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Peak Magnolia April 16th

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.

For my post on Chipping Camden click here.

On This Day

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.

Published on 16th April 2026

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Beginning of the Financial Year April 6th

Google Screenshot welcoming the Beginning of the Financial Year

Why is April 6th the Beginning of the Financial Year?

If you remember, in the medieval period, the official New Year was on March 25th. This was the Day of the Annunciation, the Day Mary conceived Jesus. (for much more on this see my post march-25th-feast-of-the-annunciation/). But in 1752, we followed belatedly, Pope Gregory’s reorganisation of the Julian Calendar. We had to put our days back in sync with the Sun. This had gone 11 days out of kilter since Julius Caesar’s reorganisation of the calendar (see my post here!). As we lost 11 days, we had to put them back. So the beginning of the Financial Year in 1753 was changed to April 5th. A further adjustment in 1800 was necessary, as this would have been a leap year. So the new Financial Year moved to April 6th. And it has remained so ever since. For more on the Gregorian Calendar look here.

Today, we breathe a sigh of relief if we have transferred money into our ISAs or briefed our investment advisers, or rue the day that we didn’t get around to any of it, yet again, or didn’t have any money to take advance of tax breaks.

Exploring Mayfair

Hanover Square laid out in 1717. Statue of William Pitt the Younger.

On April 6th 2025, and 2026. I did Jane Austen in Mayfair walks. Today, I met my client at Claridges, (£930 a night). Arriving early, I had a chance to look around, and work out some changes to my Jane Austen walk. I decided to start it at Bond Street, rather than Green Park. This gives a chance to look at Hanover Square, where the tedious Palmers fictionally live (Sense & Sensibility). It is also the location of St George’s Church where Henry Crawford is telling Fanny he will marry her (Mansfield Park). (He won’t).

St George’s Church – St George’s Street, Mayfair London.

I really love exploring Cities, and here are a few reasons. I knew the Tyburn River used to flow near here. So, I was delighted to see a place where the road to the west rose in height and the road to the east also climbed a small hill. This was the valley of the Tyburn. As I reached the depression, looking left and right, instead of grand boulevards were two pokey little lanes, cutting at an angle in which you could imagine the babbling brook.

Avery Lane
S Morton Lane

Post walk research confirmed the guess, this was the course of the Tyburn. Below is an open-source map from the Londonist. Look at their post for more on the Tyburn.

Further down Brook Street were a couple of delightful buildings. First a juxta-position of a Georgian town house with a fine brutalist tower, and then a fabulous triangular brick corner house.

Brook St Photo K Flude

Brook St, London, Photos K Flude

Finally, in Bruton Street just where the Tyburn would have crossed the road was the very epitome of an old inn – the Coach & Horses which survives since 1770, 5 years before the birth of Jane Austen! It is the ‘oldest surviving unreconstructed tavern in Mayfair.’ If you want to do my Jane Austen walk for London Walks, please follow this link.

Coach & Horses Bruton Street Photo K Flude

Object of the Day – Allies

Allies by Lawence Holofcener. 2nd May 1995 to commemorate 50 years of Peace. Photo by K Flude

On my walk, like last year, we saw the statue of Churchill sitting on a park bench chatting with Roosevelt. Seemed like it was from a different world? Given President Trump’s recent statements on NATO?

Details of the Statue

Wise Words on Tariffs.

As it’s the end of the financial year I might be forgiven for keeping in this post words from last year when, coincidentally, I did the same walk. Last year the issue was Tariffs. This is what President Ronald Reagan said about high tariffs.

YouTube video of Ronald Reagan on Tariffs

First Published 6th April 2025, Mayfair content added and post revised 2026

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Francis Drake Knighted at Deptford April 4th

Sketch from an old print. Francis Drake being knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.  In fact, the Queen delegated the dubbing to a French Diplomat

The Queen’s half share in the profits of the Golden Hind’s circumnavigation of the world, amounted to more than her normal annual income. So it is no wonder she knighted the Captain, Sir Francis Drake. The ceremony took place in the dock in what is now South East London at Deptford.

