25
As Lord Marmion lies dying on Flodden Field, there is no one near to tend him but the woman he has wronged.
It is 1513, and Lord Marmion has been mortally wounded on the battlefield of Flodden. As he lies there, his lifeblood ebbing away, a woman kneels beside him. Clare feels no love for him, and the ungoverned passion he feels for her has spread death and dishonour all around. Yet her heart is not as hard as his.
Posted December 6 2024
26
We should not force ourselves and ‘our values’ onto the writers of the past.
In Sesame and Lilies, John Ruskin warned us not to try to manipulate the great writers of the past into agreeing with us or our times. And if we have so little respect for them as to want to try, we would be better off not entering the ‘court of the past’ at all.
Posted December 5 2024
27
On his first night in a school dorm, Arthur dared not do anything without seeking approval — with one exception.
Dr Thomas Arnold, the (real life) headmaster of Rugby School, has decided that it would settle Tom Brown down to be given some responsibility; so he has asked Tom to take a rather delicate new boy, thirteen-year-old Arthur, under his wing. Tom is called to action from Arthur’s first night in the dormitory.
Posted December 3 2024
28
A thief was reluctantly obliged to relieve King George II of his valuables.
In addition to playing cricket for the MCC, Charles Greville kept a diary. When it came out in 1874, it drew alarm and outrage from the highest in the land, but the public loved it, not for any salacious gossip (which Greville shunned) but for the intimate insight into English society and policy that each scene gave them. This anecdote of George II is as curious as any.
Posted December 1 2024
29
Mousetraps are proof of human ingenuity, but also human ingratitude — so Tom does something about it.
In 1753, the house of inventor John Kay was trashed by weavers who feared that his ‘flying shuttle’ machine would put them out of work. Tom, hero of the satire The Life and Adventures of a Cat, published anonymously in 1760, felt the same way about mousetraps, and was just as willing to act.
Posted November 30 2024
30
A memorable poem about triumph over adversity.
At twelve, William Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He lost one leg below the knee to the disease in 1868-69, and spent 1873-75 in an Edinburgh infirmary under Joseph Lister’s care. The battering experience drew from Henley one of the most quotable poems in our language, later dedicated to the memory of his friend Robert Hamilton Bruce.
Posted November 28 2024