Category: Medical History

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Drink at a Georgian Christmas December 23rd

Wassail Bowl being brought in by a Servant into a dining hall on Christmas Day
From ‘Old Christmas’ by Washington Irving

Drink at a Georgian Christmas might well be port. Then the next favourites would brandy, claret, punch, rum, porter. So says my source Henry Jeffreys in his book ‘Empire of Booze’ and in this Guardian article:

Claret, probably, originally outsold port. But the wars against France and the difficulty of importing French wine, saw a transfer to wines from our ‘oldest ally’ Portugal. But the travel distance was longer, so the wine was fortified to help preserve it better. Hence, the British addiction to port. Sherry was also popular for similar reasons, being a fortified white wine. Shakespeare calls it ‘sack’ and sometimes ‘Canary’. (Toby Belch ‘says thou lack’st a cup of canary ‘ in ‘Twelfth Night’, which is a Christmas play.) See below for more on Sack and Shakespeare.

Louis Philippe Boitard 'Imports from France' Looking east towards the Tower of London. Barrels at the front right are marked Claret, Burgundy and Champagne
Louis Philippe Boitard‘s satirical engraving ‘Imports from France’ Looking east towards the Tower of London. Barrels at the front right are marked Claret, Burgundy and Champagne.

Georgian Alcohol consumption was prodigious. Samuel Johnson said, ‘All the decent people in Lichfield (where Johnson came from) got drunk every night and were not the worst thought of‘. The Prime Minister. William Pitt the Younger said, ‘I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worst for it. University College has witnessed this.’ He is referring to his college at the Oxford University. He might be considered to be another of our Prime Ministers who have first disgraced themselves at Oxbridge only to rise to rule the unfortunate British nation? However, in those days, Port was sold in pint measures (45cl) and was 16%, while now it is 20% and sold in 75cl bottles. So, maybe we are almost as bad?

Even so, three bottles is still a lot. A drunken population would have not only increased the death rate but also increased violence and abuse. Gout was one result of too much drinking and a rich diet.

Gout. 18th Century Bath

However, this is Christmas so let’s end on a high note, so here are a couple of recipes!

To make ye best punch

“Put 1½ a pound of sugar in a quart of water, stir it well yn put in a pint of Brandy, a quarter of a pint of Lime Juice, & a nutmeg grated, yn put in yr tosts or Biskets well toasted.”

Katherine Windham’s Boke of Housekeeping, 1707

Gin

And Gin? The cheap gin panic had calmed down by the 1770s after no less than eight Gin Acts of Parliament. Booths and Gordon’s Gins were established in London during this period and Gin almost a respectable drink.

There appears to have been a shortage of Gin punch recipes in the 18th Century, but by the end of that century this recipe survives from London’s Garrick Club

– half a pint of gin, lemon peel, lemon juice, sugar, maraschino, a pint and a quarter of water and two bottles of iced soda water.

You would not need many of these to become quite relaxed quite quickly!

Sack and Falstaff.

Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV eulogies on sack saying it not only makes for excellent wit but also the best soldiers:

“A good sherris sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the dull and crudy vapors which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit“. 

The second your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which
cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the
badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms
and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes.
illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all
rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital
commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their
captain, the heart, who, great and puff’d up with this
doth any deed of courage—and this valour comes of sherris.
that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that
it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil
till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof
it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did
naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile,
bare land, manured, husbanded, and till’d, with excellent
endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris,
that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand
the first humane principle I would teach them should be to
forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.

Merry Wives of Windsor

In the Merry wives of Windsor Falstaff is still always drinking sack.  He asks Bardolph ‘Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in’t.‘ Toast is thought to freshen up stale sack.  Also, it could be drunk hot as suggested by Falstaff asking for:

‘Go brew me a pottle of sack finely.’

Bardolph asks if he wants the sack with eggs but Falstaff refuses asking for his sack to be a

‘Simple of itself; I’ll have no pullet-sperm in my brewage.’

A simple is the opposite of a compound, so pure with no additions (apart from the toast!).  Pullet sperm is, in think, a dismissive reference to eggs. Sack posset was original a medicine but later a popular treat made with eggs, cream, spices and sack. Once concocted, the top would be a foamy or crusty cap, the middle a custard and the bottom a spicy hot alcohol.

First Published in 2022 and revised December 2023, 2024, 2025

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Collect your Holly & Ivy December 18th

Picture of Christmas greenery on a gift box
Holly and Ivy by Tjana Drndarski-via unsplash

So, the old Sun is dying, and if the Sun keeps going down we are all going to die. With all of nature dying or hibernating, evergreens are a symbol of a promise/proof that life will continue through the dark days. So, with its bright-green leaves and its luminous berries, Holly is the ideal evergreen for the Solstice. And as the prickles symbolise Christ’s Crown of Thorns, and the berries the red blood of Jesus, the symbolism works, too, for Christians.