The Spanish were furious that a Pirate should be so honoured. The Queen may have given a French man the honour of dubbing Sir Francis. She did this, perhaps to encourage the French to support the English against the Spanish?

The annual Royal Income for King Charles III is £86.3 million.  This is paid in the Sovereign’s Grant.  It gives you an idea of Drake’s booty. But I imagine she had a greater share of the nation’s wealth than Charles, as she was the Government not just a honorific cutter of ribbons.

Francis Drake. Hero or Bloodthirsty Pirate?

Francis Drake was one of the British heroes I read about as a child. I had a thick book with stories about people King Alfred the Great, Hereward the Wake, Robin Hood, Drake, Charles II, Bonny Prince Charlie, Flora MacDonald, Florence Nightingale, David Livingstone etc. Some of them horrifically Imperialist and racist!

Drake is remembered for being the first English person to sail around the world. And his exploits in ‘singeing the beard of the King of Spain’ on his piratical raids on the Spanish Main.

In the books I read, the Spanish were the bad guys, and we were on the side of the Angels. Drake was one of the swash-buckling heroes who turned Britain from a not very important country on the edge of Europe, to one of the World’s Great Powers.

Portrait of Francis Drake with Drake Jewel given to him by Queen Elizabeth I

On the other hand, he was also a pioneer of the Slave Trade, was involved in atrocities in Ireland and in the Spanish Territories. He summarily executed one of his crew in dubious circumstances. Perhaps more significantly, his contemporaries did not entirely trust him.

Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada

As the Spanish Armada sailed along the southern coast of England, the English Navy sniped at the heels of the Spanish ships. Drake was tasked with leading the nighttime harrying of the Armada up the Channel. The idea was to stop them landing and to drive them away and into the hostile waters of the North Sea. Drake in the Revenge was leading the pursuit, and the other ships were told to follow. He was to keep a single lantern alight in the stern of his ship. But the Lantern went out, and the British pursuit was disrupted.

The next morning, Drake comes back having captured the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario, flagship of Admiral Pedro de Valdés.  The ship contained the gold to pay the Spanish Armada, which Drake seized. Was this a fortuitous accident which rebounded to Drake’s considerable financial advantage or something more deliberate?

In the end, the lantern incident did not stop the British forcing the Spanish to flee around the North of Scotland.  On this perilous voyage only about 60 of their ships returned to Spain out of about 130. And Britain was saved from the Spanish Armada.

Nuestra Señora del Rosario and Agatha Christie

I used to lead an Agatha Christie program which included a visit to Torre Abbey in Devon.   And it was here that the Spanish ship’s crew were imprisoned after Francis Drake took the ship.

The Abbey was a Premonstratensian Abbey. Its tithe barn was used to hold the prisoners of war from the ship of whom there were 397.

The Spanish Bar, Torre Abbey. Photo 2012 Kevin Flude
The Spanish Barn, Torre Abbey. Photo 2012 Kevin Flude

Sir John Gilbert, who was Sheriff of Devon at the time, used 160 Spanish Prisoners of War to develop his estate above the River Dart. The Estate is in a magnificent position, overlooking the drowned valley of the Dart. It is now enjoyed by those millions of visitors to what became the summer home of Agatha Christie (Greenway). The Poison Garden in the Garden of the Abbey is themed around poisons used in Agatha Christie’s books.

View of the River Dart from Greenway, photo KFlude
View of Greenway from the River Dart. Photo KFlude

The Golden Hind & Deptford

Queen Elizabeth I decided that the Golden Hind should be permanently docked in Deptford.  So the ship was placed in a ‘dry’ dock filled with soil.  The ship decayed and by 1660 nothing much was left. 

I remember as a young archaeologist that some of our team took time out to work with Peter Marsden. He is one of the great experts in Naval archaeology, and he led a search to find Drake’s ship.  There was a huge fanfare in the London newspapers. ‘Find the Hind’ I think must have been the hopeful Headlines. But, rather embarrassingly, given the build up, they failed to find anything of significance.

