Archive · Moscow · Mores · People

Lev Tolstoy masters the bicycle and in 1896 receives a licence to ride in Moscow

Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bicycle at the age of 67. It is very strange why I am drawn to do this. Yevgeny Ivanovich tried to dissuade me and was distressed that I ride, but I feel no shame. On the contrary, I feel that I do not care

Archive · In the Press · Mores · Pop Culture

American women in 1916 and the fashion for dresses with backs bared to the waist

Of late American women have been seized by a sort of décolletage mania. Evening dress has, in the shortest possible time, descended quite literally to the limit beyond which it is more than risky to go. Nor is low dress worn only at soirées and dinners: it is worn in

Engraving of townspeople looking at the sky with a moon-like disc, a vessel of water at left, children on the ground and a windmill behind.

Science · Mores · Humour

How people watched the solar eclipse of 12 August 1654

Observing a Solar Eclipse in the Seventeenth Century. On 12 August 1654, people looked at the sun through smoked glass; the more resourceful used a mirror, and the very cunning a dish or a bucket of water.

Books · Observations · Mores

Chatwin on buying an object as a Grail quest and a collector's calm view of things

The English journalist Bruce Chatwin on collecting:. The acquisition of an object is in itself a quest for the Grail: the hunt for the prey, the moment of recognition, the decision to buy, the loss, the fear of financial catastrophe, the dark cloud of uncertainty ("Is it a fake?

NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour

If your children smoke and neither pleading nor punishment will cure them of it

NB! · Aristocracy · In the Press · London · Monarchies · Mores · People

The Dashing Equerry Who Captured the Queen's Heart: The English Press Tells of Elizabeth II's Secret "Beloved", Lord Plunket

The dashing equerry who captured the Queen's heart: the English press tells of Elizabeth II's secret "beloved", Patrick Plunket, Baron Plunket. He served the Queen for 25 years and kept the secret of their "love" to the end of his life

Faith · Observations · Heritage · Mores · Society · Pop Culture · Rome

Vatican police escort a blogger out of St Peter's Basilica and attempt to arrest her for dancing inside the church and filming it

Vatican police escorted out of St Peter's Basilica, and attempted to arrest, a blogger who had been dancing inside the church and filming it. The silly girl, naturally, at once raised a howl about it online. Each time I see activities of this sort, I want to ask:

Art · Books · Mores · Paris

…gleaming with the whiteness of her shoulders, the glossiness of her hair and diamonds, she passed between the men who stood aside <...> granting each the right to admire the beauty of her figure, her full shoulders, her bosom and back, very bare accordin

…gleaming with the whiteness of her shoulders, the glossiness of her hair and diamonds, she passed between the men who stood aside <...> granting each the right to admire the beauty of her figure, her full shoulders, her bosom and back, very bare according to the fashion of the

Faith · Mores · Nature · Humour

Order of the Pug, founded by Elector Clemens August of Cologne and outlawed in 1748

In the eighteenth century pugs were so popular in Europe that one Masonic lodge came to be called the Order of the Pug. Members of the order wore collars, barked and bowed down before images of pugs. The secret society known as the "Order of the Pug" appeared

NB! · Archive · Cinema · Mores

The actor Vasily Kachalov and the writer Alexei Tolstoy at a resort, 1930s

Archive · Faith · Mores · Education

Curious Details of Bishop Tikhon's Struggle Against Seminarians Who Were Vagrants, Pranksters and Prone to the Intemperance of a Vile, Suspicious and Drunken Passion in the 1770s

For example, it was devised to select the most honest pupils as fiscals, that is, overseers and informers, who would watch which of their schoolfellows frequented the drinking shops: «Let there be appointed from among the most honest pupils fiscals, that they might watch and report faithfully to the teachers

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores