Archive · Moscow · Mores · Nature

Asparagus in Moscow gardens since the 17th century and Russian distrust of lettuce

Asparagus was loved and cultivated in Russia, even in Moscow, from the seventeenth century at the latest. The German Olearius recalls: “There are also kitchen vegetables of every kind, especially asparagus as thick as a finger, such as I myself ate at the house of a certain Dutch merchant, a

Archive · Books · London · Mores · People

Byron's memoirs burned in London in 1824 by his publisher Murray and executor Hobhouse

In May 1824 one of the greatest crimes in the history of English literature was committed in London. Barely a month after Byron's death, his memoirs were destroyed. And this was done in the presence of the poet's close friends and his executor. Memoirs are usually

Observations · Mores · Ethnography

Hollow inside baked bread in folk omens: a relative's death or an imminent pregnancy

A note for the housewife: if a large hollow forms inside a loaf during baking, it may foretell the death of one of your nearest and dearest. Happily, folk omens are not ultimatums, and besides death they promise, for instance, an early pregnancy. The principle is clear enough: empty space

Coloured caricature: a man in a striped suit and a woman in a white high-waisted dress walk hand in hand beneath enormous multicoloured feathers.

NB! · Art · London · Mores · Humour

High waistlines in the fashion of Georgian Londoners in a caricature of 1794

What do you know about the high waist? Look at these ordinary Londoners of the Georgian era. 1794 might never have been

NB! · Archive · Observations · Mores · Humour

What a dreadful woman she is, that Portsmouth Kate: back in the Welsh news again, this time for causing a disturbance and using foul language in the street!

What a dreadful woman she is, that Portsmouth Kate: back in the Welsh news again, this time for causing a disturbance and using foul language in the street! But to my mind, the countless arrests merely show the unbending character of this 34-year-old madam

London · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Society · People

Titus Oates invented a Popish plot against Charles II and was convicted of perjury

Recalling Titus Oates, the English conspirator and scoundrel of the seventeenth century, one cannot help thinking of our own contemporaries, who have inscribed their loathsome deeds in the book of the scum of all ages. Oates is known for having invented a certain Popish Plot to murder King Charles II.

NB! · Books · Mores · Nature

Aldous Huxley adored cats; for many years he kept a Siamese named Limbo, after Huxley's first collection of stories

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Mores

A most fascinating discussion on whether the cook Lucien Olivier, creator of the famous salad, really existed, whether his name was Nikolai, whether the salad was invented long before his birth, and who lies beneath a gravestone bearing that name in a Ger

Art · Monarchies · Mores · Paris

Marie de' Medici and the child Louis XIII in an engraving, his harsh upbringing and her exile

Marie de' Medici and her young son, King Louis XIII of France. She arrived in Paris immediately after the murder of Henry IV and took power, which is to say that she, of course, gained more from his death than anyone else. Louis in this engraving may be 8

A blue and white platter showing a bull in a landscape with a man standing on the right, displayed on a shelf with a red background.

NB! · Archive · Mores · Nature · Humour

The Durham ox, which died in 1807 weighing over 1,200 kg, appeared on plates

This Durham ox won posthumous fame, and a place on plates and postcards, merely by weighing a great deal. At the time of his death in 1807 he weighed over 1,200 kg

Mores · New York · People

The woman in the photograph is Mary Ann Bevan, née Webster; in her thirties she came to be called the ugliest woman in the world

The woman in the photograph is Mary Ann Bevan, née Webster; in her thirties she came to be called the ugliest woman in the world. A nurse and mother of four, Mary Ann fell ill with acromegaly, which is caused by a disorder of the pituitary gland and shows itself

Art · Mores · People

Genre painter Paul-Charles Chocarne-Moreau and the mischievous children of his paintings

Mischievous boys are the chief heroes of the work of the genre painter Paul-Charles Chocarne-Moreau (1855–1931). The artist was interested in how children from humble families spent their time, what their lives were made of, and what held their interest: running about the streets and stealing pastries,