history http://www.dregston.com/boards/list.php?19 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:43:22 -0600 Phorum 5.2.7 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,32385,32385#msg-32385 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,32385,32385#msg-32385
Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé!
L'étendard sanglant est levé!
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Egorger nos fils et nos compagnes!

Aux armes, citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons! marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!

Admittedly, it's one of the more blood thirsty national anthems (-:

kk]]> Snarkhunter Chronicle Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:49:30 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,31091,31091#msg-31091 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,31091,31091#msg-31091 en.wikipedia.org]

I have mentioned them before, having come across isolated bits since getting into Northamptonshire, but this was different. Every other field showed ridge and furrow all the way to Enderby, where my sister lives, to the South West of Liecester. Even local parkland had it and, rather to may surprise, the point where my blister burst I was next to the cricket pitch that was distinctly corrugated by the boundries!

Next day it changed again almost immediately and I don't think I saw any at all to the North West of Enderby, the land being mostly arable.

The next bit was interesting for quite different reasons as I was hobbling into Liecestershire's old mining and quarrying district, now being regenerated at "The National Forest." I finshed up in Coalville, as the name suggests, a relatively new town.

I had a strange experience in the chip shop there while I was waiting for the bus. The chip shop guy was Asian but seemed to speak good English. I asked for cod and chips and he showed me a fairly small portion of chips and asked me if that was OK. I said yes, a bit puzzled by this and he started wrapping them.
"Hold on," I said, "I wanted cod and chips." He looked at me puzzled and said. "Yes, co...(something) and chips," we seemed to be at an impasse but another customer intervened and told him I wanted cod and chips in an accent he could understand. He said sorry and he thought I had said "a corner of chips." I have no idea what a corner of chips could be and google has not helped.

However, the Coalville dialect is apparantly very distinct. [en.wikipedia.org] So maybe the Asian guy had learned his English there and mine was too outlandish for him to follow.

Mind you, cod is not a very difficult word and it is one that you would expect to come across quite a lot in a fish and chip shop!

Anyway, I got the bus to Swadlincote and there another one to Derby. In South Derbyshire now I enjoyed to ride to new villages and towns, soon becoming more rural and less ex-industrial. After Melbourne (the place I had optimisticaly hoped to walk to) we passed through the small village of Stanton-by-the-Bridge. I had glanced at this on the map before but not thought anything except that it was an unsual name. Lots of places are by bridges in England and and I cannot think of any other examples. Cookham, for example on the Thames is very much a bridge town.


The bridge is over the Trent, which is the next great geographical boundry when I get there by walking. Anyway, the bus rolled out of Stanton and almost immediately onto a causeway. I have honestly never seen anything like it and I am really surprised that I had not heard of this bridge/causeway before. What makes it special is that it goes not only over the Trent (that part is apparantly relatively recent dating from the early 1800s) but across the whole floodplain of the River Trent. It is about 3/4s of a mile long and mostly pretty ancient stonework.

This was once the main crossing point of from North to South apparantly. Again I am surprised I had not realised what a barrier the Trent was. I knew all about Stirling being a pinch point for Highland, Lowland Scottish transport but had never heard of Swarkstone Bridge.

So it was an unexpected delight. And guess what? You can cross it too! [www.swarkestone-derby.co.uk]]]> Spencer Chronicle Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:51:52 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,30558,30558#msg-30558 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,30558,30558#msg-30558
It made the math easier, but I sometimes miss the coins.

When was the last time you used a non-metric currency?]]> Caroline Chronicle Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:13:35 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,30292,30292#msg-30292 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,30292,30292#msg-30292
Anyway, I thought I had done enough threadnapping on Lisa's miserable weather post that I should start a new one.

One of the interesting things to me about the walk is watching how the country unfolds, geographically, geologically, in terms of wildlife, the people etc.

It certainly isn't always pleasant. I try to pick scenic and interesting routes but it is such a long walk that I can't meander too much if I want to complete it in a reasonable time.

