Worlidge ‘s ‘Systema Agriculturae’ of 1697 says this is the time to destroy snails. He suggests that, at Michaelmas, you create a shelter for snails against a wall using bricks or boards. In Early December the plantsman can get his revenge on the little blighters, all unsuspecting and snuggled up in their cosy den.
The RHS has some more modern advice, but generally takes a negative opinion of snails. The Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust take a much more positive view of snails and slugs and proposes their contribution to nature should be rewarded by learning to love and live with the little critters.
(Thanks to Charles Knightly’s Perpetual Almanac)
Improving the cider before Christmas
A man shakes an apple tree laden with fruit, which a woman gathers in her apron. The caption reads in the original French: Abondance de biens ne nuit pas (You can never have too much of a good thing)
Britain is by far the largest Cider drinking nation, drinking 32% of the global total. South Africa is second at 15%. One of the reasons is that Britain does not have the climate for mass wine making, while it has an excellent climate for growing apples, particularly in the West Country. But other counties also produce it including: Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucester, Kent, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cider has expanded into other counties such as Buckinghamshire and Cheshire.
As Cider makes approach Christmas, they will be worrying about their Cider is doing. And old trick if your cider was a bit off was to add half a peck of wheat to restart the fermentation to make it more mild and gentle. Use Mustard or two or three rotten apples to clear the cider.
Although it’s all a little Thomas Hardy, Cider expert Gabe Cook provides instruction here in how to make cider from your own cider tree without investing in a huge fruit press. To buy small cider presses and cider making kits click here.
First Published on December 5th 2022, revised and republished on December 5th 2023 ans 2024
The Venerable Bede tells us that King Lucius converted to Christianity in around 180AD. He says that the King asked Pope Eleutherius to send teachers to instruct him. The Venerable Bede (died 735 AD) got this from the Liber Pontificalis of c 590. There is also a tradition that St Peter’s Cornhill in London was set up by King Lucius, and that St Peter’s is the oldest Church in London.
13th Pope
What to make of this? Bede is considered to be a reliable historian and got his information, in this case, from the Vatican. But the tradition has been written off as a legend. Indeed, there are questions to be answered, but there is, arguably, more to it than a legend but, unfortunately, not enough to make it an established fact.
Not the least of the questions to ask about the veracity of this legend is: ‘What does it mean to be called the King of Britain in the middle of the Roman occupation?’
As to the early origin of St Peters, archaeologists dismissed the tradition as St Peter’s is built over the Roman Forum and so how can it have been the site of a Christian Church?
St. Peter’s seen from Cornhill in a rarely seen view as there is normally a building in the way. (Author’s copyright)
But the balance of possibilities, arguably, changed in the 1980s, when archaeologists led by Gustav Milne showed that the Basilica of the Forum was pulled down in about 300AD. So from being practically an impossibility, there is now a possibility that this became the site of a Roman Church. We know London sent at least one Bishop to Constantine the Great’s Council of Arles in 314AD, so a Christian community in London must have predated this time. There must have been Churches. And a site, here, at the prestigious centre of the Capital of Londinium, makes a lot of sense. There are, in fact, three Churches on the site of the Roman Forum: St Peters, St Michael and St Edmund the Martyr.
In AD306, Constantine was acclaimed Emperor on the death of his Father, Constantius Chlorus whose wife was Helena, a Christian. He and his mother were in York when his father died. He was recognised as Caesar, (but not Augustus) by Emperor Galerius and ruled the province for a while before moving to Trier, then Rome, where he accepted the Christian God’s help in becoming the ruler of Rome (after the Battle of Milvian Bridge). This might give a context for the demolition of the Basilica and its replacement by a Church. There is, however, no archaeological evidence for St Peters being Roman in origin other than the demolition of the Basilica and the legends, and nor is there any evidence of the Basilica being turned into a Church as early as the 2nd Century.
Where does that leave King Lucius? There are well attested Christian traditions that Britain was an early convert to Christianity. (The following quotes are from my book ‘In Their Own Words – A Literary Companion To The Origins Of London‘ D A Horizons, 2009 by Kevin Flude and available here.)
‘In Their Own Words – A Literary Companion To The Origins Of London‘ D A Horizons, 2009
So, an early date for an active Christian community is likely. A Church, replacing the Basilica, is plausible, particularly, after Constantine the Great probably passed through London on his way to seize the Roman Empire. But such an early date as the late 2nd Century? And could anyone, claim to be the ‘King of Britain’ at this date?
We do know that King Togidubnus was called Great King of Britain in a Roman Temple inscription in Chichester in the First Century.
Altar Dedication, Chichester
To Neptune and Minerva, for the welfare of the Divine House by the authority of Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus, Great King of Britain, the Guild of Smiths and those therein gave this Temple from their resources, Pudens, son of Pudentinus, presenting the site.
