The Ashmolean is a lovely museum. It’s like a miniature combination of the British Museum, The National Gallery, and the V&A. It has a superb collection including the Cretan Archaeology excavated by the Museum’s Director, Arthur Evans in Knossos. Not only that, but it is Britain’s oldest secular Museum, opening over fifty years before the British Museum.
But its origins are even older. This is a story near to my heart. And and I’m going to tell the story as it was told to me by Mrs Nicholson. She founded the Garden History Museum (now Garden Museum) and a formidable person. I was the part-time Curator for a few years in the 1990s.
The Garden History Museum
The Museum is in St Mary’s Church, Lambeth. The Church, despite being the last burial place of various Bishops of London, was going to be made redundant. Mrs Nicholson was not having this and launched a campaign to preserve it. In the graveyard was the grave of the famous Gardeners the Tradescants, father, son, and grandson. She hit on the idea of saving the Church by making it into the Museum of Garden History. One of the first in the world, apparently. Some years later, I was employed as the part-time Curator, despite knowing very little about flowers or gardens.
So What Has This to do with the Ashmolean Museum
Elias Ashmole in a frame by Grlinling Gibbons, Ashmolean Museum, Photo K Flude
You are wondering?
When Mrs Nicholson came into the Church she stamped on the floor. I enquired why? And was told that this was where Elias Ashmole was buried. He being the founder of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. This is the wonderful story which I tell every time I take a group to the Ashmolean Museum.
Tradescants Ark
John Tradescant the Elder, Ashmolean Museum photo by K Flude
Apart from being among the first famous Gardeners in the UK, the Tradescants ran Britain’s first Museum. It was in Lambeth, London and was called the Ark. The cabinet of curiosities was famous in Britain and Abroad. It had many wonders, shells, sculptures, weapons, clothes, shells, a piece of the True Cross, a Vegetable Lamb, and the lamp held by Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder plot
John Tradescant the Elder, collected for the Duke of Buckingham. He also helped build the fortifications at the La Rochelle for Buckingham’s disastrous expedition. Tradescant travelled as far afield as Africa to collect curiosities. He also wrote to Ships’ Captains travelling to Africa to bring anything strange back for him.
John Tradescant Junior and Elias Ashmole
When he died, his son, John Tradescant the Younger, took over. Both the Gardening and the Museum. His neighbour Elias Ashmole helped out, and together they created Britain’s first Museum Catalogue (shown below).
Catalogue of the Museum Tradescantianum
Sadly, the third John Tradescant, died. His father was bereft, and feared what would come of the wonderful collection. The collection his father had left him and which he had augmented. He travelled to America and bought back some of the oldest Native American clothing surviving, including Powhatan’s Mantle (or cloak).
Native American objects collected by John Tradescant the Younger.Powhatan’s Cloak – probably a religious cloth not a cloak
One day, he went to the pub at Elias Ashmole’s request. They discussed the problem of the survival of the collection. Ashmole took out a document and told Tradescant that if he signed it, it would ensure that the collection survived. Tradescant signed it. Went home, his wife, Hester called him a fool and told him to rescind it. Ashmole refused pointing out it was a legal document that had been freely signed before witnesses.
Hester Tradescant and the AshmoleanMuseum
John Tradescant and his friend, Roger Friend with the collection of shells. right Hester Tradescant, daughter and John Tradescant the Youngest. Ashmolean Museum, photo K Flude
Tradescant died. His wife, who had control of the collection till she died, was legally harassed by Ashmole. He accused her of profiting from the collection. She was found dead in her garden pond. Ashmole shipped the collection up the Thames to Oxford. He made a legal agreement with the University to provide it a permanent home. They built the original Ashmolean which is still on Broad Street but is now the Museum of the History of Science. The building was not used just for a collection of ‘knic-knackery’ as it was called but also a laboratory, dissection theatre, and with meeting rooms.
The Original Ashmolean Museum in Broad Street. Photo k Flude
Now, the problem with all this according to Mrs Nicholson, was twofold. Firstly, Ashmole was responsible for the death of Hester. Secondly, the oldest Museum in Britain should be called the Tradescant Museum, not the Ashmolean. The core of the Museum was, after all, Tradescant’s Ark. (Ashmole did add his own collections to the Gift).. Mrs Nicholson could never forgive Ashmole for stealing the Tradescants’ glory. Arthur MacGregor, Director of the Ashmolean Museum was a trustee of the Museum of Garden History, and would point out that without Ashmole the collection might well not have survived.
For other posts relevant to Tradescant and Ashmole, see the following posts:
The Cotswold Olimpicks take place on the Thursday and Friday of the week of Whitsun, normally between mid-May and mid-June. This year it was on May 29th. The Olimpicks were set up by Robert Dover on Dover’s Hill near Chipping Camden, in the early 17th Century. Inspired by the Greek Olympics, he felt the modern world could do with an infusion of the original spirit.
The Olimpicks has a collection of tradition sports such as the sack race, and the tug of war. But the one that receives the most attention is shin-kicking. Two contestants try to knock each other over by kicking each other in the shins! They are not supposed to pull or push their opponent over. Or use Judo style throws. Protective gear is supplied in the form of straw or hay packed down the socks.
70 – Siege of Jerusalem moves towards its end as the Roman legions breach the Outer Wall of Jerusalem. The Romans build a circumvallation, around the City cutting it off.
1381 – Beginning of the Peasants’ Revolt in England. John Bampton arrives in Brentwood demanding payment of unpaid Poll Tax. He interrogates Thomas Baker of Fobbing. Violence breaks out Bampton flees to London, three of his clerks and some townsfolk are killed. (see my post on the Peasants Revolt here.)
