277
Social niceties are essential for the smooth operation of society, but neither boxing a man’s ears nor calling in the lawyers will bring them back.
Picture: © Christ Beach, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic.. Source.
Posted December 6 2020
278
On July 5th, 1535, the night before he was to be executed by order of King Henry VIII, it seemed that Sir Thomas More was the only man in the Tower of London who was happy.
Picture: By Claudius Jacquand (1808-1878), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Photo by Xavier Caré.. Source.
Posted December 4 2020
279
Amid the Don Pacifico Affair, William Gladstone told Lord Palmerston that pride in his own country did not excuse bossing others about like a global schoolmaster.
Picture: Photo by Lt Juan David Guerra / US Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted December 3 2020
280
When Sir Rodbert became Brother Martin, he found the change so difficult that he began to wonder if even the saints were against him.
Picture: By Konstantin Savitsky (1844–1905), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted December 1 2020
281
Letitia Barbauld called Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel Pamela ‘a new experiment’ in English literature, and to judge by its reception it was very successful.
Picture: By Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), via Tate Britain and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 27 2020
282
A few weeks after a large French raiding party had been driven away from the Isle of Wight, another flotilla arrived from across the Channel demanding money with menaces.
Picture: © Penny Mayes, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted November 24 2020