Today is also the Roman Festival of Castor and Pollux. (more on that on the 15th July at the other festival of the Dioscuri.
The Kindertransport statue, Liverpool Street Station, London 2006 by Frank Meisler and Arie Oviada photo by K Flude
The statue commemorates the arrival of Jewish children by train (1938/9) in the Kindertransport, sent by parents desperate to save their children from fascist genocide in Germany and Austria. The children were unaccompanied and, in the statue, stand proud as they arrive in a strange country. The children have tags on their clothes, and the train track represents both the trains to the death camps and the train to safety. For more photos and information: talkingbeautifulstuff.com
Montaillou by Emmanual Le Roy Ladurie
On the subject of prejudice, genocide and abuse of power, I was reminded of one of the formative reads of my life. I met the great Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie at dinner at my father-in-law’s house in the 1980s. I was awestruck because Montaillou was one of the early histories ‘from below’, where the focus was not on kings, queens nor of the flux of states and empires, but on the lives (and deaths) of ordinary people. Something that has continued as a focus of my historical interest.
Nor, before Ladurie, had I imagined that medieval lives could be so minutely brought to life. The book was a sensation, selling over a quarter of a million copies. Professor Ladurie became a media star, and, it remains one of the great historical reads. (Of course, the book and the historiography now attracts some criticism, but do read it!)
The context of the story is appalling. In 1208, the Pope decided to launch a crusade against heretics in the South of France. The Cathars, as revealed under interrogation by the Cathodic Inquisition, had many unorthodox and heretical ideas, believing in a Good God and an Evil God, and that we are all angels trapped in this terrible world by the Evil God. Women and men were equal and could be reincarnated into each other’s bodies, awaiting the time they became ‘perfect’ and released to their spiritual form for eternity.
The Crusade and Inquisition that followed were savage, with many thousand slaughtered. At the massacre at Béziers, for example, on 22 July 1209, the Catholic forces led by Arnaud-Amaury, a Cistercian abbot and Commander of the army, battered down the doors of St Mary Magdalene to get at the refugees inside. He was asked how the soldiers could separate the Catholics from the Cathars. He replied “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius“—”Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own”. Or so it is said.
All 7,000 men, women and children seeking sanctuary were killed. Thousands more in the town were mutilated, blinded, dragged behind horses, used for target practice and massacred. Arnaud-Amaury wrote to Pope Innocent III
“Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex.”
But, reading Montaillou is a pleasure because it brings those persecuted souls back to life in all their human glory. It is also a reminder that it is by intolerance and ‘othering’ of normal homo sapiens that allows the conditions for evil to flourish. We need to treat all human life as sacred and to bring to bear our human empathy and capacity for mercy. Anything less allows the slaughter of the innocent.
First written in January 2023 and revised Jan 2024
Hermes the ram-bearer, Roman 1st BCE copy of 5th Greek statue
My apology of the day is to Diane Stein, the author of the ‘The Goddess Book of Days’ because of the implied error in the book in the sentence (below). Republished yesterday:
Before we read Ovid’s ‘Fasti’ first note that he locates the Day on the 16th January rather than the ‘Book of Goddesses’ which puts her on the 17th
Not only did I get the name of the book wrong (which is ‘The Goddess Book of Days’, but I had another look at what Ovid actually said and I saw this:
‘Book I: January 16 Radiant one, the next day places you in your snow-white shrine,’
So, ‘the next day’, so Ovid agrees that January 17th is the appropriate day to honour Concordia.
Lambing
If a lamb be born sick and weak, the Shepherd shall fold it in his cloak, blow into the mouth of it and then, drawing the Dam’s dog, shall squirt milk into the mouth of it. If an Ewe grow unnatural, and will not take her Lamb after she has yeaned it, you shall take a little of the Clean of the Ewe (which is the bed in which the Lamb lay) and force the Ewe to eat it, or at least chew it in her mouth and she will fall to love a Lamb naturally. But if an Ewe have cast her Lamb, and you would have her take to another Ewe’s Lamb, you shall take the Lamb which is dead, and with it rub and daub the live Lamb all over, and so put it to the Ewe, and she will take to it as naturally as if it were her own.
