Category: Georgian

Posted on

Archive of Guided Walks/Events for 2025

Every year I keep a list of my guided walks, and tours on my blog the ‘Almanac of the Past’. Here are the walks I have so far done in 2025.

Here is my ‘Almost Complete List of Guided Walks, Study Tours, Lectures’

Ring in the New Year Virtual Guided Walk

Old New Year Card

Monday 1st January 2025 7.00 pm
On this Virtual Walk we look at how London has celebrated the New Year over the past 2000 years.

The New Year has been a time of review, renewal, and anticipation of the future from time immemorial. The Ancient Britons saw the Solstice as a symbol of a promise of renewal as the Sun was reborn. As the weather turns to bleak mid winter, a festival or reflection and renewal cheers everyone up. This idea of renewal was followed by the Romans, and presided over by a two headed God called Janus who looked both backwards and forwards. Dickens Christmas Carol was based on redemption and his second great Christmas Book ‘The Chimes’ on the renewal that the New Year encouraged.

We look at London’s past to see where and how the New Year was celebrated. We also explore the different New Years we use and their associated Calendars – the Pagan year, the Christian year, the Roman year, the Jewish year, the Financial year, the Academic year and we reveal how these began. We look at folk traditions, Medieval Christmas Festivals, Boy Bishops, Distaff Sunday and Plough Monday, and other Winter Festival and New Year London traditions and folklore.

At the end, we use ancient methods to divine what is in store for us in 2023.

The virtual walk finds interesting and historic places in the City of London to link to our stories of Past New Year’s Days. We begin, virtually, at the Barbican Underground and continue to the Museum of London, the Roman Fort; Noble Street, Goldsmiths Hall, Foster Lane, St Pauls, Doctors Commons, St. Nicholas Colechurch and on towards the River Thames.

The Civil War, Restoration and the Great Fire of London Virtual Tour

The Great Fire of London looking towards StPauls Cathedral from an old print
The Great Fire of London looking towards StPauls Cathedral from an old print


7:30pm Fri 30th January 2025


January 30th is the Anniversary of the execution of Charles I and to commemorate it we explore the events and the aftermath of the Civil War in London.

Along with the Norman Conquest of 1066 and winning the World Cup in 1966 the Great Fire in 1666 are the only dates the British can remember!

And we remember the Great Fire because it destroyed one of the great medieval Cities in an epic conflagration that shocked the world.

But it wasn’t just the Great Fire that made the 17th Century an epic period in English History. There was a Civil War, beheading of the King, a Republic, a peaceful Restoration of the Monarch, the last great plague outbreak in the UK, the Glorious Revolution and the Great Wind.

The Virtual Walk puts the Great Fire in the context of the time – Civil War, anti-catholicism, plague, and the commercial development of London.
The walk brings to life 17th Century London. It starts with the events that lead up to the Civil War concentrating on Westminster and ends with a vivid recreation of the drama of the Fire as experienced by eye-witnesses. Route includes: Westminster, Fish Street Hill, Pudding Lane, Monument, Royal Exchange, Guildhall, Cheapside, St Pauls, Amen Corner, Newgate Street, Smithfield.


Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk

11.30 am Sun 9th Feb 2025 Monument Underground Station

Roman Riverside Wall being built
London Roman Riverside Wall o



This is a walking tour features the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and looks at life in the provincial Roman capital of Londinium.

This is a walking tour that features the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman London, and looks at life in the provincial Roman capital of Londinium.

Our Guides will be Publius Ovidius Naso and Marcus Valerius Martialis who will be helped by Kevin Flude, former Museum of London Archaeologist, Museum Curator and Lecturer.

We disembark at the Roman Waterfront by the Roman Bridge, and then explore the lives of the citizens as we walk up to the site of the Roman Town Hall, and discuss Roman politics. We proceed through the streets of Roman London, with its vivid and cosmopolitan street life via the Temple of Mithras to finish with Bread and Circus at the Roman Amphitheatre.

Zinger Read: Talk about a high-quality one-two punch. This walk investigates the groundbreaking archaeological discoveries of Roman London. And then it reconstructs life in a provincial Roman capital using archaeological and literary sources. Discoveries – insights – like flashes of lightning in a cloud. We begin at the site of the Roman bridge. We might be decent young Roman citizens in togas, having this and that bit of
explained to us as we make our way towards the Roman Town Hall. From there we head to the site of the excavation called ‘the Pompeii of the North.’ Followed by the Temple of Mithras. We finish with a walk along the Roman High Street in order to end at the site of the Roman Amphitheatre. So, yes, welcome to London as it was 2,000, 1,900, 1,800, 1,700 and 1,600 years ago. And, yes, the walk’s guided by a real expert, the distinguished emeritus Museum of London archaeologist Kevin Flude. That means you’ll see things other people don’t get to see, delve into London via fissures that aren’t visible, let alone accessible, to non-specialists.

