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} Well, that is fairly simple. They were in Spain, in particular in what
} was known at the time as Iberia Inferior or in Arabic (since the Moors
} got as far as, ohh, quite a long way but never quite hacked the Pair
} of Knees Mountains, what with Hannibal and his Elephants coming in -
} he should have taken a shortcut across an alp but anyway. Would you
} like me to do it for you in Catalan or are you going to go with
} English?
}
} The Invisigoths, a strange breed of goths from, well, who knows, as
} they are by defiition invisible, invaded the major inland of the
} Iberian peninsula in about 1750. Having then got as far as Gibraltar
} and strait across to Morocco, they flooded North Africa with their
} invisible gothishness. Leaving churches in the, er, gothic style all
} across the southern mediterannean plain, and venturing as far as
} England, where they built various triumphal arches including Marble
} Arch, which used to be in Surrey. Built in the triumphal style by
} Nash, who also did er something to do with the Houses of Parliament
} together with Augustus Pugin, in a romanesque style this invisigoth
} built the invisible arch, which was modelled after the Arc de Triomphe
} (French: "We lost as usual") in somewhere near Sevres, I forget, some
} little place not far from Dunkirk or Dunquerque. The Eiffel Tower was
} built by a chap named... no hang on I am drifting... who built the
} Eiffel Tower? Some chap Eiffel I think. Anyway Marble Arch is not
} actually made of marble but of westmorland stone from Portland and
} Plymouth, and used to be in Surrey, but they moved it to, er, Marble
} Arch. You could if you wanted try to play marbles through it but you
} would need very big marbles.
}
} Coming back to Spain, the alhambra in Grenada, Andalucia is well worth
} a look. Christopher Columbus had a quick shuftie around there on his
} way not to discover America by completely missing the boat. A
} beautiful mosque made of red sandstone, this proud mosque and chapel
} is governed by the Emirate of Grenada.
}
} Coming back to the fortesque, no grotesque, no where were we, oh yes
} John Nash, no hang on that is a different one he did the silent "4
} minutes and 17 seconds" not to be confused with John Nash the
} mathematician, nor indeed Ogden Nash, whose poetry is trash. I mean
} John Nash the british architect, who together with Pugin did quite a
} lot of fiddly bits in London. Having built Marble Arch he went on to
} design the Lutyens Lions in trafalgar square, no hang on, that was
} done by some other chap called, er, Lutyens. Crazy name crazy guy.
} Nash designed Buck House in about 1823, but forgot to put the flagpole
} on top, anyway the flag is always that of the sovereign not of the
} united kingdom, and it is well-known that she tends to leave it up
} even if she is not present, to fool the burglars.
}
} That is about all you need to know about Nash architecture in London.
} Oh, he also designed Regent Street.
}
} You owe the Oracle a monopoly board.
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