Category: Victorian

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Time to Tup your Sheep – November 7th

City Farm, Hackney. Small flock of Bluefaced Leicester Sheep, the big golden one is the Ram, the others are the ewes he has tupped. Photo K Flude

The old Shepherd’s saw is:

‘In with a bang and out with the fools’.

The bang is Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th, and the fools are a reference to All Fools Day on April 1st. The gestation period of a ewe is 147 days (on average). (sheep-farmers-year). So farmers introduce the Ram into a field of Ewes on or around November 5th. This means the lambs will be born around the beginning of the traditional lambing season.

(see my posts on Guy Fawkes Day and All fools Day)

Tupping Times

The Ewes have been enjoying themselves in the fields, The flocks have been thinned out, with the young ones being sent to market, mostly for meat. The grass has been growing at the end of the summer, with the wetter weather. The ewes will be in excellent condition, and will have been thoroughly checked by the shepherd.

The chosen ram will be dressed with a harness on his chest, which will have a sheep’s crayon on it. The crayon is known as raddle or reddle. The ram, also know as a tup, will mate with whichever of the ewe(s) that catch his eye. Each one he tups (mounts or covers) will be left with a paint mark, from the reddle on his chest, on her back. The farmer will inspect the ewes periodically. A ewe with two or more reddle marks on her back, will be taken out of the field. This will force the ram to spread his attentions to the, as yet, untupped, ewes. He will continue until all ewes have been tupped. And then onto the next field full of ewes. Diggory Veen is the Reddleman in Hardy’s ‘Return of the Native’. I talk about him, lambing and reddle in my post here.

Some of the young ewes will be kept to reinforce the flock. Males will only be kept if they will be sold to another farmer as a tupping ram. They cannot breed on the farm as this will lead to inbreeding. So, a ram will be purchased or swapped from another farm. The farmer will want to choose one that fits into his/her idea of what the ideal sheep is. whether it is grown for meat, or to be hardy, or for its wool etc.

Bluefaced Leicester Sheep and my Hat!

I was delighted to see my local City Farm had a small herd of Bluefaced Leicester Sheep. I was visiting with my Grandson when I took the photograph at the top of the page. The sherderdess told me the blue-marking in this case was not a result of mating. She thought 2 or more of them were already pregnant, however.

My association with the breed comes from a lovely yarn shop in Conwy (Ewe Felty Thing) which had a rail of clothes marked ‘wearable art’. I bought a woolly beanie which they told me was:

‘Hand-spun, hand knitted from a bluefaced leicester sheep.‘

Hand-spun, hand knitted Beanie from a Bluefaced Leicester sheep. purchased at (Ewe Felty Thing) Photo K Flude

I still have it. It cost a small fortune, but worth every penny!

A bluefaced Leicester Ram, might cost £1000 if a bought as a lamb, £4,000 if bought as a shearling, or up to £40,000 if a prize lamb. It is one of the biggest lambs with a long back, and longwool with ringlets. There is no wool on the face and neck so you can see its blue-grey skin, below the white hair – hence its name. It is often bred with hill sheep ewes, which combines the prolificacy of the ram with the mothering abilities of the ewes.

Generally, nowadays the wool from a shearing will only be worth about 80p in today’s market. This will not pay for the cost of the shearing, but it is necessary for health and hygiene reasons.

Posted on 7th November 2025

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St Etheldreda October 17th 679

St Etheldreda or St Audrey By monk – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32907989

I’m republishing this post as I dated it to February 17th rather than October 17th and a few other egregious typos.

Etheldreda, also known as Audrey or Æthelthryth or Æðelþryð or Æþelðryþe is celebrated on October 17th, (the date her remains were ‘translated’ from her burial place to the Church at Ely) and on 23 June the date she died,

She lived from March 4th 636 to June 23rd 679. She is one of the well-born Saxon Virgin Saints of the 7th Century. This is when many royal Abbeys were founded by female members of the Anglo-Saxon Royal families, in the years following the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. She is the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia, and the sister of Saint Sexburga (widow of King Erconbert of Kent).

Etheldreda is said to be a Virgin despite being married twice. Etheldreda was widowed after three years of her first marriage. Then she married Egfrid, son of King Oswy of Northumbria. Egfrid got fed up with her virgin state. With the support of St Wilfrid, St Etheldreda was released to a Nunnery run by Wilfred’s aunt. In 672 she founded the famous double monastery at Ely, which is where the wondrous Cathedral of Ely still stands.

