Vivian Poem by Walter Vivian

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Poem by Walter Vivian

CURSE OF THE VIVIANS

I would have you know

that in these jeans

are genes of ancient honourable lineage

which caught my name

from a lively French bishop of Saintes

martyred by Visigoths in the fifth century

and simmered gently through centuries

biding time and gaining vigour

from sunny French vintage

until William of Normandy called for

a joint stock venture of Gallic mercenaries

to sack the Saxons

some of my ancestors stayed to wander Europe

but my line took to Cornwall

thriving under royal favour

captaining castles to harry the countryside

for castle captains were men of power

able to exact toll of treasure and pleasure,

and gaining benefices in church, army and state

seats in parliament and knighthoods

baronetcies and peerages

they were miners and farmers and leading lights

and 'tis said, some

were not averse to setting misleading lights

but on mankind we brought the greatest curse

a scourge that tops the list

for dear cousin Andrew worked with Trevethick

and in London, in 1803

was the world's first urban motorist!

Walter Vivian Sappho's Delight, PixelPress 1999 http://www.iinet.net.au/~pixpress/

http://myweb.westnet.com.au/talltrees/vivian.html

In the Poem:

http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06280

The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world The Life of *Vivianus/Bibianus (bishop of Saintes, mid-5th c., S01282) is written in Latin in Gaul, probably in the 6th c. The Life mentions a visit by Vivianus to the shrine at Toulouse of *Saturninus (bishop and martyr of Toulouse, S00289), and installing relics sent from Rome in a church that he founded at Saintes.

Vivianus/Bibianus, mid-5th c. bishop of Saintes Saint ID S01282 Number in BH BHL 1324-1330 Reported Death Not Before 450 Reported Death Not After 500 Gender Male Type of Saint Bishops Related Evidence Records ID Title E02448 Gregory of Tours writes the Glory of the Confessors, in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 587/588. Overview entry. E02670 Gregory of Tours, in his Glory of the Confessors (57), tells of the tomb of *Vivianus/Bibianus (bishop of Saintes, mid-5th c., S01282) in Saintes (western Gaul), and of a written Life; the sick are cured at his grave. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 587/588. E05555 Venantius Fortunatus writes eleven books of Poems in Latin, mainly in western and north-western Gaul, 565/600; many of them with reference to saints. Overview entry. E05633 Venantius Fortunatus, in a poem (1.12) On the basilica of saint *Bibianus (Vivianus/Bibianus, bishop of Saintes, mid-5th c., S01282) in Saintes (south-west Gaul), recounts how Leontius, bishop of Bordeaux, completed the building begun by two bishops of Saintes, and how Leontius' wife, Placidina, embellished the tomb of the saint; all in 530/571. Written in Latin in Gaul, 565/576. E06280 The Life of *Vivianus/Bibianus (bishop of Saintes, mid-5th c., S01282) is written in Latin in Gaul, probably in the 6th c. The Life mentions a visit by Vivianus to the shrine at Toulouse of *Saturninus (bishop and martyr of Toulouse, S00289), and installing relics sent from Rome in a church that he founded at Saintes.

in 1803 Richard Trevithick & Andrew Vivian produced the London Steam Carriage, which really was driven by a steam engine; it was designed and built in Cornwall and fitted with a high-riding carriage body in London; the London Steam Carriage could travel at 10 mph;

https://thenationalcv.org.uk/home/the%20national%20cv%20of%20britain%20-%20technology.html