265
Benjamin Franklin recalls the disciplines he put himself through on the way to becoming one of America’s literary giants.
Ben Franklin’s father, to head him off from going to sea, apprenticed him at twelve to his elder brother James, a printer in Boston, Massachusetts. Eager to improve his command of prose writing, Ben entered into an informal writing competition with another boy from his neighbourhood, John Collins, on the subject of women’s education; but this only made him acutely aware of his shortcomings.
Picture: By David Martin (1737–1797), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 14 2022
266
Despite failing health, Peter the Great of Russia leapt into Kronstadt Bay to save some young sailors from a watery grave.
By the autumn of 1724, kidney disease was exaggerating Emperor Peter the Great’s contradictions. Fleeting bursts of ill-temper had settled into peevish melancholy; he had fallen out with his mentor Alexander Menshikov; he had quitted his palace to live in a wooden cottage; and exhausting days of duty merged into exhausting nights of wine. But in a crisis, the old Peter was still there.
Picture: By Ivan Ayvazovsky (1817–1900), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 13 2022
267
Thomas Pitt’s tenure as Governor of Madras was regarded as a golden age, but what he is remembered for is his diamond.
The East India Company was founded late in the reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) to explore the possibilities of overseas trade. By the 1670s, the Company had secured a legal monopoly on English trade in India, but some free spirits chose to go into business for themselves. In 1926, a historian modestly calling himself ‘an Indian Mahomedan’ told us about one of them: Thomas Pitt.
Picture: © Fab5669, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted June 9 2022
268
A transported convict writes home to England urging his wife to join him as soon as possible.
Caroline Chisholm (1808–1877) spent the years 1838 to 1846 in Australia, helping migrants to settle in and reunite with their families. On Tuesday February 26th, 1850, Charles Dickens, who was preparing the very first issue of Household Words, called on her in the hope of publishing some of the migrants’ letters she had acquired. The following passage is taken from one of those letters.
Picture: By John Rae (1813-1900), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 5 2022
269
Leander recalls that first night when he dared the perilous waters of the Hellespont, and swam to meet his lover Hero.
According to legend, one stormy night the wind extinguished the candle that Hero lit to guide her lover Leander as he swam to her across the Dardanelles Strait, and he was lost. Roman poet Ovid imagined the letter that Leander might have sent by ship to his darling, while he waited impatiently for calmer waters.
Picture: © Lure, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted May 29 2022
270
As Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli stoked fears of Russian aggression, John Bright said that Russia was only threatening when she felt threatened.
In 1879, British politicians were warning that we must occupy Afghanistan to prevent Russia invading India, and that Emperor Alexander II’s military operations in the Balkans were not a liberation but an excuse to sweep across Europe that must be met with force. John Bright watched this escalation with alarm, and urged the Government to make our peace with Russia as we had with France – by trade.
Picture: By Vasili Pukirev (1832-1890), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted May 29 2022