Henry Mayhew (editor of Punch) in his ‘London Labour and London Poor’ (1851–62) talks of Christmasing for Laurel, Ivy, Holly, and Mistletoe. He calculated that 250,000 branches of Holly were purchased from street coster mongers every Christmas. He says that every housekeeper will expend something from 2d to 1s 6d, while the poor buy a pennyworth or halfpennyworth each. He says that every room will have the cheery decoration of holly. St Pauls Cathedral would take 50 to a 100 shillings worth.

He also calculates that 100,000 plum puddings are eaten. Mistletoe he believes is less often used than it used to be, and he hopes that ‘No Popery’ campaigners will not attack Christmassing again.

Hot plum pudding seller from Sam Syntax Cries of London 1820s from the Gentle Author Spitalfields Life web site
Hot plum pudding seller from Sam Syntax Cries of London, 1820s
from the Gentle Author Spitalfields Life website

Culpeper on Ivy (1814 edition):

‘Ivy’ says Culpeper in his Herbal of 1653, its winter-ripening berries are useful to drink before you ‘set to drink hard’ because it will ‘preserve from drunkenness’. And, moreover, the leaves (bruised and boiled) and dropped into the same wine you had a ‘surfeit’ of the night before provides the ‘speediest cure’. (The Perpetual Almanac of Charles Kightly)

It is so well known to every child almost, to grow in woods upon the trees, and upon the stone walls of churches, houses, &c. and sometimes to grow alone of itself, though but seldom.

Time. It flowers not until July, and the berries are not ripe until Christmas, when they have felt Winter frosts.

Government and virtues. It is under the dominion of Saturn. A pugil of the flowers, which may be about a dram, (saith Dioscorides) drank twice a day in red wine, helps the lask, and bloody flux. It is an enemy to the nerves and sinews, being much taken inwardly, out very helpful to them, being outwardly applied. Pliny saith, the yellow berries are good against the jaundice; and taken before one be set to drink hard, preserves from drunkenness, and helps those that spit blood; and that the white berries being taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, kills the worms in the belly. The berries are a singular remedy to prevent the plague, as also to free them from it that have got it, by drinking the berries thereof made into a powder, for two or three days together. They being taken in wine, do certainly help to break the stone, provoke urine, and women’s courses. The fresh leaves of Ivy, boiled in vinegar, and applied warm to the sides of those that are troubled with the spleen, ache, or stitch in the sides, do give much ease. The same applied with some Rosewater, and oil of Roses, to the temples and forehead, eases the head-ache, though it be of long continuance. The fresh leaves boiled in wine, and old filthy ulcers hard to be cured washed therewith, do wonderfully help to cleanse them. It also quickly heals green wounds, and is effectual to heal all burnings and scaldings, and all kinds of exulcerations coming thereby, or by salt phlegm or humours in other parts of the body. The juice of the berries or leaves snuffed up into the nose, purges the head and brain of thin rheum that makes defluxions into the eyes and nose, and curing the ulcers and stench therein; the same dropped into the ears helps the old and running sores of them; those that are troubled with the spleen shall find much ease by continual drinking out of a cup made of Ivy, so as the drink may stand some small time therein before it be drank. Cato saith, That wine put into such a cup, will soak through it, by reason of the antipathy that is between them.

https://www.complete-herbal.com/culpepper/ivy.htm

Happy Eponalia

Roman Horse from Bunwell, Norfolk. Illustration by Sue Walker.

In 2021 I posted about Eponalia for the 18th Dec but I have now added the text to this page.

I’ve been too busy working on my Jane Austen and Christmas Virtual Tour ) to post over the last few days. And I have, therefore, shamelessly stolen this post off my Facebook friend Sue Walker, who is a talented archaeological illustrator, artist and a very good photographer.

She wrote: ‘the 18th December is the festival of the Celtic goddess Epona, the protector of horses, she was adopted by the Romans and became a favourite with the cavalry. This finely sculpted bronze horse with a head dress and symbol on its chest is 37mm high – found in Bunwell #Norfolk #Archaeology’

First published on December 17th 2022, Revised and republished December 2023

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St Hildegard of Bingen. Visions of Migraine, December 17th

Hildegard von Bingen receives a divine inspiration and passes it on to her scribe. From the Rupertsberg Codex of Liber Scivias.
St Hildegard of Bingen receives a divine inspiration and passes it on to her scribe. From the Rupertsberg Codex of Liber Scivias.

What a relief! Here is a Saint who was not flayed alive, burnt on a griddle, scratched with wool combs, crucified upside down, beheaded, eyes gouged out, etc. etc. (consider identifying the Saints in this list as my Christmas Quiz). She died of illness, aged 81 and was famous not just for her visions but her erudition, her scientific writings, and her musical compositions. She came from the Rhineland area of Germany.

Before you proceed to read this post listen to this YouTube clip of her sublime music.

Hildegard of Bingen: De Spiritu Sancto (Holy Spirit, The Quickener Of Life)

Magistra Bingen, Monophony and Migraine

She was elected as Magistra (Mother Superior) of her Convent in 1136, and went on to found two other nunneries. But, was made famous by her writings on her visions. She was also a renowned composer of sacred monophony,

There has been speculation that her visions were caused by migraine. Read Mary Sharratt’s piece for more details, from which I took the following quotation.

