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November 22, 2023 - January 4, 2024
gimlet,
gimlet /ˈɡimlət/ I. noun 1. a small T-shaped tool with a screw-tip for boring holes. 2. a cocktail of gin (or sometimes vodka) and lime juice. – origin Middle English: from Old French guimbelet, diminutive of guimble ‘drill,’ ultimately of Germanic origin.
And yet it seems so full of comfort and of strength, the night. In its great presence, our small sorrows creep away, ashamed. The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays her hand upon our fevered head, and turns our little tear-stained faces up to hers, and smiles; and, though she does not speak, we know what she would say, and lay our hot flushed cheek against her bosom, and the pain is gone. Sometimes, our pain is very
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anathematized
anathematize /əˈnaTHəməˌtīz/ I. verb — [with obj.] 1. curse; condemn • she anathematized Tom as the despoiler of a helpless widow. – origin mid 16th cent.: from French anathématiser, from Latin anathematizare, from Greek anathematizein, from anathema (see anathema).
halbert-men—Barons’
Halberd men are a type of infantry in the Stainless Steel Mod for Sicily. They are well-protected and effective fighters who are made up of both commoners and nobility. They are armed with halberds and are tough fighters on both offense and defense.
A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon with an axe blade and a spike on a long shaft. It has multiple functions, including hacking, thrusting, and piercing plate armor. The halberd was used by shock troops and Swiss and German mercenaries.
The word halberd comes from the German word Hellebarde, which is made up of the Middle High German words halm (handle) and barte (battleaxe). Troops that used the weapon were called halberdiers.
The halberd was a popular weapon for foot soldiers in Germany and Switzerland. It allowed a foot soldier to contend with an armored man on horseback. British sergeants also used the halberd to straighten formations, set distances between ranks, and prod men into line.
Barons’ men,
The term "baron" comes from the Old French or Old Frankish word for "man" or "servant". In Old English, "baron" refers to a wealthy male landowner.
In the European feudal system, a baron was a man who pledged loyalty and service to a superior in exchange for land. The baron was a tenant-in-chief of the superior, who held his lands independently.
The term "baron" has multiple meanings:
A member of a specific rank of nobility, especially the lowest rank in the British Isles
A man who possesses great power or influence in some field of activity
A joint of meat consisting of two sirloins or loins and legs not cut apart at the backbone
In the feudal system of Europe, a baron was a “man” who pledged his loyalty and service to his superior in return for land that he could pass to his heirs. The superior, sovereign in his principality, held his lands “of no one”—i.e., independently—and the baron was his tenant-in-chief.
casques
casque /kask/ I. noun 1. ‹historical› a helmet. 2. [Zoology] a helmetlike structure, such as that on the bill of a hornbill or the head of a cassowary. – origin late 17th cent.: from French, from Spanish casco. Compare with cask.
Magna Charta Island.
Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 and was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. It sought to prevent the king from exploiting his power, and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself.
Magna Carta Island is said to be the location where King John met with the 25 rebellious barons who had camped on the opposite bank of the river in Runnymede and was forced to sign the charter. Richard de Montfichet was the owner of the island and was one of the barons chosen to keep the Magna Carta safe.
The charter was renounced as soon as the barons left London; the pope annulled the document, saying it impaired the church's authority over the “papal territories” of England and Ireland. England moved to civil war, with the barons trying to replace the monarch they disliked with an alternative.
By August 1215, Pope Innocent III had annulled Magna Carta, declaring it null and void and having been sealed under duress. King John died of dysentery aged 50 in October that year. But, says Magna Carta 800th, “over the course of the next 800 years, the idea of Magna Carta gathered momentum and assumed a greater authority in respect of the central key clauses concerning liberty and justice.
