lower to an upper value of like you say, near 52*., which encompasses your CPC area, at least latitude wise.  I wish there was some method of obtaining a good fix on them longitude wise however.  The most astounding thing about this formula however, is that is uses an accurate actual value of Pi as the functioning factor in this equation, as the area of a perfect sphere of 197,136,000 sq. mi. / 4 / Pi (act.) sq. rt. = 3960.755538 radius x 2 x Pi (act.) = 24,886.161 miles. Earth circumference.  This value multiplied by the English mile of 5280 ft. / 360* = 364,997 ft. I use Bowditch 7 calculator to determine Latitudes on this website:   Bowditch Table 7 , which equates to the aforesaid value of 51.15 dec. deg. at this value of ft. per degree.  This to me, just adds more to this CPC mystery, as I didn't know those ancient Saxons and later Normans had such advanced technologies to make their sacred ground plans accordingly, did you? 
 
Happy Easter!
 
Stephen

and, later the same equinoctal day:

Hi again Geoffss,
 
So now I'm thinking there must be some sort of relationship between this Glastonbury Abbey latitude factor of 51.15*, and the aforesaid Greek Gematric phrase, "To Oblation Agion"-The Holy Oblation = 1037 x 24,888 miles EMC variant, which is a bit higher at 51.58* according to that Bowditch 7 calculator which shows a deg. of 365,024 ft., as I look up at the Spring Equinox Full Moon, knowing it's already Good Friday in England at this moment where I'm located further West across the Atlantic as I write this around 9:40 PM. And of course there is,,and it involves something very "magical" indeed!  Namely the magic square of the Moon, whose numbers 1-81 total 3321.  We've been looking at quite a few numbers lately and all sorts of interesting geometric progressions, eh?  In this particular square, the numerals are arranged so that the sums of the horizontal, vertical and diagonals all total 369, which is interesting as a permutation of the Earth's radius as 396 x 10 miles. as a good whole integer value used quite often by the ancients. Now the central number in this square is 41, and I've had some very good studies concerning its multiples also in my Celestial Chessworks figures, especially concerning the Celestial Knight's facet total. So I wondered what would happen if I multiplied this value times 236.8, or 8 x 8 x 37, which as you know is a Solar value of the Sun square 1-36 = 666 / 18 = 37.  It also being the Greek gematric value of the name "Ihsous Xpistos"-Jesus Christ = 2368.  The product I get is 9708.8 which converted to ft. and divided by a mile of 5280 ft. = 1.8387878 etc. and let's just subtract this slight difference from the aforesaid EMC of 24,888 mi. to get 24,886.16121 miles, which is right about where Glastonbury Abbey is situated according to my previous findings.  What a discovery in itself eh?
 
Best regards,
 
Stephen

Author's note (21-03-08): absolutely fascinating stuff, Stephen, and thanks for letting me carry it here, especially noting the Glastonbury CPC presence.  I must caution readers, however, about 2 significant caveats/warnings; 1. "oblation" - is not a word with any dictionary pedigree of use of in reference to flattening at the poles although the possibilities of wordplay/confusion are fairly obvious given the homonyms oblate and oblatus (Latin roots); and, 2.  there's a problem with any gematria of ancient design being expressed in miles, say, since it wasn't until the C13th AD (source wikipedia) that 5280 feet were used to describe a mile.  Previously it had been 5000 feet (with obvious implications for some of Stephen's calculations, I'm afraid!), this 5280 feet change being confirmed by statute in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1.  Stephen's calculations still work from the C13th AD, though, please note. The idea of an official 'yardstick' is known to date to at least the C10th AD with a foot fixed by Edward 1st as 1/3 of it and an inch as 1/36ths (or 3 grains of barley!) with perches and acres also fixed derivatives (5 1/2 yards and 40 X 4 times this).  There are those who claim values in ancient earth measurement are remarkably evocative of the modern Imperial yard!  Nigel Pennick, for instance, writes of the standardised English foot (of Edward 1, 1305 AD) having previously been an 'esoteric constant' -  http://www.isleofavalon.co.uk/history/pennick.html  I have enquired by letter of Mr. Pennick as to the provenance and meaning of this term, 22-03-08 - no reply by 15=04-08!  The whole article makes a truly excellent study, this being a CPC site!  Here is a link to the blurb accompanying Richard Heath's book, MATRIX OF CREATION, re. the yard:

http://www.innertraditions.com/Product.jmdx;jsessionid=
34ADECA384277204F112119F8EFF2D13?action=
displayDetail&id=886&searchString=
0-89281-194-3&selectedTextTypeKeynames
=23&displayZoom=0
 
Note 2: it is not hard to find examples of 'oblation' being currently used for flattening in both astronomical and medical works - despite the lack of any dictionary substance supporting such use.  Furthermore, it is both noun and adjective: 'oblation technique'. 