Further exploratory excavations took place in 2012, with no greater success.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588 showing July22nd Start Point Devon with English ships pursuing the Spanish
Panorama biew of the Spanish Army from an old history book

Golden Hind souvenirs

Chair made from timbers of the Golden Hind in the Dinity Hall, Oxford, photo K Flude

The Keeper of the Naval Stores at Deptford made chairs from the ruins of Drake’s ship, and one of them is on display at the Divinity Hall, Oxford.

Information panel on the Chair made from the ruins of the Golden Hind, photo K Flude

Sir Francis Drake and Middle Temple Hall

In London, Sir Francis Drake visited Middle Temple Hall, off of Fleet St regularly. A table (called the cupboard) is reputedly made from the hatch cover of the Golden Hind.  This is where the newly qualified barristers stood to have their registration entered into the Inn’s books. Sadly, it did not survive the bombing of 1941.

Middle Temple Hall. Photo K Flude 2021

The lantern which hung in the entrance Hall allegedly came from the ship’s poop deck (so not the one he failed to keep lit!). Other famous mariners associated with the Middle Temple include Sir Martin Frobisher and Sir Walter Raleigh. Shakespeare’s company performed Twelfth Night in the Middle Temple Hall

https://www.middletemple.org.uk/about-us/history/elizabethan-and-jacobean-times

On this day

The Romans celebrated the Great Mother, the Cybele in the festival of the Megalesia. To celebrate bringing a meteorite of Cybele to her temple in Rome in 204BC. Celebrated by the Games of the Great Mother

1660 – Declaration of Breda by King Charles II promises a general pardon to all royalists and opponents of the monarchy for crimes committed during the English Civil War. Excluded were the Regicides who signed Charles I’s death warrant.

1814 – Napoleon abdicated and on April 11 ordered into exile in Elbe.

1949  Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO. They were the Western Union – ( France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) and the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland

1968 – Martin Luther King Jr.  assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee

First published 2024, revised 2025, On This Day added 2026

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Childermas & Christmas Games December 28th

Pick-up-sticks or Spillikins

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

Holy Innocents Day or Childermas is dedicated to children on the day Herod ordered the slaughter of children aged two or under, in an attempt to kill the prophesied Messiah. However, the massacre is only mentioned by Matthew, and other classical sources, despite being anti-Herod, don’t mention it. It is thought to be ‘modelled’ on the massacre of young children mentioned in Exodus when the Pharoah hears about the birth of Moses.

It is, therefore, as far as folklore is concerned, an ill-omened day so don’t begin any new enterprise or, indeed, attempt to go back to work. And remember, as Childermas falls on a Sunday this year, Sundays throughout the year are all ill-omened days. There was a medieval tradition that people should avoid work on the day of the week that Childermas fell until the next childermas. Bad luck this year as it’s a Sunday!

Weather wise, according to a 17th formulae, as the fourth day of Christmas is warm, expect the fourth month, April to be similarly warm.

Christmas Games

So, no sloping off to the Study, it’s best to spend the time playing Christmas Games. The one I remember, most fondly, is pick-up-sticks or spillikins. You drop a pile of sticks onto a table-top or the floor. Then have to pick up as many sticks as you can without disturbing any others. Your turn ends when you move a stick. Different sticks have different values. We also played Dominoes, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders.

But, to get the whole room joining in, we played two card games. Participants could sit in their comfy armchairs rather than at a table.  Chase the Ace.  Newmarket. 

Chase the Ace is, apparently, also, rather unpleasantly, called Screw Your Neighbour in the US! Each person is dealt a card. In turn, they choose to swap it with their neighbour.  At the end of the round, the lowest cardholder (ace is low) loses a life.  A player is excluded after losing 3 lives. Last one standing is the winner.