1431 – 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake in Rouen. France (for her canonisation see my post here. Near the bottom under On This Day section).
1842 – Assassination attempt on Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace in London. John Francis had tried to shoot her on the previous day near the Mall. His gun misfired and he escaped. On the 30th May, Queen Victoria deliberately went out again to try to encourage a second attempt. Francis shot his pistol, but didn’t hit anybody. He was arrested and sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment).
First published 1 June 2025, Revised OnThis Day added May 30th 2026
Today is both Oak Apple Day and Garland Day. Oak Apple Day was set up by Parliament in 1660 as “An Act for a Perpetual Anniversary of Thanksgiving”. They were celebrating the restoration of Charles II to the throne in May of 1660. It was abolished in 1859, but a few places continue to celebrate the day.
The Oak was chosen partly as a symbol of England but particularly because Charles II hid in an Oak Tree while escaping from Cromwell’s Parliamentary Army. Charles II attempt to restore the Monarchy ended with his defeat at the Battle of Worcester (September 3rd 1651). This was Cromwell’s Lucky Day as he also won the Battle of Dunbar on September 3rd (1650). (For more on these two battles see my post: https://chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet/oliver-cromwell-and-his-lucky-day-september-3rd/) The Oak Tree was near Boscobel House in Shropshire which was on the route of his epic journey to the South Coast and the safety of France.
People wore oak apples (or shick-shacks) which are a type of ‘plant-gall‘. . If Oak Apples are not available, people used sprigs of Oak leaves instead.
The text of the Parliamentary Bill said:
That in all succeeding ages, the 29th of May be celebrated in every parish Church and Chapel in England and the Dominions thereof, by rendering thanks to God for the Kings (Charles II’s) restoration to actual possession and exercise of his legal authority over his subjects’
Church Services for the Restoration; for the preservation from the Gunpowder Plot and the death of Charles the First were kept until the year 1859.
The oak apples are a type of ‘plant-gall‘. This is an abnormal growth from a point of irritation on a plant. The irritation normally comes from the larvae of an insect. Oak Galls on leaves are called Oak Apples. But they can also form on the shoots, where they check and distort growth.
Oak galls are full of gallic or tannic acid. They were very useful in tanning and dyeing. Medically, they were used against dysentery, diarrhoea and cholera, using a tincture. By injection they were used against gonorrhoea and leucorrhoea.
You might like to look at my posts on the Civil War period:
Screenshot from https://www.castleton-garland.com/ showing the Garland King (possibly representing Charles II hiding in an Oak tree)
The Castleton Garland Day is a procession led by a man dressed in a big bell shaped Floral Garland. Research cannot trace it back further than the later 18th or early 19th Century. But it may have developed from the rush bearing ceremonies, where a procession led by Morris Men went to the Church to renew the strewing herbs on the floor of the Church which once were of beaten earth. Strewing herbs were sweet smelling or insect repellent, and added insulation to the floor. Strewing herbs included: Lavender, Camomile, Meadowsweet, Thyme, Oregano, Rue, Rosemary and Tansy. In historic properties, visitors are often told that the word ‘threshold’ stems from the wooden timber that held the thresh or strewing herbs in place. However, etymologists suggests the thresh comes from an old English word to trample.
Abbotsbury in Dorset has its own Garland Day on May 13th. It consists of making and blessing Garlands in the Church and taking them either to Boats, or to the War Memorial.
First Published 2025, and revised 202 with the Addition of Oak Galls, and Castleton Garland Day
Titue Oates & Popish Plot. Set of playing cards themed on the Plot c1679 after a design by Francis Barlow
This post is about Titus Oates and the Popish Plot but first more on May 20th
On This Day
On May 20th Castor was mortally wounded. Castor and his brother Pollux raped and abducted Phoebe, and her sister Hilaira. Their betrothed attacked the twins, and ran Castor through. Jupiter, Pollux’s father, saved Pollus, who cried
‘Father, hear my words: That heaven you grant me alone, share between us Half will be more, then, than the whole of your gift.’
So Jupiter saved Castor and allowed the divine Twins to change places in Mount Olympus alternately. For more about the Gemini, read my piece on heteropaternal superfecundation and the Twins.
1609 – Shakespeare’s sonnets published in London, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. The sonnets are endlessly controversial, as to how autobiographical they are.
1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets released ‘Rock Around the Clock’
1964 – Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias. This was the key experimental evidence of the Big Bang theory.
Titus Oates
He was a con-man. He accused leading Catholics of participating in a plot to kill King Charles II and restore a Catholic monarchy. Among his targets were the Queen, and the King’s Brother’s wife.
Titus Oates had a complicated past. He was a Baptist who turned to the Church of England on the Restoration of King Charles II. He studied at Cambridge. But was accused of being a ‘Great Dunce’ and never took his degree. His next about turn saw him in St Omer to train as a Jesuit. He accused a man, whose job he wanted, of sodomy. Then, he became a Naval Chaplain. But he was, himself, accused of buggery and dismissed from the Navy. He was received into the Catholic Church while, at the same time, he wrote a series of anti-Catholic Pamphlets. He made accusations against over 500 people. This became known as the Popish Plot.
As a result, twenty-two people were executed. Some were ‘Hanged, Drawn and Quartered’ because of Oates’ baseless accusations. The Diarist, Samuel Pepys, was caught up in the anti-Catholic frenzy. Pepys was Secretary of the Navy during the Plot and was close to the Catholic, James, Duke of York. He was accused of selling secrets to the French. Awaiting trial for treason, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Eventually, he was able to clear himself and resume public life. (read this article on the /the-plot-against-pepys/.