This means it is very different to the many, many walks around London I have done over the last ten years or so. Some of the walks I did with the Saturday Walking Club were over 50 miles from town so it is comparable. But those walks are all chosen to avoid urban sprawl, motorways etc as much as possible. I did one on the outskirts of South London a couple of years ago and it was lovely. If you consult the map you can see that it is urban a few hundred yards in either direction but with trees in leaf it feels like deep country.

But this walk is different because I am just cutting across all this stuff. Avoiding the worst looking urban ugliness and busyest roads if practical and trying to go on footpaths and bridlepaths as much as possible. And five days out it is a bit depressing quite how built up, over-crowded and motorway blighted this country is.

Especially the last. I crossed a new bypass being built on the last but one leg. Another great slew of tarmac gobbling up the countryside.[www.flickr.com]

On the last leg, one of the reasons I gave up trying to walk along the river Nene (apart from losing light) was that I was walking parallel to the A45 and there was a constant roar of traffic that took all the pleasure out of a river side walk.

This is no surprise. I knew we sold our souls to the satan of the internal combustion engine many years ago. But I think it is even worse than I thought. I keep crossing these roads. All these people roaring around all the time. It is just madness.

But what I really wanted to post about was how interesting it is from the perspective of that discussion we had about the Agricultural Revolution.

Now I am deep into "planned countryside." I was on the last leg too but the first bit of the midland plain was soon interrupted by the Bedfordshire Greensand... I was going to say hills but I am not sure that they deserve that. But it is different, much more wooded country. And after that I was in what you might call country estate land. Certainly planned countryside with big fields but also parkland and the big fields had a distinctly "home farm" feeling.

On my last leg from Turvey I was almost immediately across the old Buckinghamshire border and then went north just above and parallel to the River Great Ouse on the other side of which was the parkland of Turvey Hall. Classic country house park.

But the bridlepath I was on was in planned country farm land and that was the story for most of the day.

I got a bus from Northampton and was winding my way back there. The bus passed through several villages. I had a lot of trouble finding footpaths to take me back. One of the characteristics of planned countryside is few footpaths and few roads that are mostly fairly straight. But I don't think I have ever walked through country quite like this.

I am nervous of dogs and generally prefer footpaths that don't go through farmyards or right by isolated cottages where people tend to keep dogs and dogs tend to get proprietorial. But these paths were really odd. I walked for miles without coming across any buildings at all.

And the villages I went through, Cold Brayfield, Lavendon, Yardley Hastings etc seemed very similar. They were compact but substantial, all about the same size. Outside them huge fields with straight pure hawthorne hedges (the sign of a recent hedge is that it is all one species [www.flickr.com]. Classic planned, Parliamentary enclosure landscape.

I would guess that the compact villages are built around a nucleus that was there when the villages had three open fields to divide up. The woods are fewish but often quite substantial too. I am not so sure what that means but maybe the remant of each community's wood in pre-enclosure days apart from more modern "spinnys" planted for game by the new big landowners (or the old big landowners in the new order).

This is serious hunting country. Guns were going off all around me all day and I came across a bunch of beaters about to drive through one of the woods. [www.flickr.com]

But the thing I really wanted to say was that the general emptiness of the countryside reminded me of the Highlands. It seemed to me like country that had been cleared. Sure the roaring roads taking people through this section of the country were different. And there are those big villages with people corralled into them which is also un-Highland like. And the countryside itself could hardly be more distinct with its gently rolling huge fields of arable crops. But the almost complete lack of cottages or settlements outside of the villages and a few big farms (none of which looked that old, so I would suspect built after the enclosures) was really surprising. I have never walked through English countryside like that.

Which is not to say that there is not a lot of it. There might well be. A lot of the midlands was enclosed in the 18th and 19th century by act of parliament. But, I guess, most of it is not the sort of country you would go to and walk in. You would walk in it if you lived there as it isnt that bad but it is hardly interesting enough to draw walkers from elsewhere.