REVIEWS
“Kevin, I just wanted to drop you a quick email to thank you ever so much for your archaeological tours of London! I am so thrilled to have stumbled upon your tours! I look forward to them more than you can imagine! They’re the best 2 hours of my week! 🙂 Best, Sue

Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Guided Walk

Georgian female engraving

2.30 pm Sunday 9th Feb 2025

Green Park underground station, Green Park exit, by the fountain To book

Also
9 February 2025Sunday2.30 pm4.30 pm
8 March 2025Saturday2.30 pm4.30 pm
6 April 2025Sunday11.30 am1.30 pm

2025 is the 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s Birth in Steventon, Hampshire. We celebrate her fictional and real life visits to Mayfair, the centre of the London section of Sense & Sensibility and where Jane came to visit her brother

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Jane Austen devotee in possession of the good fortune of a couple of free hours today must be in want of this walk.”

People associate Jane Austen and her characters with a rural setting. But London is central to both Jane Austen’s real life and her literary life. So, this tour will explore Jane’s connections with London and give the background to Sense and Sensibility, a good part of which is based in this very area. We begin with the place Jane’s coach would arrive from Hampshire, and then walk the streets haunted by Willougby; past shops visited by the Palmers, the Ferrars; visit the location of Jane Austen’s brother’s bank and see the publisher of Jane’s Books. The area around Old Bond Street was the home of the Regency elite and many buildings and a surprising number of the shops remain as they were in Jane Austen’s day.


Jane Austen’s ‘A Picture of London’ in 1809 Virtual Walk

sam_syntax-cries-of-london-1820s_gentle-author_03-hot-plum-pudding-seller


7.30 27th January 2025

With the help of a contemporary Guide Book, Jane Austen’s letters, and works we explore London in 1809.

‘The Picture of London for 1809 Being a CORRECT GUIDE to all the Curiosities, Amusements, Exhibitions, Public Establishments, and Remarkable Objects in and near London.’

This Guide Book to London might have been on Henry Austen’s shelf when his sister, Jane, came to visit him in London. But it enables us to tour the London that Jane Austen knew in some detail. We will look at the Curiosities as well as the shopping, residential, theatres areas as well as the Port, the Parks and the Palaces.

The guided walk is a thank you to Alix Gronau, who, having been to one of my lectures in 1994, wanted the book to come to me. I have had the book restored and am using it to explore London in 1809.

Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk

Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30 pm Sunday 9th February 25 To book


A Virtual Tour of Jane Austen’s Bath

Poster for the most socereign restorative Bath Water

7.30pm 10th February 2025


Tudor London – The City of Wolf Hall 11.30am Sat 22nd Feb 25


Myths, Legends, Archaeology and the Origins of London

Druids at All Hallows, by the Tower
Druids at All Hallows, by the Tower

2.30pm Sat 22nd February 2025 Tower Hill Underground

The walk tells the stories of our changing ideas about the origins of London during the Prehistoric, Roman and Saxon periods.

The walk is led by Kevin Flude, a former archaeologist at the Museum of London, who has an interest both in myths, legends and London’s Archaeology.

The walk will tell the story of the legendary origins of London which record that it was founded in the Bronze Age by an exiled Trojan and was called New Troy, which became corrupted to Trinovantum. This name was recorded in the words of Julius Caesar; and, then, according to Legend, the town was renamed after King Ludd and called Lud’s Dun. Antiquarians and Archaeologists have taken centuries to demolish this idea, and became convinced London was founded by the Romans. Recently, dramatic evidence of a Bronze Age presence in London was found.

When the Roman system broke down in 410 AD, historical records were almost non-existent, until the Venerable Bede recorded the building of St Pauls Cathedral in 604 AD. The two hundred year gap, has another rich selection of legends. which the paucity of archaeological remains struggles to debunk.

The walk will explore these stories and compare the myths and legends with Archaeological discoveries.

The route starts at Tower Hill, then down to the River at Billingsgate, London Bridge, and into the centre of Roman London.

Roman London – Literary & Archaeology Walk 11.30am Sat Mar 8th 25
Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 2.30pm Sat 8th Mar 25

The Decline And Fall Of Roman London Walk 11.30 Sat 22nd March 2025
London. 1066 and All That Walk Sat 2.30pm 22nd March 2025

Jane Austen’s London Anniversary Walk 11.30am Sun 6th Apr 25


Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk 2:30pm Sun 6th Apr 25

and

Chaucer’s London To Canterbury Virtual Pilgrimage 7.30pm Friday 18th April 25 To book


George Inn,Southwark
George Inn,Southwark


A Walk around Medieval London following in the footsteps of its resident medieval poet – Geoffrey Chaucer

One of the spectators at the Peasants Revolt was Geoffrey Chaucer, born in the Vintry area of London, who rose to be a diplomat, a Courtier and London’s Customs Officer. He lived with his wife in the Chamber above the Gate in the City Wall at Aldgate. His poetry shows a rugged, joyous medieval England including many scenes reflecting life in London. His stories document the ending of the feudal system, growing dissatisfaction with the corruption in the Church, and shows the robust independence with which the English led their lives.

