For many centuries tradesmen learned their craft via apprenticeships. In Britain they were generally contracted outside the family to widen the skills taught and if a master died, the newly qualified journeyman might marry his master’s widow to continue the business and prevent the family becoming bankrupt. This meant it was rare for people in … Continue reading
Filed under 17th century history …
The Cost of Charles I’s Art Collecting
I’ve been doing a lot of research on curiosity cabinets and art collecting, which is generally associated with mad kings in Germany or the Medici family. England did little of this as they were to busy arguing how to Reform which involved a lot of disputes as to the use of imagery. Plus there was … Continue reading
Bruegel Defining a Dynasty – Holburne museum, Bath
Yet again this small museum has put on a wonderful show, on a family of artists that we sort of recognise, but never put them together. They are even more intriguing when you compare them with the parlous state of painting in Britain of the 17th century. The skill and variety of subjects is dazzling, … Continue reading
England’s Vanishing Arts
Last Friday the i featured England’s last cooper, Les Skinner, 72 who is about to retire and sell his business in Liverpool. The trade was once at the heart of Britain’s trade, as they produced barrels for food and drink, whale oil so was a huge industry, and one of the last of the guilds … Continue reading
Relics,Witches & Ships in Bottles
What happened to objects when Henry VIII closed the monasteries? This is an area of history that is often ignored or the subject of guesswork, especially in England where there was so much destruction of religious artefacts at the long drawn-out Reformation. But here’s some thoughts. Every church that conducted masses had to have a … Continue reading
The Man Who Stood on the Shoulders of Giants
Roger Bacon (born 1214) is generally considered to be the father of modern science. He wrote f the values of book and experience. This is from Jean Gimpel’s The Medieval Machine. There are two modes of acquiring knowledge – namely by reasoning and experience. Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion but does … Continue reading
Winter Sleep
Here’s a question that someone raised with me – did our ancestors sleep longer in winter? He said he’d been told that our bodies are not meant to sleep for the full winter night, that in Tudor times people would get up in the middle of the night and do their accounts or some housework … Continue reading
Words and Image of a Nobody
There are a lot of images from our history that suggest there was some heavy drug taking happening – disproportioned people, strange animals etc. These are often accepted as elements of folklore but there may have been a more straightforward explanation, as a mans of insulting the rich and powerful without getting arrested. This was … Continue reading
Second Person Pronouns
Atlas Obscura is a great source of obscure information, though often flawed by lack of research, but here’s an article that got me thinking. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/yall-youuns-yinz-youse-how-regional-dialects-are-fixing-standard-english?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76063a5aad-Newsletter_10_17_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-76063a5aad-63056749&ct=t(Newsletter_10_17_2016)&mc_cid=76063a5aad&mc_eid=377570eee9 For all its history and variety, English has no plural form of the second person pronoun. Unlike other European languages, it also has no polite/informal forms. AO find the latter … Continue reading
Bristol Celebrating Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1808
When I lived in Bristol there were a lot of stories of how the bells of St Mary Redcliffe rang merrily when the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was defeated. I’ve not been able to find that, but the press seems to have been silent when the Act was finally passed. But this is … Continue reading
