295
A cat moved home from Edinburgh to Glasgow and seemed to settle in nicely, but it turned out she was only biding her time.
In a pamphlet published in 1815, the anonymous authors took a look at British zoology, aiming (they said) to amuse, to instruct and “to look through Nature up to Nature’s God”. The collection of anecdotes about cats included this remarkable story, a tale of stubborn determination worthy of Robert the Bruce’s famous spider.
Posted January 22 2022
296
The Russian Consul in New York issued a stern rebuke to those trying to break Britain’s ban on slave-trading by sailing under his nation’s colours.
Long after slavery was criminalised throughout the British Empire, the abuse went on unabated in the USA. Hoping to escape the wrath of the Royal Navy, traders with their wretched cargo would sail to America under false colours, but on April 2nd, 1836, the Russian Consul in New York, Alexis Eustaphieve (1755-1857), issued this stern Consular notice to any who thus dishonoured the Russian flag.
Posted January 21 2022
297
Britain’s first qualified female doctor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, had a message for the first women to study for London University’s degree in medicine.
On October 1st, 1877, Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson gave the Inaugural Address at the London School of Medicine for Women, which she had helped to establish three years earlier. Only the previous year, the UK Medical Act had allowed the country’s medical authorities to license women as doctors for the first time, and it is difficult to think of better advice to anyone hoping to bring about important social change.
Posted January 17 2022
298
Only months after kidnapping the Duke of Ormond, Irish radical Thomas Blood was at it again, this time attempting to steal the Crown Jewels.
In December 1670, Thomas Blood, believed on all sides to be a dangerous republican revolutionary, tried to hang the Duke of Ormond like a common criminal on the gallows at Tyburn. His plan went awry, but once again Blood, his son-in-law Thomas Hunt and the rest of the gang eluded the authorities. Five months later, the Irishman was back in the capital, this time with a plan to steal the Crown Jewels.
Posted January 13 2022
299
Karl Philipp Moritz described three kinds of criminal in Georgian England, from the gentlemanly cutpurse to the deadly footpad.
On June 20th, 1782, German tourist Karl Philipp Moritz was excited to find himself taking his first ride in an English stagecoach. During the trip, he and his fellow-passengers were regaled with stories of daring crimes in the neighbourhoods through which they passed, prompting Moritz to reflect on the perils of walking abroad in Georgian England.
Posted January 10 2022
300
King Edmund Ironside’s courageous defence of his crown against the invading Danes was undermined by treachery at home.
When King Ethelred ‘the Unready’ (i.e. lack-counsel) died in 1016, his son Edmund inherited not only the English crown, but the threat of losing it to the warlike Cnut, King of Denmark. That legacy Edmund might have coped with, for he deserved the nickname ‘Ironside’ for his courage in battle. Unfortunately, he had also inherited his father’s advisers.
Posted January 5 2022