Here she died, and the many miracles that followed, led to Ely being one of the main destinations for Pilgrimages. St Sesxburga took over as Abbess after her death. By the number of Churches and holy days remembering Etheldreda show she was perhaps the most famous female saint of the era.

Tawrdy Audrey

Etheldreda died of a neck tumour, which she blamed on the heavy jewellery she wore around her neck before she became a nun. So she is a patron of those with neck or throat ailments. Accordingly, on February 3rd St Etheldreda’s Church in London holds the Blessing of the Throats ceremony. St Blaise is also a saint protecting the throat and you might like to read my post about him and throats here.

Pilgrims used to buy cheap, old-fashioned linen from the market at Ely, which they would wear around their neck to protect or cure them of throat illnesses. Puritans satirised the practice by coining the word Tawdry, from St Audrey, which came to represent cheap goods sold to gullible pilgrims.

Mopsa the shepherdess in Shakespeare’s Twelfth night says to her sweetheart:

“Come, you promised me a tawdry-lace and a pair of sweet gloves.

Have a look at this excellent article to read more about Tawdry and St Etheldreda.

However, I thought something was amiss and searched for Tawdry in the excellent website SHAKESPEARE’S WORDS by DAVID CRYSTAL & BEN CRYSTAL (which I use all the time). And indeed Mopsa is not in Twelfth Night but in the Winter’s Tale which I saw recently at the RSC. Mopsa’s man can’t buy it for her as he has been cheated out of his money by the fey Autolycus.

St Etheldreda’s Church in Ely Place London

Church of St Etheldreda., Ely Place London
Church of St Etheldreda., Ely Place London

St Etheldreda’s in London is in Ely Place, near Hatton Garden. There is a lovely old pub there called the ‘Ye Olde Mitre’ (which is a reference to a Bishop’s Mitre). The Church was founded (1250 and 1290) as the London residence of the Bishops of Ely. Inside are memorials to Catholic martyrs executed during the Reformation. (see my post on the Douai Martyrs here).

Ely place was lived in by John of Gaunt following the destruction of his Savoy Palace in the Peasants Revolt. Christopher Hatton rented parts of it in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. During the Civil War it was used to hold Royalist Prisoners of War. Agnes Wicks fictionally lives at Ely Place. (Agnes is the woman David Copperfield should have married, rather than the ridiculous Dora).

In the 19th Century, the former Chapel was bought by the Catholic Church and restored by George Gilbert Scott.

Etheldreda is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 17 October according to Book of Common Prayer tradition, and alternatively 23 June in the Common Worship calendar of Saints. (Wikipedia.

First Published on October 17th 2025

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I went to the Stratford-upon-Avon Mop on October 12th

2024 Statford-upon-Avon Mop. Photo Kevin Flude

This year the Stratford Mop fair was on the 11th and 12th October, and I was there to see it!As I reposted a long post about the Mop a couple of days ago, I thought I should report back. To recap, the Mop began as a Michaelmas (Old Style) Hiring Fair, and has continued in Stratford ever since. But the modern incarnation is no longer a Hiring Fair and no shepherds were to be seen.

2024 Stratford on Avon Mop. Photo Kevin Flude

The centre of the Town was crowded with a cacophony of shooting galleries, games to win soft toys, stalls selling toffee apples, candy floss, burgers, and all things bad for you. And interspersed with the stalls were all sorts of rides, carousels and all the raucous fun of the fair.

Stratford-upon-Avon Mop Festival (2023 sign)

You might have noticed I have labelled the photographs differently, one Stratford-upon-Avon, the other Stratford-on-Avon. Most prefer the ‘upon’ but I thought this wrong as the Council building in Church Street uses the simpler ‘on’. Having looked it up, I see that the answer is both are correct. Stratford-upon-Avon is used for the Town, and Stratford-on-Avon for the Town and area around the town. Now you know!

Now, I cannot find any reference in Shakespeare to a funfair, and all references to a Mop, are to the thing you mop the floor with. But he does mention St Bartholemew’s Fair obliquely, and certainly knew his friend, Ben Jonson’s Play ‘St Bartholemew’s Fair’. It is a great play based in London, at the annual fair in Smithfield. It was one of the great Wool fairs of England. It was held every year on St Bartholemew’s Day August 24th, and lasting sometimes weeks long. Please read my post on Bartlemas here.