Togidubnos seems to have been placed in control of a large part of Southern England, centred around Chichester, after the invasion of 43AD. He is thought to have been the successor to Verica, who was exiled and called on the Romans to restore his throne. Tactitus says that Togidubnos remained loyal down ‘to our own times’ that is to the 70s AD. So he presumably held the line for the Romans against the Boudiccan revolt in 60AD. The Romans had used Verica’s fall as their excuse for invasion, and so an honorific of Great King to him and his successors makes sense. It is assumed that after Togidubnos’s death after 80AD, the title lapsed. But it might have stayed with the family as an empty honour? Furthermore, we know that Britain had a lot of Kings and Queens before the Roman period, and, as the Romans never conquered the whole of Britain, there were British Kings all the way through the period of Roman control, at least beyond Hadrian’s Wall.
So, it is possible there was someone in Britain who had, or made, a claim to be ‘King’ whether ‘a’ or ‘the’ or merely descended from one, we don’t know. And that that someone, perhaps converted to Christianity, possibly in the time of Pope Eleutherius.
It has been suggested that Lucius of Britain was confused with Lucius of Edessa, but this is not very convincing.
The link to London and St Peters, need not be a contemporary one, it might be two traditions that are linked together at a later period. But, of course, there is a faint possibility that the Basilica shrine room, above which St Peter’s is built, was converted for Christian use at the earlier time necessary to make sense of the King Lucius story.
King Lucius may not be a proper saint, but he has a feast day because of his connections to Chur in Switzerland, which saw him enter the Roman Martyrology. David Knight proposes that the tradition of the martyrdom of Lucius in Chur comes from the transplanting of rebellious Brigantes to the Raetia frontier in the 2nd Century AD, bringing with them the story of Lucius and that, possibly, at the end of the King’s life he travelled to join the exiles in Switzerland where he met his unknown end. If true, this would base the story of Lucius in the North rather than London.
For further reading, see ‘King Lucius of Britain’ by David J Knight.
John Stow in the 16th Century records the tradition, which comes with a list of early British Bishops of London, which are recorded in Jocelin of Furness ‘Book of British Bishops’. This book is discussed by Helen Birkett ‘Plausible Fictions: John Stow, Jocelin of Furness and the Book of British Bishops’. In Downham C (ed) /Medieval Furness: Texts and Contexts/, Stamford: Paul Watkins, 2013.
Her analysis concludes that the book is a ’12th-century confection in support of moving the archbishopric from Canterbury ‘back’ to London.’ (This information was included in a comment to the original post by John Clark, Emeritus Curator of the Museum of London.)
To sum up. We can’t bring King Lucius out of legend, nor link him with St Peters Cornhill, but the site of St Peters is a plausible, though unproven, location for a Roman Church from the 4th Century onwards. It also makes sense of the choice of the Saxons, to name their Church St Pauls. St Peter is more common as a dedication for important Churches and perhaps they chose St Paul as they knew of the ruins of St Peters the old Cathedral.
Archaeologists have also tentatively identified a masonry building in Pepys Street on Tower Hill as the Episcopal Church of late Roman London. The foundations suggest a large aisled building. Its identification as a Cathedral springs from multiplying the found foundations symmetrically by a factor of four and comparing the result to Santa Tecla in Milan. The discovery of Marble and window glass doesn’t sit so well with the alternative suggestion that it is a granary. But, to my mind, it’s not very convincing, although Dominic Perring in his recent book ”London in the Roman World’ makes the most of the case for it being a Cathedral.
On This Day
1660 – Margaret Hughes became the first woman (we know about) to act on the English Stage. She played Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello. It was staged in a converted tennis court called the Vere Street Theatre, which was in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne, and had got used to watching female actors perform while he was in exile in France. So when he returned, he licensed two theatre managers, Thomas Killigrew and Sir William Davenant to run theatre. Davenant claimed to be the natural son of William Shakespeare, suggesting that Shakespeare stayed in his parents’ Inn, the Crown, in Cornmarket, Oxford on his way home to Stratford-upon-Avon.
First Published on December 3rd, 2022. Revised in December, 2023, and 2024
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.
Recently, published is ‘Edinburgh a New History’ byAlistair 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.
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
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.
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
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
This post failed to publish on the 7th November, so here it is:
As we are between Halloween, and Halloween Old Style the chances of bewitchment are high what with all those spirits being out and about on this – the most uncanny of all times. So, you might want to look at ‘Doctor Lilly’s Last Legacy’ of 1683 which gives a cure for those who have been bewitched at Halloween.
