It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
While writing my personal statement for university applications I read a number of books by Keith Thomas, a rather distinguished early modern historian who I later found out had been a fellow at my College. His books are always readable and full (sometimes too full) of entertaining anecdotes - I still remember the story from …
Continue reading Historical portraits of people and their pets
'For my part I don’t see why men who have got wives and don’t want ‘em, shouldn’t get rid of ‘em as these gipsy fellows do their old horses...Why shouldn’t they put ‘em up and sell ‘em by auction to men who are in need of such articles? Hey? Why, begad, I’d sell mine this …
Continue reading ‘I’d sell my wife if anybody would buy her’: wife sales in England
Aside from the fact that I am of German stock, I never thought I had that much in common with renowned composer Johann Sebastian Bach. At least not until I visited the Bach Haus in Leipzig several months ago, where I discovered that we had one surprising thing in common: Bach, like myself, was a …
Continue reading J.S. Bach, the most famous housemaster of all time?