The irony is that most of these villages sported signs protesting plans to build massive new settlements. Ironic because, though I can certainly see why the villagers don't want their pretty and historic settlements swamped with new housing, the country does feel artificially denuded of people.

Of course, it could well be that there were not many isolated cottages and small settlements before the enclosures. Certainly most people probably lived in the compact villages. But it is hard to imagine that the country was so empty of inhabitants as it is today.

But maybe not for much longer.]]> Spencer Chronicle Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:03:53 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,28697,28697#msg-28697 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,28697,28697#msg-28697 news.bbc.co.uk]

Another great article, this one about how the Roman defeat in the Teutoburger Forest during Augustus's reign exactly 2000 years ago shaped Europe.]]> JaneGS Chronicle Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:01:17 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,28272,28272#msg-28272 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,28272,28272#msg-28272
Seventy years ago today, the Germans invaded Poland & ushered in the European phase of the Second World War. (Many historians consider that WWII effectively began in 1931, since there were never less than 2, and often 3 or 4, of the major combatants at war from that point on. Others assert that there never was a second war, just a continuation of the first.) Hitler had arranged for German commandos in Polish uniforms to attack a German radio station on the border & thus claimed self defense, but this time he didn't fool anyone. He also apparently didn't expect the West to fight over Poland--after all, they didn't over the Rhineland, the rearmament, the Anschluss with Austria, or Czechoslovakia; why break a losing record? Supposedly, he didn't plan for general war before 1944, but if so, his calculations came awry. 1944 would probably have not proved much better; the West had begun to rearm & the Soviets were beginning to produce tanks superior to anything the Germans had planned. The superior organization and doctrine of the German forces might have gone for naught in such circumstances. In the event, September 1, 1939 made such considerations moot, and sealed the fate of 100,000,000 people, conservatively. (Although, again, many had already perished before this date.)

The costs of this act, and the consequences, are very much with us today. Payments to veterans and their widows will easily last another 30-40 years, if history is any guide. And every few years, someone is killed or injured by mines or unexploded ordnance left over from the titanic battles. Indeed, some are also killed from WWI leftovers--there are parts of France marked off limits to all; the costs of defusing the shells is prohibitive. All this, and the old tensions slumber beneath the surface, appeased for the moment, but seemingly never released for good. . . .

kk]]> Snarkhunter Chronicle Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:49:25 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,27742,27742#msg-27742 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,27742,27742#msg-27742 Neal & Buzz taught the world to say,
"One small step for (a) man,
One giant leap" in the plan.
And then they'd introduced to view
The feat awaited here for years,
They were walkin', walkin', walkin' on the Moo-o-o-o-n.

(With due apologies to the Fab 4 & Sting--especially since that's the best I could come up with after 5 minutes)

I definitely remember what I was doing then, I was sitting in a nice cold theater working on the set of Julius Caesar while outside the Georgia night had scarcely cooled off from 106F. We all threw home made confetti for a while, then the director got PO'd & told us to sweep it up and get back to work (-:

On the whole these days, I'd rather see the program go with telescopes & probes. More bang for the buck. Still, it was a pretty amazing sight.

kk]]> Snarkhunter Chronicle Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:42:46 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,27625,27625#msg-27625 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,27625,27625#msg-27625 [www.footnote.com]

And, because everything is improved by the Marseillaise, here's a link to YouTube with various versions. While Placido Domingo is no doubt the best singer, I always get a lump in my throat when I watch the scene from "Casablanca"
[www.youtube.com]]]> Linden Chronicle Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:56:16 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,24760,24760#msg-24760 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,24760,24760#msg-24760 The Independence of Mary Bennet, which was dreadful, but I wanted to check on the accuracy of the assertion made by several characters that the north of England at this time was "afflicted" with a variety of religious cults.


Just so you know, the book was set at the end of the Napoleonic Wars (circa 1815), even though it was supposed to be be 20 years after P&P. She must have decided that P&P was set in 1795--maybe she liked the Keira Knightley version of the movie.

On to my question...