"These central clauses, usually referred to as 38 and 39, have not only stood the test of time, but have a potency of their own which has seen off hundreds of attempts at annulment, repeal, modification and suspension by successive monarchs and governments”.
dudes
dude /do͞od / ‹informal chiefly N. Amer.›I. noun 1. a man; a guy •if some dude smacked me, I'd smack him back. 2. a stylish, fastidious man •cool dudes. [a slang term that came into vogue in New York c. 1883, in connection with the ‘aesthetic’craze of the period.] 3. a city-dweller, especially one vacationing on a ranch in the western US. II. verb —[no obj.] (dude up) 1. dress up elaborately (as adj. duded) •my brother was all duded up in silver and burgundy. III. derivatives dudish /ˈdo͞odiSH / adjective – origin late 19th cent.: probably from German dialect Dude ‘fool.’
Marlow is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of. It is a bustling, lively little town; not very picturesque on the whole, it is true, but there are many quaint nooks and corners to be found in it, nevertheless—standing arches in the shattered bridge of Time, over which our fancy travels back to the days when Marlow Manor owned Saxon Algar for its lord, ere conquering William seized it to give to Queen Matilda, ere it passed to the Earls of Warwick or to worldly-wise Lord Paget, the councillor of four successive sovereigns.
The Revolt of Islam.
The Revolt of Islam (1818) is a poem in twelve cantos composed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. The poem was originally published under the title Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century by Charles and James Ollier in December 1817.[citation needed] Shelley composed the work in the vicinity of Bisham Woods, near Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire, northwest of London, from April to September. The plot centres on two characters named Laon and Cythna, inhabitants of Argolis under Ottoman rule who initiate a revolution against its despotic ruler. Despite its title, the poem is not focused on Islam as a specific religion, though the general subject of religion is addressed, and the work draws on Orientalist archetypes and themes. The work is a symbolic parable on liberation and revolutionary idealism following the disillusionment of the French Revolution.
King Sebert
Sæberht of Essex
7th century king of the East Saxons
Sæberht, Saberht or Sæbert (d. c. 616) was an Anglo-Saxon King of Essex (r. c. 604 – c. 616), in succession of his father King Sledd. He is known as the first East Saxon king to have been converted to Christianity.
Quick Facts King of the East Saxons, Reign ...
The principal source for his reign is the early 8th-century Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum by Bede (d. 735), who claims to have derived his information about the missionary work of Mellitus among the East Saxons from Abbot Albinus of Canterbury through the London priest Nothhelm, later Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 739). Other sources include the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, an East Saxon genealogy possibly of the late 9th century (British Library Add MS 23211), and a handful of genealogies and regnal lists written down by Anglo-Norman historians.
Family
The genealogies and regnal lists are unanimous in describing Sæberht as the son of Sledd, who may have been regarded as the founder of the East Saxon dynasty. According to Bede, Sæberht's mother was Ricula, a sister of King Æthelberht of Kent. Bede omits the names of Sæberht's three sons, who succeeded him but two, Sexred and Sæward, are named in the genealogy of Add MS 23211.
King Offa.”
Offa of Mercia - Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia from 757 to 796
Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald. Offa defeated the other claimant, Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign, it is likely that he consolidated his control of Midland peoples such as the Hwicce and the Magonsæte. Taking advantage of instability in the kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord, Offa also controlled Sussex by 771, though his authority did not remain unchallenged in either territory. In the 780s he extended Mercian Supremacy over most of southern England, allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and regained complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of East Anglia and had King Æthelberht II of East Anglia beheaded in 794, perhaps for rebelling against him.
“Hell Fire Club,”
Hellfire Club was a name for several exclusive clubs for high-society rakes established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. The name most commonly refers to Francis Dashwood's Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe. Such clubs, rumour had it, served as the meeting places of "persons of quality" who wished to take part in what were socially perceived as immoral acts, and the members were often involved in politics. Neither the activities nor membership of the clubs are easy to ascertain. The clubs allegedly had distant ties to an elite society known only as "The Order of the Second Circle".
1721 when George I, under the influence of Wharton's political enemies (in particular, Robert Walpole) put forward a Bill "against 'horrid impieties'" (or immorality), aimed at the Hellfire Club. Wharton's political opposition used his membership as a way to pit him against his political allies, thus removing him from Parliament. After his Club was disbanded, Wharton became a Freemason, and in 1722 he became the Grand Master of England.
Lowther Arcade
Lowther Arcade was a 245-foot long, 20-foot wide, and 30-foot high arcade that ran from the Strand to Adelaide Street in London. Designed by Witherdon Young and built in 1830, the arcade was topped with glass domes.