Note 3: in the latter half of the C17th AD the spherical nature of Planet Earth was brought into question by, on the one side, Isaac Newton FRS (PRINCIPIA, 1687) and, on the other, Cassini-Picard.  The former argued for an 'oblate spheroid' and the latter combination for a 'prolate spheroid'.  By the middle of the C18th AD the matter was resolved in favour of Newton.  Did Newton, I wonder, ever connect 'oblate spheroid' with 'To Oblation Agion' (Holy Oblation') in his Biblical scouring?  I find the word 'oblation' at DANIEL 9. 27 - a book Newton was known to consider, along with REVELATION, as holding the key to life, existence and just about everything.  His treatise on it, though, circa 1733 AD, is little more than seeing it as a prophetic history lesson ... it seems to me.  Whatever, when Isaac Newton studied DANIEL Chapter 9 - as we know he did - would the repeated use of the number 25,000 have rung any bells (given that it is an English mile equivalent of the Earth circumference measure proposed by Eratosthenes in the 3rd Century BC and very close to our current range of circa 24860-24902 miles)?  However, Daniel is enjoying his Babylonian Captivity, Lion's Den and all, some 300 years before Eratosthenes!  All is not lost though: a substantial amount of scholarly opinion holds that the book - or parts of it, notably the prophesying stuff, date to the C2nd BC and were "redacted" (creatively edited in). But would Isaac Newton have the conversion ability to perceive 25,000 English miles in the 252000 and/or 250000 stadia attributed to Eratosthenes (and whose stadia was that, anyway. There were more than one!).  Well, it would seem not* ... but I know he was looking:


The French scholars thought that the calculation performed by Eratosthenes represents an independent figure, but this does not prove to be correct. Kleomedes reports that Eratosthenes calculated the latitude of Alexandria in Egypt and that of Syene at the First Cataract, and found that this distance, which is the entire length of Egypt, would be 1/50 of the circumference of the earth. Eratosthenes would have calculated the distance between Alexandria and Syene as 5000 stadia, so that the circumference is 250,000 stadia.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was determined that the Egyptian royal cubit is 525 mm. and hence it was concluded that Eratosthenes calculated by stadia of 300 Egyptian royal cubits. Newton too had tried quite successfully to ascertain the length of the Egyptian royal cubit from the dimensions of the Great Pyramid, in order to interpret Eratosthenes’ datum.

www.metrum.org/measures/measurements.htm

I cannot comment on the accuracy of the data - but numbers like 250000 and 700 (the Eratosthenes' stadia in one meridian degree) seem very .... similar? ... to the 25000s and 70s of DANIEL.  And there's another near-coincidence: Daniel is on the banks of the River Ulay doing his stuff in DANIEL 9 whilst Uley Bury Camp was a site I mentioned to Stephen, before I knew this, as a site of possible EMC significance.  It is also on my MOVING QUOITS model axis.  Newton's interest in ancient metrology was aroused by a Gresham's Professor of Geometry, John Greaves, grandfather of pyramidology, who visited the Giza pyramids and made measurements in 1637 AD.  It was from an Invisible College  Gresham's base that the Royal Society was to emerge.  So there are links.  And could Newton have known of a fairly  ubiquitous (internet) idea that the 250000 (or 252000/Hipparchus) stadia of Eratosthenes = 25000 miles*, remarkably close to the 24860 and 24902 of today?  Laird Scranton, GHMB - and  my thanks -  writes "if Newton was aware of Greaves he would have known the approximate length of the Greek stade".**

Not many people know of an obscure work by the famous Sir Isaac Newton entitled:

"A Dissertation upon the Sacred Cubit of the Jews and the Cubits of several Nations: in which, from the Dimensions of the Greatest Pyramid, as taken by Mr. John Greaves, the ancient Cubit of Memphis is determined".

Newton had an obsession of establishing the value of the "cubit" of the ancient Egyptians. This was no mere curiosity. His Theory of Gravitation was dependent on an accurate knowledge of the circumference of the earth. The only figures he currently had were the inaccurate calculations of Eratosthenes and his followers. With these figures his theory did not work out

Newton felt that if he could find the exact length of the Egyptian "cubit", this would allow him to find the exact length of their "stadium", reputed by others to bear a relation to a "geographical degree". This measurement, which he needed for his theory of gravitation, he believed to be somehow enshrined in the proportions of the Great Pyramid. Thus, he would have the necessary measurements for his Theory of Gravitation.

He used the measurements of the base of the pyramid arrived by Greaves and Burattini in his calculations. Since there was much accumulated debris at the base of the pyramid, there figures were inaccurate. Thus the false measurements of the base failed to give Newton the answer he was looking for.  (My notes - thanks Derek Skhane - they did lead to him quanifying two cubits, the profane/Egyptian Royal and the Sacred .... and these weren't so far out - but far enough!   Newton subsequently got the data he needed from Picard, circa 1670 AD).