His work helped change the fashion from poetry in French or Latin to acceptance of the English language as suitable literary language. This was helped by the growth of literacy in London as its Merchants and Guildsmen became increasingly successful. In 1422, for example, the Brewers decided to keep their records in English ‘as there are many of our craft who have the knowledge of reading and writing in the English idiom.’

Chaucer and other poets such as Langland give a vivid portrait of Medieval London which was dynamic, successful but also torn by crisis such as the Lollard challenge to Catholic hegemony, and the Peasants who revolted against oppression as the ruling classes struggled to resist the increased independence of the working people following the Black Death.

A walk which explores London in the Middle Ages, We begin at Aldgate, and follow Chaucer from his home to his place of work at the Customs House, and then to St Thomas Chapel on London Bridge, and across the River to where the Canterbury Tales start – at the Tabard Inn.

This is a London Walks event by Kevin Flude


Here are previous archive of guided walks and events

Archive of Events/Walks 2024
Archive of events/Walks 2023
Archive of Events/Walks 2022
Archive of Recent Walks (2021)
Archive of Resent Walks (2019-2020)

Posted on

Childermas & Christmas Games December 28th

Pick-up-sticks or Spillikins

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle-doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Holy Innocents Day or Childermas is dedicated to children on the day Herod ordered the slaughter of children aged two or under, in an attempt to kill the prophesied Messiah.

It is, therefore, as far as folklore is concerned, an ill-omened day so don’t begin any new enterprise or, indeed, attempt to go back to work. And remember, as Childermas falls on a Saturday this year, Saturdays throughout the year are all ill-omened days. Weather wise, as the fourth day of Christmas is warm, expect the fourth month, April to be similarly warm.

Christmas Games

So, despite your desire to go back to work, it’s best to spend the time in Christmas Games. The one I remember, most fondly, is pick-up-sticks or spillikins. You drop a pile of sticks onto a table-top and then have to pick up as many sticks as you can without disturbing any others. Your go ends when you move a stick. Different sticks have different values.

Another game we played at parties was, I discovered when researching for my Jane Austen’s Christmas Walk, also played in the Austen family. They called it Bullet Pudding. I don’t think we had a name for it, but it involves putting flour in a bowl, upending it on a plate, putting a bullet (in our case a coin) on the top. Players cut off bits of the flour until the coin falls into the basin and the unlucky player (me this year!) has to pick it up with his teeth.

Bullet Pudding Christmas game as played in the Flude family 24th December 2024

I have moved all the 18th Century Jane Austen Christmas Games content from here to the page shown below, as it was repetitive.

As the post partly concerned bullet pudding, here is a photo of the one we played with on 24th December, my 97-year-old dad is in the background. You can see what a messy game it can be!

Christmas with Jane Austen December 20th

Santa Klaus for the Elite

I enclose a link to a discussion about the origins of the American Santa Klaus and how this was a method for the elite to keep control of the rowdy working class in New York. The argument, in a nutshell, is that the folk Christmas was outside and rowdy, while Clement Moore who wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas” introduced a domesticated indoor middle class version of Father Christmas. It’s a fascinating spin on the traditional story.

https://skippedhistory.substack.com/p/professor-stephen-nissenbaum-on-santa-a48?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=53190&post_id=90879443&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

First written on December 28th 2022, revised and republished in December 2023, 2024

Posted on

Drink & Be Merry 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

The drink of choice was port. Then 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.

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, and so 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. 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, not quite that bad?

Even so, three bottles is still a lot and 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

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.

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 and 2024

Posted on

Stage Coach Travel Misery December 22nd

As the Sun enters the House of Capricorn remember the poor Coachman travelling all day everyday in all weathers. Washington Irving in his ‘Old Christmas’ (Originally ‘The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon’ pub. 1819) describes him with a broad red face, a broad body widened by drinking beer; swathed with any numbers of layers of coats trying to keep the cold out. He has many worries on his mind as he has a coach full not only of people who need looking after but also a lot of parcels and commissions that need to be carried out in the many stops along the way. He is delivering parcels, turkeys, geese, presents, children, you name it he is responsible for its safe delivery.

Feel sorry for the people crowded inside the carriage but even sorrier for those sitting on the roof. They have umbrellas in a vain attempt to keep dry, but the umbrella tines will be poking you in your ear, and the run off from the canopy of the umbrella might trickle down your neck. There might be 6 people inside and up to 10 on the roof. 3d for travelling inside and half of that for the roof. voach

Inside, you are next to a large man who is not very salubrious looking, nor too worried about pressing his thighs against you.

