409
Artist Benjamin Robert Haydon laments the passing of Lord Egremont, whose generosity and good judgment reached far beyond his support for struggling artists.
George Wyndham (1751-1837), 3rd Earl of Egremont, was one of Georgian England’s wealthiest and most philanthropic of men, a patron of the arts and of industry, a responsible farmer and animal breeder. After the Earl died on November 11th, 1837, artist Benjamin Robert Haydon turned to his diary and penned a glowing tribute to a man who had given support to him and many like him in lavish measure.
Picture: © Laura, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 7 2021
410
A Wolf finds a series of reasons for making a meal of a little Lamb, but it turns out he did not really need them.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, appealed to this Fable as an illustration of the way that stronger nations bully weaker ones. Like the Wolf, they justify gobbling up their neighbours by saying they are simply defending themselves and their interests, but it is superior military and economic power, not right and wrong, that decides the outcome.
Picture: Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 4 2021
411
Mr Squeers explains his educational philosophy to his new and bewildered assistant master at Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire.
Mr Squeers, owner and headmaster of Dotheboys Hall near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, has (much to the bafflement of Mrs Squeers) hired an assistant master from London, nineteen-year-old Nicholas Nickleby. The moment has now come for the new arrival to familiarise himself with a system of education designed to fit young people for the world of work — chiefly in Dotheboys Hall.
Picture: © Sergei Andreichuk, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted June 1 2021
412
The fort at Budge Budge near Calcutta proved stubborn against the massed artillery of the East India Company, but a tipsy seaman took it all by himself.
In 1756, colonial rivalry between France and Britain sparked the Seven Years’ War. In India, France’s ally Siraj ud-Daulah, Nawab of Bengal, drove the British from Calcutta; they in turn, smarting from the infamous ‘Black Hole’ incident, sailed gunships up to the Nawab’s fort at Budge Budge, which guarded the River Hooghly. The small hours of December 30th found them snatching a little sleep prior to a dawn assault.
Picture: Dominic Serres (1722–1793), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted May 24 2021
413
Amid all the confusion of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington spotted a man in civilian clothes riding busily around on a stocky horse.
Benjamin Haydon was a respected nineteenth-century English artist and teacher, but his career was a constant struggle, blighted by debt and (in his eyes) betrayal. He died at his own hand in 1846. Haydon left behind a diary in which he recorded an anecdote set against the background of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, on the authority of the Duke of Wellington himself.
Picture: By Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846), via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.. Source.
Posted May 23 2021
414
Jane Eyre returns to Thornfield Hall and Mr Rochester, and even the thought of Blanche Ingram cannot rob her of happiness.
Jane Eyre, governess to little Adèle at Thornfield Hall, has been away at the side of her dying aunt, Mrs Reed. Her employer, Edward Rochester, has also been away, in London, buying a new carriage ahead of what Jane is sure will be his engagement to the lovely Blanche Ingram. Walking the last few miles to the Hall, Jane runs across Mr Rochester, blocking a stile, and he immediately sets about teasing her.
Picture: © Ian Greig, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted May 22 2021