Newmarket (or Michigan) is a gambling game in which everyone places a stake on 4 picture cards. Theare are placed in the centre of the room.  If your cards comes out in the play, you win the money staked on the card.  The point of both these games is that any number of people can play, and they are simple and fast.

Another game we played at parties was Bullet Pudding. Players cut off bits of a flour pudding until the coin or bullet falls into the basin.  The unlucky player (me last time I played) has to pick it up with his teeth.

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

Here is a photo of the one we played on 24th December,2024. My 97-year-old dad is in the background. You can see what a messy game it can be!

I have moved the 18th Century Jane Austen Christmas Games content from here to the page shown below.

Christmas with Jane Austen December 20th

Santa Klaus for the Elite

Apparently, the development of the American Santa Klaus was a way for the elite to keep control of the rowdy working class in New York. The argument, in a nutshell, is that the folk Christmas was outside and rowdy. Then Clement Moore wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. This introduced a domesticated indoor middle-class version of Father Christmas. It’s a fascinating spin on the traditional story.

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

First written on December 28th 2022, revised and republished in December 2023, 2024, 2025

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Birthday Of The Sun December 25th

The First Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Nebra Sun disc from Stonehenge Exhibition British Museum
Nebra Sun disc. Photo from Stonehenge Exhibition British Museum (photo Kevin Flude) The Disc shows the Sun, the Moon, the Pleides, and illustrates the Summer and Winter Solstice movements of the Sun.

Dies Natalis Solis Invicti

On the 25th December were born Jesus, Mithras, Attis, Saturn, Apollo, and the Invincible Sun.

The Sun Gods have quite a complicated interrelationship. Zeus, and Apollo are both also considered to be Sun Gods. Apollo is particularly interrelated to Helios, the Greek God who drives the Chariot that carries the Sun across the skies every day. The Romans had a God called Sol who some say was a deity but who declined to be of minor importance. Then Sol was championed by the transexual Emperor Elagabalas. Aurelian revived the cult in 274 AD. Sol Invictus was the focus of Constantine the Great. Sol has been suggested as a response of the Romans to a trend towards monotheism in the later Roman period. Sol for Constantine was a gateway God to Christianity.

It is also notable that early worship of Jesus is full of solar metaphors, Jesus being, for example, the light of the world. Churches are also virtually all orientated East West, aligned with the rising and setting suns. The Altar is always at the East End, and effigies on tombs face the rising sun.

First Christmas?

The first recorded Christmas Day is in AD336. It was in an almanac that lists Roman Holidays, officials and martyrs. The entry for December 25th says: ‘natus Christus in Betleem Judeae’. For more early Christian Dates have a look here.

Celtic Sun Gods?

The Golden Wheel from Haute Marne in France

The Golden Wheel from Haute Marne in France, (Public Domain, Wikipedia)

Did the Celts have a sun-god? Belenos is a contender, but linguists are proposing his name does not come from words meaning bright but from strong. The God Lugh’s name is suggested to mean ‘shining’ but his attributes are more of a warrior than a sun god. Taranis is probably the best candidate, but he is more of a sky or thunder god than specifically a sun god. However, his symbol is a 8 spoked wheel is said to be symbolic of the Sun. It also represents the division of the year by the 4 quarterly sun festivals (Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox) and the 4 cross-quarter festivals, (Samhain or Halloween, Imbolc or Candlemas, Beltane or May Day, Lughnasa or Harvest Festival).

December 25th is a few days after our reckoning of the Solstice. But, as we have previously seen, Christians believed the world was created on the Spring Equinox, and humans on the 4th day, so Adam was created on March 25th. Mary conceived on the same day, and therefore Jesus, after a perfect labour was born 9 Months later on December 25th. (See my post on March 25th and the Creation)

Christmas Cake

Today, you might be tucking into a Christmas Cake (originally eaten on Twelfth Night). Now, I know many Americans have a bizarre belief that fruit cake is the cake of the devil. Something you receive as a gift and give away to someone else, as most Americans hate it. More fool them for missing out on one of the delights of the Christmas period, that and cold turkey sandwiches. Christmas Cake is made on stir up Sunday, the last Sunday in November, to let the ingredients develop their flavour. They are then covered with marzipan and decorative icing.