‘When I was forty-two years and seven months old, Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain, and inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast, not like a burning but like a warming flame, as the sun warms anything its rays touch.‘

Hildegard von Bingen, Scivias, translated by Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., and Jane Bishop

Writings on Science and Medicine

Among the many books she wrote were two famous and early books on medicine and science. Her medical writing was highly practical although, of course, based on the humoural theories which had held sway since Hippocrates. However, she did think that the four humours had a hierarchy. She considered blood and phlegm the more superior humours, representing the celestial elements of fire and air. While black bile and yellow bile represented the earthly humours of earth and water.

Just as physicists today look to find a unifying theory of everything, Hildegard also tried to find unities within the body of classical knowledge. According to Wikipedia, she:

‘often focuses on interrelated patterns of four: “the four elements (fire, air, water, and earth), the four seasons, the four humours, the four zones of the earth, and the four major winds.” ‘

Linked also to the celestial bodies and to religion, she gave her world view in Causae et Curae c. 42:

It happens that certain men suffer diverse illnesses. This comes from the phlegm which is superabundant within them. For if man had remained in paradise, he would not have had the flegmata within his body, from which many evils proceed, but his flesh would have been whole and without dark humour [livor]. However, because he consented to evil and relinquished good, he was made into a likeness of the earth, which produces good and useful herbs, as well as bad and useless ones, and which has in itself both good and evil moistures. From tasting evil, the blood of the sons of Adam was turned into the poison of semen, out of which the sons of man are begotten. And therefore their flesh is ulcerated and permeable [to disease]. These sores and openings create a certain storm and smoky moisture in men, from which the flegmata arise and coagulate, which then introduce diverse infirmities to the human body. All this arose from the first evil, which man began at the start, because if Adam had remained in paradise, he would have had the sweetest health, and the best dwelling-place, just as the strongest balsam emits the best odour; but on the contrary, man now has within himself poison and phlegm and diverse illnesses.

Wikipedia

And here I was hoping to find light and joy in a medieval Saint’s story! So we seem to be doomed by Adam’s Fall, and the poor quality of his semen. (Having recently watched Hugo Blick’s Wild West box set ‘The English’, I can quite understand the syphilitic underpinnings of Hildegard’s theory).

It also reminds me of Pandora’s Box. At least we know the Greco-Roman Gods were flawed divinities. While the Abrahamic God is omnipotent. Why then does he allow evil, cruel or unfair outcomes from his own creations?

Feverfew

Feverfew CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=216947

On the subject of headaches, Hildegard was a keen user of feverfew, which has been, since the 18th Century, a suggested cure for Migraine. I didn’t find it worked for me, being a sufferer since age 12. And it never occurred to me to think that the flashing lights, partial temporary blindness, tingling muscles and devastating headaches might be a gift from God.

Hildegard wrote the following about feverfew:

“If you suffer from a sick intestine, boil the Motherswort with water and butter or oil and add some spelt flour. Prepare a drink, for it helps the intestines.”

Hildegard of Bingen, Physica, Cap. 116 quoted in Hildegard’s Feverfew Use (www.healthyhildegard.com/feverfew-uses)

And so it became popular among women for gynaecological issues and abdominal pain. Feverfew has flowers like a daisy, ‘growing in every hedgerow’ according to Mrs Grieve’s English Herbal. Grieve’s says it is good for nervous and hysterical complaints; low-spirits; as a syrup good for coughs; as a tincture against swellings caused by bites of insects and vermin. However, https://www.drugs.com/npp/feverfew.html says the :

‘leaves possess emmenagogic activity (ejection of the placenta and fetal membranes) and may induce abortion. Use is not recommended during breastfeeding or in children younger than 2 years.‘

And there are also potential issues.

St Hildegard seems to have two special days – one is Dec 17th and the other is the day she died, September 17th 1179 which is her ‘Liturgical Feast’.

On This Day

1538 – The Pope, Paul III, finally passes a Bull of Excommunication against Henry VIII and declares his Kingdom forfeit. By which time it was far too late to have much impact. Pope Clement had first warned Henry of the risk of Excommunication at the end oof 1531. Henry was told to treat his Queen with ‘marital affection’ in all things. Had he taken decisive steps at this early stage would the outcome have been different?

First Published on December 18th, 2022, Revised and republished December 2023, 2024, 2025, On This Day added February 2026

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St. Lucy & Eye Care through the Ages December 14th

Medieval Cataract Surgery – calling couching Eye Care through the Ages .

So, on St Lucy’s Day, you, being someone worried about your eyes, might have sought an altar dedicated to St Lucy, the patron saint of eye health. (see December 13th’s Post on St Lucy). Although you may be disappointed that there has been no miraculous cure for you, you might have been encouraged to do something about it. So that’s what this post is about.

There are only two churches in the UK dedicated to St Lucy or St Lucia. One run by the National Trust in Upton Magna, Shropshire, but there must have been a few chapels in Cathedrals and Abbeys dedicated to her. I have my eyes open for them!