Take two horseshoes, beat them red-hot and nail one on the threshold of the door, but Quench the other in the Urine of the party bewitched: then set the urine over the fire in a pot or Pipkin and put the horseshoe into it. Make the urine boil with a little salt put onto it, and three horseshoe nails until it is almost all consumed: what is not boiled away cast into the fire. Keep then your horseshoes and nails in a clean paper or cloth and use the same manner three times. It will be the more effectual if is done at the change or full of the Moon.
Doctor Lilly’s Last Legacy, Online at the Wellcome Collection, although you will need a login to view it. I found it first in my favourite source, Perpetual Almanac of the Year by Charles Kightly.
Doctor Lilly’s Last legacy ‘Being the poor man’s physician, the sick man’s friend, and the country-man’s doctor’.
Items like this make me wonder about the gullibility of the human being, but I guess we are surrounded by examples of the lack of sense of a large proportion of our species. Perhaps I should rephrase this, I think most people make sensible decisions about their day-to-day life, but many do not have the critical thinking skills to evaluate the bigger issues.
For more on keeping witches away, witches’ marks etc. have a look at this post of mine.
Soon, after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Parliament legislated for an annual commemoration of the Catholic Plot. The date was chosen as it was the anniversary of finding Guy Fawkes with a lantern next to piles of barrels of Gunpowder on the occasion of the State Opening of Parliament, 5th November 1605.
Guy Fawkes Lantern at the Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Lantern was given by Robert Heywood in 1641, and he got it from his brother, Peter, who was a Westminster Magistrate who was among the party who arrested Guy Fawkes in the cellar. Peter Heywood, took the lantern from Guy Fawkes to stop him setting fire to the pile of gunpowder barrels. Or at least that is the story Robert Heywood told.
A commemoration of fireworks and bonfires was clearly appropriate given that it has been estimated that the amount of gunpowder in the barrles would have killed the king, the Royal Family, the House of Lords and the House of Commons and devastated a huge area around Westminster. But some suggest that the nature of the commemoration draws some elements from Halloween – use of bonfires and dressing up. Halloween was frowned upon by puritans, but they supported Guy Fawkes Day as it was anti-catholic.
Banner in Lewes
The anti-catholic nature of the celebration is a fact, but it really isn’t something we think about today. There is little anti-Catholic prejudice in Britain (except in certain places). Irish friends are amazed we still celebrate it, but for the vast majority of people in Britain it is really just Fireworks night, nothing to do with anti-catholic sentiment.
Traces of the original anti-catholic nature of it do continue in places like Lewes, which is one of the most traditional Fireworks Nights. This consists of clubs who organise a parade through the town, and then the burning of an effigy of the Pope and, more recently, other unpopular figures on the contemporary scene. Click here for more on Lewes.
Procession in Lewes
Ottery St Mary continues the tradition of using Tar Barrels. These are wooden barrels in which tar and tinder are set on fire. The Barrels are either rolled through the Town, or down a hill, or, as in Ottery, carried on the shoulders of volunteers (see video below). This has a pedigree which goes back before 1605 as there are references to tar barrels and displays in Protestant processions to celebrate the accession to the throne of Edward VI and Elizabeth 1
King James 1 took credit for discovering the plot as he is said to have deciphered the warning given in a letter, written to William Parker, 13th Baron Morley, 4th Baron Monteagle at his house in Hoxton, London (commemorated by a plaque in Hoxton Street near where I live) which warned against turning up at Parliament but was not explicit as to the nature of the threat.
Letter Lord Monteagle passed on to King James 1
My lord, out of the love I beare to some of youere frends, I have a care of youre preservacion, therefore I would aduyse you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift youer attendance at this parliament, for God and man hath concurred to punishe the wickedness of this tyme, and thinke not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no apparance of anni stir, yet I saye they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament and yet they shall not seie who hurts them this cowncel is not to be contemned because it may do yowe good and can do yowe no harme for the dangere is passed as soon as yowe have burnt the letter and i hope God will give yowe the grace to mak good use of it to whose holy proteccion i comend yowe.
James realised this sentence: ‘they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament and yet they shall not seie who hurts them‘ implied an explosion. His father, Lord Darnley, was killed in a Gunpowder Plot in Edinburgh, so perhaps he was particularly attuned to the threat. On the other hand, there is a possibility that the King’s Secret Service were aware of the plot and arranged matters, so the King could receive the credit for its discovery.
The Fifth of November
Remember, remember! The fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! Guy Fawkes and his companions Did the scheme contrive, To blow the King and Parliament All up alive. Threescore barrels, laid below, To prove old England’s overthrow. But, by God’s providence, him they catch, With a dark lantern, lighting a match! A stick and a stake For King James’s sake! If you won’t give me one, I’ll take two, The better for me, And the worse for you. A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, A penn’orth of cheese to choke him, A pint of beer to wash it down, And a jolly good fire to burn him. Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!
![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)