http://www.historicist.com/newton/pyramid.htm

*  This covers both * above re 25000 miles.  Given scant - if any - mention or support in C19th AD classical dictionaries , the 'culprit' seems to be Major Rennell FRS and his THE GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEM OF HERODOTUS, p. 42.   After extensively reviewing various stade mentions in ancient literature, Rennell means a basket of them and then expresses each input in terms of that mean.  Just one of these - that of Strabo - delivers a value of any use to 25000: 524'.  This is termed "itinerant stade" or "Geographical Mean stadium".  Some now refer to "Egyptian stade", some to "an Egyptian surveying unit of 157 metres (about 515') confused with a stade"; 505.5' is a value I also find given by Rennell (168 1 06).  Strabo c/o Rennell would be (524 X 252000)/5280 = 25009.1 whilst (524 X 250000)/5280 = 24810.6. Theoretical values could be 528 (250000) and 523.8  (528 X 250000/252000).  See also ** below.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wKsBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq
=+stade&source=web&ots=SkvmfxUJ_g&sig=iPtz0qfymxL2U8aO7OmJ0xfHJ1A&hl
=en#PPA42,M1

**The whole area is covered by a 1987 AD article by an E Gulbekian mentioned on the St Andrews Univ. site -  I've asked the ever-helpful Dr. JJ O'Connor there for details, 24-03-08, geoffss).  In the meantime, I note the term "some suggest" 25000 miles based on an interpretation of information in Pliny (12. 53 - but this 'some have'  value is 157.2m/515,74176', creating 24615 miles) and Pliny actually quotes a much longer stade!). "Some suggest" seems to indicate a certain ... implausible creativity!   So, although 25000 miles is very popular as an Eratosthenes'  number on the internet, it has few - if any - actual "legs" and I find sites careful of their reputations either avoid the 25000 completely or hedge.   C18th AD Rennell FRS, gives 505.5 feet, an 'itinerary stadium' or 'mean geographical stadium' which I've also seen as about 515 feet or so - but 25000 miles requires 528 feet (250000 : 2500) and these itinerary stadia aren't even close, whilst the more common measures, 600 feet, 607-8 feet and 625 feet, are far too long.  I find some really inventive approaches: NOAA abandons the 5000 of Eratosthenes and replaces it, quite arbitrarily, with the 4400 of ..... Eratosthenes  -  but it's not a number he ever used!  Wikipedia's 'History of Geodesy' somehow manages 250000, 25000 and a185m stadion all together!

Additional note : Hultsch, 1888, carries a stade of 518.3884 (converted by me from metres as the rest are - see also Dutka).  One author calls it a "reconstructed stade" and bemoans  "popular histories" and the "manipulation" of the stade to achieve a 25000 mile idea certain unnamed "modern scholars" still cling to,  Wikipedia carries similar 516.726 echoing JJ OConnor and EF Robertson's 515.74176 and the 515.0856 I've also seen - range 157-158 metres, basically.  Then you can play around with "mountain-top" measurements, and/or rounded pacings  ... and/or ... and/or ....  I notice Wikipedia puts its "Egyptian stadion" just like that, in quote marks, something they do with no other stade they mention.  Classical dictionaries of the C19 AD had little - if any - truck with an Egyptian stade, though the mooting is implicit, and that's both from 1849 and post-Hultsch.  Newton and 25000, then? Unlikely.  But, there again ... whilst Newton failed, we are told, to derive satisfactory values to inform his Gravity work from the Great Pyramid, Eratosthenes and the Bible, and succeeded only care of Picard's work (publ. 1671 AD - and said to accurate to 0.44% and pre-oblate)*, surely he must have had a theoretical model and a 'ballpark' value idea, a guestimate, to work round?  And, if his gravity idea depended on a fairly accurate Earth measure, then that guestimate must have been close to what Picard found and thus 25000?   Would/could he have found EZEKIEL's 2500 and DANIEL's 70 (both X 10) appealing in this context? He just might ...

I make mention of Newton so much to demonstrate that hermetic/esoteric mysticism and enquiry conceivably went hand in hand with what we regard as science in the C17th AD. Note also, for instance, fellow Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and Sir John Evelyn, with his Kabbalah Fire of London "Tree of Life" (10 spirot) rebuilding plan - see geometry/diagrams section www.awugabunnies.co.uk/5.html

That is not to say they started it!  John Michell, Stephen Dail, Nigel Pennick, Chris. Street et al all contribute to (and draw on/evince) the idea of ancient tradition of number, both that of measure (geodesy) and that of meaning (gematria) allied to plane and spherical (?and oblate/speroid?) geometry, much of this being embodied physically in structure like, say, Glastonbury Abbey.  My CPC enquiry also operates in these realms , combining the flat (the CPC circle) with the curved (the reality it actually lives on and the related Latitude values it and that carries) but my focus has tended to be on "events" in the C17th-early C19th AD and what early members of the Royal Society and similar (Board of Ordnance, for instance) got up to ...... allegedly.

Again, Stephen, my thanks (geoffss).


* What was Picard's actual value?  Seems to vary according to where you look!  The Wikipedia derivative is 24708 miles and others go as high as 25009!  It's an internet mess out there.  I'm going to use the measure carried in THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY, Hooker et al, 1855, p. 136: 57060 toises.  Now a toise seems to be 6.396'.  So (57060 X 6.396 X 360)/5280 = 24883 ( rather similar to Ti Oblation Agion's 24888?  Did Newton know of Greek Gematria, one wonders - he will certainly have known of Picard's toises as expressed in miles? ). 

