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, and 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).
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.
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
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, who is on holiday, and who working particularly hard. But it concludes it is a costly month.
Nicholas Breton’s ‘Fantasticks of 1626 – December
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’. 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
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.
Saint Andrew was the first Apostle and, it was he who introduced his brother, Simon Peter, to Jesus. Not much about his later life is known, but the idea that he was martyred on a X-shaped cross, the saltire, is probably a medieval invention. He was a simple fisherman and so patron of fishermen, and fishmongers. Furthermore, the patron saint of Scotland and Russia; of singers and pregnant woman, and efficacious in offering protection against sore throats and gout.
His association with Russia comes from Eusebius, who quotes Origen recording that Andrew preached in Scythia. The Chronicle of Nestor says he travelled to Kiev and Novgorod and so became a patron saint of Ukraine, Romania, and Russia. (Wikipedia).
Scottish legends has St Andrew both visiting Scotland and some of his relics coming to Fife in the 4th Century or the 8th Century. St Rule was tasked with taking some of Andrew’s relics to the edges of the world, and he turned up in Fife with a kneecap, arm and finger bone which were kept in St Rule’s Church and which gave St Andrew’s name to the town. The earliest recorded name for the town is Gaelic and is Cennrígmonaid, which means something like the King’s Peninsula near the Moor. The fame of the Church changed the name of the town to St Andrews (no apostrophe as it was named before the French gave us apostrophes in the 1600s.
St Andrews is also famous as the home of golf and the oldest University in Scotland, (founded in 1412). The relics were transferred to the Cathedral, but they were destroyed in the Reformation. In 1979, the Archbishop of Amalfi gifted a piece of Saint Andrew’s shoulder blade to St Andrews and Pope Paul VI gave further remains to Scotland in 1969
In Kent and Sussex Andrewtide gave the right to hunt squirrels, and in Hasted’s History of Kent (1782) the day is said to allow the ‘lower kind’ to form a lawless rabble hunting any manner of hares, partridges, and pheasants. (Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly).
St Andrew in London
John Stow17th Century PrintSt Andrew Undershaft
On the corner of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe in the City of London is one of the very few medieval Churches that survived the Great Fire of London is 1666. It was sheltered by the firebreak that was the Leadenhall, a big market building made of stone (but with a big lead roof).
The Church is the Maypole Church as it was here the Maypole or the shaft was stored under the eves of the Church when not in use. Hence, St Andrew’s sobriquet of ‘Undershaft’. The May Day riot in 1517 put an end to the dancing around the Maypole but the pole itself survived until 1547 when, in a Puritan riot, the ‘stynking idol’ was destroyed. (see my May Day blog post here for more details of Mayday.)
This is where the great London historian John Stow is buried. His Survey of London is one of the best sources for Medieval and Tudor London. Every three years, on April 5th or thereabouts, there is a commemorative service and his quill is changed. The Lord Mayor attends and it is organised by Stow’s Guild – the Merchant Taylors.
There is also a plaque to Hans Holbein, but no one knows, for sure, where he is buried. He died in London in 1543, possibly of plague.
Agas Map 1561 showing St Andrews (right centre)
Last Day to get married before Advent.
Traditionally, you could not marry after Advent and before 12th Night. So now might be the last chance to marry before that bump gets too big!
19th Century Illustration (Author’s Copyright)
Wedding dresses were traditionally whatever pretty dress you had. White only became derigueur once Queen Victoria wore one, and the costs of material reduced because of mass production.
First Published on 30th November 2022, Revised and republished on 30th November 2023, Advent weddings added in 2024
This is the second day of the Eel season. Jellied Eels have been a staple of East End diets since the 18th Century. They were to be found in many stalls dotted around the East End, from vendors venturing into pubs and in Pie and Mash shops. Tubby Isaacs is perhaps, the most famous and jellied eels are still sold in a diminishing number of places in the East End. Manze’s eel, pie, and mash shop at 204 Deptford High Street, London was listed in December 2023. The shop opened in 1914 and was a pioneer of commercial branding, and this is the fourth Manze’s shop to be listed: Tower Bridge Street, Chapel Market Islington, and Walthamstow High street. The current owner of the Deptford shop is retiring and so the shop will close.
