It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
I recently came across a striking passage in Samuel Pepy's diary in which he receives advice on how to get his wife Elizabeth pregnant. At the time of writing, July 1664, he and Elizabeth had been married for eight years, but they remained childless. While attending a dinner on 26th July, Samuel asked the women …
The number of quack cures peddled by doctors and salesmen over the ages never ceases to amaze. Most of the mixtures marketed were at best ineffective, and at worst poisonous enough that prolonged use could prove fatal (lead, arsenic and mercury all spring to mind). In order to make their product more attractive, producers would …