History Blogs

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Edwardian Promenade

A Lady’s Adventures in a Balloon - Wed, 16 May 2012
The air is the only element which remains to man to conquer for his own use and enjoyment. Consequently air ships are in the air, both in conversation and in fact; ballooning is the newest sport of the smart, balloon parties are the latest social departure, and membership of the Aero Club is sought alike [...]

Upstairs Downstairs in Gilded Age America - Mon, 14 May 2012
Millionaires of the Gilded Age looked to Europeans–or more specifically, the British–for cues on how to recreate the leisured life in America, copying them from the construction of country estates, to golf clubs, to social seasons, all the way down to the bottom of this lifestyle: domestic servants. Yet, save indentured servitude and slavery, American [...]

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The Early Modern Intelligencer

CFP: Shakespeare Institute Review - Thu, 17 May 2012
The Shakespeare Institute Review is a new online academic journal, which is funded by the University of Birmingham College of Arts and Law. It is run by four research students at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. Students at this institution, and on other postgraduate Shakespeare programmes, are invited and encouraged to contribute short papers for [...]

Taverns, locals and street corners: New AHRC Project on Tavern Culture - Mon, 14 May 2012
Taverns, locals and street corners Taverns, locals and street corners: Cross-chronological studies in community drinking, regulation and public space Project This AHRC Connected Communities pilot study on tavern culture (2012) ranges from early modern Europe to the present day. It investigates whether today’s real and imagined patterns of drinking – people congregating in public spaces at [...]

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Cardinal Wolsey’s Today in History

How Greece lost her Marbles - Wed, 23 Mar 2011
photo: a decent view of the Parthenon without too much scaffolding (copyright the author)

On a recent trip to Athens, the cultural hot potato that is the Elgin Marbles was very much in play. Piles of leaflets at the entrance to the Acropolis make the case for the return of these treasures of the Parthenon (or stolen booty depending on your stance) from the British Museum to Athens.

A brief summary of the story:

From 1799 the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople was Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin. At this time the Ottomans were in charge of Athens, and in 1801 Elgin obtained permission (or so he claimed) to remove around half the existing sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis. This his agents duly did and in by 1812 they had been shipped back to Blighty.

Although Elgin's motives were based on a love of antiquity (he had heard that some sculptures had previously been burnt to extract lime), a row broke out almost immediately, and has been running off and on for the 200 years since.

Arguments for keeping the marbles in the BM:

1. They are closer to my house (and for Londoners generally). OK, this might have held water when it took a week by sea to get to Athens, but that was before Easyjet & co.

2. The Greeks won't look after them. Pollution in Athens is less of an issue since the Olympics clean-up, and the fab new Acropolis Museum makes the BM look very last year. They even have a space ready.

3. It will set a precedent for returning stuff which will empty our museums. Well, you shouldn't have nicked it in the first place. See this site for more hot potatoes.

4. We built a nice gallery for them. Just move with the times and use it for a permanent exhibition of our best graffiti artists. The Athens galleries are full of light and a much better setting for the marbles.

That's my balanced opinion anyway.

West Wycombe Park - Wed, 01 Dec 2010





An autumn view of West Wycombe Park, an early 18th century English Palladian mansion in the Chiltern Hills, north-west of London. The house was built by Sir Francis Dashwood, sometime Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Dilettante Society and slightly more notorious Hellfire Club. The caves where the latter Club held meetings are nearby and make an interesting visit.

The house is still in the family:the 12th Baronet Edward Dashwood currently enjoys the modest 5000-acre estate, albeit shared with visitors as the property is run by the National Trust.

Nearly West Wycombe village dates from the 16th century and is also looked after by the National Trust. The pubs and jettied shops on the old coaching road feel in a different age to dreary High Wycombe up the road.


The peace of this area of the Chilterns is now threatened by the High Speed 2 train project.

Photo: the author.

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History News Network

Forgotten time capsule found at Virginia Historical Society - Thu, 17 May 2012

The historians of 100 years ago had an idea what the future should know about them. And they hid it on May 20, 1912, in the cornerstone of the new Confederate Memorial Institute on the Boulevard.

The building, soon to be known as Battle Abbey, and the Confederate Memorial Association that built it were subsumed over the years into the Virginia Historical Society....

Then the 100th anniversary of the building inspired some research by Nelson D. Lankford, vice president of the society and editor of its Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. He discovered a list of items placed in a box in the cornerstone.

Did they still exist?

Absolutely....

IOC refuses to mark Munich’s 40th anniversary - Thu, 17 May 2012

In 1996, then-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch discussed the recent war in the Balkans, and the need to rebuild Sarajevo. What he didn’t commemorate, or even mention—and what, the IOC announced today, won’t be commemorated, or even mentioned, in any official capacity at this summer’s Games in London on the 40th anniversary—is the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Despite an official Israeli request, the IOC will not do, well, anything, except, in the words of President Jacques Rogge, to offer the following thoughts: “What happened in Munich in 1972 strengthened the determination of the Olympic Movement to contribute more than ever to building a peaceful and better world by educating young people through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit.”...

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