A note re 24888 - from correspondence with Mr Dail:  Stephen noted 1037 X 24 = 24888; I found 1037 X 5 = 5185, a number evocative of Pi - and one close to the 22/7 Lat. my model picks out as central to an octagon of related proportion to the CPC.  51.85 represents the Pi-alike 51 51 (1515/Isis backwards) and is the precise Latitude at the spot where the River Severn flows through my CPC model's axis.

I'm going to start to expand 'Perpetual Choirs' in more detail:

Perpetual Choirs appear in Dr. Rachel Bromwich's TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN,
Triad 90 (Vaughan abbrev. Jones acc. Bromwich - but she gives various versions,
as detailed above):

"Tri Dyfai Gyfangan Ynys Prydein  un oedd yn Ynys Afallach/yr ail Nyghaer
Garadawc/a'r trydydd ym Mangor."

Compare with Iolo, Y MYVYRIAN ARCHAIOLOGY (Series 3 of Book 2,
P 70), Triad 84, sourced (by Iolo) from a volume of the Rev. Richards of
Llanegwad:

"Tair prif Gyfangor ynys Prydain: Bangor Illtud Farchawg yng Nghaer
Worgorn/Cor Emrys yng Nghaer Caradawg/a Bangor Widrin yn ynys
Afallen."

So Bromwich, drawing on material cited above, gets an Isle of Avallach (Avalon/
Glastonbury), a Caer Caradoc (of which there are a plentitude - though she, like
me, notes Old Sarum here) and 'Bangor' (which she identifies- or notes an
identification - with Bangor Iscoed, Wrexham).  Any place with a church was a
'bangor', possibly - as in 'holy place'?*  Iolo, on the other hand, generates, what
appears to be Llantwit Major (Llanilltud Fawr) associated with a 'Caer Worgorn'
(possibly Caer Morgan, the king Glamorgan derives its name from - Morgannwg
- much as Iolo does - another Morgannwg), a Choir (of Merlin or Ambrosius -
'Emrys') at a Caer Caradoc (which there is reason to believe Iolo identified with
Old Sarum but which is now commonly identified with Stonehenge ... or Amesbury
... but Andrew Collins now - 'with others', he says in an email to me - identifies
Avebury as this site), and what appears to be Glastonbury (Ynys Witrin/Glass Isle). 
Glastonbury** seems common to both, but Llantwit replaces Bangor Iscoed and
Stonehenge subsequently usurps
Old Sarum?.  And we've seen above the CPC
Michell (supposedly) inspired from these (supposed) Iolo three!

*Notes: I find Bangor: "a monastery, religious settlement, academy, college (within a wattle fence)"/spelt
Bancor
in Bede, 772 AD/wattled fence itself and-or a retaining rod in one/white choir/high choir/circular hut/place
of the choir.  Certainly, we find "Abbey" evidenced at various specific (and pertinent) Bangor sites.  Now, throw
in the fascinating corban, sacrifice/offering to god (and crow/raven, of course) as well as coeur/heartcore (and Kore)
and gore/blood ... but the on-line dictionary (GERIADUR) I consulted was quite specific about cor (with an
accent - ?long vowel?) - choir.  Gor, it tells me (same mark) means pus.

**  I note here David Hatcher Childress, ANITGRAVITY AND THE WORLD GRID.  Apparently - it says here -
a vibrating stone was brought to Beckery Island, Glastonbury, "by the Plan of the Cosmic Chaplains and Elohim
geomancers ...".  Make of that what you will!

http://books.google.com/books?id=IFikVd65GeMC&pg=PA162&lpg=
PA162&dq=perpetual+choirs&source=web&ots=yiyrco6Qsr&sig=
q0NZP0JZKGqg4l5aj_FZTjx_uyo#PPA162,M1

Note here, though that the ruined chapel circa ST484383 is on or by 'Beckery' ST488386 - this is the chapel
mentioned above in the Llanilid-Glastonbury-Old Sarum scenario.


MOVING ON ...

I need to introduce some new material: THE ANCIENT LAWS OF
CAMBRIA : CONTAINING THE INSTITUTIONAL TRIADS OF

DYVNAL MOELMUD, William Probert, printed 1823, and drawing on
THE ARCHAIOLOGY OF WALES (Iolo, 1807).  There's obviously been

a problem with suspected fraud because Probert makes repeated
reference to the demonstrable antiquity of the material and its sources
(whilst commenting on some adulteration!).  Where not Iolo-invented,
the source material appears to be an ancient MSS 'of Edward Mansel
... by ... Thomas ab Ivan ... 1685.  Mention is made of the possession
of an MS by the Rev. T Walters, 180, with mention of it being that of
Thomas Jones, 1601, drawing on Caradog of Nant Garvan and Jeuan.
J? should that be 'I', geoffss, 21-11-07) Brechan.  Probert claims origin
for some of the material back to circa 400 BC - not the bits about

William (the Comqueror) or the Grail Knights, I'll hazard, though. 