There are three Pie and Mash shops near me in Hackney; the one in Dalston has become a bar, the one in Broadway Market has recently become an optician, but the one in Hoxton Market is surviving, and all three have retained their distinctive interiors.
Pie and Mash Shop. Established 1862, closed down 2021. Broadway Market, Hackney (photo, copyright the author)
My mum loved jellied eels. It took me until I was over 60 before I could bring myself to try them and have not wanted to repeat, what for me, was a revolting experience. On the River Lee Navigation is another piece of Eel history which is the excellent Fish and Eel Pub at Dobbs Weir.
By JanesDaddy (Ensglish User) – English Wikipedia – [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1663124
Gervase Markham in his ‘The English Husbandman’ of 1635 provides instructions on how:
To take Eels in Winter, Make a long bottle or tube of Hay, wrapped about Willow boughs, and having guts or garbage in the middles. Which being soaked in the deep water by the river side, after two or three days the eels will be in it and you may tread them out with your feet.
Eel traps at Bray, on the River Thames (Henry Taught 1885)
Romans, Saxons,
Eels have been eaten for thousands of years. Apicius, author of a famous collection of Roman Recipes tells us of two sauces for eels:
Sauce for Eel Ius in anguillam
Eel will be made more palatable by a sauce which has pepper, celery seed, lovage, anise, Syrian sumach, figdate wine, honey, vinegar, broth, oil, mustard, reduced must.
Another Sauce for Eel Aliter ius in anguillam
Pepper, lovage, Syrian sumach, dry mint, rue berries, hard yolks, mead, vinegar, broth, oil; cook it.
Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, which tells of Britain as a land with “the greatest plenty of eel and fish.” Several fish traps have been found in and around the Thames, one for example in Chelsea.
Aristotle, Freud and the Deep Sargasso Sea
But eels had a great mystery no one knew where they came from or how they reproduced. Aristotle thought they spontaneously emerged from the mud. Sigmund Freud dissected hundreds of Eels, hoping to find male sex organs. It was only on 19th October 2022 that an article in the science journal Nature entitled ‘First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea‘ was published, proving beyond doubt that the theory that Eels go to the sea near Bermuda to spawn was, incredibly, true.
Eel Pie Island
Eel Pie Island . Ordnance Survey In 1871 to 1882 map series (OS, 1st series at 1:10560: Surrey (Wikipedia)
But Eels also have their place in Rock and Roll History – Eel Pie island is on the Thames, near Twickenham and Richmond. It is famous for its Eels, was home to an iconic music venue (the Eel Pie Hotel) that hosted most of the great English Bands of the 50s. 60s, and 70s. The roll call of bands here is awesome. The Stones, Cream, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, you name it, they were here:
David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Champion Jack Dupree, Buddy Guy, Geno Washington, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Ten Years After, Chicken Shack, and one of my all-time favourite bands. the Savoy Brown Blues Band. And I have forgotten the Nice, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Joe Cocker, and the Who. And many more!
The Rolling Stones played at the Railway Tavern, Richmond on Sunday, February 24, 1963, and were spotted by people from the nearby Eel Pie Hotel and booked for a 6 month residency, which they began as virtually unknown and ended as famous.
Catherine was high-born, beautiful and learned. She disputed with pagan learned men against the worship of idols. She wiped the floor with them, and Emperor Maxentius had 50 of the learned men burnt alive for their failure to answer adequately.
Catherine was imprisoned, where many people came to visit her and were converted to Christianity. The most illustrious visitor was the Emperor’s wife, Valeria Maximilla who was, herself, martyred. Then, the Emperor offered to marry Catherine, but she refused to abandon her faith, so he had her tortured. In prison, she was fed by the holy dove and had visions of Christ.
Her gaolers then tried to break her on a wheel, although the wheel broke, killing spectators with the splinters, she stood steadfast. Two hundred soldiers were converted to the faith on the spot. They were then beheaded, followed by Catherine herself. Milk, not blood, flowed from her severed veins.