John Keats blamed his consumption on his journey on the roof of a stage-coach travelling from London to Hampstead on a cold wet day in February.

Stage coaches became regular sights on the road during the 17th Century and were quite dangerous as the roads were in such a poor condition. It was suggested that passengers made their wills before travelling! From the late 17th and with Parliament increasingly used to set up not-for-profit toll road, the roads got better, and ‘Flyers’ and mail coaches could get up to the tremendous speed of 10 miles an hour, and averaging 7. This happened because improved roads meant improved suspensions, and wheels, and more and faster horses could be harnessed.

This revolutionized travel. It used to take 5 days in around 1700 to get to Manchester from London, by the mid 18th Century the time taken was reduced to 24 hours, and there were many more scheduled coaches, The mail coaches had priority, the coach had a blunderbuss and two pistols to deter highway men, and the guard had a post-horn with which to warn other vehicles to give clear passage, to alert tollgate keepers to open gates, and to announce arrival at a stop. Extra horses would be harnessed to help get up steep hills which, in some cases, like Broadway in the Cotswolds, might mean an additional 10 horses. Passengers might be asked not only to get off the coach to lighten the load but also to push if the going got boggy. On mail coaches, the passengers were not allowed to get off when the horses were changed, and only 4 were allowed inside the coach.

London was ringed by Coaching Inns, which were coach terminals and hotels. The most famous ones, remaining, are in Southwark on the approach road to London Bridge. The Tabard where the Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales started, The White Hart where Dickens’ Sam Wheeler is the Bootboy, and the George, which although not quite so literary is at least still half intact.

Pilgrims leaving the Tabard for the Canterbury Pilgrimage
Pilgrims leaving the Tabard Inn for the Canterbury Pilgrimage
George Inn,Southwark
George Inn,Southwark (photo Kevin Flude)

Capricorn

‘The man born under Capricorn shall be iracundious and a fornicator; a liar, and always labouring.

....The woman shall be honest and fearful, and have children of three men, she will do many pilgrimages in her youth and after have great wit.’

From Kalendar of Shepheards 1604 quoted in ‘The Perpetual Almanac of Folklore by Charles Kightly’.

iracundious is first mentioned in a work published by Caxton in the 15th Century and pretty much obselete by the 17th Century. It means easily angered or irritable.

First published in 2023 and revised in 2024

Posted on

Christmas with Jane Austen December 20th

Bullet Pudding

Christmas at Godmersham Park

Fanny Austen Knight was the daughter of Jane Austen’s rich older brother Edward. He, rather strangely to our modern minds, was adopted by distant relatives who were childless. ‘Hey! We have enough boys to be going on with – happy for you to take one, particularly as you own two stately homes!’ as Mr and Mrs George Austen probably never said.

One of those homes was Godmersham Park in Kent, the other was in Chawton, a lovely Hampshire Village where Jane, Cassandra and Mum Cassandra lived, and is now a Museum dedicated to Jane Austen.

Fanny also rather cruelly remembers Jane and Cassandra as being unfashionably dressed and not up with upper-class etiquette. She wrote this when she was an old woman. When she was a teenager and being well brought up she wrote letters to friends of the family and relatyives, and here are extracts from her Christmas letters.

1811 to 1812 Fanny writing to a friend, Miss Dorothy Chapman

‘I don’t know whether I told you that Ms Morris’s are at home for the Christmas holidays. They are very nice girls and have contributed a good deal to our entertainment. None of us caught the whooping cough and have been very well the whole time. We have, in general, had cards, snapdragons, bullet pudding etc on any particular evening and Whist, Commerce and others and tickets were the favourite games. I think when cards fail the boys played every evening at draughts, chess, and backgammon.‘

Commerce is a three card poker type game played with counters. Tickets was Lydia Bennett’s favourite game, which is a gambling game based on luck, and in Pride and Prejudice called ‘Lottery Tickets.’

Bullet Pudding is explained by Fanny in another letter

‘You must have a large pewter dish filled with flour which you must pile up into a sort of pudding with a peak at the top, you must then lay a Bullet at the top & everybody cuts a slice of it & the person who is cutting it when the Bullet falls must poke about with their noise & chins until they find it & then take it out with their mouths which makes them strange figures all covered with flour, but the worst is that you must not laugh for fear of the flour getting up your nose & mouth & choking you. You must not use your hands in taking the bullet out.’

