949
Sir Hubert Parry was delighted to see teachers and pupils pushing each other to do better.
In an address to the students of the Royal College of Music in April 1918, Sir Hubert Parry said they were fortunate that when the College was founded in 1882, teachers were beginning to understand that the young respond better to respect and persuasion than to drill-ground severity.
Picture: From the Imperial War Museums Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 11 2018
950
Jane Loudon introduces us to two dogs getting on with their busy lives.
Victorian environmentalist John Ruskin complained that the Midland Railway had torn up lovely countryside between Derby, Matlock and Buxton just so that ‘every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton’, overlooking the benefits to Derbyshire’s canine population.
Picture: © Mike Smith, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 10 2018
951
With the aid of a slice of beef, a Perth puss takes feline scheming to a new level.
Charles Henry Ross and his wife Isabelle Émilie de Tessier, alias Marie Duval, were the co-creators of Ally Sloper, ‘hero’ of one of the earliest strip cartoons, and the first recurrent character. Charles also had a fund of anecdotes proving that cats are just as clever as “their much-vaunted rival, the dog”.
Picture: © mdprovost, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 8 2018
952
Richard Cobden saw Britain’s international standing in terms of peaceful trade rather than military interventions.
In 1855, Cobden urged Parliament to tone down its anti-Russian rhetoric, not out of any fondness for St Petersburg’s domestic or foreign policy but because British influence was better felt in industrial innovation and international trade than in annexing land, toppling governments or rattling the Russian bear’s cage.
Picture: © Geof Sheppard, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted March 7 2018
953
Georgian Britain braced for war as relations with France in North America, India and mainland Europe took a turn for the worse.
The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) reached from French and British colonies in North America and India to states in modern-day Germany. It seemed glorious at the time for Britain, but it doubled the national debt, and measures to recover the costs triggered the American War of Independence.
Picture: By Nicholas Pocock (1740–1821), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 6 2018
954
Jane Loudon describes an moment of unexpected paternal affection from a Tom cat.
Jane Loudon was a pioneering science fiction writer, whose novel “The Mummy!” of 1827 was a landmark in the genre. She also wrote an engaging account of her family pets that included several anecdotes about cats.
Picture: © Christine Westerback, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 4 2018