As regards content, Probert's Triad 84 is not identical to Iolo, Iolo
carrying Caradoc to Probert's Ambresbury.  Also, there's no Joseph of
Arimathea, but lots of Bran the Blessed father of Caradoc and son of
Llyr, together with mention of (Grail family) St Cyllin.  Llandaff is given
archbishopric primacy, Illtud gets to guard the 'Greal' along with, say,

Peredur.  Basically, make of it and its "sources" what you will:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ObY0AAAAIAAJ&dq=ancient+cambria+
probert&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=LACq9vCw3l&sig=
tozM17768OyyoEpQ5UU15emuMZU

You want about Page 388-444 or so from the page menu.

So, one problem lies in the possible admixture/conflation of various Choir/Caer/Cor/
Gor possibilities*.  Stonehenge, for instance, can be 'dancing stones' - Choir Gaur -
so you have Gor alikes at Glastonbury (Bangor Widrin), Llantwit (Bangor Illtud),
Stonehenge (Cor Emrys/Choir Gaur), and, as Michell notes, Goring, a fourth CPC
site.- 'Meeting Place of Choirs'/ 'choir-place' (gor-ting) this subsequently becomes,
in Michell** (the first in THE MEASURE OF ALBION and the second on the
Jonathan Cainer website
http://www.cainer.com/michell/oct1702.html).  And
Goring is another site evocative of a decagon and a CPC of ten (perpetual) 'choirs'. 
Notice, though, how Stonehenge's dance (Stonehenge/Chorea Gigantum) becomes
song (as in chorus/choir - and choir derives from the Greek 'song and dance'
dramatic chorus).  See here, for example,
http://codexceltica.blogspot.com (the
site is an utter gem generally but particularly apposite here and with reference to
'Perpetual Choir'). 

*  gor is chor in Irish, noting chorus/chorea  **So what would John make of
Goring-by-Sea?

GORING




This is a detail from an old (late C19th AD OS) map of Goring.  The River
Thames is just to the left and the ancient Icknield Way to the right.  The detail
reads 'The Temple'.  In THE MEASURE OF ALBION, John Michell mentions
visiting Goring (with Robin Heath).  He applies the word 'sanctuary' - and notes
a property called 'The Temple' ("Appropriately", I think he writes).. Two letters
to me from an officer of the Goring and Streatley Local History Association - and
my thanks! - deny any  tradition of any "sanctuary", as such, at Goring, but note
a mediaeval building thought to have once on this Temple site, a hostelry!  A
sanctuary, of sorts, arguably?

Had John and/or Robin consulted a late-ish C19th AD OS map, say 1877 or
1883, (Berkshire), then they would have found 'The Temple', as above.  It was
actually a substantial waterfront house (and estate), dating from Mid-Victorian
times - and can be seen pictorally c/o using English Heritage 'Viewfinder'/a search
for 'The Temple' + Goring + 'Henry Taunt', 1899, etc.).  John Michell and Robin
Heath found the private drive that leads to a newer The Temple - at SU601817 to
the 1930-demolished building sited SU601816.  The former is the
some-time
residence and recording studio of Pete Townsend of  The Who fame, I believe.

The Mid-Victorian the Temple was one of a number of River Thames property
developments coming in the wake of the building of the Great Western railway line
through Goring, from Paddington, and on towards North Wales by way of  Princes
Risborough.
The impact on this on the villages along that part of the Thames - and
our 'hostelry' are current lines of enquiry (geoffss, 23-11-07).  There's also a 'The
Temple' boathouse still in existence, and the Temple Cottages on Elvenden Road
(thanks, Bernard!), once the estate's tied cottages.  The earliest I can date the house
to, currently, is a mortgage dated 1873 and including the right to 'present' to the
Goring church (advowson) and lands. The was the (refusable) right to nominate to a
church benfice. Gardiners - it was Lawrence Weave who mortgaged The Temple +
lands + advowson in 1873 for £10000 - are listed as of some substance in Goring in
the C19th AD.  A Samuel W. Gardiner is associated with a property called Coombe
Lodge, Goring, 1852.  I found a 1793 (pre-railway) painting that shows a substantial
building is the right kind of area - assuming we are looking north.  And we are, and
there it is - a mill!  Nothing but trees and fields where the Temples 1 and 2 were later
to stand, just by it (thanks, again, Bernard).   The nunnery, as indicated, was in the
nearby town - and some distance away.








Note:  c/o Bernard, Goring Gap Walks (and my thanks).  It's Cleeve Mill in the picture, with 'The Temple' site to the left,
a clump of tree and a field.  Not even a hostelry!  Oh, well ... There Is a PH comes up on Multimap (but not OS).  I think
it's the Cleeve Reach Boathouse, circa SU601823.  That's accessible via Spring Farm.  Is there, I wonder, any special
property in the spring(s)?