I used to play this as a child at Christmas. We used a coin not a bullet. The contestants walk around the table with the flour pudding on which has a knife ready for cutting the pudding. The Music plays and when it stops the one the knife is pointing at cuts a slice of the flour hoping not to make the flour collapse and the coin fall. Snapdragons is a lively game, you put some brandy in a tray or flat dish, add a few raisins, light the brandy and the game is to pick up and eat the raisins without getting burnt!

Other games mentioned by Fanny

Hunt the Slipper, Oranges and Lemons, Wind the Jack; Lighting a Candle in Haste; Spare Old Noll.

Eventually, the coin will collapse, and the hapless winner, according to Jane’s niece, Fanny.

‘must poke about with their noise & chins until they find it & then take it out with their mouths, which makes them strange figures all covered with flour, but the worst is that you must not laugh for fear of the flour getting up your nose & mouth & choking you. You must not use your hands in taking the bullet out.’

In my family, we pushed the winner’s head into the flour to maximise the fun.

Another niece Anna received Jane Austen’s advice on writing a novel:

‘You are now collecting your people delightfully, getting them exactly into such a spot as is the delight of my life. Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on, and I hope you will do a great deal more, and make full use of them while they are so very favourably arranged.’

Jane Austen Virtual Tours Coming up!

Georgian female engraving

Jane Austen’s ‘A Picture of London in 1809’ Virtual Walk

7.30 27th January 2025

With the help of a contemporary Guide Book, Jane Austen’s letters, and works we explore London in 1809

For more details and to book

A Virtual Tour of Jane Austen’s Bath

7.30pm 10th February 2025

A tour of the City of Bath, and a look at the Georgian City that Jane Austen knew and lived in

For more details and to book

Tomorrow I turn towards the Solstice.

The London Winter Solstice Virtual Tour

Druids at All Hallows, by the Tower
Druids at All Hallows, by the Tower

Sat 21 Dec 2024 19:30

We explore London’s History through its celebrations, festivals, calendars, and almanacs of the Winter Solstice

To book

First Published 20th December 2022, revised and republished December 2023, 2024

Posted on

An Edinburgh Booklist

Queensberry House to the right, with the Scottish Parliament in the background. Royal Mile, Cannongate in the foreground. (Photo: K. Flude)

Finally, this is my select booklist for Edinburgh, one of my favourite towns. I began the production of the list with Ian Rankin’s Rebus books because he is a typographical author of the highest rank. Every story brings Edinburgh, its people and its history to life. And yet set in a very readable crime fiction envelope. The Rebus I chose was ‘Set in Darkness’ because it has the Scottish Parliament at its heart. It begins with a body found in Queensbury House, which is being preserved and incorporated into the new Scottish Parliament buildings. Please read my post on the book.

The Queensberry House Cannibal, Inspector Rebus and the Scottish Referendum September 11th 1997

Recently, published is ‘Edinburgh a New History’ by Alistair Moffat. I have ordered a copy but not yet read it, but I feel confident of my recommendation as I have read his ‘Reivers’ which is a great book about the border raiders, both North English and Scottish who raided the borderlands between Edinburgh and York during the 13th to the 17th Centuries. They inspired the young Walter Scot who collected Reivers ballads before inventing the Historical Novel.

Edinburgh-a-new-history-book-alistair-moffat

The Heart of Midlothian photo K Flude

As to Walter Scot, our Blue Badge Guide for Edinburgh, considers his long descriptive passages unreadable. But I’m not so convinced, having read Ivanhoe and Rob Roy as a boy. But if I were to recommend a Walter Scot, it would be Heart of Midlothian as it is set in Edinburgh and deals with crime, poverty, urban riots and other manifestations of life in Edinburgh in the 18th Century.

Midlothian is the country around Edinburgh, named after the legendary Celtic King Loth. The Heart of Midlothian, is Edinburgh or more precisely, a heart marked out in the cobbles outside of St Giles, on the Royal Mile, where the Tollboth (townhall and prison) and execution site for the City used to be. To this day, Edinburghers (or more correctly, Dunediners) are supposed to spit on the heart for good luck.

Old Print of the Tollbooth with St Giles to the right of the print.

It is hard to exaggerate the importance of Walter Scot. Byron said he had read them 50 times, and never travelled without them. Goethe said ‘he was a genius who does not have an equal.’ and Pushkin said his influence was ‘felt in every province of the literature of his age. Balzac described him as ‘one of the noblest geniuses of modern times’. Jane Austen and Dickens loved his books. The point is he invented the Historical Novel, and for the first time, as Carlyle wrote, he showed that history was made by people ‘with colour in their checks and passion in their stomachs.’ The only other person I can think of who was held in such universal regard was Tolstoy. There is a sense in which Scot invented our idea of Scotland.

A walk through the centre of Edinburgh has so many statues of people who made the modern world it is astonishing. So you should read: ‘The Scottish Enlightenment – the Scots Invention of the modern world‘ by Arthur Herman.

