49-567: Eslington Park is a privately owned 18th-century mansion house west of Whittingham, Northumberland , near the River Aln . It is the family seat of Lord Ravensworth . It is a Grade II* listed building . Eslington, first mentioned in the reign of Edward III in 1335, was held in early times by a family who took that name. It later passed into the hands of the Hazelriggs, the Herons, and then
98-688: A Jacobean cult of melancholia that marked the end of the Elizabethan era . In the late eighteenth century, literary elegies were a common genre; Thomas Gray 's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and Edward Young 's Night Thoughts are typical members of the genre. In the European devotional literature of the Renaissance, the Ars Moriendi , memento mori had moral value by reminding individuals of their mortality. Apart from
147-456: A 17th-century Puritan, fought in many naval battles and also painted. In his self-portrait, we see these pursuits represented alongside a typical Puritan memento mori with a skull, suggesting his awareness of imminent death. The poem underneath the skull emphasizes Thomas Smith's acceptance of death and of turning away from the world of the living: Why why should I the World be minding, Therein
196-539: A World of Evils Finding. Then Farwell World: Farwell thy jarres, thy Joies thy Toies thy Wiles thy Warrs. Truth Sounds Retreat: I am not sorye. The Eternall Drawes to him my heart, By Faith (which can thy Force Subvert) To Crowne me (after Grace) with Glory. Much memento mori art is associated with the Mexican festival Day of the Dead , including skull-shaped candies and bread loaves adorned with bread "bones". This theme
245-409: A bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, environment, friends, spiritual mentors, time, and practical instructions, without procrastinating until tomorrow and the next day, arouse a sense of urgency, as if a spark landed on your body or a grain of sand fell in your eye. If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on
294-413: A church was recorded here in 735. The tower arch is plain and massive; the medieval work has been subject to much later alteration. The 19th-century redecoration includes plain lead-glazing in the windows. There are several gravestones in the churchyard that have skulls incised on them, these are known as Memento Mori stones and are listed monuments. Halfway between the village and Glanton, situated in
343-469: A coffin, hourglass , or wilting flowers to signify the impermanence of life. Often these would accompany a different central subject within a wider work, such as portraiture, however the concept includes standalone genres such as the vanitas and Danse Macabre in visual art and cadaver monuments in sculpture. In English, the phrase is typically pronounced / m ə ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ ˈ m ɔːr i / , mə- MEN -toh MOR -ee . Memento
392-458: A joke to prepare to live forever! Wherever you are born in the heights or depths of saṃsāra, the great noose of suffering will hold you tight. Acquiring freedom for yourself is as rare as a star in the daytime, so how is it possible to practice and achieve liberation? The root of all mind training and practical instructions is planted by knowing the nature of existence. There is no other way. I, an old vagabond, have shaken my beggar's satchel, and this
441-776: A necessary and god-given vale of tears with death as a ransom, and they reminded people to lead sinless lives to stand a chance at Judgment Day . The following two Latin stanzas (with their English translations) are typical of memento mori in medieval music; they are from the virelai Ad Mortem Festinamus of the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat from 1399: Vita brevis breviter in brevi finietur, Mors venit velociter quae neminem veretur, Omnia mors perimit et nulli miseretur. Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus. Ni conversus fueris et sicut puer factus Et vitam mutaveris in meliores actus, Intrare non poteris regnum Dei beatus. Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus. Life
490-495: A new two-storey nine-bay mansion house on the site in about 1720, which was extended in 1796. Whittingham, Northumberland Whittingham is a village and civil parish in Northumberland , England. It is situated on the banks of the River Aln , roughly 4.5 miles (7 km) east of its source at Alnham and 7.3 miles (12 km) west of Alnwick . The thirteenth/fourteenth century pele tower , Whittingham Tower,
539-637: A similar fashion. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a mind training practice known as Lojong . The initial stages of the classic Lojong begin with 'The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind', or, more literally, 'Four Contemplations to Cause a Revolution in the Mind'. The second of these four is the contemplation on impermanence and death. In particular, one contemplates that; There are a number of classic verse formulations of these contemplations meant for daily reflection to overcome our strong habitual tendency to live as though we will certainly not die today. The following
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#1732797202483588-599: A small copse, is St. Mary's Roman Catholic church. The church was built 1877-1881 when the chapel at Callaly Castle was deconsecrated after the Catholic Clavering family sold the castle. The church is built in the Romanesque style. There is also an attached presbytery. This Northumberland location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Memento Mori Memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die")
