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John, Duke of Montagu, that irrepressible prankster, identified a sad-faced soldier in the Mall as the perfect mark.
John, Duke of Montagu (1690-1749), was notorious for his practical joking. This might be little more than squirting people with water or putting itching powder in the guest bed, but sometimes it took on a grander conception.
Posted March 29 2019
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Geoffrey of Monmouth tells the tale of how Merlin first came to the attention of Britain’s kings.
Fifth-century tribal leader Vortigern has taken refuge from Saxon invaders in Snowdonia, but his new fortress keeps collapsing. His druid priests say it must be sprinkled with the blood of a virgin’s child — and rumour has it that young Merlin had no father.
Posted March 27 2019
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Horace Walpole, a loyal patron of Vauxhall pleasure gardens, visits newly-opened rival Ranelagh gardens in Chelsea.
Richard, Viscount Ranelagh, opened the formal gardens of his house next to the Chelsea Hospital to the public in 1742. Horace Walpole was there the very next evening, but told his friend Horace Mann that he still preferred the older (and more rumbustious) pleasure gardens at Vauxhall.
Posted March 26 2019
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When some people talk about compromise, what they mean is that everyone else should compromise for their benefit.
The following Aesop-like fable comes from the trend-setting collection by Roger L’Estrange (1616-1704), who told it with such bracing energy it seems only right to let him tell it again. A cockerel calls for compromise, but it’s all on one side.
Posted March 23 2019
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Daniel Defoe argues that it is in every man’s interest to watch the women in his life realise their full potential.
One of the first public men in England to address inequality between the sexes was Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), author of ‘Moll Flanders’. Defoe wanted a ‘female academy’ set up to educate women to their full potential, and argued that it was in every man’s interest.
Posted March 22 2019
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William Gladstone complained that some politicians talk about freedom but don’t trust the people enough to let them have any.
As a young Tory, William Gladstone had opposed extending the vote to more people; by 1878, and now a Liberal Party MP and former Prime Minister, he was all in favour of it. Justifying his U-turn at Oxford University’s newly-founded Palmerston Club, he explained that it is not enough to talk of liberty: you have to trust the people with it.
Posted March 18 2019