Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 106
February 28, 2016
An empty chair in the library: Remembering the brilliance of Umberto Eco.
I hate doing obituaries on this blog. I don’t do it often, but when people who have really touched my life pass on I feel compelled to say something about them. I was stunned to learn on Friday afternoon (February 19, 2016) that Umberto Eco, my favorite novelist, had died at his home in Milan, Italy. Ironically I learned the news as I was finishing up a post showcasing a historic library. Despite being an amazing and ground-breaking novelist, Eco for me will always be ass...
How to mock 18th century nobility – The Gardener’s Calendar
The Caricaturers Stock in Trade Courtesy of the British Museum
The Georgian newspapers loved nothing more than mocking the aristocracy, never more so than in this article we stumbled across in The Morning Herald, January 1781, entitled ‘Vegetable Kit-Cats’, otherwise known as ‘The Gardener’s Calendar’which attributed trees and flowers to some of thegreat and the not so good of the day so we thought it wou...
Naturally brilliant.
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 1673) was apoet, philosopher, writer, playwright, and scientist!
She published under her own name when it was not very acceptable to do so(most woman had to publish anonymously). She even wrote a science-fiction romance novel titled The Blazing World. In addition to her 21 published works ranging in subjects from natural philosophy and modern science to romance and poetry, she was one of the very first animal advocates...
February 27, 2016
Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, Daddy’s Girl
History... the interesting bits!
Elizabeth of Rhuddlan
In July 1282 King Edward I was in the middle of subduing Wales when his wife, Eleanor of Castile, was reaching her final month of pregnancy. Unlike most royal wives, who would have stayed at home in one of their sumptuous, cosy palaces, Eleanor was in Wales with her husband. After all, Eleanor had been on Crusade with her husband and had even given birth to her daughter, Joan of Acre, in the Holy Land. Wales was no more of a difficulty...
Where are these houses?
I recently receivedphotos taken in the very early 20th Century of several houses that I have been unable to identify. Some of the houses are old, but others arenew housesor under construction. S…
Source: Where are these houses?
February 23, 2016
February 22, 2016
Mary Lindell Part 2
This is the second of our two-parter about Mary Lindell. If you haven’t already, you can read Part 1 here.
By 1939 Mary Lindell, who had stayed in France, had become the Comtesse de Milleville and had three children. This did not stop her putting on her Red Cross uniform, with medals, and going and volunteering for service.
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Elizabeth Martha Brown
Elizabeth Martha Brown (c. 1811–9 August 1856), née Clark, was the last woman to be hanged in public in Dorset, England. She was executed outside Dorchester Prison after being convicted of the murder of her second husband, John Brown, on 22 July, just 13 days earlier. The prosecution said she had attacked him with an axe after he had taken a whip to her.
Background
Among the crowd of 3,000–4,000 who watched the hanging of Brown was the English novelist, Thomas Hardy, 16 years...
Miss Brooks Embellishes
I am featuring yet another new-to-me Salem artist today, Mary Mason Brooks (1860-1915), who worked primarily in watercolors over her career. Mary’s biography is spare: the obituary in the 1915 American Art Directoryconsists of only two brief lines: a painter in water colors, died September 20, 1915. She was born in Salem, Mass, studied in Rome and Paris; exhibited in New York and Boston, her home being in the latter city. I can fill in these lines a bit: she was born into an o...
February 20, 2016
The Colourful Career of Edward, 2nd Duke of York
History... the interesting bits!
Edward, 2nd Duke of York
Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, was born into wealth and privilege. Grandson of 2 kings and 1st cousin to 2 kings, his life story is full of ambition, glory and war, duty and service – and a hint of treason. All the ingredients needed for a rollicking good novel; with also the possibility of a strange love story.
Edward was born, probably at King’s Langley, in about 1373. A birthday of 1375 has also been suggested, but 1373 see...