Exploring London
The arcade featured 24 small shops and was described in 1866 as "the jolliest place in London".
There is also a painting titled Lowther Arcade from London Town by Crane and Houghton, which is available for purchase as an oil painting replica.
Messrs. Cubit’s
Bermondsey Good Templars,
The church mentioned in Domesday Book was presumably the nascent Bermondsey Abbey, which was founded as a Cluniac priory in 1082, and was dedicated to St Saviour. Monks from the abbey began the development of the area, cultivating the land and embanking the riverside. They turned an adjacent tidal inlet at the mouth of the River Neckinger into a dock, named St Saviour's Dock after their abbey. But Bermondsey then was little more than a high street ribbon (the modern Bermondsey Street), leading from the southern bank of the Thames, at Tooley Street, up to the abbey close.
The Knights Templar also owned land here and gave their names to one of the most distinctive streets in London: Shad Thames (a corruption of "St John at Thames"). Other ecclesiastical properties stood nearby at Tooley Street (a corruption of "St Olave's"), owned by the priors of Lewes, St Augustine's, and Canterbury, as well as the abbot of Battle. These properties are located within the Archbishop of Canterbury's manor of Southwark, where wealthy citizens and clerics had their houses.
calumny?”
calumny /ˈkaləmnē/ I. noun 1. the making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage someone's reputation; slander. 2. a false and slanderous statement. II. derivatives calumnious /kəˈləmnēəs / adjective – origin late Middle English: from Latin calumnia.
Day, the author of Sandford and Merton,
The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–89) was a best-selling children's book written by Thomas Day. He began it as a contribution to Richard Lovell and Honora Sneyd Edgeworth's Harry and Lucy, a collection of short stories for children that Maria Edgeworth continued some years after her stepmother died. He eventually expanded his original short story into the first volume of The History of Sandford and Merton, which was published anonymously in 1783; two further volumes subsequently followed in 1786 and 1789. The book was wildly successful and was reprinted until the end of the nineteenth century. It retained enough popularity or invoked enough nostalgia at the end of the nineteenth century to inspire a satire, The New History of Sandford and Merton, whose preface proudly announces that it will "teach you what to don't".
The "history of Sandford and Merton" follows the reformation of Tommy Merton who is transformed from a spoiled six-year-old boy into a virtuous gentleman (Day defines virtue as the appreciation of the value of labour). Tommy, having been pampered and indulged by his mother and their slaves in the West Indies, is a proud and ignorant aristocrat; he lacks the sterling qualities of "plain, honest" Henry (Harry) Sandford, the yeoman farmer's son, who becomes his model and mentor in the book. Both are guided by a mentor, Mr. Barlow. Day wanted to emphasize the series of stories he had collected, which ranged from moral tales to scientific lessons to fables, but the book became famous for the story of Tommy and Harry. Many abridgements which appeared after Day's death reflect this interest; they condense the book, remove sections on educational philosophy and highlight the relationship between the two boys. One, for example, was by Lucy Aikin in 1868 as Sandford and Merton: In Words of One Syllable.
mouch
mooch. / (muːtʃ) / verbslang. (intr often foll by around) to loiter or walk aimlessly. (intr) to behave in an apathetic way.
Babes in the Wood.
Babes in the Wood is a traditional English children's tale, as well as a popular pantomime subject. It has also been the name of some other unrelated works. The expression has passed into common language, referring to inexperienced innocents entering unawares into any potentially dangerous or hostile situation.
The story tells of two small children left in the care of an uncle and aunt after their parents' deaths. The uncle gives the children to ruffians to be killed, in order to acquire their inheritance, telling his wife they are being sent to London for their upbringing. The murderers fall out, and the milder of the two kills the other. He tells the children he will return with provisions, but they do not see him again. The children wander alone in the woods until they die; their bodies are covered with leaves by the birds. Like many morality tales, the story continues with a description of the retribution befalling the uncle. In sanitized versions, the children are bodily taken to Heaven. The story ends with a warning to those who have to take care of orphans and others' children not to inflict God's wrath upon themselves. The story is also used as a basis for pantomimes. However, for various reasons including both the brevity of the original and the target pantomime audience of young children, modern pantomimes by this name usually combine this story with parts of the modern Robin Hood story (employing the supporting characters from it, such as Maid Marian, rather than Robin himself) to lengthen it.
