Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer from the region of Asturias, remembered for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys and for founding St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565; this was the first successful Spanish settlement in La Florida and the most significant city in the region for nearly three centuries. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously-inhabited, European-established settlement in the continental United States. Menéndez de Avilés was the first governor of Florida. Menéndez had made his career in the service of the king, Philip II of Spain, his initial plans for a voyage to Florida revolved around searching for his son, shipwrecked there in 1561. He could not find his son and he was assumed dead. Following the founding of Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville by French Huguenots under René Goulaine de Laudonnière, he was commissioned to conquer the peninsula as Adelantado, he established Saint Augustine, or San Agustín, in 1565. His position as governor now secure, Menéndez built additional fortifications.

He was appointed governor of Cuba, in October of that year. He voyaged to La Florida for the last time in 1571, with 650 settlers for Santa Elena, as well as his wife and family. Menéndez died of typhus at Santander, Spain, in 1574. In 1560, Pedro Menéndez commanded the galleons of the great Armada de la Carrera, or Spanish Treasure Fleet, on their voyage from the Caribbean and Mexico to Spain, he was appointed by King Philip II of Spain, who chose him as Captain General, his brother Bartolomé Menéndez as Admiral, of the Fleet of the Indies. When he had delivered the treasure fleet to Spain, he asked permission to go back in search of one lost vessel which had contained his son, other relatives, friends, but the crown refused his request. In 1565, the Spanish decided to destroy the French outpost of Fort Caroline, located in what is now Jacksonville; the crown approached Menéndez to fit out an expedition to Florida on the condition that he explore and settle the region as King Philip's adelantado, eliminate the Huguenot French, whom the Catholic Spanish considered to be dangerous heretics.

Menéndez was in a race to reach Florida before the French captain Jean Ribault, on a mission to secure Fort Caroline. The two fleets met in a brief skirmish off the coast. On 28 August 1565, the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo, Menéndez's crew sighted land, they landed shortly. The settlement was founded in the former Timucua village of Seloy; the location of the settlement was chosen for its defensibility and proximity to a fresh water artesian spring. To this day, the locals of St. Augustine claim that it was here that Menéndez held the first Catholic mass in what is now the continental United States. A French attack on St. Augustine was thwarted by a violent squall that ravaged the French naval forces. Taking advantage of this, Menéndez marched his troops overland to Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River, about 30 miles north; the Spanish overwhelmed the defended French garrison, left with only a skeleton crew of 20 soldiers and about 100 others, killing most of the men and sparing about 60 women and children.

The bodies of the victims were hung in trees with the inscription: "Hanged, not as Frenchmen, but as "Lutherans"." Menéndez renamed the fort San Mateo and marched back to St. Augustine, where he discovered that the shipwrecked survivors from the French ships had come ashore to the south of the settlement. A Spanish patrol encountered the remnants of the French force, took them prisoner. Menéndez accepted their surrender, but executed all of them except a few professing Catholics and some Protestant workers with useful skills, at what is now known as Matanzas Inlet; the site is near the national monument Fort Matanzas, built in 1740-1742 by the Spanish. Menéndez is credited as the Spanish leader who first surveyed and authorized the building of the royal fortresses at major Caribbean ports, he was appointed Captain-General of the Spanish treasure fleet in 1554, when he sailed out with the Indies fleet and brought it back safely to Spain. This experience assured him of the strategic importance of the Bahama Channel and the position of Havana as the key port to rendezvous the annual Flota of treasure galleons.

In his capacity as adelantado and the private instrument of his sovereign's will, he was required to implement the royal policies of fortification for the defense of conquered territories in La Florida and the establishment of Castilian governmental institutions in desirable areas. Menéndez' military experience served him well when he led a successful overland expedition from St. Augustine to surprise and destroy the French garrison at Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River. On 20 September 1565, a hundred and thirty-two Frenchmen were massacred within the fort. Menéndez left a Spanish garrison at the captured fort, now renamed San Mateo. Menéndez pursued Jean Ribault, who had left with four ships to attack the Spanish at St. Augustine. A storm wrecked three of the French ships near what is now the Ponce de León inlet and the flagship was grounded near Cape Canaveral; the survivors made their way up the coast to

Jackson Bridge is a small village in the civil parish of Holme Valley in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire and within the postal district of Holmfirth. It is situated next to the A616, Huddersfield to road. Jackson Bridge is the location for the pub which Clegg's is situated behind in the BBC's long-running comedy Last of the Summer Wine, it is located close to the edge of the Peak District National Park. Dobroyd Mills, which dominates the village, was once a major contributor to the West Yorkshire textile industry, producing fine worsted cloth for export; the mill now houses a fine yarn spinners, John Woodheads Ltd, plus other small businesses such as computer services and facilities, sheet metal works and motor vehicle services. Most of the surrounding countryside is given over to agriculture milk cattle and sheep. Ordnance Survey Map

Songs and Dances of Death is a song cycle for voice and piano by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, written in the mid-1870s, to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a relative of the composer. Each song deals with death in a poetic manner although the depictions are realistic in that they reflect experiences not uncommon in 19th century Russia: child death, death in youth, drunken misadventure and war; the song cycle is considered Mussorgsky's masterpiece in the genre. Songs and Dances of Death consists of four individual songs, as follows: 1. Lullaby A mother cradles her sick infant. Death appears, disguised as a babysitter, rocks the infant to eternal sleep.2. Serenade The figure of Death waits outside the window of a dying woman, in the manner of a wooing lover.3. Trepak A drunken peasant stumbles outside into the snow and becomes caught in a blizzard; the figure of Death invites him to dance a folk-dance called the Trepak. As he freezes to death, he dreams of summer fields and doves.4. The Field Marshal The figure of Death is depicted as an officer marshaling, illuminated by the moon, the dead troops of both armies after a dreadful and bloody battle.

He tells them: in life you were enemies but now you are comrades, because you're all dead, I am your commanding officer. He assures them that although the living will forget about them, he will remember them, will harden the earth above them so that they cannot be resurrected; the Songs and Dances of Death have been recorded by numerous vocalists, including Vladimir Rosing, George London, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Boris Christoff, Kim Borg, Martti Talvela, Matti Salminen, Anatoly Kotcherga, Paata Burchuladze, Aage Haugland, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ewa Podles, Galina Vishnevskaya, Brigitte Fassbaender, Anja Silja and Yevgeny Nesterenko. 1882, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovThe songs were first orchestrated by Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov shortly after Mussorgsky's death. They were published in 1882. Mussorgsky never realised the ambition. In the Glazunov/Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration,'Trepak' is first.1962, Dmitri ShostakovichShostakovich orchestrated the whole cycle for the dedicatee, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.

Seven years noting that he wanted to continue Mussorgsky's "too short" set of songs, he wrote his Fourteenth Symphony for soprano and chamber orchestra, adding to the musical gallery of death's appearances. The Shostakovich orchestration had a substantial influence on many of his works, has since been adapted for bass and baritone voices.1983, Edison Denisov, recorded by Yevgeny Nesterenko in 1985 1984, Kalevi Aho 1994, Ramon Lazkano 2007, Aleksandr Raskatov 2012, Peter Breiner in a version for orchestra only, recorded by him and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on Naxos. Original libretto as well as Cyrillic option, English/French translation found here Songs and Dances of Death: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project