The advowson above applies to the Goring St. Thomas Church (that used to be
St. Mary and part of what seems to have been a small and somewhat unruly
nunnery).  There's also the nearby Elvedon Priory ... and legends of a tunnel!

Returning to 'gor', generally, what a possible complication is that Glastonbury can
be identified with the kingdom of Gorre as can Llantwit with the capital of
Gorfynedd (Gorwenydd in the Triads assoc. sheep of Caradoc, Iolo 85),
Glywysing.  And let us not forget the Cor of (Llanilid - Silurian Capital?) Ilid assoc.
with St Paul coming here or that some identify Ilid with St. Peter.  In fact, in some
'legend', most of the (British Israel) New Testament heads this way, apparently!

STONEHENGE?

If I search the internet for Ambresbury together with Triads, I find Iolo's Series
3 appears to give (at 84 - or, in one case, 86) a Perpetual Choir site " the Choir
of Ambrosius at (or in) Ambresbury'.  If you look at my Iolo Welsh version
(courtesy of the University of Wales - thankyou) above you'll see Cor Emrys at
Caer Caradoc.  There's not an 'Ambresbury' in sight - but there is in 1823 and
Probert.  Did Probert source it from Iolo?  Certainly not from Iolo's Series 3,
Triad 84, above. - and the other version, series 1, triad 80, is from Robert
Vaughan: Caer Caradoc.  No.  Later Iolo-related material specifies Old Sarum.
It was Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Stukeley FRS, possibly, that led
to Probert making Iolo's Caer Caradoc into Ambresbury?  And this, in turn,
informed Smithett, perhaps.

I can see that Cor Emrys can be Choir of Ambrosius but Emrys was also Merlin*
... and Stonehenge is known as Merlin's Precinct (and, in legend, he built the place). 
Nennius writes of an Ambrosius as a counsellor to Vortigern (in fact I saw 'elder'
or 'younger' implying more than one).  Geoffrey of Monmouth conflated him with
Myrddin (as in Caermarthen).  But he called the combo Merlinus.  Why?  The
French for excrement, apparently.

And, next, just how does Caer Caradoc translate as Ambresbury?  I mean how? 
I suppose you could turn to the MABINOGIAN (DREAM OF RHONABWY)
and/or Geoffrey of Monmouth:  Saxon treachery at Amesbury Abbey/Mons
Ambrius.  Stonehenge - a spurious legend is that the stones were erected in
memorium
?  It's just by it - and the bodies of Vortigern's nobles treacherously
slain are supposed to be buried there at 'the monastery founded by Abbot Ambrus
(Ambrose and ?sic Ambrius - my fault in transcribing perhaps?) not far from
Kaercaradoc that is now called Salisbury' (G of M, as in Richard Barber's MYTHS
AND LEGENDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES, P.58) even if Stonehenge predates the
event a tad.  Elsewhere I find the note: ' but Ambresbury fell in the C6th' (Nesbit -
"British-Israel" stuff, the Biblical 'Lost Tribes' ending up hereabouts, it seems).  Whilst
it may be inviting, moreover, to identify this Ambresbury with Amesbury, at least one
current expert I've consulted rubbishes the idea where another supports it.  I've
touched on the candidacies of Old Sarum and Avebury above - but I've expanded
the problems research encounters here as a warning!  Caveat Emptor!  You'll notice,
for instance, 'monastery, - but the Amesbury Abbey legend has Guinevere retiring to
was a  ... nunnery.  And that wasn't built until the end of the C10th AD (unless there
was a previous foundation/'cloister' - or even more than one, perhaps.  Fabio P.
Barbieri uses the word 'if' in this context, that of the times of Ambrosius (Aurelianus),
uncle of (legendary) Arthur.  It is noteworthy that Guinevere's nunnery was Black
Benedictine, as was the Glastonbury Abbey and the claimed Nash Manor Monastery.

Note: I had a quick look at the on-line Iolo Series 3 Triads (link follows) and
found trivial differences - of Triad order rather than content - to the Probert
version.  Intriguingly, he comments, as a final note: 'Besides the text ... there
are two other copies printed in the Archaiology, differing ... in things of minor
importance' (pp 413-414)*.   Of these, Series 1 and 3 carry Perpetual Choir
Triads - variously at 80 and 84 (above). The Iolo on-line (Series 3 version)
carries 'Choir of Ambrosius in Ambresbury' (but it would do  - it's the Probert
translation and not exactly the Iolo original - and it's where I think John Michell
has 'at Ambresbury', from memory)
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Triads_of_Britain

*Probert:
A 'minor difference' !!!!!????, if such it be, exists twixt triad 80 Series 1
(p. 17 - and thanks to NLW for the copy) and triad 90 Series 3, both Myv:
Mangor becomes Bangor Illtud at Caer Worgorn, and Nghaer (Caer)
Garadawc becomes Cor Emrys in/at Caer Caradawg.  They don't look
that similar to me ... Methinks I've made this point somewhere else ...