Whipped from Aldgate to Tyburn
Old Print of Samuel Pepys
It was only with the accession of James II that the climate of opinion changed. Then Titus Oates was found guilty of perjury. Perjury was not punishable with death, so Oates’ punishment was a long-drawn-out affair instead. He was sentenced to be imprisoned for life. And ‘whipped through the streets of London for five days a year for the remainder of his life.’
Oates was put in the pillory at Westminster Hall, where passers-by pelted him with eggs. He was again pilloried the next day in the City. On the third day, stripped, tied to a cart, and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate. The following day he was whipped from Newgate to Tyburn. (Source Wikipedia)
However, when the Catholic King, James II was deposed and replaced by the joint Protestant monarchs William and Mary in 1689, Titus Oates was released and given a pension. He died in 1705.
For Pepys at the Execution of Charles I see my post here.
First Published in 2024, republished in 2025, On This Day added 2026
Magnolia and Cherry blossom in Weymouth Terrace Haggerston London. Photo K Flude
It might already have peaked in London, but there are lots of lovely magnolias still flowering. This year, last week was very hot and plant experts feared it would lead to a brief spring. However, the shirt-sleeve warmth was soon followed by a cold spell, dropping in some places to 0 degrees C. This may have saved the situation and prolonged the spring flowering.
Magnolias, Earnest ‘Chinese’ Wilson, said were the most esteemed of all flowers. He introduced new species from the Himalayas. Magnolias are among the oldest flowers and have their origins in the Cretaceous period. They evolved 100 million years ago before the evolution of bees. So they are pollinated by beetles, which is one reason for the size of the flowers.
The first magnolias to come to Britain were from America. John Banister sent Magnolia Virginiana to Henry Compton Bishop of London, who was also highly involved in the colony in Virginia. Compton sent Banister out as a missionary, but both loved flowers. Banister wrote the first flora of N. America which was included in John Ray‘s Historia Plantarum. Sadly, he was accidently shot while exploring.
Magnolias were named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol (1638-1715) ‘Professor of Botany and Director of the Royal Botanic Garden of Montpellier’. Magnol invented the idea of plant families, which Linnaeus developed.
Herbal uses
Mrs Grieve’s ‘A Modern Herbal’ suggests Magnolia was used for rheumatism and malaria. A warm infusion was thought to be laxative, sudorific (induces ‘sweating so that the sweat runs down the body in rills!’), If cold. If warm was antiperiodic (useful against diseases like malaria which keep coming back) and mildly tonic.
Where to see Magnolias
In London, they can be seen everywhere but Google suggests:
Kensington (Phillimore Gardens, The Boltons), Chelsea (Carlyle Square), and Notting Hill (Lancaster Road). And of course Kensington Gardens and Kew Gardens. My favourites ones are in the roads around my house, often in the most unprepossessing of places.
Magnolias and Camelias in Albion Square, Haggerston,. London. Photo by K Flude
But it is a delight to go to Hidecote the National Trust Property in Mickleton just off the edge of the Cotswolds. In April, it has spectacular magnolias. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good photos except this one which shows all the magnolia petals on the ground!
Hdcote in Magnolia time. Photo K Flude
Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson 1876 – 1930
Prunus Serrula, (aka Tibetan Cherry) brought to England by Ernest Wilson. My favourite tree because of its bark which feels like copper. Photo K Flude
He was born in Chipping Camden where there is a lovely memorial garden which contains my favourite tree, and many plants he introduced. He brought back over 2000 species into the West of which 60 are named after him. One of his expeditions took place during the Boxer revolution. So he adopted a native disguise and risked execution.
At 16, he was apprenticed at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Then he worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. His next adventure was to be hired as the Chinese plant collector with James Veitch & Sons (originally based in Chelsea). He eventually moved to America, where he became keeper of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. Unfortunately, he and his wife died in a car accident in 1930.
1116 (or 1117) – St Magnus the Martyr Executed. He was executed because of dynastic disputes amongst Vikings in the Orkneys. Magnus lived a pious life refusing, for example, to fight in the Battle of Menai Straits in Wales, and various miracles took place after his death. He is remembered by the Church of St Magnus at the foot of London Bridge in London. But that was, before the 18th Century, thought to be dedicated one or other of the other many St Magnus’s (6). The Church is by Christopher Wren, and very high Church Protestant. On the occasion I visited on his feast day I felt like I was in a Roman Temple.
The Famous Spaghetti Tree April Fool’s Joke (from facebook)
First Reference to April Fools Day
The first unambiguous British reference to April Fools Day is by diarist John Aubrey’s “Fooles holy day” in 1686 – although he might have been referring to Germany.
‘We observe it on ye first of April… And so it is kept in Germany everywhere.’ For more details read hoaxes.org.
Chaucer and April Fools Day
But there is a possible earlier reference in Chaucer in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. This I find quite compelling but most Chaucer scholars don’t. This is the text:
When that the monthe in which the world bigan That highte March, whan God first maked man, Was complet, and passed were also Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two
So, if you have been keeping up with me, you will know that the first lines are referring to March 25th. This was the day Adam and Eve were created. The day when the Church started the New Year and the year number moved one on. This was a major Church festival, usually followed by a week of holiness. The Roman New Year, January 1st, ended with a light-hearted festival called Saturnalia, and it is suggested that April 1st was, similarly, a day of release after the festival of the official Church ceremony of the New Year.
Chaucer’s last line says ‘Since March began thirty-two days have passed.’ A foolish person would not realise this is a reference to April 1st. Hence, this suggests a Fool’s Day already existed. Some scholars think that Chaucer was referring to May 2nd, counting the 32 days not from the beginning of March but from the end of March. I think they look at the second and third lines which read ‘That high March…. was complete’ and so add the 32 days to the end of March. Foolish in my opinion and not reading what actually Chaucer wrote which is ‘Since March began….’