Is it true that Derbyshire and north was a haven for religious cults at this time? I suppose this could mean Methodists and other non-Church of England protestants, thought it's hard to think of Methodists as really a cult. I've never heard this before and am not sure if McCullough was making this up.]]> JaneGS Chronicle Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:07:26 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,23782,23782#msg-23782 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,23782,23782#msg-23782
In my old semi-Marxist days, I used to think not. There are economic and class constraints which determine the course of history, and the individual can't do much except go with the flow, or try to swim against it. This is obviously a very over-simplified version of Marxist history, but you get the idea; that, basically, one individual can't make a major difference.

Although I wouldn't go that far these days, I still think that it's closer to the mark than the Great Men Of History approach, which says that it's all about what the handful of world-shakers do. Even someone like Napoleon, for example, a world-shaking character if ever there was one, didn't really make a major change: Britain, with its industrial revolution, was going to dominate the 19th century whatever Napoleon did. And Napoleon, for all his genius and ability to inspire people, lost to a British cabinet made up of as dull and mediocre a bunch of politicians as you can find in history (especially after the only two of them with any brains were kicked out of power for fighting a duel).

In this month's issue of "History Today" there's an interesting article about the accession of Elizabeth 1 (http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=33007&amid=30259042) It's subscription only, so you can read only the first few paragraphs, so I'll summarise what is relevant to the point I'm making here. The article points out that ELizabeth took over a country in a very bad way from her sister Mary: highly divided, engaged in an unpopular and unsuccessful war, and with its economy shot to pieces by its inflationary practice of debasing the coinage.

Familiar? Well, not entirely -- the Bush administration may have been unpleasant to opponents, but it didn't burn them at the stake. But at least it's familiar enough that it's a relevant example of what I'm exploring.

Elizabeth was hugely popular on her accession among large numbers, and loathed by a smaller but still powerful group. She was intelligent, charismatic and, even though young, had a lot of experience in political manoeuvering or she wouldn't have survived that long. She also had a handful of really good advisors, whom she trusted and listened to even when she didn't take their advice.

Under Elizabeth, the economy was straightened out, the population became less bitterly divided (although there were still divisions) and though eventually England did fight a war, it was against an unpopular enemy and England won.

In short, the incompetent and unpopular reign of Mary was succeeded by the competent and popular reign of Elizabeth, and things got better. So individuals can make some difference, if they are in a position of power, if they are really good, and if there are major problems which they are in a position to fix.

Thoughts, anybody?]]> Linden Chronicle Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:23:16 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,23630,23630#msg-23630 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,23630,23630#msg-23630
I've looked online under "two handled tea cups" and, on a guess, under "posset cup" but really I am groping around in the dark.

Anyone have any ideas about what this vessel was called, and was it tea or something else in it? I'm thinking it was used primarily at breakfast time, but that is based solely on when I saw it being used in the film.

Thanks,
Michelle]]> Michelle H Chronicle Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:20:13 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,22480,22480#msg-22480 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,22480,22480#msg-22480
That was 9/11. We watched it on TV after coverage started, & when we heard about the Pentagon, we went up on the roof & saw the column of smoke a few miles away. I had worked there one summer & all I could think of was the miles of corridors filling with smoke and fire. We thought the White House might be a target & if so, we would be right in the path of any plane coming from the west. It didn't take much imagination to see one dropping right out of the sky a few blocks short of its target, by accident or anti-air missile (supposed kept on a few strategic rooftops around the area).

Mostly, you didn't know anything. You didn't know what the terrorists had planned, but you became aware of all the possibilities & you didn't like any of them very much. Since you didn't know anything, you just kept thinking the same old things, over and over again, in a weird mix of terrifying boredom. The streets were filling with people trying to walk out of the city, & I kept thinking that it would have been a perfect time for a car bomb, or two, or three, Oklahoma City style. Thousands would have died, and emergency vehicles would have been completely unable to move through the streets. If I had been a terrorist, that's what I would have done, & I had to assume the terrorists were at least as capable planners as I. So I wasn't eager to leave the building, especially when a car fire/explosion was reported outside the State Department (also only a few blocks away). Nor was I eager to stay.