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Going to the Mop in Stratford-upon-Avon & Henley-in-Arden 11th & 12th October

The Mop Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon

This year the Stratford mop festival was on the 11th and 12th October. I am in Stratford. The the centre of town is a cacophany of shooting galleries, stalls selling toffee apples, candy floss, burgers and all things bad for you. And a fun fair.Nothing at all sophisticated, or literary or dramatic, or folkloric. Just a good old-fashioned fun fair in the middle of the town. Quite raucous, but they leave Henley Street, and Shakespeare’s’ Birthplace, free of it. Below I tell the story of my discovery of the Mop.

2024 Statford-upon-Avon Mop. Photo Kevin Flude
2024 Stratford on Avon Mop. Photo Kevin Flude

In 2023, I was on my way to Stratford-upon-Avon Railway station, I saw the sign at the top of this page, but had no idea what on earth a Mop was. I put it to the back of my mind as I took the train to Henley-in-Arden. My interest in the town was that Shakespeare was born in Henley St. And his mother was called Mary of Arden. So, naturally, I wanted to find out about Henley-in-Arden. To turn curiosity to action, it took our Tour Coach Driver telling me he lived there and that it was a pretty but small town.

Mary Arden doesn’t live here any more!

I had a free afternoon from my duties as Course Director on the ‘Best of England’ Road Scholar trip. I got on the very slow train to Henley-in-Arden. One of the first stops was Wilmcote, where Mary Arden’s House is. I visited two years ago, when I was astonished to find it was a different building to the one I had visited in the 1990s! In 2000, they discovered they had been showing the wrong building to visitors for years! Mary Arden’s House was, in fact, her neighbour Adam Palmer’s. And her house was Glebe Farm.

On that visit, I walked from Stratford-upon-Avon to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. Then to Mary Arden’s House and back to Stratford along the Stratford Canal. It is a lovely country walk if you are ever in the area.

The Forest of Arden

The train route to Henley is through what remains of the ancient forest of Arden. The forest features in, or inspired, the woody Arcadian idylls which feature in several of Shakespeare’s plays, particularly the Comedies. ‘As You Like It’, for example, is explicitly set in the Forest of Arden, as this quotation from AYL I.i.107 makes clear:

Oliver:  Where will the old Duke live?

Charles. They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England: they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world.

Guildhall, Henley-in-Arden

Henley-in-Arden

Not much remains of the old Forest. It was cut down to make timber-framed buildings and ships for the British Navy – the so-called Wooden Walls. Henley has a beautiful high street. Further down the road is a lovely Heritage Centre full of old-fashioned and DIY Information panels. And that is not a criticism, it provided a very enjoyable visit full of interesting stuff. And gave me a couple of snippets of information I have not seen anywhere else.

One, was a panel dedicated to the Henley Mop. A mop turns out to be a hiring fair. Think of Gabriel Oak in Hardy’s ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. His attempt to become an independent farmer destroyed when his sheepdog runs amok. The dog sends his sheep over a cliff to their doom. So he takes his shepherd’s crock to the hiring fair or Mop as they are known in the Midlands. There, potential employers can size up possible employees and strike mutually agreeable terms and conditions. And Gabriel becomes the shepherd for the delightful and wilful Bathsheba Everdene.

So, a shepherd would take his staff, or a loop of wool. A cleaner her mop (hence the name of the fair). A waggoner a piece of whipcord. A shearer their shears etc. Similarly, in the Woodlanders (by Thomas Hardy) the cider-maker, Giles Winterborne, brings an apple tree in a tub to Sherborne, to advertise his wares.

The retainers thus employed would be given an advance and would be engaged, normally, for the year. So there was quite a widespread moving around of working people to new jobs and often new housing. Not quite how we imagine the past?

The perceptive among you will have noted the bottom of the sign in Stratford which advertised the ‘Runaway Mop’. This was held later in the year, so that employers could replace those who ran away from their contracts. And those who ran away could find a better, kinder or more generous boss. See also my post of Gabriel Oak and Pack Rag Day which is another hiring fair which was help on Martinmas Old Style.

Henley Mop – panel from the heritage centre

Court Leets and Barons

Also of interest to me was the panel about Court Leets and Barons. These were the ancient courts which dealt with, respectively, crime and disorder, and property and neighbourhood disputes. Henley still has its ancient manorial systems in use, at least ceremonially. The Centre shows a video of the installation of a new Lord of the Manor at the Guildhall. The title had been purchased by a cigar-smoking Stetson-wearing large rich American.

