913
A traveller went into a Shropshire pub looking for information about a patch of grass with peculiar properties.
Oswald was King of Northumbria from 634 to 642, when he was defeated, aged 38, in battle by the pagan King Penda at Maserfield near modern-day Oswestry in Shropshire. He was soon venerated as a saint, for his own piety, and for bringing St Aidan over from Iona to preach Christianity with a simple kindness others had not shown.
Picture: © Tanya Dedyukhina, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted April 22 2018
914
An Arthurian knight commits a dreadful crime against a woman, and is sent by Queen Guinevere on a fitting errand.
Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ include a story told by a much-married lady from Bath named Alison. She prefaces it by complaining at great length that she has been made to feel guilty for marrying five times, and still more so for demanding some equality in the home. Yet, she says, sometimes that works out rather well.
Picture: By Robert Alexander Hillingford (1828-1904), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted April 17 2018
915
Young Theseus sets out for Athens on foot to claim his kingdom, but the road is infested with giants, bandits and a savage sow.
According to Castor of Rhodes (first century BC), Theseus inherited the crown of Athens in 1234 BC – just about the time of the Exodus and shortly before the Siege of Troy. As his name implies, during his reign he ‘gathered’ all Attica under Athens, and the overwhelming challenge posed by that task is symbolised by the mythical labours attributed to him.
Picture: © alijava, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted April 16 2018
916
The Report of the Newcastle Commission confirmed that there were no Dotheboys Halls among Yorkshire’s private schools.
The Newcastle Commission of 1859 was in large measure a response to allegations of educational malpractice in Charles Dickens’s novel ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ (1838). The Assistant Commissioner for Yorkshire, Mr J. G. Fitch, submitted a wide-ranging and often critical report, but he could not let Dickens’s allegations pass without comment.
Picture: © Humphrey Bolton, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted April 14 2018
917
Sir Joshua Fitch urges Victorian society to let women make their own career choices – whatever they may be.
Sir Joshua Fitch (1824-1903) was a leading Victorian educator who played a decisive role in promoting the education of girls on equal terms to boys. He did not believe, however, in making girls do as boys do. He believed that if boys can do as they please, so can girls, and that no one should dictate what that should be.
Picture: Imperial War Museums Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted April 14 2018
918
Mrs Squeers has lost the school spoon, and is uncomfortably frank about its importance.
Impoverished young gentleman Nicholas Nickleby has accepted a position as junior master at Dotheboys Hall, a remote Yorkshire school managed by Mr Wackford Squeers and his wife. On his arrival, Nicholas is treated to a rapid initiation into the school’s educational vision.
Picture: © David wright, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted April 13 2018