Faith · Observations · Science · Mores · Society
On 2 September 1752 Great Britain switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, some 170 years after Pope Gregory XIII proposed abandoning the outdated system of reckoning time. And so, in Britain in 1752, 2 September was followed directly by 14 September. Eleven days vanished from the history of
Observations · Mores · Humour
The silliest thing about this rule is that cremation also leaves the body bare, since clothing burns away very quickly. How great was the power of formalities and prejudices. How I loathe them
London · Mores · Society
In medieval and early modern England the laws were harsh, and judicial practice spared a great many people. Right up to the end of the eighteenth century, and in some cases the middle of the nineteenth, men and women were sentenced to death for crimes that were serious, to be
NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour
The weather is clearly no longer summery, but the cold is still some way off? A muff! The sound solution for the progressive gentleman of the eighteenth century
Archive · Books · Mores
"If a great feast is to be held, the master must oversee everything himself: the kitchen, the carving-room and the bakehouse. To serve the dishes at table, a capable man should be appointed, and at the sideboard, with the drinks and the vessels, an experienced man is needed
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
In the West, a movement is under way to do away with gender stereotypes in children's clothing. I suggest taking our bearings from the seventeenth century: van Dyck's portrait of the children of Charles I of England, Princess Mary and the future Charles II and James
Books · London · Mores · Humour
Shakespeare's texts contain a good many winged phrases, metaphors and euphemisms that are sometimes far from easy to decipher. But once you know the Bard's habitual devices, ticklish sexual particulars are discovered behind the absurd constructions. Thus with the phrase "charged chamber" Shakespeare denoted
Archive · Faith · Books · Observations · Mores
The ban on balalaikas is usually linked to a decree of 1648 by Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich, which ordered stringed instruments to be destroyed. But the idea of banning musical amusements was originally laid down in the answers of the Stoglav Council of 1551, so called for the number of its
NB! · Art · Mores · Humour
Sorrow is sorrow, but one must still wash one's feet. Wedgwood porcelain, 1869. Catherine II was fond of it, which is how it won its fame in Russia and has kept its popularity 250 years on
NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour
A procession of elderly ladies at a cat's funeral. As you can see, the women have brought their own cats, still very much alive, to take leave of the departed. And she is being buried in consecrated ground. Rest in peace
Faith · Books · Mores
The eighteenth century produced several bestsellers on masturbation, which naturally condemned it as not merely sinful but exceedingly harmful. There were, it is true, works that refuted the delusion, but, as so often happens, they never won popularity enough to dispel the myth. To the eighteenth century we also owe
NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Mores