19th Century Christmas Cake, generally now the icing continues down the side of the cake.

In Germany, they also eat a fruit bread called Stollen or Weihnachtsstollen. The tradition is said to have been started in the 15th Century, when the Pope gave dispensation to allow the use of butter in the fasting period of Advent. Previously, the Germans had to use oil to replace the banned butter, but they could only make oil from turnips, so eventually the Pope allowed the use of butter, with which they made bread with added dried fruits.

Stollen By Gürgi – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3720379

In Italy, they eat Panettone, a fruit bread/cake. It is a sourdough, and a cross between a brioche and a cake. It often comes in a beautiful decorative tin, and is delicious. The centre of panettone production is Milan. Last year was the 200th Anniversary of Milan’s famous Marchesi 1824 which makes artisanal Panettone. It used ‘fine ingredients such as six-crown sultan as, naturally candied fruit, Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, Italian honey and eggs from free-range hens, blended in a slow-rising dough with the exclusive use of Marchesi 1824 sourdough starter‘. Thank you, Mara from Milan, for the heads-up.

Screen shot from website – does not click through to sales!

Which is best? The only way to find out is to eat several slices of each. America, you don’t know what you are missing.

For stir up sunday see the second half of this post of mine.

Stir Up Sunday! Late November

First Published 24th December 2022, Republished 25th December 2023, 2024, 2025

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Jimi Hendrix in London November 27th

Jimi Hendrix in London at Montague Place

To my mind, THE genius of the electric guitar, and a great singer and songwriter.

Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle on 27th November 1942. He was spotted by ex-Animals Chas Chandler (bassist) when performing in small cafés In New York as Jimmy James. Chandler suggested he came to England. On the flight, they decided to change his name to Jimi. He arrived on September 24, 1966.

“It’s a different kind of atmosphere here. People are more mild-mannered. I like all the little streets and the boutiques. It’s like a kind of fairyland”

https://www.independent.co.uk Jimi Hendrix’s London.

On his first day in London, he met Kathy Etchingham,. She found them a flat on the upper floors of 23 Brook Street, which is now part of Handel&Hendrix in London. This is a a small museum to the two musical giants who lived next door to each other (if they were time travellers that is!).

For the English middle class, it’s comforting to know that Jimi bought the furnishings of the flat from their favourite, the nearby John Lewis Department store. However, he got his swinging 60s look from Carnaby Street and Portobello Road Market.

The Blues and London

London wasn’t an arbitrary choice for a young American Bluesman. The wave of British Bands that came to international prominence in 1964, was based on the almost forgotten (by the mainstream media) Black American Blues legends such as Woody Guthrie and Ledbelly. Bands like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Animals loved this music, and began their careers playing cover versions in Clubs in London. (For more on the British Blues Revival, look here🙂

Hendrix’s younger brother, Leon, spoke about the importance of London to Hendrix

“He loved England ‘cos it was like Seattle. It was like home. It was the same climate, y’know? And this is where all the music was. This is where all of his friends were – Eric Clapton, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, everybody…”

He concluded: “After people played, they all went and jammed together. Like, when Jimi played a concert that was only the warm-up… After the concert, he was out and about lookin’ for somebody to play with and somebody’s studio to jam at. They’d just be jammin’ all night ’til, like, seven or eight in the morning. It was awesome.”

Reported in Mouth Magazine 2018 and quoted in https://faroutmagazine.co.uk

Hendrix and Hey Joe

Chas Chandler was interested in managing bands, and thought Hey Joe, which he heard Hendrix play, could be a hit single. Hey Joe got to no 6, in January 1967 in the UK Top Ten, but failed to make an impression in the US.

Here is a YouTube film of Hendrix playing ‘Hey Joe’.

Finally, have a look at this bill for bands on at the Saville Theatre.

One month in 60s London!