The persecution in the early 4th Century was real, but it wasn’t driven by Maxentius, who came to power promising religious tolerance. But, following the accession of Constantine the Great, Maxentius’s reputation was blackened. There is no contemporary evidence for the events of Catherine’s life. There is a modern theory that her tale was conflated with the remarkable story of Hypatia of Alexandria (d. 415), a pagan and a real learned woman; The first female Mathematician we know any facts about. She was murdered by a rampaging mob of xenophobic Christians.
Catherine is remembered by the firework: the Catherine Wheel and is, of course, the patron of Philosophers, Theologians, and Royal women; young women, students, spinsters, and anyone who lives by working with a wheel: carters, potters, wheelwrights, spinners, millers. And, I imagine, Formula 1 drivers.
St Catherine in London
St Catherine Coleman (Wikipedia: Robert William Billings and John Le Keux: The Churches of London by George Godwin (1839))
There are several Churches in London dedicated to St Catherine or St Katherine, dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria. The one in Coleman Street, rebuilt by Christopher Wren and his team, was demolished in the 1920s. There was a Chapel to St Catherine at Westminster Abbey (c1160), the ruins of which are visible in St Catherine’s Garden. I am sure that St Katherine’s Dock and St Katherine’s Cree Church are also so dedicated, but cannot as yet find a dedication for either. Katherine of Aragorn was patron of the Royal Foundation of St Katherines’ which gives its name to the Dock.
Ruins of Chapel of St Catherine, Westminster Abbey
There are customs that have attached themselves to St Catherine including the baking and eating of Catten Cakes. These are really a biscuit (or cookie) made of dough, and cinnamon and dried fruit. Carraway seeds are also suggested. Here is a recipe: Its a good day for rituals and prayers to summon a husband. Katherine of Aragorn was also commemorated on this day, and lace makers would play ‘jump the candlestick’. If they put the candle out they had bad luck. Katherine of Aragorn is said to have introduced lace making to England.
Finally, St Margaret is the Saint who suffered probably the most torture in her convoluted route to Martyrdom, and you can read more about her on my post which includes an article about medieval attitudes to these terrifying stories of martyrdom, illustrated by a reredos on display at the V&A, in Kensington, London here.
On this Day
1471 – the Thames froze over strongly enough to hold a Frost Fair upon it.
‘In the year 1434 a great frost began on the 24th of November, and held till the 10th of February, following ; whereby the River Thames was so strongly frozen, that all sorts of merchandizes and provisions brought into the mouth of the said river were unladen, and brought by land to the city.’
1715 – the Thames froze again 281 years later
‘The Thames seems now a solid rock of ice; and booths for sale of brandy, wine, ale, and other exhilarating liquors, have been for some time fixed thereon; but now it is in a manner like a town; thousands of people cross it, and with wonder view the mountainous heaps of water that now lie congealed into ice. On Thursday, a great cook’s-shop was erected, and gentlemen went as frequently to dine there as at any ordinary. Over against Westminster, Whitehall, and Whitefriars, printing presses are kept on the ice.’ (description of 14th January 1716 of the remaining ice by Dawkes’ News Letter.
Both quotes are from a list of times the Thames froze you can see here: https://thames.me.uk/s00051.htm. I have no idea where the evidence comes from for the Roman and Saxon era freezing, but the author says the source of it is:
‘The earliest chronology is given by Charles Mackay in “The Thames and its Tributaries”, 1840. He omits to mention how he knows!‘
1952 Agatha Christie’s the ‘Mousetrap’ opened in London, so it has now been continuously running for 72 years if my maths are correct.
First published on 25th November 2022. Revised and republished 25th November 2023 and 2024
Clemens I, the Pope of Rome. Mosaic from St. Sophia of Kyiv, 11th c. In places of loss (lower part of the composition) — oil painting of the 18th c. (Wikipedia)
St Clement was a very early Bishop of Rome, shortly after St Peter. Although thought to be a historical and therefore a very important peron in the history of Christianity, his mode of martyrdom is a matter of legend. He is supposed to have been tied to an anchor and thrown in the Black Sea in around AD 99. He is, therefore, particularly venerated by Blacksmiths and Sailors. Others argue that he is earlier than this and place his letter as early as AD60.
