805
Master-sweep Grimes meets a woman who knows more about him than he feels comfortable with.
Thomas Grimes, a North-country chimney-sweep, is on his way to an important job with his young apprentice, also called Tom, and (on the far side of the roadside wall) a barefoot Irish peasant woman, who has taken a shine to little Tom. The envious Grimes has gone so far as to wash his face in a nearby stream, which Tom is now desperate to try for himself.
Posted October 9 2018
806
A weary King Odysseus dozes off on his voyage home to Ithaca, but his crew are wide awake, wondering what is in his bag.
Odysseus, King of the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea, is on his way home after many years away fighting in the Siege of Troy. He has had a little trouble with one-eyed Polyphemus, the Cyclops, and a few weeks rest with the odd but hospitable family of Aeolus is just what he needs.
Posted October 5 2018
807
John Nyren tells us about one of cricket’s truly great batsmen, John Small.
John Small the Elder (1737-1826) was a truly historic figure of cricket, a supreme batsman credited with the first recorded century in a serious match, 136* for Hampshire vs Surrey on July 13th, 1775. He was also a gifted violinist and cellist, and on one occasion it quite possibly saved his life.
Posted October 4 2018
808
The simple folk of Brittany know what it means when a nobleman calls himself godfather to an unknown infant.
Rafael Sabatini’s ‘Scaramouche’ is the tale of Andre-Louis Moreau, a young lawyer of no great convictions who becomes caught up in the French Revolution of 1789 through loyalty to a friend. The novel opens by placing Moreau against his family background — a difficult matter, though Breton gossip thinks it has got it all worked out.
Posted October 3 2018
809
The Roman Emperor offered to unite the world’s squabbling churches – but it was the kind of offer you can’t refuse.
English bishops met at Hatfield in 680, on the eve of a major Church Council at Constantinople. In the Imperial capital, the talk was all of uniting the world’s churches, but Pope Agatho wanted Britain’s support for something more radical: he meant to declare the gospel, even if he went the way of his predecessor, Martin.
Posted September 30 2018
810
King John had already lost most of the Crown’s lands in France, but when Aquitaine was threatened Edward III knew he must act fast.
‘The Hundred Years’ War’ is a nineteenth-century term for the Anglo-French wars of 1337-1453, a tussle for control of various provinces in France inherited by the English kings, chiefly the highly lucrative Aquitaine. But some famous victories in battle could not hide that for England the war was a long and costly defeat.
Posted September 27 2018