Johnson’s Coaches

Another panel was the story of a Coaching Company. When I lead the Best of England programme we are driven around by Johnson’s Coach Company. It was a delight to discover that it has a history that can be traced back to 1909 in Henley. I conveyed this information to our group on the next day as we toured the Cotswolds. Curtis, our driver, was able to update the panel. He told us that the family were still involved with the firm, which is still operating from the area. He said the two brothers who run the company come in every working day. They do everything they require of their drivers to do; i.e. they drive coaches, clean coaches, sweep the floors and generally treat their staff like part of a big family. I should have asked him whether he got his job at the Mop, while holding a steering wheel in his hands!

Johnson’s Coach Company -Panel from Henley Heritage Centre

Note: It seems that Johnson has now merged with another company. But it keeps its depot in Henley and maintains its connection with the town.

First published in 2023 updated 2024, 2025

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Van Gogh & the London Suburbs October 8th 1876

From https://agtyler.medium.com/part-i-van-gogh-in-london-9a26ff5427dd’s website describing Van Gogh’s experiences while living in London.

It’s not so well known that Van Gogh spent some time in London. Vincent spent three years in London, working as an Art Dealer in Covent Garden. He lived in Brixton, then the Oval. He was very impressed with London; its technology and culture. London was:

‘ a city lit by streetlights, a city powered by electricity and a city that relied on industrial power. It was impressive in all its accomplishments.’

To find out more about his experience in London look at this Tate website. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vincent-van-gogh-1182/seven-things-know-about-van-goghs-time-britain. The above quotation came from the site. For more details of Vincent’s time in London read Medium.

Van Gogh’s Newgate Prison Painting

This is where I got the image of Van Gogh’s painting of Newgate Prison above. Apart from sketches, this seems to be his only London painting. But Van Gogh did this painting well after his visit to London,. He copied Gustave Doré‘s engraving which you will see below. Further research tells me that he did this painting while in Saint-Paul Asylum. He was detained inside so could not continue his practice of painting outdoors, so copied from illustrations. He used a Héliodore Pisan copy of Doré‘s engraving. Van Gogh died a few months later, and this was one of the pictures that were displayed around his Coffin.

Vincent in Brixton

There is a play from 2002 called ‘Vincent in Brixton’, by Nicholas Wright, which I saw and very much enjoyed. It is scheduled to be performed in 2026 (14 March 2026 to 18 April 2026) at the Orange Tree, Richmond.

Letters to Theo

Vincent often wrote to his brother, Theo, about his experiences in London. This is a quotation I first found in ‘A London Year’ compiled by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison. It provides a beautiful description of the London suburbs. This is a book well worth a place on a lover of London’s History’s bedside table.

Letter to Theo, October 8th 1876

In the City I also went to see Mr Gladwell and to St Paul’s. And from the City to the other end of London, there I visited a boy who had left Mr Stokes’s school because of illness, and I found him completely recovered, outside in the street. Then on to the place where I had to collect the money for Mr Jones. The suburbs of London have a peculiar beauty; between the small houses and gardens there are open places covered with grass and usually with a church or school or poorhouse between the trees and shrubbery in the middle, and it can be so beautiful there when the sun goes down red in the light evening mist. It was like that yesterday evening, and later I did so wish that you had seen the streets of London when it began to grow dark and the street-lamps were lit and everyone was going home, it was obvious from everything that it was Saturday evening, and in all that hustle and bustle there was peace, one felt, as it were, the need for and joy at the approach of Sunday. Oh those Sundays and how much is done and striven for on those Sundays, it’s such a relief to those poor neighbourhoods and busy streets. It was dark in the City, but it was a lovely walk past all those churches along the way. Close to the Strand I found an omnibus that brought me a long way, it was already rather late. I rode past Mr Jones’s little church and saw another in the distance where light was still burning so late. I headed for it and found it to be a very beautiful little Roman Catholic church in which a couple of women were praying. Then I came to that dark park I already wrote to you about, and from there I saw in the distance the lights of Isleworth and the church with the ivy and the cemetery with the weeping willows on the banks of the Thames.  

To see this letter and his letters to Theo, follow look at this link.

Gustave Doré and Pisan’s Newgate Excercise Yard 1872, from which Van Gogh clearly derived the image for his painting at the top of the page.

