Not much is known about the early life of Cuba Cornwallis, one of the most famous Caribbean healers in 18th and 19th century. She might have been born into slavery, or she might have been captured in Africa and sold into slavery as an older child or adult. What is known is that at some… Read more The Amazing Life of Cuba Cornwallis
There were four major “fire” festivals for the ancient Celts marking the turn of the seasons — Beltane, Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc. These were the holy-days that fell halfway between the a solstice and an equinox. Imbolc falls between the winter solstice (Yule) and the spring equinox (Easter/Lady Day), around 1 February in the Latin calendar, and it marked the Celtic… Read more Happy Imbolc and St. Brigid’s Day to You
The Mari Lwyd is a traditional folk custom that managed to survive in South Wales, particularly around the area of Glamorgan. It involves a hobby horse, which is a horse’s skull mounted on a pole with glass eyes, being carried by a person hidden under a large sheet of decorated white cloth, and it can freak… Read more Mari Lwyd Rides in the Vale of Glamorgan
Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, died on 17 November 1796, less than 24 hours after suffering a massive stroke. She was not anywhere near a horse. She was one of the strongest and most capable rulers that Russia, and the world, has ever known. She dragged Russia into its place as a modern European… Read more The Non-Equestrian Death of Catherine the Great
On 28 September 1795, Charles James Fox and Elizabeth Bridget Cane (AKA Mrs. Armistead), were quietly in Wyton by Rev John Pery. The only attendees at the ceremony were the bride’s literal maid, Mary Dassonville, and Rev Pery’s clerk, Jeremiah Bradshaw, who signed the marriage certificate as witnesses. Why such a hush-hush wedding? Because the… Read more Foxy Lady — Mrs Armistead Becomes Mrs Charles James Fox
America has been through rough patches before. Bad ones. Decades of race riots and anti-immigration hysteria and belief that the best kind of government was one that did almost nothing and certainly didn’t tax rich people. Frankly, it’s a little eerie how much America today echoes the America of a century ago. Eerie, and more… Read more Same Immigration Hysteria, Different Century
I think we all know the old saw about how for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost. Well, it became a proverb because it is true. It is the little things on which history often pivots. Lewis of Caerleon is one of those small things on which the arc of history depended. Lewis… Read more Lewis of Caerleon
The is an episode of Star Trek (Original Series) called “The Enemy Within” that’s stuck with me since I was a kid. The premise is simple – “A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot… Read more Star Trek, Edward I, and the Execution of William Wallace
One of the most published crimes of the Regency era was the Red Barn Murder, which had the perfect trifecta to arouse public interest – a pretty girl, a conman, and the ghost of the victim returning from the grave to rat out her killer. The victim was Maria Marten, the pretty daughter of Thomas… Read more Murder Most Regency: The Red Barn
One of the best things about the Georgian Era was the 1807 Act suppressing the slave trade. King George III, die-hard conservative Tory and intermittently insane though he may have been, agreed with the majority of the Tories and Whigs that the slave trade was a disgusting affront to God and Humanity and Decency and… Read more Huzzah for the HMS Pickle!