And how to leave? The subway, from this perspective, looked like a deathtrap waiting to snap shut. Surely a competent terrorist would not have neglected this route? Security, after all, was non-existent. And the crash during the Air Florida disaster 20 years earlier showed that the system could be tied up for months if a train wrecked. Suddenly, the world looked like a very hostile place.

In the end, we joined the crowd & walked from Dupont Circle to Chinatown, got a bite in a deserted restaurant, & took the subway back to our cars. Restaurant & subway were deserted, so life became amazingly easier & our shoulders un-hunched against imaginary threats as we left the station. The rest of the day was a blur of contacting various people to let them know we were all safe, though, perhaps, not completely sound any more. . . .

kk]]> Snarkhunter Chronicle Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:06:40 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,22297,22297#msg-22297 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,22297,22297#msg-22297 www.ncptsd.va.gov]
points to the fact that wars have been going on a long time, and indicates that it might produce what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: ... when military personnel have had severe difficulty recovering from the trauma of war, their psychological difficulties have been described as "soldier's heart" (in the Civil War), "shell shock" (in World War I), or "combat fatigue" (in World War II)

Does anyone know of any evidence of PTSD before the American Civil War? Of course there is plenty of evidence of soldiers suffering from their physical wounds before that, but I can't find anything about psychological wounds. Odysseus doesn't suffer from anything more than a desire to get home.

Indeed, old soldiers are expected to glory in their combat -- at least according to Shakespeare's Henry V (admittedly in a speech whose entire purpose is to build morale):
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'


One of my novels ("The Major's Minion" linked here [www.salter-duke.bigpondhosting.com]) has a hero of the Napoleonic Wars suffering from what we'd now call PTSD, but I have to confess that I had no evidence whatever from the time that anybody actually did. I'd be most grateful if anyone knows of anything that can retrospectively validate my historical construction.]]> Linden Chronicle Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:54:35 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,20152,20152#msg-20152 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,20152,20152#msg-20152
It concentrates very much on the latter years, when the Republic began to fall apart, naturally enough. So maybe better as a basic primer to the situation Julius Caesar was born into than an overview of the Republic as a whole.

The thing that struck me most was the description of Spain in the 140s BC after Carthages possessions there were annexed. "A single network of tunnels might spread for more than a hundred square miles and provide upwards of forty thousand slaves with a living death." He goes on to describe the smog hanging over this ruined landscape pumping out of giant chimneys from the smelting furnaces producing clouds of pollution so noxious that birds flying though it would die and naked skin would be burned.

It reminded me a lot of the description of Mordor.

The other thing that was particularly interesting to me was the description of Pompey who despite his reputation and popularity became the butt of jokes because he scandelously fell in love with his wife! I had known of the Romans propensity for divorcing at the drop of a political hat and the pragmatic way they viewed marriage but not that showing real love and enthusiasm for his wife exposed a man to ridicule. It explains why there is a word for this - uxorious. Mind you that is Greek so maybe they held similar views.

Anyway, a good read if pretty horrific in parts.]]> Spencer Chronicle Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:16:11 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,20107,20107#msg-20107 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,20107,20107#msg-20107 [www.oldbaileyonline.org]]]> Linden Chronicle Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:12:34 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,19993,19993#msg-19993 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,19993,19993#msg-19993 John Adams and I was struck by the brutality of the scene in which a British customs official was tarred-and-feathered in the first episode. I knew that tarring-and-feathering was common during the Revolutionary period but the episode really put it into the realm of torture (which, obviously, it was, if practiced in the way it was portrayed).

Some Google sleuthing indicates that it probably wasn't as brutal as portrayed - many had their homes and/or goods tarred and feathered, but not their persons. And when applied to people's bodies, many had their underclothes on to prevent contact with the skin. It does seem, however, that the practice did escalate to truly brutal, torturous acts.