Towards the bottom of this post you will find out more about St Clements place in Christian History, but first, lets find out his associations with London.
London & St Clements
Trinity House. Designed by Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807) Engraving 1834
The maritime connection may explain the three St Clements connections in London. Trinity House On Tower Hill has been working to keep shipping safe since being founded in Deptford in the 16th Century as:
‘The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent.
They look after light ships, lighthouses, navigation buoys and licence Deep Sea Pilots. The HQ moved to Tower Hill in 1796.
St Clements Danes (left) St Clements Eastcheap (right) from Agas Map (1561)
London has two churches dedicated to St Clements. Both are by early London waterfronts and rebuilt by Christopher Wren and his team.
St Clement’s Eastcheap is on the terrace above the Roman port of London, near London Bridge (which leads to Wikipedia speculation that it might have been an early Roman foundation). And St Clements Danes is where the Strand meets Fleet Street on the terrace above the Lundenwic Saxon waterfront.
Lydia and Wickham get married
St Clements is where Lydia and Wickham finally get married in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. But which of the two St Clements? Wickham had lodgings in the area. East Cheap area, and the Gardiners, who were the only people at the wedding except Darcy, lived in nearby Gracechurch Street. But perhaps St Clements Dane was more fashionable and might be more the raffish Mr Wickham’s cup of tea? (Jane Austen bought her family’s tea from Twinings, just off Fleet Street, where you can still buy it in their shop? )
Slide from my ‘Jane Austen’s 1809 Virtual Tour of London’
Oranges & Lemons
St Clements appears in the nursery rhyme/game Oranges and Lemons and both churches claim it refers to them, but as both are by the waterfront, either will do.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed, And here comes a chopper to chop off your head! Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead
I remember playing this as a child. Two children form an arch with their hands and the other children go through the arch reciting the rhyme until the chopper comes down when the hands forming the arch traps one of the children. The trapped child then whispers which side they want to be one, and they leave the procession to stand behind one or other of the arch-makers. I seem to remember we ended it off by having a tug of war between the two teams.
Alternatively, the trapped/chopped children make an additional arch and the remaining kids have to rush through a large space, fearing the chop.
St Clements and the Early Church
A letter of St Clements survives and is addressed to the Christians of Corinth. This letter is of fundamental importance, as it appears to have been written when the martyrdoms of St Peter and St Paul were relatively recent memories. The letter is also important as a counterargument to the Protestant view that there is no evidence that Peter was ‘Pope’. In this letter, St Clement is giving advice to the Church of Corinth as a Pope would. This can be used as early proof of Papal supervision of the early Church.
The letter is therefore worth reading, and you can read a version of it if you follow the link below. I have chosen two extracts from a long letter. (You can read the whole letter here). The first letter illustrates how close to the deaths of Peter and Paul it was. The second extract gives a great view of an early Christian World View. I think there is also very little here that a Pagan would object to? The main message of the letter is to follow the example of Jesus and adopt humility.
Chapter 5. No Less Evils Have Arisen from the Same Source in the Most Recent Times. The Martyrdom of Peter and Paul.
But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy the greatest and most righteous pillars [of the church] have been persecuted and put to death. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours; and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience.
Chapter 20. The Peace and Harmony of the Universe.