Gervase Markham, ‘Cheap and Good Husbandry’ 1613 (quoted in the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly.
Lambing can begin about now in the south-west, but it gets progressively later as you travel north. Itinerant shearers, now often from New Zealand, travel the country shearing sheep. They will begin in the south and then progress north.
March and April are peak lambing time in the UK, although the season runs from February to April, but some farmers even lamb before Christmas (and even November). If ewes are tupped in October, they will lamb in March. www.nationalsheep.org.uk
The country expression is ‘in with a bang and out with the fool’ which suggests an ideal time to tup, is November 5th, on Fireworks Night. So that the lambs will be born, 5 months later, around the 1st of April.
A litter is normally one or two but occasionally more. Ewe’s get fed depending on how many lambs they will be having.
In the ‘Return of the Native’, Thomas Hardy has a character called Diggory Venn, he is a reddle man. He travels the country in a little pony and trap selling reddle, a red ochre dye with which shepherds mark their flock. Part of the plot is about the reluctance of women to marry a man whose red, reddle-stained face, makes him look like a devil.
The reddle is used to mark sheep. The ram is given a collar or girdle with a marker full of reddle in it. When he mounts the ewe, she will have a red mark on her back. Once she has been tupped twice, she will have two red marks on her back, and she will be taken out of the field, to encourage the ram to impregnate the others. Reddle could also be used to mark lambs chosen for slaughter, or dipping, or weighing etc.
(Tup is a country verb: I tup. You tup, we are tupping etc, and means what happens when the ram ‘covers’ the ewe).
Today is the day after the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth 1’s coronation 1559. She soon developed enduring relationships with the senior members of her Government. For example, William Cecil, Lord Burghley served the Queen for the rest of his life – from 1558 to 1598 when he died.
Elizabeth gave leading members of her Court, nicknames. My interest in the nicknames was revived, a few days ago, by a post on the subject in an interesting blog called The Chronicles of History, whose author became a follower of this blog. She listed a few of the nicknames. I had a record of all the nicknames I had come across but can never find it when I want it. The Chronicles mentioned three of them so I went in search for the rest and here is what the internet says:
Her chief minister, William Cecil Lord Burghley, was called her ‘spirit’, and her alleged lover, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was her ‘eyes’. Rather more cheekily, she called François, Duke of Anjou, her ‘frog’.
Elizabeth called Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester her “Eyes” William Cecil was her “Spirit” Robert Cecil was her “pigmy” or “elf” Sir Christopher Hatton was her “mutton” or “lids” Francis Walsingham was her “Moor” Francis, Duke of Alencon, (her French suitor) her “frog”
A comment on the same page says the moor was, in fact, Edward De Vere Earl of Oxford and that the attribution to Walsingham is a mistake. De Vere had a house in Clapton, Hackney, very near to where I lived, and is one of the many people conspiracy theorists think wrote Shakespeare (as is Queen Elizabeth 1).
Robert Cecil was Lord Burghley’s son and largely took over his father’s role. Christopher Hatton was a handsome aristocrat who had a lovely house and garden in Holborn which is now called Hatton Garden. Francis Walshingham was the ruthless spy master. Duke of Alencon was one suitor she seemed to take seriously, although she gently mocked him. Dudley was her favourite and almost her official escort/companion.
Illustrations from a Victorian History of England.
First Published in January 2023, republished in January 2024
Queen Elizabeth’s litter at her royal entry, accompanied by footmen and Gentlemen Pensioners. Unidentified engraver. (Wikipedia)
Today is the most depressing day of the year, so called Blue Monday. It was only a marketing stunt but seems to have stuck. So, ‘officially’ Blue Monday is the third Monday of the year – in 2024 156 January. It was worked out using this ‘equation’:
[W + (D-d)] x TQ M x NA
(W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action. (https://news.sky.com )
Queen Elizabeth 1’s Coronation
Queen Elizabeth 1 ascended the throne on 17 Nov 1558. Her courtiers immediately began work on the Coronation, scheduled for January 15th 1559. In terms of Coronations, this was rushed. The precise date was, in fact, chosen by the Royal Astrologer, John Dee on a date that the celestial bodies deemed propitious, and which was sooner rather than later because Elizabeth’s position was not secure.