The top comment in Wiki (ref above) draws its version of Iolo from Probert but borrows the note: 'These triads,
insofar as they are not fabricates of Iolo ... are the works of Welsh Antiquarians C16th-C18th
.' 

BRITANNIC RESEARCHES ...., Book 3, p. 289, by Beale Poste, 1853
touches on this in a commentary on TRIADS by "Mr. Williams", 1840.  Iolo's
son - for that is who I think it is, carrying his father's work on, has Triads 2
and 3 referring to informative material:  'Moel Evwr'.  Now Poste equates this
with (Old) Sarum and dismisses Abury, Stonehenge and Ambresbury

http://books.google.com/books?id=2y8LAAAAYAAJ&dq
=beale+poste+britannic+researches&printsec
=frontcover&source=web&ots=LVrsOEct3C&sig
=KhqTZxiMjFr2FaEqwQhj7zqdWzg#PPA289,M1

I can't help but think that just the one Geoffrey of Monmouth sentence
- concerning the monastery founded by ?Abbot?* Ambrius ... Kaercaradoc
- has been distorted into the Cor Ambrosius at/in Ambresbury, the Mons
Ambrius AND the Caer Caradoc versions of the Triad site.  I find an
alternative to Richard Barber (above as "Cloister of Ambrius" (no Abbot)
... "not far from Kaercaradduc, which is now called Salisbury" with the
rider that elsewhere Geoffrey of Monmouth says this was a monastery of
300 brethren *founded by Ambrius ... and situated on Mount (Mons)
Ambrius - and noting Amesbury/Ambresbyrig is actually in a river valley. 
The authoress goes for Stonehenge itself (Cloister = covered arcade/arches
= henge kind of thinking) but I note the actual Amesbury Abbey site twixt
Stonehenge and Amesbury.  The ref. is

http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/adventures240.htm

David Nash Ford's excellent EARLY BRITISH KINGDOMS website
further complicates, identifying both the 'cloister of Ambrius' on 'Mount
Ambrius' "for it was Ambrius, so they say, who founded the monastery
years before", identifying the monastic founder as the father of the cloister
founder, Ambrosius Aurelianus, uncle of legendary Arthur:

http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/articles/ambros03.html
 
(Find David also at www.britannia.com/history/ebk/)

On this Nash Ford identification, Robert Vermaat (see below/Vortigern
Studies) writes (30-10-07):

Hmm, I had to read back what David says about that.. Yes, we disagree
there. David has a tendency to accept every duplication as historical (such
as where Vortigern's son Catigern is confused later with St. Kentigern, he
adds the latter to Vortigern's offspring), and he he accepts Ambrius as a
real person. Now I', personally convinced that Geoffrey of Monmouth
duplicated Amesbury by confusing the Latinised name of Ambresbyrig
(Ambrius Mons), confusing the English 'burg' (fort) with 'byrg' (hill). He
thus created two places, and retained the etymologous founder Ambrius
for the one, and Ambrosius for the other. David re-interpreted the
superfluous Ambrius with the 'father' of Ambrosius Aurelianus, whom we
meet fighting a Vitalinus near Wallop (not far from Amesbury) in 437.

More news on this: THE BEAUTIES OF WILTSHIRE ... by John
Britton, 3 Vols. 1801-1825.  To precis. he writes, P.128, of a triade on
'The three treacherous assemblies', one being 'on the mountain of Caradoc',
which he then has as near 'the present Ambresbury' ( I found other
mention elsewhere of Ambresbury - 'Ambresbury Plain' - dated early
C19th AD to confirm the use of 'Ambresbury' as a place/area). Elsewhere
Britton tells of "Vespasian's Camp" as a name {for Mount Ambri} there). 
He cross-refs this to Triad 84 (Iolo) to back up the Caer Caradoc-
Ambresbury idea.  And, elsewhere again, he writes of one Walter of
Oxford (d. circa 1151) who wrote in Welsh of 300 monks on Ambri
Mount (as above) - sourced from Vol ii, p.77 of Iolo.  But it appears
Geoffrey of Monmouth also cited Walter - albeit the common belief is
he was of Geoffrey's invention as a source.   And of Iolo's?  Under a
search for Walter I read 'supposed historian'!  Even stranger, I looked
up Probert's Iolo treacherous assemblies and it says (Triad 20) 'upon
Salisbury Plain' - not 'on the mountain of Caradoc' (which is Iolo's
Triad 20!) -  what the hell's going on?  Here's the ref.:

http://books.google.com/books?id=zCADAAAAYAAJ&dq
=%22the+beauties+of+wiltshire%22+britton&printsec
=frontcover&source=web&ots=ftjCofNotO&sig=
rKGBfb2Vln8tFZK7MG2D2b2Now4#PPA128,M1

The Bromwich TRIOEDD YNYS PRYDEIN has Triad 51 as the
closest to Iolo 20, with no Saxon treachery at anywhere mentioned.

