Josiah Wedgwood’s promotional gift made Abolitionism fashionable.

An 18th century bon viveur and virtuoso violinist, Thomas Erskine is currently being ‘rediscovered’ by the classical music industry.

Richard Trevithick’s boss hailed the engineer as a genius. Today he’d have been fired. (Oh, and the train was delayed.)

Handel called it ‘Air and Variations’, but by Charles Dickens’s day everyone knew it as ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’.

(That’s cat-tails, obviously.) And who ever said cats were unpredictable?

Moscheles taught his adopted country how to write enchanting music for decades to come.