For details of Hendix Gigs look at the Set list Web site, which shows he performed at the Saville Theatre in Jan,May and June 1967 on his First European Tour, and again in Aug and Oct on his 2nd European Tour.

The Independent website above gives a good guide to Hendrix in London. An excellent documentary on Hendrix was recently aired on BBC Sounds, Everything but the Guitar.

On this Day:

Eels are now in Season. (for Eels, Eel Pie Island, and its amazing musical heritage click here🙂

1703– The Great Storm

‘About one this morning, the terrible storm arose, which continued till past seven, the wind southwest, the light not known in the memory of man; blew down a vast number of the tops of houses, Chimneys, etc.; the damage incredible., the lady Nicholas and a great many people killed and many wounded: most of the boats and barges forced ashore; an East India ship cast away near Blackwall, besides several merchant ships and colliers; divers of the great trees in St James’s Park, Temple Grayes Inn, etc, blown down; and we are apprehensive we shall hear of great losses at sea.‘

From Narcissus Luttrell, diary, 1703, quoted from ‘A London Year’ compiled by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison.

First published on Nov 27th 2022, as part of Stir Up Sunday! And revised onto its own page on the same day, 2023, and updated 2024 and 2025

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Thanksgiving Day in the USA (4th Thursday in November)

Plate 1 of The Birds of America by John James Audubon, depicting a wild turkey (Wikipedia) eaten for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a festival given over to celebrating God’s Bounty. There are unanswerable debates about which was the ‘First’ Thanksgiving, but the date of the 4th Thursday in November was set by Abraham Lincoln. It is basically a harvest festival, but was adopted by Lincoln as one method to unite a divided nation during the Civil War.

Thanksgiving today is mostly roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. But there are many variants and additions such as a first course of soup, and vegetables like Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Very like an English Christmas dinner, but replacing the Christmas Pudding with pumpkin pie.

Food eaten on the first Thanksgiving.

As to what the first Pilgrims would have eaten is not known, but their chronicler Edward Winslow noted:

“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week.”

https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal

So the birds shot by 4 marksmen would have been wild turkey but also other birds such as ducks, geese, and swans. Seafood; Mussels, lobster, and eel were also available.

As to ‘gathering the fruits of our labors’. This might have included onions, beans, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots, and peas. Stuffing might be seasoned with sage, thyme, parsley, marjoram, fennel, anise or dill, The Pilgrims had plenty of Corn from their first harvest which would have been turned into cornmeal, and eaten as a mush if savoury or sweetened with molasses as a porridge, or made into cornbread, or for stuffing. Perhaps not so different to Frumenty. (see my post on Wife selling and Frumenty.

Native Americans & Thanksgiving

Indigenous Wampanoag Americans might have been present, but only to investigate the shooting of canons in celebration by the Pilgrims. Relationships were tense between the native Americans and the immigrants. Some Indigenous Americans consider it a day of mourning; others use it as a day of gathering for the family, but generally, consider images of the Pilgrims and Indigenous Americans sitting down peacefully celebrating together to be ‘a lie’. (Native Americans and the First Thanksgiving.)

First Published on 24th November 2022, Republished on 23rd November 2023, 27th November 2025

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

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. Can’t help feeling that prophecy this precise is heading for a fall. (see my post sliding-ducks-and-the-equivocation-of-prophecy/).

Martinmas Old Style and Pack-Rag Day

Pack-Rag Day, hiring of farm workers

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

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

As you may have noticed, I have been adding a section called ‘On this Day’ which highlights some notable events that have happened on this day in history. In my quest to create an almanac of the past with a reasonable post for every day, my loyal subscribers will be getting a post they read last year. So, I am trying to add extra content to make it worthwhile. Hence, this ‘new’ section (one year old today).

So, I will either republish a previously published post. It should be better proofread (although I’m perfectly capable of adding extra embarrassing typos). The content should be improved or expanded. Or with an added ‘On this Day’ section. Therefore, if you find you have read the post before, just scroll down to the new content at the bottom.

One of my sources 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.

