Georgian Era
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Georgian Era’
Diplomat William Eton warns his fellow Englishmen that shutting down debate does not make for a more united society.
In 1798, diplomat William Eton published some observations on life in the Ottoman Empire. He warned readers back home that no society can be made harmonious by silencing dissenting voices; in such societies loneliness, drug abuse and distrust spiral out of control, sneering passes for debate, and only fashionably coarse comedians are allowed to raise a laugh.
The blacksmiths of Crowley’s ironworks in Winlaton and Swalwell took it upon themselves to regulate prices in the markets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
When at the end of Pride and Prejudice (1811) Jane Austen banished George Wickham to serve in a militia regiment in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, she was not sending him out of harm’s way. Lydia might enjoy the town’s musical salons and Theatre Royal, but all around was a hive of heavy industry and radical politics. Both had long been dominated by Crowley’s Crew, articulate freethinkers among the blacksmiths of Crowley’s ironworks at Winlaton.
In 1770, agriculturist Arthur Young published his diary of a six-month tour of the north of England, which included a visit to the coalfields and ironworks of the Tyne.
In 1770, Arthur Young published his diary of a six months’ tour of the north of England. It included a visit to Newcastle, where he found a busy town prospering on the twin industries of the coal mine and the ironworks. Here, he gives his London readers a taste of the noisy, dirty but profitable business by the Tyne, and notes how the city’s fortunes rose and fell with the fortunes of war.
In 1807, the Government in Canada urged the leaders of the Five Nations to join with them in a medical revolution.
On November 8th, 1807, at Fort George in Upper Canada, leaders of Canada’s indigenous peoples were presented with an information pack explaining the newly developed science of vaccination, written by pioneering epidemiologist Edward Jenner. It was William Claus (1765-1826), Deputy Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, who spoke for Jenner.
On the day that Manfred, Prince of Otranto, expected his son Conrad to marry the Marquis of Vicenza’s daughter, grotesque tragedy struck.
Horace Walpole’s ‘Castle of Otranto’ (1765) was suggested by a dream, and the tumbled nightmare of a tale, masquerading as an historical document, left many a Georgian reader cowering under the bedclothes. It opens with Manfred, Prince of Otranto, waiting impatiently for the marriage of his son Conrad to Isabella, daughter of the Marquis of Vicenza.
After Oliver Goldsmith’s landlady lost patience with her cash-strapped tenant, Dr Johnson took charge and a literary classic entered the world.
Irish novelist and playwright Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) was perpetually hard up, living hand-to-mouth on his writing. There came a day however when his landlady lost patience, and would not let her tenant out of her sight until he paid up. Goldsmith turned in desperation to his friend Samuel Johnson, the famous critic and lexicographer.