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English explorer Major Edmund Lockyer tries to buy a puppy in Queensland, but ends up paying the owner to keep him.
In September 1825, Edmund Lockyer (1784-1860) led an expedition through the upper reaches of the Brisbane River in what is now Queensland, reporting back to Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales, on the possibilities for agriculture and mining. His contacts with the Aborigines were cordial, as this extract from his Journal confirms.
Picture: © Newretreads, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted March 4 2020
686
Charles Dickens explains to the young men of Boston MA what it is that motivates him to write.
In February 1842, Charles Dickens gave a speech in Boston, Massachusetts, before such literary greats as George Bancroft, Washington Allston and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In reply to the Chairman’s toast, Dickens shared with the company of some two hundred guests his thoughts on what drove him to write.
Picture: By Paul Sandy, via Wikimedia-Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 2 2020
687
St Gregory Palamas struggled all his life to stand up for the principle that the Bible means what it says.
St Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), Archbishop of Thessalonica, is reckoned (alongside St Photius and St Mark of Ephesus) one of the three Pillars of Orthodoxy; the second Sunday of Lent is dedicated to him. His life was a unrelenting struggle against slander, brought about by his utter conviction that those passages in the Bible which speak of angels or heavenly lights being seen by men actually mean what they say.
Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 1 2020
688
Heathen prince Boris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889) commissioned St Methodius to paint an impressive scene for his palace walls.
St Methodius (815-885) and his younger brother St Cyril (826-869) were Slavs from Thessalonica who brought the Christian gospel to Eastern Europe. In 864, Boris I, King of the Bulgarians (r. 852-889), abandoned his heathen beliefs and was baptised, and according to 11th-century Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes, Methodius was behind Boris’s change of heart.
Picture: © Valeria23, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 Romania.. Source.
Posted February 28 2020
689
At the Battle of Crécy in 1346, the English army was trying out a new military tactic under the command of a sixteen-year-old boy.
The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 led to a dispute over succession between Edward III of England (whose mother Isabella was French royalty) and Philip VI of France. Matters came to a head at Crécy in 1346, but despite all that was riding on it Edward left the battle in the hands of his son Prince Edward, aged sixteen.
Picture: © marcusmacaulay, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted February 27 2020
690
The Israelites under Philistia’s rule might have blended with their heathen masters had not Samson kept stirring up trouble.
Samson was one of the Judges, charismatic rulers of Israel before the Kings. In his day, Israel had been worshipping the Philistines’ gods, and their punishment was to fall under Philistia’s government. To make sure that the Israelites were not absorbed by Philistine society, however, God prompted Samson to keep tensions high.
Picture: From the Walters Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted February 26 2020