NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums
Alexandr Radayev
NB! · Observations
I, After Simachev
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Nature
An unreal church in Luxembourg: I drove past this hairpin road last year, when Auntie Nina and I went to the market for meat (Luxembourg is considerably cheaper than Belgium), and I even thought, surely a cross cannot be sticking straight out of the roads
An unreal church in Luxembourg. I drove past this hairpin road last year, when Auntie Nina and I went to the market for meat (Luxembourg is considerably cheaper than Belgium), and I even thought, surely a cross cannot be sticking straight out of the roadside, I must have imagined it.
Books · Observations · Mores · Ethnography
Kipling’s poem about bees in translation and the real custom of telling bees the news
Kipling's poem on bee customs, in translation. It should be understood that this is not purely a fairy tale, talking bees aside, of course. Otherwise it describes a way of life that really existed: one shared with the bees not only the news but the gossip too, the
Books · Observations · Nature · Ethnography
English poem on the custom of telling the bees about a wedding, a birth or a death
On the traditions of respectful regard for bees, Rudyard Kipling writes, for example, in the tale "Puck of Pook's Hill":. A Maiden in her glory, Upon her wedding-day, Must tell her Bees the story, Or else they'll fly away. Fly away—die away—
Mores · Nature · Ethnography
The English custom of telling bees family news and draping hives in mourning
The English have a remarkable custom of telling the bees the family news. Not only the beekeeper but his whole household must converse with the hives and relate the most important of what has happened, and it is especially vital for the bees to learn of a recent death. In
Aristocracy · Art · Humour
Portrait of Marshal Duke de Gontaut-Biron as a peacock and the debate over its meaning
When One Has Not Quite Made Up One's Mind About One's Political Allegiance. A very strange portrait of Louis-Antoine de Gontaut-Biron, Duke and Marshal of France (1700-1788). Art historians dispute whether the depiction in the form of a peacock was a mockery, a
Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg · Humour
Pahlen arrested Bishop Sestrentsevich instead of a chamber page on the orders of Paul I
A Very Short Story about Dim but Dutiful Officials, Which Could Quite Easily Have Happened in Our Own Day. One day Paul I was receiving the Governor-General of Saint Petersburg, Count Pahlen, and the Catholic bishop Stanisław Siestrzeńcewicz, who enjoyed the Emperor's particular favour. How far the
The East · Art · Museums · Observations · Humour
English nightcaps of the Stuart era in the Eastern style
I don't know about you, but I can easily picture myself in one of these Oriental-style hats. Then again, I can picture myself quite well with a Jacquemus handbag too. In fact, these are English nightcaps dating from the reign of the Stuarts, an age inspired on
Faith · Observations · Humour
The shared origin of the Russian words blagogovenie, govyadina and zagovenie
Next time you feel reverence, remember that the word shares its origin with beef and with the eve of a fast. Govyada is the old name for horned cattle, pointing back to govenie, originally a string of prayers and sacrifices, evidently of the flesh of domestic livestock.
NB! · Faith · Art · Humour
Early 16th-century dish from Deruta showing Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata
Italian dish of the early sixteenth century, comune of Deruta. If you thought that Francis of Assisi was flying a kite in the shape of the crucified Christ, then cross yourself: the scene depicts the saint's receiving of the stigmata from Jesus himself
Faith · Art · Monarchies · Humour
Mary of Modena and the Jesuit James Petre in an image with the infant James Stuart
Mary of Modena was the heroine of such images. Here she is apparently being egged on by the treacherous and, for some reason, exceedingly swarthy (probably for greater conviction as to his malicious intent) Jesuit Sir Edward Petre, counsellor to James II, accused of complicity in the substitution of Mary&