For Redness of the Eye or Pink Eye

There are many household books still, existing. These show that much of medical practice was carried out in the home, by ordinary men and women. More often women, actively not only collected useful recipes and cures, but also tested them out and improved them. Here is an example:

For the redness of eyes, or bloodshot. Take red wine, rosewater, and women’s milk, and mingle all these together: and put a piece of wheaten bread leavened, as much as will cover the eye, and lay it in the mixture. When you go to bed, lay the bread upon your eyes calmer and it will help them.

Fairfax Household book, 17th/ 18th century. (Reported in The Perpetual Calendar of Folklore by Charles Kightly)

‘Pink eye’ is mentioned in a document unearthed at the Roman Fort of Vindolanda.  It lists the troops of the Cohort in occupation.  We read that of the garrison of 750, 474 are absent with 276 in the fort of which 38 are sick, 10 with ‘pink eye’.  This is probably conjunctivitis.

Prevention is better than cure

Things hurtful to the eyes. Garlic, onions, radish, drunkenness, lechery, sweet wines, salt meats, coleworts, dust, smoke, and reading presently after supper.

Good for the eyes. fennel, celandine, eyebright, vervain, roses, cloves and cold water.

Whites Almanack 1627

Cataract operations

Cataract operations have been carried out since 800 BC using a method called ‘couching’.

“The practitioner would sit facing the patient and pass a long needle through the cornea to impale the lens. “He would then forcibly dislodge the lens — rupturing the zonules — and push it into the vitreous cavity, where it would hopefully float to the bottom of the eye and out of the visual axis.”

This was a last resort when the cataract was opaque and the patients nearly blind. It would mean they would need very thick lenses to see well again but, crude as it seems, it worked.

But the operation, without anaesthetics must have been a considerable ordeal. The recovery (still required today for those suffering from a displaced retina) means that the patient has to lie on their back for a week with supports on either side of the head to prevent movement. Of course, there was a serious risk of infection, so prophylactic visits to a chapel of St Lucy might be called for.

The modern treatment for cataracts was established in the 1940s and offers a great solution in 15 minutes surgery. Currently, the NHS has been having trouble dealing with all the cases required, (6% of surgery is for cataract operations). Before COVID-19, there was some talk about cataracts being, in practice, not readily available on the NHS. The waiting time is supposed to be 18 weeks but, for example, at NHS Chesterfield Royal Hospital the waiting time approaches almost 10 months. But waiting times around the country vary from 10 weeks to over a year.

Patrick Brontë’s Eye

On 26th August 1846 Charlotte Brontë took her father to Manchester from Haworth for Cataract surgery. The operation took 15 minutes but without anaesthesia. He was very calm and said the pain was ‘a burning pain.’ It was vital he stay still through the pain. Then, he had to remain in bed for a month in the dark, minimising movement. Leeches were applied to his face, to reduce the inflammation of the wound. He was looked after by a nurse 24 hours a day, supervised by Charlotte. She used the time she spent waiting in writing Jane Eyre. Her Father’s vision was significantly improved and he was able to resume his Parish duties.

Here is a youtube film about Patrick Brontë‘s operation:

Looking through Samuel Pepys’s eyes

You will note, above, that it was considered bad for the eyes to read in low light. It is a myth and not true. Poor Samuel Pepys was continually worried about his reading and writing habits ruining his eyesight. This is an extract from the poignant last entry in his famous diary:

And thus ends all that I doubt I should ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear: and therefore resolve from this time forward to have it kept by my people in long-hand. I must be consented to sit down no more than is fit for them and all the world to know; or, if they be anything, which cannot be much now my amores are past and my eyes hindering me almost all other pleasures. I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open, to add, here and there, a note in shorthand with my own hand.

Samuel Pepys Diary, May 31st

The sad thing is that Pepys had another 38 years before he went blind, and what glorious diary entries have we missed because of his false fears of the effect of eye strain?

First published in 2022, updates 2023,  2024 and 2025

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St Lucy: Festival of Light December 13th

St Lucy, by Francesco del Cossa (c. 1430 – c. 1477) (Wikipedia User:Postdlf)

I reposted my two posts on St Lucy, and the follow-up email on eye-care, on the appropriate days. But the email to subscribers was not sent. So here it is again. The name Lucy is from the same Latin origin (Lucidus) as lucent, lux, and lucid. It means to be bright, to shine or be clear. It is similar to the Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white, blank, light, bright, clear”. Luke has the same origins (bright one, bringer of light and light of the sacred flame) and is very appropriate for the most literate of the evangelists.

St Lucy of Syracuse

St Lucy is from Syracuse in Sicily. She was a victim of the Diocletian Persecution of Christians in the early 4th Century. She is an authentic early martyr. But details of her story cannot be relied upon as true. She was a virgin, denounced as a Christian by her rejected suitor. Then, miraculously saved from serving in a brothel.; destruction by fire, but did not escape having her eyes gouged out. Finally, her throat was cut with a sword.