637-400: Is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death . The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity , and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards. The most common motif is a skull, often accompanied by bones. Often this alone is enough to evoke the trope, but other motifs include
686-642: Is another well-known example of the memento mori theme, with its dancing depiction of the Grim Reaper carrying off rich and poor alike. This and similar depictions of Death decorated many European churches. Memento mori was the salutation used by the Hermits of St. Paul of France (1620–1633), also known as the Brothers of Death. It is sometimes claimed that the Trappists use this salutation, but this
735-568: Is first used in early Buddhist texts, the suttapiṭaka of the Pāli Canon , with parallels in the āgamas of the "Northern" Schools. In Japan, the influence of Zen Buddhist contemplation of death on indigenous culture can be gauged by the following quotation from the classic treatise on samurai ethics, Hagakure : The Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the practice of death, considering whether it will be here or be there, imagining
784-460: Is from the Lalitavistara Sūtra , a major work in the classical Sanskrit canon: ज्वलितं त्रिभवं जरव्याधिदुखैः मरणाग्निप्रदीप्तमनाथमिदम्। भवनि शरणे सद मूढ जगत् भ्रमती भ्रमरो यथ कुम्भगतो॥ अध्रुवं त्रिभवं शरदभ्रनिभं नटरङ्गसमा जगिर् ऊर्मिच्युती। गिरिनद्यसमं लघुशीघ्रजवं व्रजतायु जगे यथ विद्यु नभे॥ Beings are ablaze with the sufferings of sickness and old age, And with no defence against
833-452: Is no adding onto it. Shall I not die then? BCA 2:39 For a person seized by the messengers of Death, what good is a relative and what good is a friend? At that time, merit alone is a protection, and I have not applied myself to it. BCA 2:41 In a practice text written by the 19th century Tibetan master Dudjom Lingpa for serious meditators , he formulates the second contemplation in this way: On this occasion when you have such
882-438: Is not to be trusted by the healthy or the ill, for it is like an unexpected, great thunderbolt. BCA 2.33 My enemies will not remain, nor will my friends remain. I shall not remain. Nothing will remain. BCA 2:35 Whatever is experienced will fade to a memory. Like an experience in a dream, everything that has passed will not be seen again. BCA 2:36 Day and night, a life span unceasingly diminishes, and there
931-410: Is not true. Colonial American art saw a large number of memento mori images due to Puritan influence. The Puritan community in 17th-century North America looked down upon art because they believed that it drew the faithful away from God and, if away from God, then it could only lead to the devil. However, portraits were considered historical records and, as such, they were allowed. Thomas Smith ,
980-427: Is possible." Jean-Paul Sartre expressed that life is given to us early, and is shortened at the end, all the while taken away at every step of the way, emphasizing that the end is only the beginning every day. The Buddhist practice maraṇasati meditates on death. The word is a Pāli compound of maraṇa 'death' (an Indo-European cognate of Latin mori ) and sati 'awareness', so very close to memento mori . It
1029-478: Is short, and shortly it will end; Death comes quickly and respects no one, Death destroys everything and takes pity on no one. To death we are hastening, let us refrain from sinning. If you do not turn back and become like a child, And change your life for the better, You will not be able to enter, blessed, the Kingdom of God. To death we are hastening, let us refrain from sinning. The danse macabre
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#17327972024831078-502: Is the 2nd person singular active future imperative of meminī , 'to remember, to bear in mind', usually serving as a warning: "remember!" Morī is the present infinitive of the deponent verb morior 'to die'. Thus, the phrase literally translates as "you must remember to die" but may be loosely rendered as "remember death" or "remember that you die". The philosopher Democritus trained himself by going into solitude and frequenting tombs. Plato 's Phaedo , where
1127-510: The salvation of the soul brought death to the forefront of consciousness. In the Christian context, the memento mori acquires a moralizing purpose quite opposed to the nunc est bibendum (now is the time to drink) theme of classical antiquity . To the Christian, the prospect of death serves to emphasize the emptiness and fleetingness of earthly pleasures, luxuries, and achievements, and thus also as an invitation to focus one's thoughts on
1176-601: The Collingwood's, who lost all when George, the head of the family, was executed for treason in 1716. The Liddells purchased the Eslington estates from the Crown, and the head of the family, Lord Ravensworth, became the chief landowner. There was a tower house at Eslington in 1415 in the ownership of Thomas Hesilrige. A survey of 1541 reported that the house, in the ownership of Hesilrige but occupied by Robert Collingwood,
1225-437: The Dead . Roman Krznaric suggests memento mori is an important topic to bring back into our thoughts and belief system; "Philosophers have come up with lots of what I call 'death tasters' – thought experiments for seizing the day." These thought experiments are powerful to get us re-oriented back to death into current awareness and living with spontaneity. Albert Camus stated "Come to terms with death, thereafter anything