Strangely, I would recommend reading ‘the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘ which is a Novella by Robert Louis Stevenson but set in London. It was inspired by the true life story of Deacon Brodie, who was a respectable City official in the daytime and a leader of the underworld during the night.

This inevitably brings us to:

Burke and Hare: The True Story Behind the Infamous Edinburgh Murderers by Owen Dudley-Edwards

The story of Burke and Hare is well known, but it shows how important Edinburgh was as a medical centre in the early 19th Century. Bodies were shipped to Edinburgh from the London docks, such was the demand for bodies for anatomy teaching. Arthur Conan Doyle got his medical training here from a man called Joseph Bell, whose logical mind was the model for Sherlock Holmes.

My last choice is Murial Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie set in a school in Edinburgh where the teacher singles out 6 of her pupils for special education. She wants to give them a cultured outlook in life which includes her own fascistic views. Made into a wonderful film starring Maggie Smith, but also a great book.

Of course, you should read some poetry by Burns, and I would begin with Tam O’Shanter the story of Tam, Maggie his horse and Nannie, the witch with the short skirt (Cutty Sark). The version above (see link) is read over a comic novel of the poem. But if you prefer the words, this is the one I read for my groups where I ruin the Scots dialect, and disgrace myself, but oh how I enjoy it! www.poetryfoundation.org tam-o-shanter

You may like to read:

My post on poetry on the wall of the Scottish Parliament.

Or look at my Oxford Booklist here. Others to follow.

Published on 2nd December 2024

Posted on

How to make a Dish of Snow & Ice Houses, November 29th

Photo Zdenek Machacek -unsplash

There is a 0% chance of snow, in London and 20% in Glen Shee, Scotland, according to the Snow Risk Forecast. And here is an appropriate medieval recipe:

To make a dish of Snowe

Take a potte of sweete thicke creme and the white of eight egges and beate them altogether with a spoone then putte them into your creame with a dish full of Rose Water and a dishfull of Sugar withall then take a sticke and make it cleane and then cutt it in the ende fowre square and therewith beate all the aforesayd thinges together and ever as it ariseth take it of and putte it into a Cullander thys done take a platter and set an aple in the middest of it and sticke a thicke bush of Rosemarye in the apple then cast your snowe upon the rosemarye and fill your platter therewith and if you have wafers cast some withall and thus serve them forth

From Medieval Manuscripts, British Library. Blog. https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/medieval-history/page/2/

BF – Before Fridges

Before fridges, snow gave the chance for ice cream and other cold desserts. The problem was keeping it for longer than the cold spell. So many Stately Homes had ice-houses. The V&A had an ice-house just outside their glorious, Henry Cole commissioned restaurant. There is an ice house preserved at the Canal Museum, in Kings Cross. It was set up by Carlo Gatti in 1857 to store ice shipped in from Norway. Another one, in Holland Park, dates from 1770 and served the infamous Fox family (PM Charles James Fox etc).

The first ice house was in Mesopotamian, but in the UK they were introduced by James 1 at his palaces in, first, Greenwich Park, and then Hampton Court. An ice house generally consists of a pit in the ground, brick lined, which tapered to a point. Above was a circular, often domed building. The ice was protected by insulation such as straw, and this structure would allow ice to be available all through the summer.

Ice House Dillington, Somerset
Ice House Dillington, Somerset

My great-grandmother hung a basket outside the window in winter to keep things cold. On my fridge-less narrow boat, I have been known to keep milk and butter outside the door, and to suspend and submerge wine in a plastic bag in the canal in high summer. Butteries and Pantry’s were typically cut into the ground to make them cooler. A Roman Warehouse in Southwark, of which the wooden floor still survived, had a ramp down to the floor which was cut into the ground surface. The ramp suggests it was used for storing barrels where they were kept cool.

Sketch of Roman Warehouse found in Southwark.

For more on Icehouses (and an Icehouse in York) and the history of ice cream, see my post from August.

August – Time for Ice Cream

Written November 28th 2022, revised and republished 2023, 2024

Posted on

Stir Up Sunday! November 26th

1803 Christmas Cartoon of Napoleon and Mr and Mrs John Bull
By William Holland, 1803

Stir-up Sunday is the last Sunday before advent and the day for stirring the Christmas Pudding. And I missed it! Last year it was on the 26th, but this year it was the 24th November. So, to make up for it here is a digression on the subject of nicknames, prompted by my ‘rediscovery’ of a History Today essay from March 2023 by PhD student Tristan Alphey. entitled ‘Toad Testicles, Foul-Beard and Broad-Arse’ Tristan is researching nicknames before 1000. It’s a tough gig but someone had to do it!