I think that the makers of the film were making a point about passions being inflamed and how that leads otherwise rational people to sanction acts of cruelty that they would not otherwise support, which is a point well taken in this day and age. Still, it reminds of the controversy over the film that Mel Gibson made about the American Revolution, The Patriot, in which he attributed acts of barbarism against the British military. At the very least, this film is depicting events that actually happened (as opposed to making them up out of whole cloth, as Gibson apparently did). Still, I found the scene disquieting and wonder about the insertion of it.]]> Suzanne_Morse Chronicle Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:37:04 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,19398,19398#msg-19398 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,19398,19398#msg-19398 www.abyssandapex.com]]]> LisaRS Chronicle Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:38:27 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,18193,18193#msg-18193 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,18193,18193#msg-18193 [www.theaustralian.news.com.au] [www.smh.com.au]

Given my frequent lamentations about Australians' indifference to history, it's good to see this given some attention.]]> Linden Chronicle Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:35:33 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,14846,14846#msg-14846 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,14846,14846#msg-14846 www.timeteam.k1z.com] which was quite interesting in and of itself as it was talking about reconstruction of the Prior Park in Bath.
They also visited Francis Dashwood’s West Wycombe Park which is naughty in a way only eighteenth century rake with too much money on his hands could think up.

I’ve known about Dashwood and his Hellfire Club from reading about the Kitty riddle in Emma since it was published in the same publication that members of the club wrote for. I didn’t really think much of the connection. Austen used a riddle from “The new Foundling Hospital of Wit” woop-ti-do.

However, Wycombe sounds close to Wickham (though a place actually called West Wickham exists) and other Austen’s “villains” are associated with “combe” places (Combe Magna, Enscombe). Is there a known connection here? Could Fanny Dashwood be named after the infamous baronet?]]> Margaret S Chronicle Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:12:14 -0700 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,14242,14242#msg-14242 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,14242,14242#msg-14242
I stayed in the college itself, which opens its student accommodation to visitors during the vacation, thus making a bit of money: a central and cheap location for tourism if you don't mind living in student accommodation and aren't looking for much in the way of luxury.

I found out a hell of a lot about Irish History, and in one book I came across some information about Tom Lefroy. "Trinity College Dublin 1592-1952" by R B McDowell and D A Webb -- not recommended, as it's badly written and concentrates on the internal politicking of the college rather than anything interesting, and the fewe gems are swamped in masses of tedious detail.

Anyway, it writes of the stiff competion for becoming a Fellow, and says it was such a gruelling effort that "Men as able as... Thomas Lefroy, later Chief Justice, broke down under the strain and retired from the fray."

On the next page it reveals that Fellows at this time were supposed to be unmarried (though it seems that many of them had become married on the quiet).

IN sum, the young Thomas Lefroy was aiming for a fellowship, and knew that he wasn't supposed to get married.]]> Linden Chronicle Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:03:47 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,13048,13048#msg-13048 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,13048,13048#msg-13048
I've been finding - and there might just be no way to get around this - that in particular with women's clothing, that I am getting what was probably the "Vogue" images of the day - what was in fashion, and I'm trying to get a better sense of what people actually wore, particularly in the middle classes, or working classes.

Do any of you have an insights there you are willing to share - book, film or website that might give me a lead?

Thanks,
Michelle]]> Michelle H Chronicle Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:50:08 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,11882,11882#msg-11882 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,11882,11882#msg-11882
What strikes me most this time around is how many great orator/leaders were operating in the various Western countries from, say, 1890-1910. The present age is well below the poverty line, in comparison.

kk]]> Snarkhunter Chronicle Fri, 25 May 2007 06:18:42 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,11755,11755#msg-11755 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,11755,11755#msg-11755
Graham Berry was one of the most significant figures in 19th century Victoria, and certainly the most significant politician: here's a link to his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography: [www.adb.online.anu.edu.au]

I first came across him when I was doing the research for what I planned to be my next historical novel, which would be set in Melbourne around 1880 (the time of the first great Exhibition and the execution of Ned Kelly). I dutifully went to the excellent State Library of Victoria and tried to find a biography of the Premier of Victoria at the time -- ie Graham Berry. There wasn't one, at least, none any longer than the ADB's which I've linked above. Several bios of other Victorian Victorians, but none of this guy whom his contemporaries described as far and away the dominating figure.

