John Miller painting - St Michael's Mount - 18May10

Long before that event, no sight of the Royal Yacht either .... too many ships and costumes much earlier ... and what was all the smoke about? Was this an Armada signal? The Armada passed out beyond The Lizard, I have an etching somewhere.

I'd put some cream on that etching before it spreads .....

Much more of a problem with an inflamed bursa and ulnar nerve at the moment ... pain is indescribable ...

Ouch. Sorry to hear that treeve. Treatable - or is it a case of grin and bear it until it gets better?

So am I very sorry for you, treeve. It's a miserable state to feel yourself in. I really hope your pain clears soon!

Thankyou . It is the last stage (I hope) of the recent outbreak of inflammation on my synovial system. I have taken some diclofenac for the parasthesia and evening primrose oil (nature's natural anti inflammatory), but for now it is a matter of ensuring the inflammation stays where it is, or it spreads through the blood, setting up a whole new battlefield.

Well, I certainly hope not! I shall send up a humble prayer on your behalf, seriously! Anyway, I'm off to bed now so goodnight!

Thankyou ... thinking about this picture, I am surprised that it is hung here without some title or narrative. I would place the scene in the time of the Spanish Armada. I believe that one of the first beacons lit was on St Michael's Mount, I will check on the sequence. The Armada was discovered to be approaching by a local trades vessel crossing their course, and he returned to Penzance, rather in a hurry, chased by small Spanish vessels.

John Richard Hale, has researched the Armada Papers, and others ... he tells us ...
Medina Sidona records that on the morning of Saturday 30th June the Armada being near land, 'so we were seen therefrom, whereupon they made fire and smokes'. There was no consideration of a watch or signal at The Scillies, Land's End or The Lizard. The scouting was confined to a pinnace on a roving commission in The Bay of Biscay. It was later reported that twenty of the Spanish vessels had been beaten around The Scillies for a time, in the squally seas of midsummer. News of the Spanish reached Walsingham of the main Armada sighted on the 19th July, but the report only reached its intended recipient on the 23rd July. Sir Francis Godolphin wrote on the 20th of a St Mawes barque bound for France and returned as soon as was possible, having met with 'nine sail of great ships between Scilly and Ushant' .... It was not until the 30th July, in Plymouth that any serious regard was taken for news, given by a Cornish vessel was chased by a fleet, having been fired upon; the ship was owned by Simmons of Exeter, who reported direct to Lord Howard. There were ships heading out from the English Fleet, some off The Scillies and others in Mount's Bay, Lord Howard had set sail from Plymouth on the 23rd. Encountering the same bad weather. Francis Drake was of the assessment that the Armada had been driven back by bad weather. Raleigh was directed to organize the land defence of the western shires. Throughout England, from Cornwall to the Scottish border, fagots and firewood had been piled on every headland and hilltop, and these were to be fired on the appearance of the enemy, so as to send the alarm through the kingdom by a chain of flaming beacons. However, there is no evidence given for a beacon West of Falmouth. It was then 19th July 1588, and the Golden Hind, a pinnace, commanded by Thomas Fleming, that ran to Plymouth with the news of The Spanish Armada being sighted off The Lizard.
So, what with the weather and the confusion, just what date this painting is supposed to represent, with no official record of a beacon being lit or seen to be transferred, I am not at all sure. I do have other references, which I will check ...