The heavens, revolving under His government, are subject to Him in peace. Day and night run the course appointed by Him, in no wise hindering each other. The sun and moon, with the companies of the stars, roll on in harmony according to His command, within their prescribed limits, and without any deviation. The fruitful earth, according to His will, brings forth food in abundance, at the proper seasons, for man and beast and all the living beings upon it, never hesitating, nor changing any of the ordinances which He has fixed. The unsearchable places of abysses, and the indescribable arrangements of the lower world, are restrained by the same laws. The vast unmeasurable sea, gathered together by His working into various basins, never passes beyond the bounds placed around it, but does as He has commanded. For He said, Thus far shall you come, and your waves shall be broken within you.Job 38:11 The ocean, impassable to man and the worlds beyond it, are regulated by the same enactments of the Lord. The seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, peacefully give place to one another. The winds in their several quarters fulfil, at the proper time, their service without hindrance. The ever-flowing fountains, formed both for enjoyment and health, furnish without fail their breasts for the life of men. The very smallest of living beings meet together in peace and concord. All these the great Creator and Lord of all has appointed to exist in peace and harmony; while He does good to all, but most abundantly to us who have fled for refuge to His compassions through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and majesty for ever and ever. Amen.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm (Translated by John Keith. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 9. Edited by Allan Menzies. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. )
On this day:
1963 the first episode of Dr Who was broadcast on the BBC, starring William Hartnell and his assistants played by William Russell;Jacqueline Hill; and Carole Ann Ford. The ‘An Unearthly Child’ episode may be responsible for me becoming an archaeologist. It begins in London and the Tardis is transported 100,000 years into the past where stone-age humans are fighting over lost fire-lighting skills. I don’t remember hiding behind a sofa but I do remember being gripped by it. This is now 61 years of Doctor Who.
Originally published Nov 23rd, 2022. Revised & Rewritten on Nov 23rd 2023, and 2024
The original Book of Days 1878 title pageThe 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.
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.
The following birds are the quarry:
Duck Geese Waders Other Gadwall Canada goose Common snipe Coot Goldeneye Greylag goose Golden plover Moorhen Mallard Pink-footed goose Jack snipe Pintail European Woodcock white-fronted goose
My how time flies! It’s November 19th again and so today is the United Nations’s World Toilet Day again. It is ‘Sustainable Development Goal 6 Safe toilets for all by 2030’. I make a joke of it but 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 2024’
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.
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.
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.
On this Day
On this day, in 1660, Charles I was born.
In 1863. President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.
First published Nov 19th 2022. Republished Nov 19th 2023, and 2024
The anniversary was celebrated in London with bonfires and bell-ringing. Lighted fire-barrels were rolled along Cheapside. It was, in a way, the precursor to Guy Fawkes Day (1605 onwards). Protestants celebrated it with such joy as it was the end of the reign of Elizabeth’s sister, Queen Mary I. ‘Bloody’ Mary, as she was named by Protestants, was the daughter of Katherine of Aragon. She had 287 Protestants burnt at the stake, mostly relatively ordinary people: clergy, apprentices, artisans, and agricultural workers. 60 were women; 67 were Londoners: the majority were of the younger generation, and most from the South East of England.
The executions were overwhelmingly unpopular, ghastly exhibitions of brutality, and in 1555 the weather was unusually wet, so the burnings were an even slower form of torture. The savagery was blamed by the protestants on the old religion and particular the people who came over with Mary’s Spanish husband. Ironically, Philip, in fact, urged caution. When Mary refused to be as lenient to religious dissidents as she was to political ones, he suggested the executions should, at least, be in private. She refused, as the immortal souls of the population were put at risk by Protestant dogma then the public nature of the deaths was a justifiable deterrent.
So, when, three years later, in 1558, in the early hours of the 17th November (6am) Queen Mary died, London rejoiced. An old regime, a foreign regime, a Catholic regime was swept away by a young Queen (Elizabeth was 25), with a young Court sworn to protect the new Protestant religion.
Soon, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs outsold all other books printed except the Bible, and enthusiasm for religious reform morphed into anti-Catholic intolerance.
The Author’s copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
One of the martyrs in the book is Thomas Tomkins, a weaver and a Londoner from Shoreditch, a few hundred yards from where I live.
Tomkins was a humble but godly man who was kept imprisoned by Bishop Bonner, the Bishop of London, at his Palace at Fulham. Here he was beaten. The Bishop personally beat him around the face and ripped off part of his beard. The beatings continued for six months. Finally, exasperated at his failure to persuade the weaver of his error, Bonner burnt Tomkins hand with a lighted taper until ‘the veins shrunk and the sinews burst’. I assume Bonner would defend his action by saying he wanted to give the weaver Tomkins a foretaste not only of the burning he faced but of the very fires of Hell.