Her connection to light (and the eye gouging) makes her the protectress against eye disease. So she is depicted holding two eyes as you can see in the picture at the top of the page. Other symbols include a palm branch which represents martyrdom and victory over evil. Other symbols are lamp, dagger, sword or two oxen.

She appears in Dante’s Divine Comedy, as the messenger to Beatrice whose job is to get Virgil to help Dante explore Heaven, Hell and Heaven.

St. Aldhelm (died in 709) puts St Lucy in the list of the main venerated saints of the early English Church, confirmed by the Venerable Bede (died in 735). Her festival was an important celebration one in England. It was views ‘as a holy day of the second rank in which no work but tillage or the like was allowed’.

Dimming of the Light

This year is a glorious sunny St Lucy’s Day.  But, the afternoons soon dim. So, at this time of the year, we are in need of a festival with bright lights to cheer us up! And St Lucy’s Day is the beginning of the winter festival that culminates with the Solstice, where the old sun dies, and the new one is born. December the 13th was the Solstice until Pope Gregory reformed the Calendar in the 16th Century, as nine days were lopped off the year of transition.

Sankta Lucia in Sweden

The festival of Sankta Lucia is particularly popular in Sweden, where December 13th is thought to be the darkest night. In recent years, the Swedish community in the UK has had a service to Lucia in St Pauls. But the last couple of years has been in Westminster Cathedral.  This year on the 5th December.  And a Santa Lucia Carol Concert on 12 December at St Paul’s. But every year it has either been and gone or  sold out by the time I get around to thinking of going!

St Stephens Church by Christopher Wren (Photo K Flude) a rare view during building work.

I found out about Sankta Lucia from a Swedish choir who hired me to do a tour of the City of London some years ago. We went into Christopher Wren’s marvellous St Stephen’s Church.  Under the magnificent Dome, the choir fancied the acoustics and spontaneously sang. I recorded a snatch of it, which you can hear below

Swedish Choir singing in St Stephen’s London
St Stephens Church in the middle foreground of the photo. (Photo K Flude)

You can watch the Sankta Lucia service in Westminster Cathedral below:

The Importance of Light

Recent medical research has shown the importance of light, not only to our mental health but to our sleep health.  Work places need to have a decent light level with ‘blue light’ as a component of the lighting. It is also an excellent idea to help your circadian rhymes by going for a morning walk, or morning sun bathing, even on cloudy days. This will help you sleep better. And so St Lucy remains relevant as an inspiration

To see my post on Roman and Medieval eye care and St Lucy click this link.

First Posted on December 13th, 2022, updated on December 13th 2023, 2024 and 2025.

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‘There’s Rosemary, that’s for Remembrance’ December 7th

Flowering Rosemary
Flowering Rosemary in the author’s garden

According to the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly, this is the time when Robins are much to be seen singing their winter song, and when it is time to protect plants, particularly Rosemary, against winter frosts.

In December, rosemary flowers with a delicate blue flower. Rosemary was one of the most important plants, metaphorically and medically. Mrs Grieve, in her ‘Modern Herbal’ says it is used in medicine for illnesses of the brain and was thought to strengthen the memory. And as rosemary helps the memory, they are symbolically/metaphorically associated with friendship, love, worship and mourning. A branch of Rosemary was given as a gift to wedding guests, so they would remember the love shown at the ceremony. It was also entwined in the Bride’s wreath.

Shakespeare uses Rosemary in his plant lore in Hamlet.

OPHELIA: There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.
Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s
for thoughts.

LAERTES: A document in madness:
thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPHELIA: There’s fennel for you, and columbines.
There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me.
We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays.
O, you must wear your rue with a difference.

There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets,
but they withered all when my father died. They
say ‘a made a good end.

(sings) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

Ham IV.v.176

Rue is the herb of grace and has the sense of ‘regret’. Pansies are also for remembrance, and their heart shaped flowers are for love and affection. Fennel represents infidelity and Columbines insincerity or flattery. Daisies are for innocence. Violets are associated with death, particularly of the young. As to how Orphelia means them all to be understood is not entirely clear, particularly Fennel and Columbine. Some think they are directed towards Claudius and/or Gertrude.

https://study.com/learn/lesson/flower-symbolism-hamlet-william-shakespeare-overview-examples.html

Being evergreen, Rosemary was associated with religion and everlasting life. It was called the rose of the Virgin Mary. Lying on a bed of rosemary, the Virgin’s cloak was said to have been dyed blue.  Indeed, Mary is mostly depicted in a blue cloak in Renaissance paintings.

And so Rosemary is especially important for Christmas. At Christmas, it was used to bedeck the house and used at funerals to remember the dead.

The Virgin Mary Googled.

Its strong aroma means it was used as an incense and also used in magic spells

Thomas More let rosemary ‘runne all over my garden walls’ because bees love it and as sacred to remembrance, therefore to friendship.

