Geoffrey of Monmouth was a British cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle The History of the Kings of Britain, popular in its day, being translated into other languages from its original Latin, it was given historical credence well into the 16th century, but is now considered unreliable. Geoffrey was born in Wales or the Welsh Marches, he had reached the age of majority by 1129. Geoffrey refers to himself in his Historia as Galfridus Monemutensis, which indicates a significant connection to Monmouth and may refer to his birthplace, his works attest to some acquaintance with the place-names of the region. Geoffrey was known to his contemporaries as variants thereof; the "Arthur" in these versions of his name may indicate the name of his father or a nickname based on his scholarly interests. Earlier scholars assumed, his knowledge of this language appears to have been slight and there is no evidence that he was of either Welsh or Cambro-Norman descent.

He may have come from the same French-speaking elite of the Welsh border country as Gerald of Wales, Walter Map, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, to whom Geoffrey dedicated versions of his History. Frank Merry Stenton and others have suggested that Geoffrey's parents may have been among the many Bretons who took part in William I's conquest and settled in the southeast of Wales. Monmouth had been in the hands of Breton lords since 1075 or 1086, the names Galfridus and Arthur were more common among the Bretons than the Welsh, he may have served for a while in the Benedictine Monmouth Priory, but most of his adult life appears to have been spent outside Wales. Between 1129 and 1151, his name appears on six charters in the Oxford area, sometimes styled magister, he was a secular canon of St. George's college. All the charters signed by Geoffrey are signed by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, a canon at that church. Another frequent co-signatory is Ralph of a canon of Lincoln. Archbishop Theobald of Bec consecrated Geoffrey as Bishop of St Asaph at Lambeth on 24 February 1152, having ordained him a priest at Westminster 10 days before.

According to Lewis Thorpe, "There is no evidence that he visited his see, indeed the wars of Owain Gwynedd make this most unlikely." He appears to have died between 25 December 1154 and 24 December 1155 according to Welsh chronicles, when his successor took office. Geoffrey's structuring and shaping of the Merlin and Arthur myths engendered their vast popularity which continues today, he is viewed by scholars as the major establisher of the Arthurian canon; the History's effect on the legend of King Arthur was so vast that Arthurian works have been categorised as "pre-Galfridian" and "post-Galfridian", depending on whether or not they were influenced by him. Geoffrey wrote several works in Latin, the language of learning and literature in Europe during the medieval period, his major work was the work best known to modern readers. It relates the purported history of Britain, from its first settlement by Brutus of Troy, a descendant of Trojan hero Aeneas, to the death of Cadwaladr in the 7th century, covering Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain, Kings Leir and Cymbeline, one of the earliest developed narratives of King Arthur.

Geoffrey claims in his dedication that the book is a translation of an "ancient book in the British language that told in orderly fashion the deeds of all the kings of Britain", given to him by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, but modern historians have dismissed this claim. It is however, that the Archdeacon did furnish Geoffrey with some materials in the Welsh language which helped inspire his work, as Geoffrey's position and acquaintance with him would not have permitted him to fabricate such a claim outright. Much of it is based on the Historia Britonum, a 9th-century Welsh-Latin historical compilation, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Gildas's 6th-century polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, expanded with material from bardic oral tradition and genealogical tracts, embellished by Geoffrey's own imagination. In an exchange of manuscript material for their own histories, Robert of Torigny gave Henry of Huntingdon a copy of History, which both Robert and Henry used uncritically as authentic history and subsequently used in their own works, by which means some of Geoffrey's fictions became embedded in popular history.

The History of the Kings of Britain is now considered a literary work of national myth containing little reliable history. This has since led many modern scholars to agree with William of Newburgh, who wrote around 1190 that "it is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from Vortigern onwards, was made up by himself and by others."Other contemporaries were unconvinced by Geoffrey's History. For example, Giraldus Cambrensis recounts the experience of a man possessed by demons: "If the evil spirits oppressed him too much, the Gospel of St John was placed on his bosom, like birds, they vanished.

Lord Cathcart was launched at Hull in 1807. She was a West Indiaman that made one voyage to India before she foundered in 1820 after striking a rock at Pelagosa Island in the Adriatic Sea. Lord Cathcart entered Lloyd's Register in 1808 with J. Lane, Foster & Co. owner, trade Hull–Jamaica. The Register of Shipping reports the following information: Lord Cathcart was sailing from Fiume to England when she sank within 15 minutes after striking a rock 5 nautical miles east north east of Pelagosa Island, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, on 12 January 1820 in the Adriatic Sea, north of Gargano. Captain J. Ferrand, the carpenter, three seamen drowned; the Chief Officer and eleven of the crew reached Manfredonia after nights in her boats. Citations References Hackman, Rowan. Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-96-7

Larkspur station is a Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit station in Larkspur, California. The terminal station opened to revenue service on December 14, 2019, it is located across Sir Francis Drake Blvd 1⁄3 mile from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. The rail right-of-way was established by the North Pacific Coast Railroad, a nearby stop called Greenbrae was served by Northwestern Pacific Railroad interurban cars between 1903 and 1941; the land for the station was acquired in 1983 by the Golden Gate Bridge and Transportation District. Part of the original plan for system's full buildout, its opening was delayed to a date as the line's construction was split into phases; until the line was extended, shuttle bus service connected the Larkspur Terminal with San Rafael Transit Center. Test trains on the extension began running on August 23, 2019. A preview excursion served as the station's inauguration on December 13, 2019, revenue service began the following day. Media related to Larkspur station at Wikimedia Commons SMART - Larkspur station