Thaxted

Coordinates: 51°57′16″N 0°20′46″E / 51.9544°N 0.3461°E / 51.9544; 0.3461

Thaxted is a town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England.

History

Thaxted appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Tachesteda", Old English for 'place where thatch was got.' Once a centre of cutlery manufacture, Thaxted went into decline with the rise of Sheffield as a major industrial centre. A light railway, the Elsenham & Thaxted Light Railway, eventually opened in 1913, though the railway itself never reached nearer than three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) from the town, as building earthworks across the River Chelmer proved too costly. With the growth of road transport, the line was closed to passengers in 1952 and closed altogether in 1953. The name of Cutler's Green, a small hamlet about a mile to the west of Thaxted, recalls the trade that yielded the area's early wealth. To the West of Cutler's Green is an area named 'Richmond's in the Wood'.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 3,512.

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed a large number of other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss being most crucial early in his development. The subsequent inspiration of the English folksong revival of the early 20th century, and the example of such rising modern composers as Maurice Ravel, led Holst to develop and refine an individual style.

I Vow to Thee, My Country

"I Vow to Thee, My Country" is a British patriotic song, created in 1921, when a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice was set to music by Gustav Holst.

History

The origin of the lyric is a poem by diplomat Cecil Spring Rice, which he wrote in 1908 while posted to the British Embassy in Stockholm. Then called Urbs Dei (The City of God) or The Two Fatherlands, the poem described how a Christian owes his loyalties to both his homeland and the heavenly kingdom. The lyrics were in part based upon the motto of the Spring family, from whom Spring Rice was descended. The first verse, as originally composed, had an overtly patriotic stance, which typified its pre-World War I era.

In 1912, Spring Rice was appointed as Ambassador to the United States of America, where he influenced the administration of Woodrow Wilson to abandon neutrality and join Britain in the war against Germany. After the United States entered the war, he was recalled to Britain. Shortly before his departure from the US in January 1918, he re-wrote and renamed Urbs Dei, significantly altering the first verse to concentrate on the huge losses suffered by British soldiers during the intervening years. According to Sir Cecil's granddaughter, the three verses were never intended to appear together. The original poem consisted of verses 2 and 3, the amended poem of verses 1 and 3.

Lenoir–Rhyne University

Lenoir–Rhyne University is a co-educational, private liberal arts university founded in 1891 and located in Hickory, North Carolina, USA. The university is affiliated with the North Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In 2013, additional campuses were added. A graduate school in downtown Asheville, NC and the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, SC bring the total student population in all 3 campuses to 3,000 and faculty to 300.

In 2014-15, Lenoir–Rhyne enrolled approximately 2,283 students of whom 1,581 were undergraduate with a gender distribution of 35.6 percent male students and 64.4 percent female students. 44 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 56 percent of students live off campus. Lenoir–Rhyne University participates in Division II NCAA athletics.

Students and faculty

Lenoir–Rhyne University enrolls approximately 2,280 students (2014–15) of which over 700 are graduate students and of which approximately 14% of whom are minorities. 76% of faculty hold doctoral degrees.