Hunting the Gowk
Generally, in Britain, we play a prank and say ‘April Fool’ with great delight. But we are not allowed to continue beyond midday. The Scots used to call it ‘Hunting the Gowk’ and the main prank was to give someone a letter to deliver, and the person who opened the letter would read:
“Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile” and send the fool onto another leg of his or her’s fool’s errand. In Ireland the letter would read ‘send the fool further’.
April Fools Day and Spaghetti Growing on Trees
I nearly always forget to honour April Fool’s Day (or April Fish Day as the French call it). But in Britain, somewhere in our newspaper or TV station there is an April Fools Joke slipped in. The most remembered is the BBC piece showing film of Italian Farmers picking spaghetti from trees.
2026 – Introduction of Coffee to England 200 years earlier than previously thought!
I have had a quick look at the Guardian for their 2026 April Fools Day Story and I think it is this one:
Guardian April Fools Joke for 2026
The clues are the expert is called Macky Arto. The find was in Ness, allowing them to say ‘Ness Cafe’, and ‘Ness-presso’, and the use of a pun ‘It would have costa for a coffee.’ The final confirmation is this sentence: ‘Back in the reigns of Henry V and VI, these were flat white fields …. and a village called Brew.’ Allowing the journalist to make up an origin for the expression ‘Fancy a Brew?’ it goes on to say.
2025 – Coffee Cups as Haut Courture?
Guardian April Fools Day Joke article or the world gone mad?
‘Meghan Markle was criticised after it was revealed that when you put her lifestyle brand name – American Riviera Orchard – into the What3words location service, it points to a statue of Oliver Cromwell, who famously had a King Charles executed‘
2023 – “Megxit: Call of Duke-y”
In 2023, Harry and Megan proved irresistible and the Guardian reported that:
‘The Sun published a piece announcing the launch of Prince Harry and Meghan’s new video game “Megxit: Call of Duke-y” in which the royal couple try to reach California while dodging obstacles, including rival royals and the media, along the way.‘
This post is about April Fools Day. But it is also the anniversary of the formation of the RAF.
On This Day
1854 – Hard Times by Charles Dickens Serialised in Household Words. A recent study of Victorian Grave yards in Yorkshire highlights the grim reality for young children. For the article see: https://core.ac.uk/reader/220156990
1918 – Near the end of World War 1 the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged to create the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was the world’s biggest air force, and went on to secure Britain from invasion by Hitler.
Croydon RFC/RAF base for anti-Zeppelin Raids in WW1 and one of the world’s first international airports.
RAF Rigger, Benjamin Flude
My Grandfather was in the RAF as a fitter. My father tells some of his story in his autobiography ‘A Boy from Haggerston’:
Benjamin Flude in RFC Uniform. My father, Ben Flude remembers a small model biplane hanging from the portrait.
‘I was 9 months old when he died, and he was just 28 years old. Everyone seemed to like him, and as a child, he was always my hero. In my imagination, I promoted him to being a brilliant and brave Ace RAF Pilot. But he was, in fact, a mechanic rather than a pilot in World War I. Following the war, he worked with Imperial Airways in Purley, Croydon. I don’t know the exact details and so have to piece the story together from the little information I have at my disposal.
My friend, Roy, tells me that the badge on his uniform in the oval picture is of the Royal Flying Corp. (RFC). But they were disbanded in 1916/17, and replaced by the RAF thereafter. As my dad was born in 1900, he must have joined up to fight in the war while underage at 16 or 17 as a volunteer. ‘
How a London lad became a Rigger for the RFC we don’t know, but the Fludes at that time were all employed as umbrella or walking stick makers in the East End of London. I think it is a case of transferable skills. WWI aeroplanes were made of wood, metal wire and fabric, which is precisely what an umbrella is made of.
RAF/RFC mecanics c 1917 . My grandfather is the handsome man standing tall in the back row extreme right
RAF Mechanic Ben Flude
My father went on to serve in the RAF during his national service: He writes:
Ben Flude RAF Metfield. (dad is lying down at the bottom right. he is now 98)
‘Early in 1946 I received my call-up papers for the RAF. I was to report to the Recruitment Centre at Padgate in Lancashire. This is where I received my uniform after a medical examination, and then there were a number of intelligence/aptitude tests when they decided what trade I would join. I tried to get Air Crew and while there were no vacancies, I did have a wide group of trade offers open to me. The group that I was interested in was aircraft maintenance and repair, following in my Dad’s footsteps.’
‘However, before I could start, I had to do my basic training. This was designed to get you fit, and we did plenty of square-bashing or parade drills. For this, they sent me to Metfield in Suffolk, which had only very recently been made available to the RAF by the American Army Air Force. In fact, it was so recent a hand-over that whilst on picket duty, a coach rolled up packed with girls who were so disappointed by the lack of Americans that they got straight back on and returned to Ipswich! The motto of ‘overpaid, oversexed, over here’ certainly applied to these Americans in Suffolk.’
‘We found out that Metfield had been a US Army Air Force Base, where two squadrons of Flying Fortresses operated from. In all the Nissen Huts, those with the semicircular roofs, the ceilings were completely covered with pin-up pictures. My bed was just feet away from the huge Crocodile Stove, round which every evening we all clustered – as it was warm.‘
Interior of Nissan Hut 1944, Lasham
Dad specialised in the recovery of instruments from crashed planes, and was complimented by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG on his ability to fix an instrument he had never seen before.