Her accession was certainly greeted with an outbreak of joy by the Protestant population. But the supporters of her dead sister Mary 1 did not want a Protestant monarch. On hearing the news of the death of her sister, Elizabeth rushed to occupy the Tower of London, even shooting London Bridge, such was her haste. She consulted lawyers about the legal position. Elizabeth, and her sister Mary, had been declared bastards by two Succession Acts passed during Henry VIII’s ‘troubled’ married life. The Third Succession Act of 1543/44, following Henry’s marriage to Katherine Parr, had restored Mary and Elizabeth to the Royal line but did not restore their legitimacy. Rather than tackle the complex legislation, Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, advised:
“the English laws have long since pronounced, that the Crowne once worn quite taketh away all Defects whatsoever“.
Which, when you think about it, basically legitimises successful any ‘Coup’! And, from a legal perspective, she was still, arguably, illegitimate.
The Coronation began with a procession from the Whitehall Palace in Westminster back to the Tower of London for the Vigil, then a Royal Procession through the City of London to Westminster Abbey for the Coronation service, followed by the traditional Coronation Banquet at Westminster Hall.
The Vigil Procession was on the Thames where she was escorted to the Tower by ‘ships, galleys, brigantines‘ sumptuously decorated. The Royal Entry consisted of 5 Pageants and 11 Triumphal Arches.
The first pageant showed the Queen’s descent from Henry VII and his marriage to Elizabeth of York. This marriage effectively ended the Wars of the Roses by linking the House of York and the House of Lancaster. The pageant also emphasised her ‘Englishness’ as opposed to the Spanish affiliations of Mary. The second pageant demonstrated that the Queen would rule by the four virtues of True Religion, Love of Subjects, Wisdom and Justice, while trampling on Superstition, Ignorance and other vices.
The third pageant, at the upper end of Cheapside near the Guildhall, provided the opportunity for the City to give Elizabeth a handsome crimson purse with 1000 marks of gold, showing the closeness of the City and the Crown. The fourth pageant, contrasted a decaying country during the time of Mary with a thriving one under Elizabeth. It featured the figure of Truth, who was carrying a Bible written in English and entitled ‘the Word of Truth’. The Bible was lowered on a silken thread to the Queen, who kissed it and laid it on her breast to the cheers of the crowd. She promised to read it diligently. The final pageant was Elizabeth portrayed as Deborah, the Old Testament prophet, who by rescuing Israel and ruling for 40 years was an ideal role model for Elizabeth. (https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/queen-elizabeth-coronation)
‘All the houses in Cheapside were dressed with banners and streamers, and the richest carpets, stuffs and cloth of gold tapestried the streets’.
British History.ac.uk Vol 1 pp315 -332.
The Coronation was traditional – in Latin and presided by a Catholic Bishop, but there were significant innovations. Important passages were read both in Latin and in English, and the Queen added to the Coronation Oath that she would rule according to the ‘true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom.’ This showed the way forward, introducing innovation gradually into tradition, but emphasizing that the fundamentals had indeed changed. This was going to be a Protestant reign.
Please do remember, I wrote a best-selling book on the Kings and Queens of Britain which k has been reprinted several times and is available below.
St Hilary’s Day is traditionally the coldest day in the year. Of course the coldest day varies but it is normally in January, or February but sometimes in December and occasionally in November, or March.
In 2023 it was;
-16.0C, recorded at Altnaharra on the 9th of March.
At the bottom of the post are the coldest days in the UK since 2000.
Hilary & the Arians
St Hilary (born 315) was the Bishop of Poitiers in France where he died around 367 AD. He was a vigorous opponent of the Arian Heresy which swept through the Catholic world in the late Roman period. Catholic doctrine was that God – the Father, Son and Holy Ghost was a Trinity. Arius took the view that: “If the Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning in existence, and from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not.” So Jesus was not equal with God. A question at the time was, ‘Was Jesus divine?’
Eventually the ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325, declared Arianism to be a heresy during the reign of Constantine the Great. It was very strong in the East and was accepted by Constantine’s son and continued as a major influence especially among the Goths and Vandals.
The Church takes the position on the Trinity which is one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons (wikipedia). Its sobering to think how many people were martyred over these arcane attempts to maintain what they considered a coherent monotheism despite this difficult idea of three entities being one God.