I have long had an interest in nicknames, since a school bully, when I was about 7, decided he was going to call me Acid. He explained his logic. Flude sounds like fluid and ccid is a fluid. It never caught on perhaps because chanting ‘Fludey is a rudey’ or a nudey, whichever was the fancy of the day, in the playground was more fun! In my dad’s day anyone called Clarke was nicknamed Nobby, and anyone small ‘Lofty’. But generally only a few people got themselves primarily identified by nicknames. This will, of course, be the meat of Tristan’s PhD. The social significance of the nicknames.

My interest was revived when reading a book about the Border Reivers, (by Allistair Moffet). These clans terrorised the borders between Northumberland and Scotland, particularly in the 13th – 17th Century. The people were controlled by a clan leader of ‘Heidsman’ and all his followers being in the same clan had the same surname. And the Names were many Armstrongs, Batesons, Bells, Croziers, Elliots, Glendinnings, Hendersons, Irvines, Johnstones, Scots, Moffets, Nixons, Routledges, Thomsons, Maxwells, Kers, And not to forget the Carletons, Fenwicks, Forsters, Robsons, Turnballs, Selbys, Storeys, Guthries.

The problem arose because there were so many with the same surname, and with the restricted use of a small number of first names (John being by far the most popular) a way of differentiating people was necessary. As I am short of time, I will cut and past from the Wikipedia page:

‘Some Border Reiver nicknames referred to physical injuries or impairments, such as “Fingerless,” “Gleyed” (blind in one eye), “Burnt Hand,” “Half-Lugs,” or “Lugless” (missing ears). Others followed a tradition similar to Highland naming customs, where the father’s (and occasionally the mother’s) name was added to the son. Many nicknames described physical appearance, such as “Black Heid,” “Hen-Heid,” “Sweet Milk” (meaning beautiful), or “Fergus the Plump.” Some appear to reference mental health or emotional states, including “Unhappy Anthone” and “Jock Unhappy.”‘

‘A number of nicknames seem metonymic or ironic, reflecting professions or roles, such as “The Sheriff,” “The Lawyer,” or “The Priest.” Intriguingly, certain names may hint at queer or LGBT identities, including “Buggerback,” “The Lady Elliot,” “The Lady Scott,” “The Lady Kerr,” “Bang-tail,”[108] and “Sym ‘the Lady’.” Other nicknames defy easy interpretation, such as “Hob-Wait-About-Him,” “Laird-Give-Me-Little,” “Bide Him Jock,” “the Pleg,” “Dog-Pyntle” (Dog Penis),[109] “Geordie Go Wi Him,” and “Cheesebelly,” illustrating the creative and often enigmatic nature of Border Reiver culture.’ Wikipedia entry

By the way ‘Buggerback’ Elliot was related to ‘the Lady Elliot’, and also, if I recall correctly, to Dog pyntle.

Tristan Alphey’s study takes the study back before 1100, wherewe can find King’s nicknames such as

Edward the Confessor, Alfred the Great, Edmund Ironsides, and Aethelred the Ill-advised (redeless). Further down the scale he presents: Alfred ‘Toad-Testicles from Winchester, where were also Alwin ‘Pebbles, Aelfstan ‘Broad-Arse’, Aelfstan ‘the Bald’, Thurstand ‘Buttock’ Aethelstan ‘The fat’ Osferth ‘Blackbeard’, Aelfstan ‘Limping’. Elsewhere we have Alvin ‘Sardine’, Wulfric ‘Large Pole’, Eadwig ‘the Wholly Drunk’, Wulfwiug ‘Wild’, Aelfric ‘Foul-Beard’.

Women are less frequently given nicknames, but we have Athelgifu ‘the Good’ and King Harold’s first wife, the beautiful Edith ‘Swan-Neck’. She must have been, mustn’t she?

To finish my look at nicknames, we go to Viking York among whom are the peerless warriors: ‘Ivan the Boneless’, Sihtric ‘the Squinty-eyed’and Erik Bloodaxe. Other Vikings include Thorkell the Tall and Thorkell Thorfinn.

And now back to ‘Stir-up Sunday’! It gets its name from the Book of Common Prayer, which has a verse:

“Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may of thee be plenteously rewarded, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.’

So, the Christmas pudding was made with dried fruit and had 13 ingredients for Jesus and the Disciples. It is stirred from west to east, in honour of the Three Wise Men, and stirred by every member of the household who get to make a secret wish.

Here is a recipe.

Normally, a coin in put in the pudding for the lucky one to get. My grandma, a Londoner, used to put in a couple of ‘silver joeys’, long out of legal tender when I was young. She would watch us like a hawk while we ate, and claim the coins back as soon as we found them! She would then put them in an old folded brown envelope and put them away for next year.

MJ Hughes Coins website gives the following excellent history of the Silver Joey:

‘Originally a Joey was the nickname given to a groat (4 pence) but when that went out of circulation in 1855 the silver 3 pence inherited the name. The name came about due to the reintroduction of 4 pence coins in the 1830s by the politician Joseph Hume, MP (1777-1855).‘

For some great, coin-based facts! Look no further.

