13
John Galsworthy shared his unease at the rise of two competing forms of national speech.
In his Presidential Address for 1924, entitled ‘Expression’, John Galsworthy reminded the English Association that London’s inner-city English was washing away all rivals, and becoming our national speech. Was this desirable? And would the talk of ‘cultured’ people be any better? It was a rather serious point, he said, though we must hope his solution was not meant seriously.
Picture: © PaulTurner, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted January 26
14
The dazzling throne of the Mughal Emperors has vanished from history, but not before Abdul Hamid Lahori had seen it.
The Peacock Throne in the Hall of Private Audiences in the Red Fort of Delhi was the high throne of Mughal Emperors, built for Shah Jahan, who ascended it for the first time on March 22nd, 1635. The throne was looted and taken to Persia in May 1739 by Nader Shah, but we do have this eyewitness description from Abdul Hamid Lahori, Shah Jahan’s court historian.
Picture: By Abid, son of Aqa Riza (fl. 1600s), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 25
15
John Galsworthy urges the English to love their language as they love their country.
Novelist John Galsworthy was elected President of the English Association for 1924. He ended his address to the members with a call not to give up on the English language, but to keep on expecting to meet round every corner something new: not a mere novelty, but something worthy to follow the noble beauty of the best that has gone before.
Picture: © Derek Bennett, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted January 23
16
A US Congressman tells the House why they mustn’t censor the press.
In July 1798, the Government of American President John Adams laid a Bill before Congress designed to criminalise criticism in the press. Censorship of this kind was all too familiar in England, then as now, but the debate in the US House of Representatives deserves careful reading, if only for the magnificent principle here laid down by Edward Livingston, Congressman for New York’s 2nd District.
Picture: By Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 22
17
John Wood shares the wonder of the Indian cobra’s hood, in science and in myth.
By profession, JG Wood was a clergyman, but he had a gift for making science accessible to ordinary people. From the early 1850s, he was in demand as an author and lecturer on natural history both at home and abroad: he delivered the prestigious Lowell Lectures in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1883-84. In this passage, he takes a look at the hooded cobra, in the light of anatomy and of India’s sacred legends.
Picture: © Sandeep Nanu, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted January 21
18
Silas Marner has to harden his heart and teach little Eppie a lesson she will remember.
Silas Marner has suffered griefs enough to break any man. His salvation has been a little girl: the bachelor had found her in his home, and her mother dead in the snow outside, one New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t easy to juggle a weaver’s work and a curious toddler. One day the artful creature found his scissors, snipped through the linen-band harness he had made for her safe-keeping, and wandered unnoticed out of the cottage.
Picture: By Oda Krohg (1860-1935), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 20