Aristocracy · London · Mores · Society · People
In April 1895 Oscar Wilde failed to win his case against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his close friend and lover Douglas. The Marquess demanded an end to the affair between Oscar Fingal and his son and accused the writer of sodomy, or, to be precise, sent a
London · Monarchies · Mores
Princess Alexandra of Kent was the last member of the British royal family at whose birth a special official of the royal administration was present, to certify the fact of the birth of an infant of royal blood and to confirm the legitimacy of the descent of a person in
Monarchies · Mores · Paris · People
Monarchist sentiment in France remains strong to this day, and the view of Louis XVII as an innocent victim has taken hold of many minds. Thus there is well-founded talk that a monument ought to be raised to Louis-Charles, Louis XVII, dedicated also to all infant and child
NB! · Art · Mores · People
NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour
NB! · Art · Mores · Humour
A crinoline mishap. Poor girl, one longs to offer her a hand. But the fellow, instead of helping, has raised a finger and stands there looking gleeful.
Archive · Books · Observations · Mores
Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam has a recollection of how she and her husband chanced upon namesakes in a watchmaker's workshop in Yalta. While writing out a receipt, the watchmaker was stunned to hear his own surname from his customers. He invited the Mandelstams to his home and told them
Faith · Monarchies · Mores
For the Orthodox, Lent begins tomorrow, but in the Church of England this year 14 March already falls in the middle of Lent, traditionally observed as Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday has been identified with the fourth Sunday of Lent in England since the seventeenth century; before that, the maternal feast
Archive · London · Monarchies · Mores
Observations · Mores · Humour
There is no more absorbing novel than notes on the history of the fatherland. The wife of Grishka Otrepyev, False Dmitry I, Marina Mnishek, became so convinced that the second resurrected Dmitry was her husband, though in appearance he was not in the least like the first, that she received
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People
On 9 March, in his 98th year, Erling Sven Lorentzen, the Norwegian-Brazilian magnate and widower of Princess Ragnhild, eldest daughter of King Olav V of Norway, passed away. In his youth Lorentzen was a bodyguard, and among those he guarded was the Norwegian royal family, including Princess Ragnhild herself
Faith · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
I continue to collect stories of incredibly stubborn Russians. Take, for example, our dear priest Foma, who in 1495 took part in the wedding of Ivan III's daughter Elena to the Lithuanian prince Alexander Casimirovich. Ivan III had been particularly insistent that Prince Alexander should not compel the