Note:  Britton - 'the choir of Ambrosius in Caer Caradoc' (not
Ambresbury), p. 128. Ambri Mount - p 124 - with Ambrosius going
to Salisbury to see the graves.  See also G of M p. 409 and Probert
p. 383 on.  Saxon treachery 'on the mountain of Caer Caradoc'
(G of M).  My Iolo carries:Fynydd (Mount ?of) Caer Caradawc',
no Ambresbury.  Was it William Stukeley caused (or more likely
inspired) this problem in his 1740 AD STONEHENGE ...., Chapter
X1, pp. 47-49?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/str/str13.htm

Noting that there have been confusions twixt Ambrosius (some)
and Ambrius (others and aka Ambrus/Ambri), Stukeley reasons that
there must have been the Ambers or Main Ambres with Stonehenge
Amesbury being Little Ambres and Stonehenge ... and so Stonehenge
becomes (magically, one might say) Ambresbury.  'Main' gets to cover
Mons/Mount ... 

I have been very fortunate in the help freely given me over the years by various
learned folk, and, not least, Robert Vermaat of VORTIGERN STUDIES - and
my thanks. Here's Robert to me (email, 29-10-07) on this subject:

Hi Geoff,
 ...  of course there were many lists going around that contained
speculation of where all the cities were that were mentioned in the
Historia Brittonum. Many scholars have attempted to name every
'caer', and maybe the identified towns are based on such
scholarship?
 
Cor Emrys might become Caer Caradoc if someone before that
had established a claim that the two were identical. Cor Ambrosius
would then become Amesbury, which goes back on Geoffrey of
Monmouth, who did not see that his Ambrius Mons and Amesbury
were in fact identical. He confused Ambresbyrig (the fortress of
Ambrosius) with Ambrius Mons (the hill of Ambr(os)ius). This
causes no wonder, for the Anglo-Saxon byrig can mean both
'fortress' (burgh) and 'hill' (byrg). Both names can be about one
and the same place: Amesbury and the surrounding area.
 
The identification of the plains of Amesbury (Stonehenge is meant)
and of Salisbury also predates Stukeley. I've argued here
(http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artcit/caerstone.htm) that already
Geoffrey linked Vortigern to Stonehenge, but the thirteenth-century
English poem 'Of Arthour and of Merlin' went one step further and
located the tower of Vortigern right in the middle of Stonehenge, but
naming that place "Vpon ye pleyn of Salesbury". Maybe that
was the time when both plains were intermingled, as today
'Salisbury Plain' is much larger and encompassing the Amesbury
region.

 
I'm glad my site was that helpful!
 
Cheers,

Robert Vermaat
Vortigern Studies
http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/

Once again, thanks, Robert - and everyone else who has helped me with my
(endless) queries and quibbles!  Notes here:  Vortigern and Dinas Emrys
appear in Geoffrey of Monmouth (from Nennius).  The usurper Vortigern tries
to build a tower on Dinas Emrys, commonly said to be in Snowdonia.  Merlin
uncovers two warring dragons there, one red (Brits) and one white (Saecsens). 
These had previously been at Carfax, Oxford (LLUDD AND LLEFELYS). 
Vortigern gets done in by the rightful heir, Ambrosius Aurelianus and his brother
Uther, as in Pendragon, eventually, and is cursed to hell and damnation in the
triads (and Gildas) for letting in the Saxons ... Now Dinas Emrys is named after
this Ambrosius (Michael Senior, MYTHS OF BRITAIN, P.67-70).  Basically,
the Dinas Emrys tower is transplanted to Stonehenge in the C13th AD (as detailed
above).  Note that the Merlin character is often styled Emrys, too and he, too, is
connected to both locations, the Snowdonia Dinas Emrys and Stonehenge. 

Stronghold places seem the key here.  We have Caer Caradocs named after that
eponymous hero, whilst there are numerous Caer Guorthegirn's (Vortigern) named
after that eponymous anti-hero, with Emrys/Ambrosius being the next king in line.
I dimly remember Old Sarum/Salisbury was a Caer Guorthegirn (and William of
Worcester says so) and Vespasian's Camp (by Amesbury and Stonehenge) could
be another such stronghold, perhaps? Yep!  I have a Vermaat ref. to Caer
Guorthegirn 'near Amesbury' (your ezboard forum, Robert!) whilst there is also
some thinking I've seen that the Ambrosius Aurelianus family estates were in the
Amesbury area - hence the name ...

Once again, for Old Sarum and related content of interest, Robert Vermaat:
www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artcit/caersalis.htm

To try to pull this altogether, then: I think the current state-of-play is that the
strongest probability is that Iolo invented Llanilltyd, Glastonbury and Emrys
(Ambrosius/Merlin) at Caer Caradoc whilst William Probert (possibly because
of  Stukeley and/or the Iolo Triad 20 'Mount') decided Caer Caradoc must be
Ambresbury and just replaced the one with the other.  If that IS the case, then
Probert
is the origin the Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Llanilltyd threesome, and it
provenances back no earlier than 1823 AD!  I find the 1815 Ellis notes,
FABLIAUX, carries mention Saxon treachery on