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 2025

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All Hallows Day – November 1st

chrysanthemums
Chrysanthemums Flowers for the Dead (the author’s back garden)

How the Celtic festival that marked the beginning of Winter became All Hallows is not clear. Some say the Church set up its own festival independent of the Northern European traditions. But it is as likely that the Church adopted existing pagan festivals, and gave them a Christian spin.

Samhain, on October 31st, was, for Celtic religions, not only the beginning of Winter but also the beginning of the Year. As I noted on my Halloween post the Festivities began in the evening before the day because Celtic and Germanic traditions began their day at Dusk. So Halloween is not, in fact, the evening before, it is the start of the day of the festival.

Facebook Image giving the words for Samhain in Celtic languages

The Church adopted the Roman tradition of the day beginning not at Dusk but at Midnight. So the festival of All Hallows is on November 1st not October 31st. But the Church mimicked the old ways of doing things by celebrating the evening before as the Vigil of All Hallows’ Day. This was called All Hallows Evening or Halloween.

All Hallows by the Tower, London

Engraving of All Hallows Barking

In London, there is a Church called All Hallows, on Tower Hill. It is associated with Barking Abbey, founded in the 9th Century. Therefore, it is known as All Hallows Barking or All Hallows by the Tower. The Church has a prominent position on Tower Hill, which would have been visible from boats coming up the Thames. Also in the Church is the earliest Post-Roman arch in a Church in the City of London. This is made of reused Roman bricks. Moreover, in the crypt are Roman tessellated floors.

Letter from Pope Gregory to St Augustine

Now, I don’t want to be shot down in flames because there is no evidence that there was a Roman Temple here. Nor indeed a Roman or immediately Post-Roman Church. But it is one of the earliest Churches in the City of London. There must have been Christian Churches in Roman London, and this would be on my list of candidates. It is simply that the attribution to All Hallows provides a possible link to Celtic festivals. So speculation rather than anything else. The letter above, gives a context for the conversion of a pagan Temple to a Christian Place of Worship.

An Uncanny Day to Hallowed Day

For the Celts, Samhain was an uncanny day when all the sprites and spirits are alive and in the world. The Church took that, and span in on its head. So it became a ‘hallowed’ holy day when all Saints are celebrated and alive to us. Celebrated on October 31st and November 1st.

A celebration of All Saints was originally in May in the Church but was changed to the 1st November in the 7th Century by Pope Boniface. Later it was swapped back to May. But fixed again on the 1st November in the 9th Century. It is followed on the 2nd by All Souls’ Day. (see my post on All Souls Day here.

So on the 1st November, those celebrating the pagan festival would be in full swing after a hard night of celebration. The embers of the Fire would be still burning, stones left around the fire would be inspected for the prophecy they told of the future. Each person had a stone, and if it was still intact it was good luck, if it had disappeared the future was not good.

La Toussaint et Dia de Todo Los Santos

In France, All Hallows or All Saints is called La Toussaint, and flowers such as Chrysanthemums, which blossom in late October, were put on the graves. In Spain, it is Dia de Todo Los Santos and is a national holiday upon which people put flowers on the graves of the dead.

In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos celebrates Holy Innocents on the 1st. People create altars to the lost ones, with their favourite flowers, toys, food stuffs,, photographs. People argue about the pre-colombian aspects of the festival as there are similarities to European All Saints Days celebrations. But Quecholli, was a celebration of the dead that honoured Mixcóatl – the god of war. It was celebrated between October 20th and November 8th.

A correspondent in Mexico has sent back these pictures of the festivities in Mexico.

Day of the Dead in Mexico. Photos by S. Morice

The female figure to the left is La Catrina. This image was popularised by an early 20th Century design by José Guadalupe Posada and developed in a mural by Diego Rivera. For more details click here.

A Day Off for the English

In the Laws of King Alfred the Great, this day was a day off for freemen. See my post on Days off in the Anglo Saxon Calender on August 15th.

First published in 2022, revised in 2023, 2024, 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.