Rosemary flowering in december
Rosemary flowering in December

I mostly use Rosemary for the very rare occasions when I cook lamb, but it is much more versatile than that, or so the SpruceEats website tells me:

‘Rosemary is used as a seasoning in various dishes, such as soups, casseroles, salads, and stews. Use rosemary with chicken and other poultry, game, lamb, pork, steaks, and fish, especially oily fish. It also goes well with grains, mushrooms, onions, peas, potatoes, and spinach. ‘

https://www.thespruceeats.com/all-about-rosemary-3050513

On this Day

1917- End of the Battle of Cambrai in which Tanks were first used. The tanks had initial success when over 400 hundred of them were used by the British on the first day of the battle. Because the British Army did not precede the attack with the usual artillery barrage, the attack was a complete surprise and the British penetrated deep into the German Lines. But the army had too few troops to exploit the breakthrough and by early December the Germans had mostly recaptured the territory the tanks had won. So the battle was indecisive, but successfully showed the role of the tank in future battles. Casualties amounted to about 45,000 on each side.

1941 – Pearl Harbour bombed. The Japanese attack killed more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel were killed. Another 1,100 at least were wounded, and eight battleships were damaged or destroyed.

On December 8th, Congress approved Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war on Japan. In the Senate, the vote was 82 – 0 and 388–1 in the House.

On 11 December 1941. Germany declared war on the US, in line with the Tripartite Pact between the two countries and Italy. Later that same day, the US declared war on Germany, with no dissenters from the vote.

First published Dec 7th 2023, revised 2024, 2025

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The Great British Smog December 5th 1952

Image from Facebook of The Great British Smog

Today is the anniversary of the Great Smog. What happened in 1952 changed Britain forever. A terrible smog developed which lasted for a week, beginning on December 5th 1952. It killed probably 12,000 people. The hospitals, the emergency services, the mortuaries, the funeral parlours had more work to do than during the Blitz or the Cholera epidemics. Higher deaths than normal were still occurring as late as January 1953.

A temperature inversion kept a blanket of cold damp air over London. This stoped the pollutants being dispersed and blown away. But post-war austerity (this time introduced by the Labour Party) made it such a killer. Britain was exporting our top grade coals. And allowing domestic users to use terrible stuff called ‘nutty slack’. This was sludge, dust, and fragments of very low grade and therefore very smokey coal. 18% of the coal used was domestic, but it contributed 60% to the emissions. The fog was yellow and sulphuric. Public Transport had to be halted as no one could see beyond their hands in front of their faces. People had to leave cinemas because no one could see the screens.

What changed Britain was that it finally persuaded people that coal-polluted air was a killer. People had debated it since the Victorian period, but did very little about it, some even believing smoke was good for you. In World War II the government encouraged smog near Cities, to cloak the industrial areas from the Luftwaffe Bombers. After 1952, it was clear what a killer smog was. In 1956, the Clean Air Act established zones where only smokeless fuels could be used. Polluting industries were dispersed from the towns. Taller chimneys were used. This eventually cleared up the problem.

Pollution still killing people

Job done, or so we all thought. Dr Gary Fuller (see below) tells us that we are incapable of dealing with more than one pollution threat at a time. In 1962, another smog, created by sulphur dioxide pollution, killed perhaps 1,000 people in London. And London still has a lot of air pollution, not just from traffic fumes, and it is still killing people.

Traffic pollution in London is being dealt with more aggressively by the current Mayor. Partly as a response to a brave coroner who found that a 9-year-old girl, Ella Kissi-Debrah, died because of air pollution. (girls-death-contributed-to-by-air-pollution-coroner-rules-in-landmark-case). The London Mayor began addressing the issue by first creating and then expanding, the Ultra Low Emission Zone, to encompass all the London Boroughs. This has been very controversial as it has meant many people having to sell cars that do not meet the standard. This had the unfortunate byproduct which was that it enabled the unpopular Conservative Party hanging on, by the skin of their teeth, in Boris Johnson’s old constituency.

The creation of Local Traffic Neighbourhoods are another front against diesal pollution. They allow local authorities to introduce traffic reduction methods by blocking off many neighbourhood roads from through traffic. These have been fought tooth and nail by its opponents. But have been a success, cutting local pollution.

Freedom from Air Pollution?

But much less well known are other threats. For example, there is an increasing threat from trendy wood burning stoves which are very polluting. I very reluctantly decided to install a diesal heater in my narrowboat as it is less polluting that a cosy Wood Burning Stove. Yet their sales are soaring as people seek ways of mitigating soaring post-Ukraine war electricity prices.

Agriculture is very polluting too, with fertiliser, and manure mixing with urban pollution to create dangerous particulates. It turns out that the most polluting time of the year is not Autumn, nor Winter but Spring because of this agricultural activity.

Listen to the BBC’s excellent episode of ‘Inside Science: Killer Smog’. If you cannot use BBC Sounds, then go to the link to a Podcast at the bottom of the piece. These are both based on the work of Dr. Gary Fuller of King’s College, London, detailed in his book ‘Air Pollution: The Invisible Killer’.