To see some of his London sketches please look at this web site.

Image of Van Gogh’s House web site.showing Austin Friars, Church, City of London

First Published October 8th, 2025

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St Matthews Day & Christ’s Hosptial September 21st

Christ’s Hospital from Wikipedia

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

Dissolution of the Monasteries

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

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

Flogging the boys

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

Cruikshank Cartoon

The blue-coated boys of Christ’s Hospital, eventually moved to Hertford but are now in Horsham.  They maintain their City affiliation and still come to the City on or around St Matthews Day and take part in the Lord Mayor’s Show.  The school is a public school, but has a large percentage of its students funded by bursaries.  In 2016 former pupils opened up about historic sexual abuse leading to the prosecution of 6 teachers of Christchurch.

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

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

First Published in 2024, and revised 2025

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September – ‘Winter’s Forewarning and Summer’s Farewell’

Kalendar of Shepherds illustration of September showing harvesting grapes and the astrological signs for Virgo (August 23 – September 22) and Libra (September 23 – October 22)

It is that time of the year when you say ‘Where has the Summer gone? It can’t be September already?’ But, meteorology, speaking, Autumn starts today. September 1st was chosen on a numerical basis for ease of measuring rather than any profound floral, agricultural or solar reason. So, there are three Gregorian Calendar months for each season, and each season starts on the first of the month. Autumn: September, November and December.

Autumn, Harvest, Fall

Autumn comes from Latin (autumnus) which went into French and then into English. The season was also called Harvest (which went into Dutch herfst, German Herbst, and Scots hairst -Wikipedia) or from the 16th Century: the ‘fall of the year’ or ‘fall of the leaf’ which spread to America as Fall.

Summer’s Ending

It still feels like summer. In England, we often have a glorious September, and what we can an ‘Indian’ Summer, an unexpectedly warm period in mid-September to October.

Solar Autumn

Of course, for the real Autumn, we have to wait for the Equinox, the beginning of Astronomical or Solar Autumn. This year, it is on Monday, September 22nd, 2025, 7:19 pm.

Astrological September

The star signs for astrological September are: Virgo which is linked to Aphrodite (Venus) the Goddess of Love and Libra which is linked to Artemis (Diana), virgin goddess of many things, including hunting, wild animals, children, and birth.

Star signs for September

September

September gets its name from the Romans, for whom it was the 7th Month of the year (septem is Latin for seven). Later, they added two new months so it became our 9th Month. (For more on the Roman year, look at my post here).

It is called Halegmonath in the early English language, or the holy month, named because it is the month of offerings, because of the harvest, and the mellow fruitfulness of September? Medi in Welsh is the month of reaping, and An Sultuine in Gaelic which means the month of plenty.

Roman personification of Autumn from Lullingstone mosaic

Early Modern September and the autumn of Life

Here is an early 17th Century look at September from the Kalendar of Shepherds – for more on the Kalendar, look at my post here.

From the Kalendar of Shepherds

The Kalendar has an additional shorter look at September (see below). And it continues with its theme, linking the 12 months of the year with the lifespan of a man – 6 years for each month. So September is a metaphor for man at 56 years of age, in their prime and preparing for old age.

September from the Kalendar of Shepherds. The last sentence beginning ‘and then is man’ shows the link between September and the beginning of the autumn of life.

Season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness‘

John Keats (1795 – 1821) wrote a great poem called ‘To Autumn’:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
    For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
  Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
  Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
  Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
    Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
  Steady thy laden head across a brook;
  Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
    Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
  Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
  And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
  Among the river sallows, borne aloft
    Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
  Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
  The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
    And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Written September 19, 1819; first published in 1820. This poem is in the public domain and available here:

First published September 2024, revised 2025

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Eels, Pies, Islands, the deep Sargasso Sea & Rock and Roll July 23rd

Photo by Natalia Gusakova on Unsplash
Photo by Natalia Gusakova on Unsplash, Eels

Summer is the best time to fish for Eels. Mid May to the end of July. But they can be caught all year around. 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. 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. 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. In Broadway Market it is now an optician. But the one in Hoxton Market is surviving, and all three have retained their distinctive interiors. On the River Lee Navigation is another piece of Eel history which is the excellent Fish and Eel Pub at Dobbs Weir.

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 I have no wish to repeat, what for me, was a revolting experience.

By JanesDaddy (Ensglish User) - English Wikipedia - [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1663124
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.

And here is a fascinating article on Eel fishing.