First published March 25th 4004 BC and republished yearly on every April Fool’s Day. The section on the meaning of April moved to my post on April 2025. On This Day added in 2026
Study for Lady Lilith, by Rossetti. 1866, in red chalk. Now in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Wikipedia) Lilith born at The Beginning of the Universe
This is now my most popular post. March 25th is the Annunciation—the day that the Archangel Gabriel tells Mary she is pregnant. (to see some very fine paintings of this meeting, look at my other March 25th post march-25th-feast-of-the-annunciation/). When I first wrote this post I was discovering how it all fitted together as I wrote. So I’m leaving it the way it was, proof reading and clarifying if necessary, but keeping the thrill of the discovery of the the significance of March 25th as the day that saw the Beginning of the Universe.
March 25th is also the anniversary of the birth of Adam and Eve (and Lilith); the death of Jesus Christ; the anniversary of the Immolation of Isaac; the Parting of the Red Sea; the Fall of Lucifer; and, (until 1752 in the UK) the beginning of the Year.
Of course, it isn’t. Or to put it another way, no one can, or ever could, prove any of these dates except 1752. So what they speak to is the way the Church saw the world as logically structured by God. Christian thinking about the year, the world, the universe, creation, developed over many years and took influences from many cultures. It is also very complicated to work out the sequence, so I’m going to summarise what I know (or at least what I think I know).
Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus.
Christians chose Christmas Day as the Birthday of Jesus, probably partly because it was a prominent birthday already shared with several Gods. Particularly, Attis, Mithras, Saturn and the Unconquered Sun. It was approximately at Solstice, the beginning of the Solar Year, and close to one of the main festivals of the Roman World, the Saturnalia. So it made it easier for new converts who could retain elements of their festivals after conversion.
December 25th might have been selected by the pagan religions because it is the time when the Sun begins to rise further north each day. The days stop shortening and start lengthening, light increases with the promise of warmer weather and budding plants. It was considered a rebirth of the Sun.
Solstice Anniversaries
So, Jesus was born on/or around the Solstice, so he must have been conceived approx. 9 months earlier. This is approximately at the Spring Equinox.
Ah, you are thinking! But today isn’t the equinox. It’s a few days after the equinox. Surely, God doesn’t do approximately?
I have always thought that the 4 or 5 days difference between the Solstice, the Equinox and the Christian festivals was down to the fact that the Calendars were not well coordinated with the actual movements of the Sun (because the Sun does not circle the earth in 365 days, or in 365 and a quarter days, but 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes. Unless corrected for this means dates slip from their proper place in the Solar Year. It also makes lunar Calendars difficult to align with the Sun cycles, and vice versa.
But when I first wrote this a sudden revelation dawned upon me which will be revealed in the next few paragraphs.
So, God sends his Son to save the human race. God is a logical being, so she would send her Son at an appropriate time? If Jesus is born at or near the Solstice, which is an appropriate time for the Son of the Creator, then conception 9 months earlier, March 25th, is near the Equinox. This is the beginning of Spring. For many people, Spring is a new beginning, for example, the Anglo-Saxons saw Winter as the death of the year, and Spring as the young Year. It all makes sense.
The Creation
So to the Creation. God, having a free choice, would have created the world at the beginning of Spring. In fact, if you think about it, God creates everything necessary for life at the creation in 6 days. As soon as it has all been created and put together, it is bound to immediately spring into new life. The first season must, therefore, be Spring? Right? So March 25th?
This gives a nice symmetry with Jesus’s Life. Conceived on March 25th, born December 25th, and died 30–40 years later, according to the Church, at Easter, on March 25th. (the only other famous person I know, born and died on the same day is William Shakespeare).
Easter
Easter, when Jesus is martyred, isn’t March 25th I hear you saying. But remember, Easter is a lunar festival, so its date varies each year. In fact the next time is 2035. Births and deaths, on the other hand, are fixed to the Solar Calendar. Therefore, the Church chooses March 25th as the most appropriate day to pin the death of Jesus, on the anniversary of his conception and the anniversary of the creation of the Earth. I am guessing that this is also the preferred date for the Day of Judgement.
It is also the Birthday of Adam, and his first wife Lilith (or so some say), and Eve. More about Lilith below. I hope this is all making sense?
Why was Adam born on March 25th?
I had thought this date was just one of the parallels that the Church liked, Jesus and Adam born on the same day. But, I have just worked out why Adam is born on March 25th, and why these dates are not the Equinox, March 20th/21 but March 25th, which has been bugging me.
Let’s go back to the beginning of Creation as described in Genesis. It has the following sequence of Seven Days, beginning with the Equinox March 20th. I have added dates to the 6/7 day sequence of Creation:
Day 1: Light – March 20th
Day 2: Atmosphere / Firmament – March 21st
Day 3: Dry ground & plants – March 22nd
Day 4: Sun, moon & stars – March 23rd
Day 5: Birds & sea creatures – March 24th
Day 6: Land animals & Adam, Lilith and Eve – March 25th
So there you have it! Adam, Eve (and Lilith) were created on Day 6 with the Land Animals – March 25th. Jesus conceived, also on this date, and so 9 months later is born on December 25th. It all makes sense, and aligns the Jesus’s Life, the Christian year fully with the Solar Year and the Creation!
And that, dear Reader, is the very first time anyone has been able to explain to me why Christmas is not at the Solstice, and why the Annunciation was not at the Equinox. Maybe you all know this, but it is very exciting to work this out for myself. And believe me, I have done a lot of reading about calendars and not spotted an explanation.
When was the Creation?
The Anno Munda‘s is a Jewish Calendar which begins counting from a year before the Creation – the Year of Emptiness. This was 5500 years plus 2026 years ago so 7526 Before the Present. And it was supposed to have ended in 600AD, 6000 years after the Creation. So, they got that wrong.
