Blog entry
A Clever Woman's Fleet Marriage
Posted February 12, 2021
Before the Hardwick Marriage Act of 1753, it was much simpler to get married in England. All you needed was a compliant clergyman. Many of these irregular or clandestine marriages were conducted in or near the Fleet prison, to which debtors were consigned, because it was not actually part of any parish in London. Clergymen who had no living of their own, and thus no regular income, could be found in that vicinity for couples who wished speed or secrecy.
The Invasion of Jersey
Posted January 6, 2021
On January 6, 1781, France invaded England.
That sounds more impressive than it really was. This wasn’t the invasion the English worried about. That one was some twenty years in the future, when Napoleon was planning an invasion. And it wasn’t an invasion of England proper. The invasion took place on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands and it lasted less than 24 hours.
Opposites Attract: A True Love Story
Posted December 8, 2020
Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford, wasn’t a rake, one of those smooth-talking charmers who populate romance novels. He was more of a frat boy.
Born in 1811, he inherited the title in 1826 after the untimely deaths of his older brother and his father. He was still a student at Eton, where his exploits brought him notoriety. The headmaster at the time was John Keate, noted for having restored discipline to the school through liberal use of the birch, of which Waterford had experience. .jpg)
Sailing Packets
Posted October 21, 2020
In the early 19th century, packet ships were the way to travel across the Atlantic.
Spin Doctor
Posted August 8, 2019
Daniel Sickles (1819-1914) was a New York lawyer, soldier, and politician, a bit more notorious than famous.
When he was 32, he married Teresa Bagioli, who was then 15. Not long after he went to England on a diplomatic mission, leaving his pregnant wife behind. Instead he took his mistress with him and introduced the mistress to Queen Victoria using the name of one of his political opponents.
The Lord Chancellor and the Resort
Posted August 18, 2015
The town of Cannes on the French Riviera, playground of the rich and famous, home to a world-famous film festival, is noted for the wealth an glamour of its visitors. Somewhat unexpectedly, on the waterfront, and right across from the Palais des Festival that hosts the Cannes Film Festival, is a statue of Lord Brougham.
Romance on the Orient Express
Posted July 7, 2015
It is 1889. The fabulous Orient Express, only a few years old, hurtles through the darkness en route from Paris to Istanbul. A terrified young woman runs frantically through the corridor, searching for an unlocked stateroom. At last she finds one, and throws herself into the room.
Murder by Mistake, a Restoration Tragedy
Posted June 23, 2015
“The good-looking, melodious-voiced William Mountfort played both tragic and comic lovers to perfection, and was mourned by theatergoers and colleagues alike when he died, the innocent victim of a swordfight over Mrs. Bracegirdle.”
I came across that sentence in a history of the English theater. That was it. No further explanation.
The Accidental Archaeologist
Posted May 19, 2015
If you come across a portrait or photograph of the famous archaeologist, author and politician Austen Henry Layard, it is most often of him as an old gentleman with an enormous white beard. That beard is so big and white that he seems to be all beard and no person. But long before that he was a young man working in an office and longing for something—anything—more exciting.
Of Safety and Snobbery
Posted May 5, 2015
George Stephenson was an English engineer who has been called “The Father of the Railways” of the 19th century. He was a brilliant and visionary man, but success wasn’t easy for him.The scientific establishment of his day had difficulty believeing that anything good or important could come from a man who wasn't a "gentleman" and who didn't have the benefit of a univeristy education.
