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In Britain, no-one is ever very far from the sea, and we are all aware how treacherous it can be to mariners. Countless seafarers owe their lives to the lifeboat service, which was established in 1824.It is worth remembering that until comparatively recently lifeboats were powered by oar and sail. Their crews had to row their open boats through mountainous surf out into open water, where they then raised their sails to do battle with the violent seas. |
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Today, books are cheap – a paperback usually costs less than £10. But in the Middle Ages, when books were laboriously written by hand on expensive vellum and parchment, and illuminated with valuable pigments and gold leaf, one book could be worth a fortune. For instance, records show that one monastery in Germany exchanged a large vineyard for a single book. So to safeguard the books in a library, they would be chained to the shelves. |
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Dr Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature, the 18th-century writer, poet and lexicographer, had a less serious side: he was fond of cats (in his famous dictionary he defined a cat as ‘a domestick animal that catches mice, commonly reckoned by naturalists the lowest order of the leonine species’). It is recorded that he had a white kitten called Lily, but his most famous pet was Hodge, immortalised in James Boswell’s Life of Johnson. You can see a Victorian illustration showing Dr Johnson and Hodge on this website. |
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In Victorian times, London’s streets were alive with traders of all kinds and ages. Little boys swept the street crossings, polished gentlemen’s boots and sold newspapers; girls sold bunches of flowers; and men mended chairs, sold gingerbread, hoky poky (ice cream) or baked potatoes, and sharpened scissors and kitchen knives.
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The traditional method of charcoal burning is almost as old as the hills upon which the wood grows. Today, there are still practitioners of this ancient art, for charcoal is a sustainable, ‘green’ fuel. |
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