We need to stop being short-sighted, not just ‘solving’ one problem before moving onto the next. We need a fundamental revision of our systems to allow us to enjoy the last two of the four freedoms so eloquently expressed by Roosevelt (the subject of the 2024 BBC Reith Lectures):

  1. Freedom of speech
  2. Freedom of worship
  3. Freedom from want
  4. Freedom from fear

Air Pollution Podcast click here:

To see my post on the Great Storm go to my post here.

First Published on December 5th 2022, Revised and republished on December 5th 2023, 2024 and 2025

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December and Kalendar of Shepherds December 1st

French 15th Century December and the ‘Kalendar of Shepherds’

December comes from the Latin for ten – meaning the tenth month. Of course, it is the twelfth month because the Romans added a couple of extra months especially to confuse us. For a discussion on this, look at an early blog post which explains the Roman Calendar.

In Anglo-Saxon it is ærra gēola which means the month before Yule. In Gaelic it is An Dùbhlachd – the Dark Days which is part of An Geamhrachd, meaning the winter. The word comes from an early Celtic term for cold, from an ‘ancient linguistic source for ‘stiff and rigid’’, which describes the hard frosty earth. (see here for a description of the Gaelic Year). In Welsh, Rhafgyr, the month of preparation (for the shortest day).

For the Christian Church, it’s the period preparing for the arrival of the Messiah into the World. (see my post on Advent Sunday which this year was yesterday November 30th).

For a closer look at the month, I’m turning to the 15th Century Kalendar of Shepherds. Its illustration (see above) for December shows an indoor scene, and is full of warmth as the bakers bake pies and cakes for Christmas. Firewood has been collected, and the Goodwife is bringing something in from the Garden. The stars signs are Sagittarius and Capricorn.

Sagitrarius star sign

The Sparrow and the Warm Hall

The Venerable Bede has an interesting story (reported in ‘Winters in the World’ by Eleanor Parker) in which a Pagan, contemplating converting to Christianity, talks about a sparrow flying into a warm, convivial Great Hall, from the bitter cold winter landscape. The sparrow enjoys this warmth, but flies straight out, back into the cold Darkness. Human life, says the Pagan, is like this: a brief period in the light, warm hall, preceded and followed by cold, unknown darkness. If Christianity, he advises, can offer some certainty as to what happens in this darkness, then it’s worth considering.

This contrast between the warm inside and the cold exterior is mirrored in Neve’s Almanack of 1633 who sums up December thus:

This month, keep thy body and head from cold: let thy kitchen be thine Apothecary; warm clothing thy nurse; merry company thy keepers, and good hospitality, thine Exercise.

Quoted in ‘the Perpetual Almanack of Folklore’ by Charles Kightly

December in the ‘Kalendar of Shepherds’

The Kalendar of Shepherds text below gives a vivid description of December weather. Dating from 1626 it gives a detailed look at the excesses of Christmas, which people are on holiday, and who is still working hard. But it concludes it is a costly month.

Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks of 1626 – December from the Kalendar of Shepherds

Six Dozen Years – a Lifespan

The other section of the Kalendar then elaborates on the last six years of a man’s life, with hair going white, body ‘crooked and feeble’. (from 66 to 72). The conceit here is that there are twelve months of the year, and a man’s lot of ‘Six score years and ten’ is allocated six years to each month. So December is not just about the 12th Month of the Year but also the last six years of a person’s allotted span. The piece allows the option of living beyond 72, ‘and if he lives any more, it is by his good guiding and dieting in his youth.’ Good advice, as we now know. But living to 100 is open to but few.

Kalendar of Shepherds

Interesting from my point of view as I have reached the end of my life span as suggested by the Calendar, and my father is 98 and approaching his hundred!

About the Kalendar of Shepherds.

The Kalendar was printed in 1493 in Paris and provided ‘Devices for the 12 Months.’ The version I’m using is a modern (1908) reconstruction of it. It uses wood cuts from the original 15th Century version and adds various texts from 16th and 17th Century sources. (Couplets by Tusser ‘Five Hundred Parts of Good Husbandrie 1599. Text descriptions of the month from Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks of 1626.) This provides an interesting view of what was going on in the countryside every month.

For more on the Kalendar look at my post here.

The original Kalendar can be read here: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/f4824s6t

To see the full Kalendar, go here:

On This Day

1981 – Launch of the BBC Micro

1990 The UK was rejoined to Europe for the first time for 8000 years, when the Channel Tunnellers breached the final wall of rock. French and British workers exchanged flags and shook hands. The Tunnel was opened to traffic in 1994 more than 10 years after work started and 200 years since Napoleon proposed the idea. Read what ICE has to say about the (ICE – Institute of Civil Engineers!).

Britain was connected to the Continent until about 6,100BC, the North Sea, the Channel, and the Irish Sea were all dry (or marshy lands). Water levels were rising and ice melting. the Storegga Slides in Norway saw huge cliffs of ice slipped into the sea. This caused a tsunami over 30ft high and penetrating 25 miles inland. Read the BBC here.