1274-520: The Old Testament urge a remembrance of death. In Psalm 90 , Moses prays that God would teach his people "to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" ( Ps. 90:12 ). In Ecclesiastes , the Preacher insists that "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart" ( Eccl. 7:2 ). In Isaiah,
1323-1216: The Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan canons states [this is from the Sanskrit version, the Udānavarga : सर्वे क्षयान्ता निचयाः पतनान्ताः समुच्छ्रयाः | सम्योगा विप्रयोगान्ता मरणान्तं हि जीवितम् |1,22| All that is acquired will be lost What rises will fall Where there is meeting there will be separation What is born will surely die. Shantideva , in the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra 'Bodhisattva's Way of Life' reflects at length: कृताकृतापरीक्षोऽयं मृत्युर्विश्रम्भघातकः। स्वस्थास्वस्थैरविश्वास्य आकमिस्मकमहाशनि:॥ २/३४॥ अप्रिया न भविष्यन्ति प्रियो मे न भविष्यति। अहं च न भविष्यामि सर्वं च न भविष्यति॥ २/३७॥ तत्तत्स्मरणताम याति यद्यद्वस्त्वनुभयते। स्वप्नानुभूतवत्सर्वं गतं न पूनरीक्ष्यते॥ २/३६॥ रात्रिन्दिवमविश्राममायुषो वर्धते व्ययः। आयस्य चागमो नास्ति न मरिष्यामि किं न्वहम्॥ २/४० यमदूतैर्गृहीतस्य कुतो बन्धुः कुतः सुह्रत्। पुण्यमेकं तदा त्राणं मया तच्च न सेवितम्॥ २/४१॥ Death does not differentiate between tasks done and undone. This traitor
1372-437: The celebrated automaton clocks from Augsburg , Germany, had Death striking the hour. Private people carried smaller reminders of their own mortality. Mary, Queen of Scots owned a large watch carved in the form of a silver skull, embellished with the lines of Horace , "Pale death knocks with the same tempo upon the huts of the poor and the towers of Kings." In the late 16th and through the 17th century, memento mori jewelry
1421-412: The conflagration of Death The bewildered, seeking refuge in worldly existence Spin round and round, like bees trapped in a jar. The three worlds are fleeting like autumn clouds. Like a staged performance, beings come and go. In tumultuous waves, rushing by, like rapids over a cliff. Like lightning, wanderers in samsara burst into existence, and are gone in a flash. A very well known verse in
1470-614: The death of Socrates is recounted, introduces the idea that the proper practice of philosophy is "about nothing else but dying and being dead". The Stoics of classical antiquity were particularly prominent in their use of this discipline, and Seneca 's letters are full of injunctions to meditate on death. The Stoic Epictetus told his students that when kissing their child, brother, or friend, they should remind themselves that they are mortal, curbing their pleasure, as do "those who stand behind men in their triumphs and remind them that they are mortal". The Stoic Marcus Aurelius invited
1519-575: The genre of requiem and funeral music, there is also a rich tradition of memento mori in the Early Music of Europe. Especially those facing the ever-present death during the recurring bubonic plague pandemics from the 1340s onward tried to toughen themselves by anticipating the inevitable in chants , from the simple Geisslerlieder of the Flagellant movement to the more refined cloistral or courtly songs. The lyrics often looked at life as
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1568-697: The impermanence of human endeavours and of the decay that is inevitable with the passage of time. See also the themes associated with the image of the skull . The 2007 screenprint by the street-artist Banksy "Grin Reaper" features the Grim Reaper with acid-house smiley face sitting on a clock demonstrating death awaiting us all. Memento mori is also an important literary theme. Well-known literary meditations on death in English prose include Sir Thomas Browne 's Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and Jeremy Taylor 's Holy Living and Holy Dying . These works were part of
1617-587: The lifespan of human beings is compared to the short lifespan of grass: "The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass " ( Is. 40:7 ). The expression memento mori developed with the growth of Christianity, which emphasized Heaven , Hell , Hades and salvation of the soul in the afterlife . The thought was then utilized in Christianity, whose strong emphasis on divine judgment , heaven , hell , and
1666-418: The most sightly way of dying, and putting one's mind firmly in death. Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done. In the annual appreciation of cherry blossom and fall colors, hanami and momijigari , it was philosophized that things are most splendid at the moment before their fall, and to aim to live and die in
1715-452: The most striking to contemporary minds is the transi or cadaver tomb , a tomb that depicts the decayed corpse of the deceased. This became a fashion in the tombs of the wealthy in the fifteenth century, and surviving examples still offer a stark reminder of the vanity of earthly riches. Later, Puritan tomb stones in the colonial United States frequently depicted winged skulls, skeletons, or angels snuffing out candles. These are among
1764-672: The numerous themes associated with skull imagery . Another example of memento mori is provided by the chapels of bones, such as the Capela dos Ossos in Évora or the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. These are chapels where the walls are totally or partially covered by human remains, mostly bones. The entrance to the Capela dos Ossos has the following sentence: "We bones, lying here bare, await yours." Timepieces have been used to illustrate that