Seven Sleepers—I
In both Christian and Islamic tradition, the Seven Sleepers (Greek: επτά κοιμώμενοι, romanized: hepta koimōmenoi, Latin: Septem dormientes), otherwise known as Aṣḥāb al-kahf, Sleepers of Ephesus and Companions of the Cave, are said to be a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus (modern-day Selçuk, Turkey) around AD 250 to escape persecution and emerged many years later. In the Christian version they are seeking to escape one of the Roman persecutions of Christians and awake some 300 years later. Another version of the story appears in the Quran (18:9–26). It was also translated into Persian, Kyrgyz, and Tatar.
uppishness.
uppish /ˈəpiSH/ I. adjective ‹informal› arrogantly self-assertive. II. derivatives 1. uppishly adverb 2. uppishness /ˈəpiSHnəs / noun
Punting
Boats
Punt (boat), a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow developed on the River Thames
Falmouth Quay Punt, a small sailing vessel hired by ships anchored in Falmouth harbour
Norfolk Punt, a type of racing dinghy developed in Norfolk
Cable ferry, known as a punt in Australian English
weir.
weir /wir/ I. noun 1. a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow. 2. an enclosure of stakes set in a stream as a trap for fish. – origin Old English wer, from werian ‘dam up.’
They peppered him with stale jokes, they even made a few new ones and threw at him. They hurled at him all the private family jokes belonging to our set, and which must have been perfectly unintelligible to him.
rounders
rounders /ˈroundərz/ plural noun — [treated as sing.] 1. a ball game similar to baseball, played chiefly in British schools.
We came in sight of Reading about eleven. The river is dirty and dismal here. One does not linger in the neighbourhood of Reading. The town itself is a famous old place, dating from the dim days of King Ethelred, when the Danes anchored their warships in the Kennet, and started from Reading to ravage all the land of Wessex; and here Ethelred and his brother Alfred fought and defeated them, Ethelred doing the praying and Alfred the fighting.
But they were sure I should never make anything of a fisherman. I had not got sufficient imagination.
requests the landlord to bring him three of Scotch, cold.
Three fingers, means you fill up the glass to a height with liquor (usually whiskey) approximately equal to the width of three fingers. Obviously “fingers” aren't an exact measurement (depends on glass, depends on the fingers), but its roughly an ounce per finger.
plays the wag
play the wag (English)
Verb
play the wag (third-person singular simple present *es, present participle *ing, simple past and past participle *ed)
(idiomatic, UK, slang, dated) To play truant (be absent from school without permission).
1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, Briston: J. W. Arrowsmith, Chapter , p. 284,[1]
[…] that unaccountable luck that appears to always wait upon a boy when he plays the wag from school, and goes out fishing on a sunny afternoon, with a bit of string tied on to the end of a tree.
Synonyms
hop the wag
wag it
Parliamentary War,
Commonwealth of England.
In 1650, Charles II was crowned king of Scotland, in return for agreeing to create a Presbyterian church in both England and Scotland. The subsequent Anglo-Scottish War ended with Parliamentarian victory at Worcester on 3 September 1651. Both Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the Commonwealth, and Britain became a unitary state until the Stuart Restoration in 1660.
Caer Doren, “the city on the water.”
Caer Doren is an ancient British city that is now called Dorchester. The name Caer Doren translates to "the city on the water".
The River Thames is the longest river in England and the second longest in the UK. It is about 215 miles long and flows from the Cotswolds through London and out into the North Sea. The Thames is considered to be the cleanest river in the world that flows through a major city.
The Thames has many tributaries, including the Coln, Churn, Evenlode, Kennet, Lea, Leach, Loddon, Ock, and Windrush.
college barge.
College barges are floating clubhouses and observation decks for Oxford colleges. Many Oxford colleges owned their own river barges between 1860 and 1922. The Corpus Christi Barge, built in 1930, was the last Oxford College Barge to be built.