How Quids, Bobs, Florins, Tanners and Joeys Got Their Names

First Published Nov 27th 2022. The Jimi Hendrix content transferred to its own page, and this post republished Nov 26th 2023, revised with a section on nicknames in 2024

Posted on

Sagittarius, Martinmas Old Style and Pack-Rag Day November 22nd

The original Book of Days 1878 title page
Chambers Book of Days
The 2004 Chambers Book of Days

As you may have noticed, I am beginning to add a section called ‘On this Day’ which highlights some notable events that have happened on this day in history. I am doing this particularly when I am republishing a previously published post. Normally, the post is at least proofread better, but I try, if I have time, to improve it and sometimes expand it. Otherwise, I am trying to add the new ‘On this Day’ section. So if you find you have read the post before, just scroll down to the new content at the bottom.

My main source for the ‘On this Day’ section is Chambers’ ‘Book of Days A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities’in connection with the Calendar’. The original was published, in 1864, by Robert Chambers one of the original founders of Chambers Publishing. The new one takes is inspiration from the original. I found out about it from Sir Roy Strong and Julia Trevelyan Oman’s ‘The English Year, which is itself a personal selection from the Chambers Book of Days. Sir Roy was my boss when I was an Assistant Keeper at the V&A.

November 22nd is the dawning of Sagittarius.

According to the Kalendar of Shepherds 1604, women born on this day should marry at age 13, shall have many sons and live to 72 years old. Men born on November 22nd will be merciful, far-travelled, prosperous after early dangers and live to 72 years and 8 months.

Martinmas Old Style and Pack-Rag Day

Three men for hire (wikipedia)

Martinmas was the Festival of Winter’s Beginning and is celebrated on November 11. It was one of the most famous medieval festivals. In 1752, the calendar was transformed when Britain transferred from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar, 11 days were lost from the Calendar, so the original date of the festival would be what we know as November 22nd. So this is Martinmas Old Style.

In the East Riding of Yorkshire, hiring fairs were held around this time. It was also called Pack-Rag Day as servants carried their clothes to their new place of work.

A hiring fair is how Gabriel Oak is hired by Batheseba Everdene in ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ by Thomas Hardy. They were often also held at Michaelmas, and in Warwickshire are called Mops. See my post on the Mop here.

On this Day we have two joyous events, and one terrible tragedy

1963 President Kennedy and Governor John Connally were shot while part of a motorcade in Dallas.

1968 The Beatles White Album was released

1990 British Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher resigned.

Originally published as two separated posts on 22nd November 2022, republished on 22nd November 2023, merged 2024, and expanded.

Posted on

St Matthews Day September 21st

Christ’s Hospital from Wikipedia

In the City of London, this was the day that they elected Governors to Christ’s Hospital, it was followed by a service at Christchurch attended by Aldermen, Sheriffs, the Lord Mayor and a procession of the children attending the school. 

Christ’s Hospital was founded in 1552 by a settlement arranged by Edward VI after the Reformation.  The abolition of the Monasteries by Henry VIII caused a huge problem for the City of London with the destruction of education and social services managed by monks and nuns.  Henry VIII had already re-established St Bartholomew’s to look after the Poor Sick in the City.  Edward established three Royal Hospitals to sort out additional problems.  Bridewell Hospital became an orphanage and place of correction for wayward women.  St Thomas Hospital for the homeless and poor sick of South London. Christ’s Hospital was to provide schooling.  The school was originally near Newgate and Christchurch Church which was originally the Choir of the Greyfriars Church.

The school was set up in 1552 and was for boys and girls.   The Mathematical School was added in the late 17th Century to provide navigation skills for sailors.

In 1815 a shocking event took place. An MP named Sir Eyre Coote entered the Mathematical school.  He shooed  the younger boys away but paid the older ones to participate in mutual flogging. He was discovered by the school nurse doing up his breeches.  George Cruikshank, a vaunted caricaturist, created a cartoon of the occasion, and it is extraordinary how it was treated far from seriously.  In 2016 former pupils opened up about historic sexual abuse leading to the prosecution of 6 teachers.

Cruikshank Cartoon

The blue-coated boys of Christ’s Hospital, eventually moved to Hertford but are now in Horsham.  They maintain their City affiliation and still come to the City on or around St Matthews Day and take part in the Lord Mayor’s Show.  The school is a public school but has a large percentage of its students funded by bursaries. 

For more information look here: https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2015/09/st-matthews-day.html

Also on St Matthews Day, the historic Bush Hotel in Farnham distributed bread to the poor.  This began in 1660 a local benefactor bequeathed one pound annually to pay for the bread.