811
An irate coal merchant squares up to the oh-so-righteous gentleman who didn’t like the way he was treating his horse.
Following the death of William Wilberforce, the great anti-slavery campaigner, on July 29th, 1833, an impressive list of statesmen requested a fitting funeral in Westminster Abbey. Ordinary people grieved in their many thousands too, and a generation later Travers Buxton recalled that this affection was of long standing.
Picture: From the East Riding Archives, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: No known copyright restrictions.. Source.
Posted November 27 2018
812
John Wesley wrote to a young William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade.
A few days before he died on on March 2nd, 1791, at the age of 87, John Wesley wrote to a young MP, fellow ‘methodist’ William Wilberforce. While these were not Wesley’s last recorded words (which were ‘The best of all is, God is with us’) his letter has the air of a departing Elijah wishing upon Elisha a double share of his spirit.
Picture: Photo by Adam Carr, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 27 2018
813
Economist Adam Smith so changed the conversation in Britain that most people take his groundbreaking insights for granted.
Adam Smith’s free market ‘Wealth of Nations’ had an immediate and highly beneficial impact on British economic policy, one whose ripples spread across the world. Yet as biographer Richard Haldane explains, so successful was Smith in changing the conversation that most people have now forgotten all about him.
Picture: © Stormy Clouds, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted November 26 2018
814
John Buchan warned that the great figures of history are often beyond their biographers’ comprehension.
John Buchan had little time for the kind of historian who makes a career out of rubbishing reputations, pulling the great (if flawed) figures of history down from their pedestals in the hope of some scattered applause from his peers. Some giants of history are quite simply too big for their critics.
Picture: By Carole Raddato, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted November 23 2018
815
Sir William Napier stopped to console an unhappy little girl, and made her a promise he did not find it easy to keep.
Sir William Napier (1785-1860) was a soldier and military historian, whose monumental ‘History of the Peninsular War’ helped establish the enduring reputation of Wellington, and commands respect to this day. He was also a man of honour whose word was his bond, as the following story, told by his daughter, shows.
Picture: © Brian Robert Marshall, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted November 22 2018
816
Ardent opera buffs descend like locusts on Jenny Lind’s hotel, eager for a memento.
In a letter to Douglas Jerrold, dated Paris, February 14th, 1847, Charles Dickens related an anecdote about the opera singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887), popularly known as the Swedish Nightingale. Her celebrity throughout Europe bordered on the hysterical, as Dickens shows.
Picture: By Poly Von Schneidau, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 19 2018