Eel traps at Bray, on the River Thames (Henry Taught 1885)

Romans, Saxons and Eels

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 disclosed the truth. The article was ‘First direct evidence of adult European eels migrating to their breeding place in the Sargasso Sea‘. Ir proved 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. But was home to an iconic music venue. The Eel Pie Hotel 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. Here they were spotted by people from the nearby Eel Pie Hotel. They were booked for a 6 month residency, which they began as virtually unknown and ended as famous.

Here is a recipe for Baked Eel pie from Richmond, near the famous Eel Pie Island.

This was first published as part of another post in 2022, and revised and republished on 28th November 2023, 2024.Moved from November 28th to July 23rd in 2025

(I moved it to make room for a post on Mrs Shakespeare. Also, because I cannot find anything to substantiate the opening statement that the Eel Season had its second day on November 28th. All evidence I find says the best fishing is in the Summer.

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Twin, Twins – Festival of Castor and Pollux July 15th

The Ashwini kumaras twins, sons of the sun god Surya. Vedic gods representing the brightness of sunrise and sunset Wikipedia

The Divine Twins, aka the Dioscuri, were horsemen. Patrons of calvary, athletes and sailors, one of many Indo-European twin gods.   They had many adventures including sailing with Jason and the Argonauts.

And are they well connected?! Pollux is the son of Zeus  His twin brother has a different and mortal father, the King of Sparta.  But the boys share the same mother, Leda.  She was raped by Zeus in the guise of a swan.

This makes them examples of heteropaternal superfecundation as Mary Poppins didn’t sing.  But their different paternity had consequences. The most important is that one was (is?) therefore immortal and the other wasn’t. 

According to some version of the story, Castor (the mortal one) was mortally wounded. Zeus gave Pollux the option of letting his brother die while Pollux could spend eternity on Mount Olympus. The alternative was to share his immortality with his brother. Pollux did the good thing. So the twins spend half their year as the Constellation of Gemini and the rest, immortal, on Mount Olympus.  Thus, they are the epitome of brotherly love.

Divine Twins or Sisters from Hell?

The Dioscuri’s sisters were no less than Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Never mind the Brothers, what Sisters! Helen of Troy you know. And Clytemnestra! They were also twins, Helen the divine daughter of Zeus, husband of Menelaus, lover of Paris. Sister, Clytemnestra, mortal daughter of the King of Sparta, husband of Agamemnon (brother of Menelaus).

It happened like this.  The Swan was being pursued by an eagle, so Leda protected the Swan and took it to bed.  On the same night she slept with her husband Tyndareus of Sparta. Two eggs were fertilised, each split in two to give two sets of twins.

Leda and the Swan, 16th-century copy after the lost painting by Michelangelo

Clytemnestra

She was the wife of Agamemnon, the arrogant leader of the Greeks.  On the way to retrieve Helen from Troy, the Greek Fleet was becalmed. So, following his seers’ advice, Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigenia, on the island of Aulis.  The Gods then set the winds fair to Troy. (Read Iphigenia at Aulis by Aeschylus, a great play which I studied in Classical Studies at University).

Meanwhile, Queen Clytemnestra, abandoned at home, broods on her husband’s heartless fillicide. She takes a lover. After 10 years of war, Agamemnon comes back, in triumph, from the destruction of Troy. He brings with him his prize, the Trojan Princess, Cassandra, sister of Hector.

Cassandra has been gifted with the ability of accurate prophecy. But, as often in the case of prophecy stories, the gift came with a sting in its tale. She was also cursed with the inability to get anyone to believe her!  She prophesies disaster and that she too will be a victim.

Strutting with arrogance, Agamemnon demands Clytemnestra prepare him a bath. And, so she runs it for him, and she gives him the hottest bath possible. With the help of her lover, she hacks Agamemnon to pieces with an axe. Cassandra is butchered.

painting of Clytemnestra after she has slaughtered her husband Agamemnon _by_John_Collier,_1882 (Wikipedia Guildhall Museum)
Clytemnestra by John Collier,_1882 (Wikipedia Guildhall Museum)

Attitudes

I visit John Collier’s painting of Clytemnestra at the Guildhall, in London, regularly. I am fascinated by her grim, yet satisfied, expression.

