Before bullying political correctness did its best to blow good language off the map, ‘Native Americans’ meant “Redskins”, “Red Indians”, occasionally (especially in Westerns) “them varmints!”, “the red man”, “Indians!”, “Take cover behind the wagons, “‘tis them savages agin!” etc. etc. (more…)
Classic example: Madresfield, Malvern, Worcs. / flickr.com
An eager traveller can find a multitude of manor houses still standing in England. Most are occupied by families, many by the same family that has owned the house for centuries, and which has passed by the law of promogeniture down the male line. (more…)
“Presque tous les hommes meurent de leurs remèdes et non de leurs maladies” (Molière)
Here is English authoress Nancy Mitford on seventeenth century French doctors: (more…)
Crecy / historywarsweapons.com
The two armed conflicts took place respectively in 1346 and 1356. Ten years separate them, though were similar in tactics and spirit. Both were part of King Edward III of England’s ambition to rule France through military might and expertise. Students of history might remember that Edward was the son of a weak father whose grip on the throne was made even weaker by his mother’s affaires, notably the longest (with Roger Mortimer) which ultimately led to the dethroning and murder of Edward II. His son became king in his teens, and promptly showed his determination and courage, aided by an indefatigable spirit, by arranging for the execution of Mortimer, and shutting his mother up in a friendless prison. The fourteenth century was not a good time to live unless you faced whatever life you had with fortitude. (more…)
Gowrie House, near Perth / cottage.perth.blogspot.com
Breaking News: August 1600
(News agency reports)
“Astonishing news is coming in from the city of Perth. The reports are confused, and confusing, but it appears that the young Earl of Gowrie, who has only recently returned from studying in Padua, had invited King James VI of Scotland to his home, Gowrie House. Most reports coincide in their opinion that the invitation to the young King actually came from Alexander, the Master of Ruthven (a Scottish title referring to younger sons of Earls), at the suggestion of his ambitious older brother. (more…)
I owe this to Simon Raven. In one of his works he speaks of the legend of Cape Tainarus in Greece. There is a dreaded cave there, dreaded because the dead emerge from this cave on the last night of every thousand years. They fly off across the many-sounding sea to Cytherea (an island of Aphrodite the Goddess of Love, now called Kithira). Here they are given the singular gift of real bodies, with which they can make love to whomever they choose for the single hour between 11 pm and midnight.
After the witching hour strikes, they revert merely to being shadows and are bound to return to their accustomed abode (grave, tomb, mausoleum etc.) as the last stroke of twelve brings in The New Year, the New Century and the new Millennium.
Now it seems that the first time this rare anniversary happened in the Christian Era was the year 1000 A.D. There were Christians in Cytherea who knew of this legend from their pagan records. They were naturally worried lest they be seduced or raped by these ghosts with only too human bodies. Aphrodite forgotten and the Church authorities now dominant, they locked their doors and barred themselves into their house, blocking all cracks in the boards with quick-drying clay.
The new Bishop of Cytherea remained outside all night armed with Cross and crozier so as to exorcise any randy spirit that might appear before they changed from larval to carnal and thus be capable of lustful outrage. Came the morn, and the brave bishop reported that no naughty reventants had turned up! It was thankfully assumed that Goddess Aphrodite had lost her powers since Christianity had triumphed. There would not be any infernal, amorous invaders, and in any case none were due to come for another thousand years.
On the following New Year’s Eve, the people carried on with their usual binge excesses, dancing in the streets, stuffing themselves with rich foods, only to be caught unawares and seriously molested by swarms of over-sexed cadavers, who managed to ‘have relations’ as the better class of newspapers say, with almost every human being on the island between 11 p.m. and midnight! What had happened? Why was this terrific orgy a year late?
What had gone wrong was that the Cythereans had made the silly mistake of thinking that the new millennium started, and the old ended at the beginning of 1000. Now we know that they only start and end with the arrival of 1001, when the year 1000, last of the old millennium is waved goodbye. So the Cythereans had shut themselves up to no purpose a year early, and were wandering about unprepared when the crunch came.
Now what was to be done about the women and girls who had been impregnated by the visitors? Or about the babies they would bear nine months later? It seems the dead could not be bothered with condoms. The older people had behaved without decorum too. They had not had any sexual entertainment for years, and had been accosted equally by the over-sexed spirits, who in any case had not enough time to discriminate. The venerables greatly enjoyed the discovery that they were up to it after all. Worse, they wouldn’t leave their far more appetising juniors alone – the spirits were hard put to fend the ancients off!
One wonders if the inhabitants of Cytherea made the same mistake at the onset of the years 2000 and 2001? They may have got their dates right twelve years ago, though, or maybe their intelligent authorities preferred to get it wrong accidentally on purpose. After all, such a divertissement could become an every- thousand-year tourist attraction.
Lord Palmerston / yalebooks.wordpress.com
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston was born in 1784. George Canning was born in 1770. Neither man saw much point in the other, and the difference of fourteen years in their age did not prevent them from internecine conflict. (more…)
Victoria, the ‘grandmother of Europe’ / britroyals.com
Nearly all the royal families in Europe – those remaining – are related to each other. This is not a coincidence, and it is worth considering, as many countries formerly loyal to the reigning family have either become republican, or having second or third thoughts about the monarchy. It is perfectly possible that our grandchildren will only read about kings, queens, their consorts and their often troublesome children in a book or on a plasma screen. (more…)
Wilhelm II / telegraph.co.uk
Prussia as a separate State merged, with many other Germanic kingdoms, grand dukedoms and principalities into a united Germany. But Prussia had a great deal of history beforehand. Just one example – if Prussia in the form of Marshall Blucher and his Prussian troops (qv.) had not arrived in the nick of time in 1815, the Battle of Waterloo might well have been won by Napoleon Bonaparte (qv.) and the whole history of Europe after the battle would have been radically different. (more…)
Richard Wagner / javeriana.edu.co
Professional music critics tend to bicker over the greatness or otherwise of these two composers, born as almost exact contempories, within months of each other in 1813. Wagner was of course German, wrote opera principally, keeping wary of symphonies and concerti, though God knows what masterpiece he might have written if he had steered away from the human voice. (more…)