Daily Mail
In 19th century, a barge called "College Barge" was used by university rowers and is now a luxury floating home. The Magdalen College Barge is one of only five remaining barges from the original.
Barges are sealed vessels with a rectangular shape and no machinery on board. They can be towed or pushed and are loaded and unloaded by shore-based equipment and front-end loaders. Barges are used to transport oversize materials and machinery, grain, coal, fuel, and many other commodities.
“double sculling skiff”
A double scull is a rowing boat used in competitive rowing. It has two rowers, each with two oars. The abbreviation for double scull is 2x.

The Rowing Club - WordPress.com
A skiff is a traditional wooden craft used for rowing and sculling. The earliest known use of the word "skiff" is in the early 1600s, and the earliest evidence is from before 1625 in the writing of William Shakespeare.
Here's some information about a double scull skiff from around 1888:
Thames rowing skiff: Made by T.G. Tagg & Son, England, around 1888
Features: Cedar hull, oars with copper bands, stitched sailcloth lugsail, double courting seat with wickerwork sides and back, and brass rowlocks and fittings
whitebait
whitebait /ˈ(h)wītˌbāt/ noun the small silvery-white young of herrings, sprats, and similar marine fish, eaten in numbers as food.
penny nap
Penny Nap" is a card game where each trick is worth one penny. The game is also known as "Napoleono" and "Dureń".
In "Penny Nap", the bidder collects from each other player if they make their bid. However, it doesn't matter if they make more tricks than they declared. The bidder is only paid for the number of tricks they first declared.
"Penny Nap" is a trick-taking game where players receive five cards each. The player who bids the highest number of tricks chooses trumps and tries to win at least that number of tricks.
In a trick, the player with the highest ranking trump card wins if a trump card is played. If no trump card is played, the player with the highest ranking card in the lead suit wins.
Napoleon or Nap is a straightforward trick-taking game in which players receive five cards each and whoever bids the highest number of tricks chooses trumpsPenny Nap" is a card game where each trick is worth one penny. The game is also known as "Napoleono" and "Dureń".
In "Penny Nap", the bidder collects from each other player if they make their bid. However, it doesn't matter if they make more tricks than they declared. The bidder is only paid for the number of tricks they first declared.
"Penny Nap" is a trick-taking game where players receive five cards each. The player who bids the highest number of tricks chooses trumps and tries to win at least that number of tricks.
In a trick, the player with the highest ranking trump card wins if a trump card is played. If no trump card is played, the player with the highest ranking card in the lead suit wins. and tries to win at least that number of tricks. It is often described as a simplified version of Euchre, although David Parlett believes it is more like "an elaboration of Rams". It has many variations throughout Northern Europe, such as Fipsen. The game has been popular in England for many years, and has given the language a slang expression, "to go nap", meaning to take five of anything. It may be less popular now than it was, but it is still played in some parts of southern England and in Strathclyde. Despite its title and allusions, it is not recorded before the last third of the nineteenth century, and may have been first named after Napoleon III.
“Two Lovely Black Eyes.”
“I care not for the rain, not I!”
"I care not for the rain, not I!" is a line from the song "A Gipsy's Life" in Three Men in a Boat (1889). The song is about how delightful a gypsy's life is.
fortnight’s
fortnight /ˈfôrtˌnīt/ I. noun 1. (chiefly Brit.) a period of two weeks. 2. (chiefly Brit.) ‹informal› used after the name of a day to indicate that something will take place two weeks after that day. – origin Old English fēowertīene niht ‘fourteen nights.’
cynosure
cynosure /ˈsīnəˌSHo͝o(ə)r/ I. noun — [in sing.] 1. a person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration • the Queen was the cynosure of all eyes. – origin late 16th cent.: from French, or from Latin cynosura, from Greek kunosoura ‘dog's tail’ (also ‘Ursa Minor’), from kuōn, kun- ‘dog’ + oura ‘tail.’ The term originally denoted the constellation Ursa Minor, or the star Polaris that it contains, long used as a guide by navigators.
