Books · Observations · Mores · Humour
Tanya is Tatyana Andreyevna Bers-Kuzminskaya, Lev Nikolayevich's sister-in-law, who also lived at Yasnaya Polyana; Sonya is his wife, Sofya Andreyevna. Agreed, it is hard, even with the greatest effort, to believe that these women could have been the prototypes of Natasha. For my part, I
The East · Museums · Mores
A realistiscope from the collection of the Sursock Museum in Beirut. More often it is called a stereoscope. In its day this device, devised in the 1850s, was enormously popular. To use the curious contraption, one must press the velvet edges of the mask firmly to the face, holding it
Books · Observations · Mores · Ethnography
Kipling's poem on bee customs, in translation. It should be understood that this is not purely a fairy tale, talking bees aside, of course. Otherwise it describes a way of life that really existed: one shared with the bees not only the news but the gossip too, the
Mores · Nature · Ethnography
The English have a remarkable custom of telling the bees the family news. Not only the beekeeper but his whole household must converse with the hives and relate the most important of what has happened, and it is especially vital for the bees to learn of a recent death. In
Monarchies · Observations · Mores · People
Just think, what a tragic fate! Mary of Modena endured ten miscarriages, and five of her children died in infancy; and when at last a viable child came into the world, she was accused of having substituted a healthy baby for her real child, a sickly, feeble one, and most
Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
Good morning: we are breakfasting with Mrs Rattle and her family, a doggie, a kitty, a squirrel and a parrot. I think one ought not to ask a woman who keeps such picturesque company where her husband is. And as for the fact that the squirrel in English images of
Books · Mores · Ethnography · Humour
Never buy furniture from workshops and shops near the cemetery: grandfather clocks and dining tables with antique tops are made from the planks of ornate oak coffins, which acquire an elegant patina underground. Advice from a book on Cheshire folklore, 1898
Aristocracy · Moscow · Mores · People · Humour
One of the directors of the Assembly of the Nobility, Pavel Afanasyevich Afrosimov, a retired major general, a fearfully important and dreadfully rich Moscow grandee, whom some call the prototype of Griboyedov's Famusov, was dying at the age of 64. His contemporaries left some amusing recollections of the
Aristocracy · London · Monarchies · Mores · People
Catherine, younger sister of the nine-day queen Jane Grey, paid with her liberty for marrying without Elizabeth's leave: the Virgin Queen took the marriage of a maiden of the Tudor line for an attempted coup. All the more so since Catherine Grey had, in Elizabeth's
Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores
"A man prematurely aged provokes surprise, if not fear" Countess Lydia Andreyevna Rostopchina applied this conclusion to the memory of her father, Andrey Fyodorovich. Not very flattering words, but the fact is that the younger son of the all-powerful Governor-General of Moscow really did look considerably
NB! · Art · Mores
Sleep and His Half-Brother Death. John William Waterhouse, painted in 1874, after the death of two of the artist's brothers from tuberculosis. Incidentally, the picture illustrates well the old European fashion for sleeping in a half-seated position, which enlightened people considered the most correct for one&
Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · People
Baroness Natalya Mikhailovna Stroganova, known for her rich collection of books and the vast fortune she received from her husband Nikolai, was widowed at forty and left with one son. Her nephew, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov, left a most amusing account of his relations with his aunt. Chance joined the