But nothing would avail; Tomkins, simple man that he was, would not accept that bread was made into flesh. (Transubstantiation). He would not say that which he did not believe. So he met his end at Smithfield by fire with his bandaged hand in the reign of Queen Mary on 16th March 1555.
As the winter comes nearer and the St Martin’s Summer comes to an end – make sure you have good stocks of firewood. Here, is some ancient advice on the burning of wood:
Beechwood fires burn bright and clear If the logs be kept a year Oaken Logs if dry and old Keep away the winter’s cold Chestnut’s only good they say If for years ’tis laid away But ash-wood green or ash-wood brown Are fit for a King with a golden Crown Elm she burns like the churchyard mould Even the flames are cold Birch and pine-wood burn too fast Blaze too bright and do not last But ash wet or ash dry A Queen may warm her slippers by.
For more professional modern advice for your wood burning stove, look here, or at this, excellent, although American source:
My own very limited experience of firewood is from the very occasional fires I lit during the Christmas period. I found a particular joy in burning IKEA furniture which had failed during the year. My kindling of choice was dried Christmas tree, which pops and crackles like a good indoor firework.
I suspect burning IKEA furniture, however good for the soul, is appalling for the environment, so please don’t do it! Take a pickaxe to it instead, or even better, upcycle it.
A postscript on IKEA. To appreciate the joy this gave me, you have to understand my dislike of shopping in IKEA and my even greater frustration at putting together the flatpack items. I have a form of flatpraxia which begins with an inability to spot key construction information cryptically hidden in those little drawings. Magically, as you survey the slightly wonky creation in front of you at ‘completion’ my mind finally resolves the importance of tiny details on those little diagrams. Understanding comes with the realisation that I have put it all together in the wrong sequence. This added with a ham-fisted DIY disability means, my IKEA is full of quirks such as drawers that are not the smooth sliders you dream of. So, when an alternative piece of furniture comes to my attention, with more character and, crucially, already put together, the IKEA is ready for its joyous ritual disappearance from my house.
First Published 14th November 2022, revised 14th November 2023, and 2024
Thomas Parr was said to be 152 years old when he died in 1635 on a visit to London to visit King Charles 1st. If we are to believe his story, he was born in 1483 and was married when he was 80, producing two children and married for a second time at 120 years old. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
There are, or were, at least 3 London Pubs named Old Parr’s Head or Parr’s Head in Camden, Islington, and West Kensington.
The famous William Harvey undertook an autopsy and found his internal organs to be in a good state. He suggested this might be due to Parr’s diet of
‘subrancid cheese and milk in every form, coarse and hard bread and small drink, generally sour whey’ and lived free of care.‘
Although there is considerable doubt about the veracity of his old age, BP Doughty thinks he might have been over 100 when he died, although others suggest perhaps only as old as 70 – 80.
Old Parr’s death is reputed on different days in the sources I found. But it seems he was buried on 15th November 1635, but died on 13th, not 14th, of November.
Time to Gather Yarrow
Yarrow (achillea millefolium) – image by CongerDesign
This is the time to gather yarrow which is often still flowering. It grows everywhere creeping through its roots and spreading with its seeds, until it becomes a garden weed.
Traditionally, it has a myriad of uses (see thefreedictionary for a comprehensive list). It was used for wounds (aka ‘Soldier’s Woundwort’); staunches nose bleeds (aka ‘Nosebleed’); inflammations (aka ‘Bloodwort’); hair lose, tooth-ache and good for those who cannot hold their water. But generally, it was considered excellent for stomach problems, diabetes, periods pains, anything to do with blood flow.
It also has a devilish tradition so used for divination by spells, and thus aka Devil’s Nettle, Devil’s Plaything, Bad Man’s Plaything.
On a gentler note, lovers will put it under their pillow and dream, thereby, of their future spouse. (Mrs Grieve)
Old Parr was first published on 14th November 2022. Revised 14th November 2023, and 13th November 2024
Old Yarrow was first published on 14 November 2022, revised 13 November 2023, and 2024
![By JanesDaddy (Ensglish User) - English Wikipedia - [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1663124](https://www.chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1280px-Eels_1385-1024x768.jpg)
