Claire’s Blog

I have moved to lolhistory.org

If you want to see how small people’s backsides used to be I would recommend a visit to the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. I went for a class visit yesterday and found the pews in one of the courtrooms to be most un-posterior friendly. I do hope they never remove them though. It all looked like something out of Dickens. We saw a criminal appeal.

We caught 45 minutes of a murder trial at the Old Bailey. Fingers crossed I won’t be going there again. It was a pretty unpleasant environment.

I’ve just returned from Hillingdon Borough Council’s annual council tax meeting. They voted on a 2.77% increase. There were 41 (Tory) votes for, 2 (Lib Dem) against and 14 (Labour) abstaining. I’m really not sure why Labour abstained instead of voting against.

It was very interesting to see local government in action at such an interesting time of year. Afterwards we bumped into some of the lady councillors and they were extremely friendly.

There was an awful lot of waffle though and I thought the meeting would have been a lot shorter without it. One councillor used up precious minutes of his speech by praising the national government to the skies. None of it was relevant to the council tax in my opinion.

Another councillor wanted to send some sort of message to a speaking councillor (in my opinion it was “I don’t care what you say”), so pulled out a copy of the Evening Standard and made a very obvious show of reading it. I wasn’t impressed. All councillors are elected representatives of the people and they should all be listened to with respect as such.

Or am I naive?

I’m not sure if it’s possible for readers outside the UK to access the television shows on this BBC iplayer. I tried to access something in South Korea (I don’t know if it was this) and there was no access. People complain about the BBC licence fee being steep but I think it’s fantastic really. For one flat fee we get access to all these radio stations and get free telly on the internet.

Last night I watched the first episode of Being Human. I thought it was really really good, although of course I might have been swayed by the melancholic sexiness of the vampire character. “Being Human” is basically a British drama about a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire who share a flat together.

The first episode introduces their predicaments and sees them setting up house together. The vampire is an attractive young man who is ill at ease with his fellow vampire’s plans for world domination. The werewolf has been dealing with his problem for two years and it has led him to cut himself off from friends and family. The vampire suspects that the ghost died in a way that is somehow unresolved and that that is why she’s hanging around.

Don’t let it be said that the BBC don’t know how to make quality television anymore.

Robert Hooke

Cat’s and Dog’s Meat

Old Hospital

Another View

Another View

Another View (Wall More Obvious)

Another View  (with description)

Pencil 

Another View

Can see surrounding buildings

Watercolour 

View of London Wall

View of London

Map of London

St Leonard, Shoreditch

Guildhall 

Hackney 

Nice View

Royal Exchange

Tottenham Court Road

Leicester Square 

Ten Gateways of London 

The Strand

Old Broad Street

“Bramingham Febr. 14

This being our Market-day, Mrs Richardson Housekeeper to Mr Hicks Schoolmaster in this Town, who has a great many Noblemen and Gentlemens Sons to Educate, bought 22 l. of Butter of a Popish Woman Higler, Tenant to our late Popish High Sheriff Sh —- Esq; and carrying the same home to expend in the Family, cut one pound thereof, and perceiving it discoloured with green and brown spots, shewed it to an Apothecary, who was of opinion it was poysoned, which to prove, sent for two Dogs, and gave each the quanity of a Nutmeg, and they both died within 10 and 14 minutes one of another. The Woman escaped out of Town for the present but we hear she is since apprehended for the same.”

The same issue of The Orange Gazette announces the proclamation of William and Mary as King and Queen of England. The new monarchs were Protestant whereas James II, the deposed king, was a Catholic.

This poisoning story is the only local level piece to feature in the newspaper. With the exception of a snippet announcing the death of the younger son of the Marquis of Halifax, the other articles are all about the doings of monarchs.  I suspect that the Bramingham poisoning story was included because although local, it reinforced anti-Catholic beliefs.

One has to wonder what really happened.

Would you like to help the National Portrait Gallery secure £50,000 to buy a portrait of Jacobean playwright John Fletcher? Read about it here and pass the word on.

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“She was a most wonderful woman for prowling about the house. How she got from story to story was a mystery beyond solution. A lady so decorous in herself, and so highly connected, was not to be suspected of dropping over the bannisters or sliding down them, yet her extraordinary facility of locomotion suggested the wild idea. Another noticeable circumstance in Mrs Sparsit was that she was never hurried. She would shoot with consummate velocity from the roof to the hall, yet would be in full possession of her breath and dignity on the moment of her arrival there. Neither was she ever seen by human vision to go at a great pace.”   Hard Times, Chpt. IX, Charles Dickens 

I finished reading Hard Times today. I enjoyed it.