Dionysius Exiguus replaced the Anno Mundo year with the AD/BC system in the 6th Century AD). This became popular when the Venerable Bede used it in his writings in the 8th Century.
Beginnings of the year
The Celts chose October 31st, Julius Caesar chose January 1st, other cultures have other dates, and the Spring Equinox is another choice sometimes made. The Church and Dionysius Exiguus choose March 25th, although secular society also recognised the claims of January 1st. Britain kept to March 25th until 1752 when we adopted the Gregorian Calendar. But people like Samuel Pepys celebrated New Year’s Eve on 31st December. So January 1st was the secular New Year, but the Christian year number did not change until March 25th. So King Charles I thought his head was being cut off on January 30th 1648; while history books will tell you it was cut off on January 30th 1649. Same day, same head, different reckonings.
January 1st, the New Moon and New Year
December 31st/January 1st is essentially a Solstice New Year Festival. And I have, previously, used the difficulty of keeping calendars as to why these days has slipped out of alignment with the Solstice. But, today I realised that it is as likely that the reason is the Solar/Lunar nature of our time keeping. The year, and its festivals, is largely arranged around the Solar Cycle. But our weekly and monthly cycles are orginally derived from the Moon.
The first of a month, was called the Kalends by the Romans, the Nones the half moon, and the Ides signified the New Moon. The kalends of January is then, originally, the First New Moon after the Winter Solstice. So, January 1st is not a slightly misdated Solstice Festival it is a Festival celebrating the first New Moon of the New Year! Sorry, to seem excited but this is the first time I have realised this.
Over time societies give up trying to sync the lunar and solar calendars. Roman and Christian cultures gave up and fixed the moon months, completely abandoning any attempt to keep the months to the actual lunar cycle. This is our current system, in which only Easter and festivals that depend on Easter remain true to the movements of the moon festival, much to our perennial confusion.
Maybe you all know this, but it’s put many things into perspective for me!
Lilith
The April 2023 Issue of ‘History Today’ had a short piece called ‘The Liberation of Lilith’ which suggests that the story of Lilith, a figure from Jewish Folklore, is first attested in a Medieval satirical text called ‘The Alphabet of Ben Sira’. The story goes that Lilith is created from the same clay as Adam. Adam then demands she lies below him during sex. She refuses, saying that they are both made from the same stuff and, therefore, equal. Adam refuses to accept this, and so Lilith leaves the Garden of Eden. So the story goes.
The story of Lilith, Sarah Clegg suggests, is one of a series of similar stories found around Europe and Asia. And Clegg assumes that it is gradually modified to make Lilith a demon who will kill babies unless the names of three angels are spoken out loud.
The story survived as a charm to keep babies safe, and perhaps to remind people of equality among the sexes. But this causes problems for, OK, let’s call them out, the Patriarchy. Lilith cannot be equal to Adam so she is made into a monster, not made from the same clay as Adam but from the scum and waste left over from Adam’s creation. I imagine the story then went on to propose that God creates Eve from Adam’s rib, and so she is created from Adam, and is, therefore, not equal, but subservient to him, although not as bad as Lilith. Lilith is now a significant figure in feminist folklore circles.
Attached to the watercolour of Lilith by Rossetti (at the top of the page), was a label with a verse from Goethe‘s Faust as translated by Shelley. (Wikipedia)
“Beware of her fair hair, for she excells All women in the magic of her locks, And when she twines them round a young man’s neck she will not ever set him free again.”
The model is Fanny Cornforth, Rossetti’s mistress. He painted another version a few years later, but the model in that is Alexa Wilding. His models are arguably more interesting than the man himself and include: Elizabeth Siddall, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth. Christina Rossetti, his poet sister, modelled for Rossetti’s painting, Ecce Ancilla Domini which you can see here.
For more on the Annunciation, look at my other March 25th post here.
I think I might have enough material to begin my own Cult.
Newark on Trent by Peter Tarleton Wikipedia CC BY-SA 2.0 Newark & the Penny Loaf Day
This post is about Newark & the Penny Loaf, but as it is still Women’s Week, I’d like to share with you a discovery I have just made:
Dorothy Thurtle
Dorothy Thurtle. By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/b5/be/a6cfe553603c25fd36627e6c24d4.jpgGallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0026656.html, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36012910
By chance, a few days after International Women’s Day, I was reading the Hackney Society’s Newsletter and read about some canon bollards in Shoreditch Park, in the Dorothy Thurtle Memorial Garden. Well, my nearest Bus Stop is Thurtle Street, which always seemed a strange turtle-like name. So, I looked her up!
Turns out she was a pioneer of the Labour Party. Also, daughter of the great George Lansbury. And a redoubtable pioneer of contraception, and abortion rights. Her opinion was that the Labour Party’s commitment to equality between the sexes made no sense unless it supported contraception and legal abortion. She and her husband, Ernest, founded the Workers’ Birth Control Group. Dorothy was general secretary of Shoreditch Trades Council and Labour Party, became a councillor and eventually Mayor of Shoreditch. She was the only supporter of Abortion Law reform on the Birkett Committee, and issued an influential dissenting report. In her report, she ‘argued that because many married women would face pregnancy every one or two years until their menopause, withholding access to fertility advice and birth control was “a form of class discrimination and penalisation”‘ (Wikipedia). World War 2 delayed any reform.
