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.

Majolica dish painted in blue, green and orange: a kneeling saint in a monk's habit with a crucifix above him, a second monk beside him and an ornamental border.

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&

Monarchies · Observations · Mores · People

Mary of Modena's childbirth before forty witnesses and the claim of a substituted baby

Just think, what a tragic fate! Mary of Modena endured ten miscarriages, and five of her children died in infancy; and when at last a viable child came into the world, she was accused of having substituted a healthy baby for her real child, a sickly, feeble one, and most

In the Press · Books · Observations · Society · People

Turgenev's conflict with Katkov and the ban on a memorial meeting after the writer's death

A Few Words on Haters. Turgenev had many enemies even in his lifetime, Katkov of the Russian Messenger among them. Their quarrel began when Ivan Sergeyevich stopped publishing in his journal. The matter was this: the editor had thought it permissible to correct Fathers and Sons at his own discretion,

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