1813-467: The prospect of the afterlife. A Biblical injunction often associated with the memento mori in this context is In omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in aeternum non peccabis (the Vulgate 's Latin rendering of Ecclesiasticus 7:40 , "in all thy works be mindful of thy last end and thou wilt never sin.") This finds ritual expression in the rites of Ash Wednesday , when ashes are placed upon
1862-603: The reader (himself) to "consider how ephemeral and mean all mortal things are" in his Meditations . In some accounts of the Roman triumph , a companion or public slave would stand behind or near the triumphant general during the procession and remind him from time to time of his own mortality or prompt him to "look behind". A version of this warning is often rendered into English as "Remember, Caesar , thou art mortal", for example in Fahrenheit 451 . Several passages in
1911-399: The time of the living on Earth grows shorter with each passing minute. Public clocks would be decorated with mottos such as ultima forsan ("perhaps the last" [hour]) or vulnerant omnes, ultima necat ("they all wound, and the last kills"). Clocks have carried the motto tempus fugit , "time flees". Old striking clocks often sported automata who would appear and strike the hour; some of
1960-407: The unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death, and on the uncertainty of your own situation. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind... The appearances of this life, including your surroundings and friends, are like last night's dream, and this life passes more swiftly than a flash of lightning in the sky. There is no end to this meaningless work. What
2009-650: The village and a footbridge in the centre. At the western end of the village the River Aln meets Callaly Burn and there is a double ford at the confluence with two footbridges alongside. The village no longer has shops or a pub. The nearest shops are in Glanton (a post office) and at Powburn . There is a pub in Glanton. Two Roman roads passed close to the village – to the east is the Devil's Causeway and south of
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2058-405: The village is the road from High Rochester . These met at Learchild fort about 2 km east of the village. The village has a primary school - Whittingham Church of England First School - with around 100 pupils (6 January 2019). The parish church is dedicated to St Bartholomew , shown in a stained-glass window. There is Anglo-Saxon stonework in the tower that dates from around 900 AD, but
2107-403: The west of the village near the church and used by the clergy. It was listed in a survey in 1541. It was either incorporated into the vicarage or dismantled when the current vicarage was built. The second pele tower was destroyed during the rebellion of Gilbert de Middleton in 1371. By 1415 it had been replaced and was owned by WillIam Heron. In 1541 it was owned by Robert Collingwood. The tower
2156-455: The worshipers' heads with the words, "Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust, you shall return." Memento mori has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife. The most obvious places to look for memento mori meditations are in funeral art and architecture . Perhaps
2205-532: Was also famously expressed in the works of the Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada , in which people from various walks of life are depicted as skeletons. Another manifestation of memento mori is found in the Mexican "Calavera", a literary composition in verse form normally written in honour of a person who is still alive, but written as if that person were dead. These compositions have a comedic tone and are often offered from one friend to another during Day of
2254-463: Was converted into almshouses in 1845 and is now in private ownership. The village name is thought to derive from Anglo-Saxon times, meaning 'the meeting place of Hwita's people'. The double ford at the west of the village has led some historians to suggest this is the location of 'Twyford' mentioned in the writings of the Venerable Bede. There were two pele towers in the village. One to
2303-493: Was in 'good reparation'. High Sheriff of Northumberland 1544: Sir John Collingwood of Eslington Hall and 1551: Sir Robert Collingwood of Eslington Hall (son of Sir John, HS 1544) George Collingwood was attainted for his treasonable part in the Jacobite rising of 1715 . His estate at Eslington was sequestered and sold by the Crown to George Liddell , great uncle of Thomas Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth . Liddell built
2352-728: Was popular. Items included mourning rings , pendants , lockets , and brooches . These pieces depicted tiny motifs of skulls, bones, and coffins, in addition to messages and names of the departed, picked out in precious metals and enamel . During the same period there emerged the artistic genre known as vanitas , Latin for "emptiness" or "vanity". Especially popular in Holland and then spreading to other European nations , vanitas paintings typically represented assemblages of numerous symbolic objects such as human skulls, guttering candles, wilting flowers, soap bubbles, butterflies, and hourglasses. In combination, vanitas assemblies conveyed
2401-524: Was restored and modernised in 1845 to serve as an almshouse for the poor of the Ravensworth 's estate. Whittingham is in the parliamentary constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed . The village sits in the valley of the River Aln ; characterised by gentle rolling hills and fertile soils this area is frequently referred to as the Vale of Whittingham. There are road bridges over the river at either end of
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