“Died last week, at her lodgings, near the Seven Dials, the much-talked of Mrs. Mapps, the bone-setter, so miserably poor, that the parish was obliged to bury her.” London Daily Post, 22nd December 1737. Mrs Sarah Mapp had a brief flirtation with fame in the mid 1730s when her pioneering work in what might now be… Continue reading Fame, what you need you have to borrow
Month: December 2016
You say ‘tomato’, Hester
The great observer of Norfolk and Suffolk speech patterns, Reverend Forby, back in the 1830s observed that we may have been mispronouncing Miss Prynne’s name — at least according to the East Anglian dialect of the Pilgrim Fathers:-
Sad Evening Primrose
There aren’t many practical archaeologists who are also published poets. Let us celebrate the life of Nina Frances Layard (1853-1935). She was the first elected woman Fellow of the Society Antiquaries. She was a foundation member (and President 1922-23) of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, and was practical archaeologist and excavator. Most of all… Continue reading Sad Evening Primrose
The moment in the rose garden
Reading in an old archaeological journal from 94 years ago (as you do), about the discovery of a complete Neolithic bowl fished out of the River Thames, it gives a fascinating insight into the ways that historians and archaeologists impose their world view. Without knowing that they do it, archaeologists of today will jump to the… Continue reading The moment in the rose garden
The night sheep saw an angel, maybe
The Christmas carol does not take a view about shepherds who were “watching their flocks by night”, but watching your sheep has to be a good thing. Maybe on one particular Saturday night certain English shepherds weren’t doing enough watching, or maybe it really could have been the angel of the Lord coming down… Continue reading The night sheep saw an angel, maybe
Dancing your way out
Dancing your way out of poverty and oppression might seem just a bit Billy Elliott. But for at least a couple of families of East European Jews (separated by generations, but with the same impetus), it was not so much a campish musical storyline as real life, real death. A notable similarity in the story… Continue reading Dancing your way out
Marvellous… if true
“When I was younger …sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” The White Queen I’d like to think I am as cynical as one can be without being antisocial. I distrust conspiracy theories and yarns about extra-terrestrials, though I am often intrigued by the evidence presented in support of them. Which… Continue reading Marvellous… if true