733
Lucy Cazalet gives an overview of the remarkable Russian ruler, who showed the courage of a prince and the humility of a saint.
Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263), Prince of Novgorod, is a saint of the Russian Church, and one of the country’s greatest heroes. As Lucy Cazalet explains here, Alexander showed humility to keep peace with the Tartars, who were content with Russia’s money, but grew tigerish when more actively threatened by the West, who wanted Russia’s soul.
Posted March 7 2019
734
The Scottish department store near the Bolshoi Theatre inspired an affection that contrasted sharply with Westminster’s Russophobia.
Politics in Victorian Britain suffered badly from hysterical Russophobia, but between the peoples and merchants of the two nations there was a growing warmth. Nowhere was it more obvious than in the affection felt across the Russian Empire towards ‘Muirka’, the Scottish firm of Muir and Mirrielees.
Posted March 6 2019
735
Young Thomas Cochrane learned early on that for a sailor, making a pet of a parrot could be surprisingly hazardous.
In 1793, the new French Republic declared war on Britain, and the Admiralty sent HMS ‘Hind’ to Norway to flush out any French privateers preying on our Baltic trade. Captain Alexander Cochrane’s crew included first lieutenant Jack Larmour, and also our author, the captain’s nephew Thomas, then a seventeen-year-old midshipman.
Posted March 5 2019
736
Sir Walter Scott tells the story of how a distinguished Scottish professor nearly became Little John to Scotland’s Robin Hood.
Early in the Jacobite Rising of 1715, Rob Roy MacGregor and his band of rebels marched into Aberdeen, and Rob called to see Professor Gregory, a kinsman and a distinguished Professor of Medicine. He hoped to enlist his support for a cause which, whatever its merits, was open treason — and to enlist his little son, James, too.
Posted March 4 2019
737
Davy Copperfield is not pleased at having to compete for his mother’s affection with Edward Murdstone.
Young Davy Copperfield never knew his father, who died before Davy was born. There came a time when his shy but pretty mother began staying out to dinners, and after one of them she was brought home by a raven-dark-haired gentleman, whom Davy recalled seeing the Sunday before.
Posted February 27 2019
738
Victorian England was agog at the prospect of Tom Sayers meeting a confident but unproven challenger from the USA.
Boxing’s first world title bout, on April 17th, 1860, featured England’s own Tom Sayers against a challenger from the USA, John Heenan, ‘the Benicia Boy’. It was the boxing event of a whole generation, and bare-knuckle fighting’s swansong.
Posted February 22 2019