George Lansbury making a speech. By LSE Library – Flickr: George Lansbury, c1935, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31131566
Dorothy’s father was originally a Radical Liberal Party member. He then joined the Labour Party and became an MP for Bow and Bromley in 1910. During the struggle for Women’s Suffrage he was imprisoned. He was also imprisoned in the Poplar Rates Revolt of 1921. (He was the first labour Mayor of Poplar). After Ramsay MacDonald joined the National Government, Lansbury replaced MacDonald. He lead the few remaining ‘loyal’ Labour Party members who would not join a Conservative dominated Government. He was elected leader from 1932 to 1935, with Clement Atlee as his deputy. Lansbury was a life long Pacifist and so stood down in 1935, as he was out of step with the need for rearming with the rise of Fascism. Atlee became leader.
Canon Bollards
Smithfield., Canon Bollards Photo K Flude)Canon Bollards in Cloth Fair (photo K Flude)
Canon Bollards are made of repurposed canons from the British Navy. They are sometimes hard to distinguish from those made from repurposed canon moulds, or bollards that are designed to look like canons.
Newark in the Civil War
I will move the Dorothy Thurtle content to International Women’s Day, by next year. Which leaves us with an abrupt change of subject! On the 11th March 1644, the Parliamentary forces were besieging the Royalist-held Newark-on-Trent. Newark was a strategic centre as it was on the River Trent and on a major road junction. Here, the Great North Road (A1 from London to the North) and the Fosse Way (from Exeter, via the Cotswolds to Leicester) meet. It was vital for the King, as the roads linked Chester and York to Oxford. Oxford was the King’s HQ; Chester was the key to Wales and the North West. York controlled access to the North East.
Newark withheld three sieges and only ‘fell’ when King Charles I surrendered. The Castle and other military defences were slighted.
Newark & the Penny Loaf & Hercules Clay,
During the second siege, in 1644, Hercules Clay dreamt that his house was on fire. He ignored the dream at first. Then it repeated, so he took his family out of the house (next door to the Town Hall).
Shortly after, a ‘bombshell’ hit his house, fired by the Parliamentary side. Because of his miraculous delivery, he left £100 in his will for a distribution of ‘penny loaves’ to the poor of Newark. His Will said:
‘Upon the 11th day of March yearly forever upon which day it pleased God of his infinite mercy wonderfully to preserve me and my wife from a fearful destruction by a terrible blow of a granado in the time of the last siege’
And also he left £100 for a commemorative sermon to be read on the anniversary of the incident. The service is normally held on the closest Sunday to the 11th March. The Church is being refurbished, so instead they had an event in the Town Hall and a procession.
Clay was a Mercer and a Royalist. After his death he was fined for lending £600 for the maintenance of the Royalist Garrison. It was paid by his brother.
At the time Churches had poor or bread boxes into which the women of the Parish would place loaves for the poor.
Auction Web site showing 17th Century Poor Box used for holding loaves for the poor
1702 – Elizabeth Mallet published the first English daily newspaper the Daily Courant, on Fleet Bridge, next to the King’s Arms. She, previously, dominated the publishing of ‘last dying speeches’ of people executed at Tyburn.
The Daily Courant By Edward Mallet from rooms above the White Hart pub in Fleet Street – The Daily Courant, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=880402. Elizabeth Mallet published under a male name.
1941 – Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill – this was a life-line to the UK as it enabled the supply of war materials to flow to Britain who stood alone, in Europe, against fascism. see my post for Roosevelt’s 4 freedoms.
1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev, appointed General Secretary of the USSR
First written in 2024, revised 2025, Thurtle and Lansbury and On This Day added in 2026
John Worlidge knew all about dung. And it is all spread out in his ‘Worlidge Systema Agriculurae’ of 1697 brought to my attention by Charles Kightly’s Perpetual Almanac.
Worlidge tells us that although it used not be esteemed, but Hens and Pigeons’s Dung is the best if mixed with common earth or sand, and let to rot. He says:
Pigeons or Hens dung is incomparable, one Load is worth ten Load of other Dung, and therefore it’s usually sown on Wheat (or Barly) that lieth afar off, and not easily to be helped; it’s extraordinary likewise on a Hop-garden.
… It’s generally little set by, because our Fore-fathers did not make any great matter of it, and because they understand not the strength and power of it; for when they take it out of the houses it’s of a very hot nature, and must needs injure some things, if laid thereon; but if it be mixed well with common Earth, Sand, or such-like, and let lie till it rot well together, you will finde it a very rich Manure, and of value to answer a great part of your Poultreys expence.
I have known a Quince-tree whereon Poultrey always pearched, that by reason of the Rain washing to its Roots the salt and fatness of the Dung, did bear yearly an incredible number of very excellent Quinces.
Mr. Camel is fascinated by his friend Dilbert Dung Beetle’s diet.
He thinks eating up excrement, feces and manure is a riot.
It is tasty! Delicious! You should try a salty elephant pie!
Dilbert Dung Beetle says. You would love it if you gave it a try!
Mr. Camel watches Dilbert dig in, gulping down gobs of the stuff.
He thinks it must have a weird smell, but Dilbert can’t get enough.
You might sample a tiny bit Dilbert says, it is delicious you see!
Mr. Camel shakes his head and says “Sorry, it does not appeal to me.”
Homemade Quince J am (just out of the freezerHomemade Quince Jelly
I made quince jam this winter for the third year running from my Father’s Tree. Likely to be the last year as he is 98 and has just gone into a lovely home. It’s very easy to make (although very hard to cut up the fruit) and delicious because it is not too sweet. Here is a recipe (not necessarily the one I used}. Indeed, my most successful year was when I didn’t use a recipe, just boiled the fruit with sugar to taste. Beginner’s Luck, I expect.
Quince is mentioned once in Shakespeare, when the Nurse says the pastry makers are calling for Quince and Dates. (Here is a recipe for Tudor Quince Pie) And of course, the mechanicals theatre director is Peter Quince the Carpenter. But the most famous reference is in the Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon.
