409
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
410
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
411
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
412
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
413
Though Arthur Clough had discovered that to be your own man was a long and toilsome path, it was not a path without hope.
In 1848, Arthur Hugh Clough resigned a desirable Fellowship at Oxford owing to his doubts about the Church of England. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Principal of University Hall in London, an ecumenical and supposedly more open-minded institution, but here too Clough found he was expected to think as his new colleagues did. Lonely, silent and depressed, he nevertheless clung on to hope.
Picture: © Visions of Domino (Klim Levene), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0 generic.. Source.
Posted May 21 2021
414
When Richard I heard that the town of Verneuil in Normandy was under threat, he made a vow that few could be expected to take so literally.
On March 20th, 1194, Richard I returned to England after two years of captivity to Leopold of Austria, with whom he had quarrelled on the Crusades. Richard’s brother John, who had tried to keep him locked up as long as possible, fled to the protection of Philip II of France; but barely a month had passed before Richard quitted his capital yet again, and was on his way back to Normandy.
Picture: © Joecoolandcharlie, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted May 20 2021