Since then, Britain has been an Island. Archaeologists have been exploring the flooded area which is known as Dogger Land, after the Dogger Bank. (for more on Dogger Land.)

First Published in 2024, republished 2025

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Night Fowling November 19th

Gervase Markham Hungers Prevention: or, the Whole Art of Fowling by Water and Land. (Printed, London: for Francis Grove, 1655).

This was the period of the year for ‘Night-fowling’. Gervase Markham wrote a whole book about it in the 17th Century. It was called Hungers Prevention: or, the Whole Art of Fowling by Water and Land. (Printed London: for Francis Grove, 1655).

In it, he tells the reader to go to ‘a stubble field in November when the air is mild and the moon not shining. There take a dolorous low bell, and net. Spread the net over the stubble where there may be fowl, ring the bell, light fires of dry straw, and the fowl will fly and become entangled in the net.‘

Title illustration from Gervase Markham Hungers Prevention: or, the Whole Art of Fowling by Water and Land. (Printed London: for Francis Grove, 1655).

In Britain today, the Wild fowling season is from 1 September – to 20th February and largely takes place on the marshes and foreshore.

Duck, Geese, waders and other birds are the quarry. Species involved include:
Gadwall goose, Canada goose, Common snipe, Coot, Goldeneye duck, Greylag goose, Golden plover, Moorhen, Mallard, Pink-footed goose, Jack snipe, Pintail, European Woodcock, white-fronted goose, Pochard, Scaup1, Shoveler, Teal, Tufted duck, Wigeon

(from https://basc.org.uk/wildfowling/advice/wildfowling-code-of-practice/)

For more Gervase Markham books see my post here:

On this Day

On this day, in 1660, Charles I was born.

In 1863. President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

World Toilet Day

Today is the United Nations’s World Toilet Day. It is ‘Sustainable Development Goal 6 Safe toilets for all by 2030’. It is astonishing that we, as a species, have:

‘3.5 billion people (who) still live without safely managed sanitation, including 419 million who practise open defecation.’

That is a third of the world’s population if my figures are correct. It also impacts particularly badly on women in those areas where decent hygiene cannot be guaranteed.

These are the ‘Key messages you should know on World Toilet Day’

  1. Toilets are a place for peace. This essential space, at the centre of our lives, should be safe and secure. But for billions of people, sanitation is under threat from conflict, climate change, disasters and neglect.
  2. Toilets are a place for protection. By creating a barrier between us and our waste, sanitation services are essential for public and environmental health. But when toilet systems are inadequate, damaged or broken, pollution spreads and deadly diseases get unleashed.
  3. Toilets are a place for progress. Sanitation is a human right. It protects everyone’s dignity, and especially transforms the lives of women and girls. More investment and better governance of sanitation are critical for a fairer, more peaceful world.

First published Nov 19th 2022. Republished Nov 19th 2023, 2024, 2025

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Exercise to keep you warm and fit for the ordeal of winter – November 15th

Medieval drawing of an archer
Medieval drawing of an archer. Good resistance exercise to get the muscle/fat ratio on the healthy side?

‘Leaping is an exercise very commendable and healthful for the body.’

The Compleat Gentleman 1634

Thomas Fuller in his book published in 1642 says:

Running, Leaping, and Dancing, the descants on the plain song of walking, are all excellent exercises. And yet those are the best recreations which besides refreshing enable, at least dispose, men to some other good ends. Bowling teaches mens hands and eyes Mathematicks, and the rules of Proportion: Swimming hath sav’d many a mans life, when himself hath been both the wares, and the ship: Tilting and Fencing is warre without anger; and manly sports are the Grammer of Military performance. But above all Shooting is a noble recreation…..

‘The Holy State’ by Thomas Fuller B.D. and Prebendarie of Sarum

Published St Pauls Churchyard 1642

The Holy State is a fascinating book – it provides instruction on how to be the Good Wife; the Good Advocate; the Good King; Bishop etc. etc.; has general rules of behaviour; some case studies of good lives to emulate and discussion of profane states not to emulate.

It can be read online here:

On This Day

15th of November 1712 A Famous Duel between Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton

‘In short, they fought at seven this morning. The dog Mohun was killed on the spot; and while the Duke was over him, Mohun shortening his sword, stabbed him in at the shoulder to the heart. The Duke was helped towards the Cake House by the Ring in Hyde Park (where they fought) and died on the grass, before he could reach the house; and was brought home in his coach by eight, while the poor Duchess was asleep.‘

Jonathan Swift ‘The Journal to Stella’ 1712

Lord Mohun seemed to be the villian, not only making the initial affront, but also issuing the challenge and stabbing his rival in such an underhand way! After the Duel there was fighting between the servants of the men, and the seconds had to flee to avoid arrest. Duels were illegal but remained a part of upperclass society into the 19th Century. Pehaps, Thomas Fuller’s advocacy of fencing as a good keep fit exercise is not such a great idea!

Text taken from ‘A London Year’ Compiled by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison

To read my post on Jonathan Swift and Chelsea Buns see my post here.

First published November 2023, republished 2025