In the 18th/19th Century, rich people were into ‘attitudes’.  For example, Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton, would be invited to present an attitude in front of a dinner party of mostly male aristocrats.  She would dress up in a flowing, revealing unstructured classical gown.  Then she would stand on a table or pedestal, and present herself as Helen or Andromache or any other classical beauty guests might fancy an eyeful of.  She would assume an appropriate facial expression and posture for everyone’s pleasure. 

Detail of Emma Hart modelling as Iphigenia by George Romney in ‘Cimon and Iphigenia’

Being Clytemnestra is, surely, the most difficult? I imagine Collier’s model being prompted to look both sad at the loss of the daughter. Outraged at the arrogance of the husband. Horrified at the gore of the murder. But, overall, she has to portray a grim satisfaction that the bastard got exactly what he deserved.

Dorothy Dene

Lord Leighton had a famous model who was exceptionally skilled at adopting poses for his paintings. He determined to help her with an acting career. As part of the plan he helped improve her cockney accent. It is said this inspired Bernard Shaw’s story Pygmalion, which, in turn, inspired My Fair Lady and Eliza Doolittle. 

Leighton’s model was Dorothy Dene.  She became a famous actress, outstripping the fame of Ellen Terry and Lily Langtry. For more on Leighton and Dene look at my post here.

John Collier

Before we finish, do have a look at John Collier’s Wikipedia because he is the most ridiculously well-connected painter you can imagine! Related to half the Cabinet and married to TWO daughters of Darwin’s Bulldog, T.H. Huxley (grandfather of Aldous Huxley).

For more on Flaming June see my blog post of 12 July 2024

European Twin Gods

It is suggested that twin male gods are a feature of Indo-European religions. The divine Twins are associated with horses/chariots and are responsible for moving the Sun and the Moon. Their use of a horse above the water means that they can rescue people lost at sea.  

St Elmo’s fire was said to be the way they manifested their divinity to sailors.   Diodorus Siculus records that the Twins were Argonauts with Heracles, Telamon, and Orpheus. Further, he tells us, in the fourth book of Bibliotheca historica, that the Celts who dwelt along the ocean worshipped the Dioscuroi “more than the other gods”.

First written in 2023 updated in July 24 and 25

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Thoreau moves to Walden Pond July 4th 1845

1967 postage stamp of Thoreau

Today, is Independence Day. The day that a great democracy came into being and established a rational system of Government, designed to stop autocracy. One of the great thinkers of the US was Henry David Thoreau. He moved into his hut on Waldon Pond on 4th July 1845. He wanted to experience life to the full. He thought he could best do that by living a simple life in the wild. 

Some think he was autistic, but his journals and publications show he lived a rich life.  His work links observations of nature with philosophic meditations and folk lore. His interest in ecology and avoidance of waste are forerunners of modern environmentalism. 

‘Walden’ his book about life in his hut near Concord, Massachusetts is his best known work. 

I began to occupy my house on the 4th of July, as soon as it was
boarded and roofed, for the boards were carefully feather-edged and
lapped, so that it was perfectly impervious to rain; but before
boarding I laid the foundation of a chimney at one end, bringing two
cartloads of stones up the hill from the pond in my arms. I built the
chimney after my hoeing in the fall, before a fire became necessary for warmth, doing my cooking in the mean while out of doors on the ground, early in the morning: which mode I still think is in some respects more convenient and agreeable than the usual one. When it stormed before my bread was baked, I fixed a few boards over the fire, and sat under them to watch my loaf, and passed some pleasant hours in that way. In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact answered the same purpose as the Iliad.

Thoreau and Civil Disobedience.

From Project Gutenberg. Thoreau was also a principled opponent of unjust laws. He inspired Gandhi, amongst others, in the principles of Civil Disobedience.  He was imprisoned for refusing to pay tax to the American state in protest at the African-American War and Slavery.  He supported John Brown. 

Project Gutenberg page of Thoreau’s ebook.

John Brown’s Body lies a mouldering in his grave.

Brown believed that slavery would only be ended by fighting to liberate the slaves.  He was involved in the State Civil War in Kansas. Subsequently, he then launched a raid on Harper’s Ford, which caused several deaths.  Brown was found guilty of Treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia and executed. He was the first American to be found guilty of Treason. But Thoreau supported him, while other Abolitionists took a more pacifist position.

All in all, he is therefore an inspiring character. His life can inform that still tricky debate about challenging injustice in the modern world. Attitudes to ‘Just Stop Oil’ and the war in Gaza are causes where the same issues are still open to debate.

First published July 2025

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