Prince Albert's Balmoral tartan and the rules of wearing it, broken at Zara Phillips's wedding

The English royal family often dresses in ancestral tartans, each with its own history and owner. The Balmoral tartan, for instance, invented by Prince Albert, may apparently be worn by no one but the Queen, members of the royal family and the Queen's personal piper. True, the rule is occasionally broken. At the wedding of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, for example, a mere page was got up in Balmoral. But I am sure the Queen did not scold her granddaughter

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Prince Albert's Balmoral tartan and the rules of wearing it, broken at Zara Phillips's wedding

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s