There have been a couple of slightly longer bios published since, at the end of 2006, but still no full-length one, not even an unpublished research thesis.

It's taken me several months to come to the decision that since nobody else has written one, I shall. I've applied for some fellowships to provide some funding for me, but I'll probably go ahead and write something even if I don't get any money in advance, and then submit it to a commercial publisher.

I am perplexed why nobody has written about this guy, who was a larger-than-life character who rose from Dickensian edge-of-poverty as a draper's assistant in London to Premier of Victoria and then a knighthood. His radicalism led to the most dramatic political stoush in Victoria's history ("Black Wednesday" -- a fore-runner of the Whitlam dismissal nearly a century later).

I can go on at some length about him, and will, upon the slightest invitation...]]> Linden Chronicle Sun, 27 May 2007 05:19:14 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10820,10820#msg-10820 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10820,10820#msg-10820
This is true of the valley bottom and and slopes on either side but much less true of the higher ground where the slopes level off into plateaus. There modern crops like rape dominate in fields that are certainly much bigger than they would have been in JA's day, where they were enclosed and in places might have been unenclosed and farmed in strips in three great fields.

However, this hardly impacted on the walk as it mostly followed the course of the Ash and we rarely got a glimpse of the higher ground behind the trees. The bottom of the valley and most of the lower slopes are almost entirely pasture and we met sheep, horses and cattle on our walk. A little higher there is woodland, old woods of native species like hornbeam higher up, at the bottom of the valley there is a plantation around the Victorian Easneye House but it is a decorative plantation with lots of exotic conifers.

My first pictures were disapointing so I will spare you the ones of the sheep pastures next to Much Hadham. We started the walk at Hadham Cross.

[www.streetmap.co.uk]

After walking across the permanent pasture grazed by sheep we took a footpath through the woods. One of the reasons I wanted to go there today was that I first went to this part with some freinds last week and the bluebells were starting to come out. I dont think they have reached a peak yet but they are pretty close. The trees are hornbeams which show no sign here of being coppiced, something that would probably have been different in JA's day.]]> Spencer Chronicle Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:46:56 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10819,10819#msg-10819 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10819,10819#msg-10819 [www.edge.org]

I think he's right in general: we actually have become more peaceful and less likely to inflict pain and death on other people -- and animals, for that matter. But why? I don't think that there are any simple answers, and I'd be interested to hear other people's points of view.]]> Linden Chronicle Sun, 15 Apr 2007 19:02:49 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10660,10660#msg-10660 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10660,10660#msg-10660
And of course, the US never signed a peace treaty with Germany, so it is still at war--with the Second Reich. If any representatives of the latter can be found, of course.

kk]]> Snarkhunter Chronicle Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:49:58 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10136,10136#msg-10136 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10136,10136#msg-10136 JaneGS Chronicle Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:06:14 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10115,10115#msg-10115 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,10115,10115#msg-10115 www.pdavis.nl] ; and here's Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org] .

An article by Keith Windschuttle on the subject at the weekend, here: [www.theaustralian.news.com.au] moved me to do some moderately heavy mental lifting, so I whipped off a letter to "The Australian", which appears here: [blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au]]]> Linden Chronicle Sat, 07 Apr 2007 07:54:36 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,9994,9994#msg-9994 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,9994,9994#msg-9994 www.visionofbritain.org.uk]]]> Diane Margaret Chronicle Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:16:54 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,9830,9830#msg-9830 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?19,9830,9830#msg-9830
Your classes must be fountains of very useful knowledge, even for people who will only go on holidays to the droplets of these fountains.]]> Anonymous User Chronicle Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:01:57 -0600