BellaOnline Forums Education History How the Irish Saved Civilization

I found this book by Thomas Cahill fascinating. After reading Blood of the Isles this was a great sequel. I'm sorry I didn't read it before I visited Ireland in September. The author has a great insight into the characteristics of the Irish. I recommend it.

Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization — copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost — they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task.

So true, Ravina. The Irish were set far off at the edge of civilization and left alone for a long time. They transcribed the manuscripts and history was saved whereas on the Continent so much was destroyed..

My DAR chapter had a tour of a historic home today, Battersea. It is named after a village outside London and was named by Col. John Bannister who was from Battersea in England. He was a botanist and a number of the trees on his property are around 240 years old and were probably all planted at the same time. The house is brick covered by stucco and is a Paladium style home = 5 blocks - east block, east hyphen, central block, west hyphen, west block. The front faced a canal when it was built so the front is very attractive but the back, although it faced the Appomattox River, was attractive but not as ornate. Back when the house was built, waterways were the means of transportation and the front of a house faced the waterway. The house needs quite a bit of work but it takes awhile for a foundation to raise enough to accomplish all that needs to be done. Here is a link to the site: https://www.batterseafound.org/