1219
An aristocratic statesman was choked with emotion as he reflected on Britain’s creative social mobility.
The Industrial Revolution increased social mobility beyond all measure. Some shook their heads, but for most people, from ordinary working men to aristocratic statesmen, it was a matter of celebration and pride.
Picture: © Ian Capper, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted January 10 2017
1220
What George Stephenson was to the railways of England, Sandford Fleming was to the railways of Canada.
At the start of the nineteenth century, railways brought a handful of struggling colonies together to form a great nation, and Sandford Fleming (1827-1915), then just a young Scottish surveyor from Kirkcaldy, played as important a part in that as any other man.
Picture: © Andrew Bowden, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted January 8 2017
1221
Benjamin Disraeli did not make a promising start to his Parliamentary career - but he did start with a promise.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, oversaw the expansion of the electorate as well as a range of social reforms aimed at improving the living and working conditions of the poorer classes. He was also an accomplished novelist, though his first attempts had been cruelly mocked by the critics, and his early political career fared little better.
Picture: Photo by Henry Lenthall (1819-1897), from the Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 7 2017
1222
Two noble youths of ancient Thebes fall for the same princess.
Chaucer’s twenty-four ‘Canterbury Tales’, told by pilgrims travelling from London to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury in the late 14th century, open with the Knight’s Tale. A curious blend of Norman chivalry and classical mythology, it reminds us that any civilisation worthy of the name is firmly founded on Greco-Roman culture.
Picture: © Sarah G. Perun, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted January 5 2017
1223
The great Dr Johnson argues that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Samuel Johnson, one of England’s literary giants, encourages us to employ as much courtesy and good cheer as we can muster in our dealings with those who disagree with us, appealing to no less than the Apostle St Peter for authority.
Picture: © Pashadizel, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted January 2 2017
1224
Two frantic parents implore St Nicholas’s help in rescuing their baby boy.
St Nicholas (d. 330), Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, is known as the patron of those at sea. He is not normally given the soubriquet ‘the wet’: that belongs strictly to an icon of St Nicholas, sadly lost during the Second World War, associated with a remarkable miracle from the late 11th century.
Picture: © Mstyslav Chernov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted December 31 2016