Aristocracy · Architecture · Mores · Rome

Built in the first half of the twentieth century not far from Rome, the Villa Volpi still stirs connoisseurs of architectural styles with its neo-Palladian atmosphere, created against the fashion of the day by the architect Tomaso Buzzi in the heyday of m

Built in the first half of the twentieth century not far from Rome, the Villa Volpi still stirs connoisseurs of architectural styles with its neo-Palladian atmosphere, created against the fashion of the day by the architect Tomaso Buzzi in the heyday of modernism on the shore of the Tyrrhenian

Observations · Mores · Society · People

Nina Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy

Nina Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy. These photographs are often captioned with ironic remarks comparing the two First Ladies, of the USSR and the USA, as if to set Nina Khrushchev in a less flattering light. Well, then. It may be agreed that the wife of the Soviet General Secretary dressed

Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour

Funeral at sea of Lady Edwina Mountbatten off Portsmouth on 25 February 1960

When the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was told that Lady Edwina Mountbatten, the aunt of Prince Philip, would be buried at sea, the Queen Mother replied cheerfully: “Dear old Edwina, she always did love to make a splash!”. That the last Vicereine of India, Lady Mountbatten, had willed to

Books · Monarchies · Mores · People

The legendary series of photographs in which the Queen Mother sips a beer became the source of the cover image for a new biography by the Northern Irish writer Gareth Russell, Do Let’s Have Another Drink: The Singular Wit and Double Measures of…

The legendary series of photographs in which the Queen Mother sips a beer became the source of the cover image for a new biography by the Northern Irish writer Gareth Russell, Do Let’s Have Another Drink: The Singular Wit and Double Measures of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The

Archive · London · Monarchies · Mores

Alexandra of Denmark and Mary of Teck, two queens of England and in-laws

Two Queens of England, the Queen Dowager Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), "darling Mama", as George V called her, and George V's consort Mary of Teck (1867-1953), out for a stroll. Alexandra of Denmark was widowed at the age of 66 and lived to 81.

Mores · People · Pop Culture

Angela Lansbury moved her family to Ireland after her daughter met Charles Manson

Angela Lansbury recalled how her daughter fell under the spell of a Hollywood layabout who collected the girl from school and made her steal money and food from her parents. Alarmed, Lansbury moved the whole family to Ireland. The young man was Charles Manson. A badass story. *Manson was an

Cinema · Mores · Pop Culture

Gaslighting, the well-known term for a form of psychological abuse, takes its name from the play "Gas Light"

Gaslighting, the well-known term for a form of psychological abuse, takes its name from the play "Gas Light". Her role in the 1944 film adaptation brought Angela Lansbury her first fame and her first Oscar nomination. She played the maid Nancy, who helped Mr Gregory Anton drive

In a watercolour, a man in a top hat and a woman in a bonnet and shawl stand on a park path beside a pavilion under trees.

Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

A lady alone with a gentleman on a park path by a pavilion, watercolour

Queen Victoria and King Louis-Philippe of France at the Château d'Eu during the royal visit of 1843. Alone with a man. What a scandal!

Art · Mores

The word charlatan changed from meaning a street vendor to meaning a deceiver

Both of these images are called "The Charlatan". The word, derived from the verb "ciarlare", to chatter, to speak in a pompous manner, originally denoted street vendors who drew attention to their wares with colourful patter, wares that were often connected with the prolongation of life,

Science · Mores · Humour

Humphry Davy tested nitrous oxide on himself, and the gas became a parlour entertainment

Laughing gas, now widely used in Western medicine as an analgesic and inhalation anaesthetic, first came into use in the 1800s precisely as a substance that provoked fits of merriment when inhaled. The British chemist Sir Humphry Davy, who was investigating the treatment of disease by gases, was the first

Mores · Society · Ethnography

However, there is also the opposite version, which points to the very low pay of spinners in the early Middle Ages, on account of which this work was done precisely by unmarried women, that is, those less socially integrated and less…

However, there is also the opposite version, which points to the very low pay of spinners in the early Middle Ages, on account of which this work was done precisely by unmarried women, that is, those less socially integrated and less endowed with the privilege of contacts with guilds and

NB! · The East · Monarchies · Mores · People

In his will Alexander the Great asked that his coffin be carried through all his dominions, with one of his hands left hanging outside, so that all might see that he goes to the grave empty-handed