Quinces are native to the Caspian Seas, and Wikipedia says spread to England when planted at the Tower of London at the order of Edward I. Quinces were sacred to Aphrodite. and taste great with Cheese (dulce de membrillo) if you are in Span. The Balkans have an aqua vita called rakija. Quince is considered old-fashioned and not grown very much in gardens in the UK.
John Evelyn is, with Pepys and Wren, one of the great figures of 17th Century London. Unlike Pepys, he was an avowed Royalist who hated Oliver Cromwell and all he stood for. He went into exile with his King and gives a great description of Paris (see below).
Like Pepys, John Evelyn was a diarist and a writer. And they, like Wren, were alumni of the Royal Society, one of the great scientific societies. John Evelyn was a founding fellow. It was innovative in that it employed an experimenter. This was Robert Hooke – one of the great early Scientists, who also worked with Wren rebuilding London after the Great Fire. The Royal Society encouraged scientists to experiment, write up their observations, and submit their theories for peer review. This is the foundation of modern Science, and a bedrock of the Enlightenment.
Frontispiece of ‘the History of the Royal-Society of London by Thomas Sprat. John Evelyn was a founder member
Evelyn the Writer.
John Evelyn has a place in my history because, in the 1980’s I worked. with Paul Herbert, on a project to create an interactive history of London. It was financed by Warner Brothers, and in cooperation with the short-lived ‘BBC Interactive TV Unit’. One part of it was a Literary Tour of London. The first half of this Tour is the basis for my book ‘In Their Own Words’ (To buy click here ) And this is where I came across John Evelyn using several of the quotations on this page.
Evelyn was a prolific traveller and a polymath. He wrote on the need to improve London’s architecture and air in Fumifugium (or The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated). Here is an extract from his Furmifugium.
‘That this Glorious and Antient City, which from Wood might be rendred Brick, and (like another Rome) from Brick made Stone and Marble; which commands the Proud Ocean to the Indies, and reaches to the farthest Antipodes, should wrap her stately head in Clowds of Smoake and Sulphur, so full of Stink and Darknesse, I deplore with just Indignation.
That the Buildings should be compos’d of such a Congestion of mishapen and extravagant Houses; That the Streets should be so narrow and incommodious in the very Center, and busiest places of Intercourse: That there should be so ill and uneasie a form of Paving under foot, so troublesome and malicious a disposure of the Spouts and Gutters overhead, are particulars worthy of Reproof and Reformation; because it is hereby rendred a Labyrinth in its principal passages, and a continual Wet-day after the Storm is over. ‘
And he was an expert on trees. Author of: Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees (1664). He lived at Sayes Court in Depford near Greenwich, which he ill-advisedly rented to Peter the Great of Russia. Letting to Peter was a lot-like inviting a 1960s Rock Band to trash your mansion.
John Evelyn the Exile
Here is a taste of Evelyn’s time as an Exile. It is a short extract from a long entry on the splendid Palaces in and around Paris.
27th February, 1644. Accompanied with some English gentlemen, we took horse to see St. Germains-en-Laye, a stately country house of the King, some five leagues from Paris. By the way, we alighted at St. Cloud, where, on an eminence near the river, the Archbishop of Paris has a garden, for the house is not very considerable, rarely watered and furnished with fountains, statues,[and groves; the walks are very fair; the fountain of Laocoon is in a large square pool, throwing the water near forty feet high, and having about it a multitude of statues and basins, and is a surprising object. But nothing is more esteemed than the cascade falling from the great steps into the lowest and longest walk from the Mount Parnassus, which consists of a grotto, or shell-house, on the summit of the hill, wherein are divers waterworks and contrivances to wet the spectators; this is covered with a fair cupola, the walls painted with the Muses, and statues placed thick about it, whereof some are antique and good. In the upper walks are two perspectives, seeming to enlarge the alleys, and in this garden are many other ingenious contrivances.
This was Evelyn’s reaction when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660,
May 29th 1660:
This day came in his Majestie Charles the 2d to London after a sad, and long exile… this was also his birthday, and with a Triumph of above 20,000 horse and foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with unexpressable joy; the wayes strawed with flowers, the bells ringing, the streets hung with Tapisry, fountains running with wine: ‘
‘The mayor, Aldermen, all the companies in their liveries, chaines of gold, banners, Lords and nobles, cloth of Silver, gold and velvet every body clad in, the windows and balconies all set with Ladys, Trumpetes, Musik, and myriads of people … All this without one drop of bloud …it was the Lords doing…
1661 – ‘Ash Wednesday. Preached before the King the Bishop of London (Dr. Sheldon) on Matthew xviii. 25, concerning charity and forgiveness.‘
John Evelyn’s Diary Dr Sheldon, the Bishop of London mentioned above, went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a friend of Wren’s Father, and commissioned Wren to build the Sheldonian Theatre, in Oxford.
1782 – OK! Let’s give up! The House of Commons votes against continuing the war with Revolutionary America.
1900 – The Labour Party is founded. And today, the UK woke up to a by-election in a safe Labour seat won by the Greens (40%) with Reform 2nd (29%) and the Labour Party third (26%) Conservatives fourth (2%). So, clearly a progressive vote determined to beat Reform, Labour won about 50% of the vote last time, so a disaster for them. Not a success for Reform, and bad result for the Conservatives.
1933 – Reichstag burns down. Hitler uses it to suspend Civil Liberties, and attack the German Communist Party which was falsely blamed for the fire.
First Published 2024, republished 2025, Making Lardy Cake moved to Fat Thursday and On This Day added 2026