Hilary Term
Hilary was a scholar and is one of those rare early Saints not to be horrifically martyred. We remember him in the UK with the dedication of a few Churches, particularly in Wales but he has also given his name to one of the terms of the academic year. At least for Oxford, Hilary Term is their name for the ‘spring term’ and this year Hilary begins on the 14th January.
The legal establishment also uses ‘Hilary.’ This year the legal year is:
Hilary: Thursday 11 January to Wednesday 27 March 2024 Easter: Tuesday 9 April to Friday 24 May 2024 Trinity: Tuesday 4 June to Wednesday 31 July 2024 Michaelmas: Tuesday 1 October to Friday 20 December 2024
Oxford shares the nomenclature of Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity. Cambridge and London School of Economics share Michaelmas but call the next term ‘Lent term’ and then ‘Summer Term’ Most other universities split the academic year into three terms (autumn, spring and summer) across two academic semesters.
The legal term is quite interesting in so far as for most of us ‘terms’ are a thing of our youth. We then participate in the hard slog of what might be called ‘real life’ or work, work, work, separated by a few short breaks. But not for the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Too much like hard work, and not enough time off!
As I travel around Britain I find a lot of ‘Stately Homes’ which were bought by eminent Judges or lawyers. At the same time the legal establishment in London is based at the four Inns of Court: Lincoln’s Inn, Grey’s Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. These were founded in the medieval period and one of the reasons they have stayed as important institutions is that they provided homes and well as offices for the lawyers who would only come to London during the three terms, about 30 weeks out of the 52 available. Then they would go off to their country estates to recuperate and enjoy the fruits of their privileged position.
The Decline And Fall Of Roman London Walk Sat 1.30pm 25th May 2024 Exit 2 St Pauls Underground Station. To Book Jane Austen’s London Sat 6pm 25th May 2024 Green Park Tube (Green Park exit, by the fountain) to Book The Peasants Revolt Anniversary Walk Thurs 6.30 13th June 2024 Aldgate Tube. To book Chaucer’s Medieval London Guided Walk Sat 2.30pm 6th July Aldgate Tube. To Book Myths, Legends, Archaeology and the Origins of London Sat 6pm July 6th 24 Tower Hill Underground To book Roman London – A Literary & Archaeological Walk Sun 11.30 am 4th August 2024 Monument Underground Station To book 1066 and All That Walk Sat 2.30pm 9th Nov 24 Blackfriars Underground Station To book For a complete list of my walks for London Walks in 2024 look here:
Gervase Markham was born in 1568, in Nottinghamshire, and was a prolific writer. Today, prompted by the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly, I am looking through Markham’s eyes at Apples. Apples were an important source of joy as well as nutrition through a cold winter, as fresh produce became unavailable.
Markham wrote detailed books for use by the householders, the Husbands and the Housewives. And with the coming of frost, you would be advised to look at Markham’s books to ensure the survival of food in your food store. When the frosts hit, as they are now doing in the UK, you had to look after your store of apples, which were an important sweet food source over the winter, and Markham is the source of extensive advice on keeping your food deep into winter.
For the women, he wrote the English Housewife, published in 1615. Here is his recipe for Apple Tart (more of an apple purée tart, I think).
How to Make Apple-tart
Take apples and peel them and slice them thin from the core into a pan with white wine, good store of sugar, cinnamon and rosewater, and so boil it all shall it be thick. Then cool it and strain it, and beat it very well together with a spoon, and then put it into your coffin or crust and bake it. It carrieth with the colour red.
Gervais Markham, the English Housewife 1683 version (quoted by Charles Kightly).
For the men, he wrote the English Husbandsman, published in 1613 and ‘Printed by T. S. for Iohn Browne, and are to be sould at his shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard.’ This is the St Dunstan’s in Fleet Street, I think. The book is available on Project Gutenberg (Gervase Markham the English Husbandman. Project Gutenberg).
So to the frost – Markham ends his extensive piece on the best way to store apples as follows:
To keepe Fruit in frost. If the frost be very extreame, and you feare the indangering your fruit, it is good to couer them somewhat thicke with fine hay, or else to lay them couered all ouer either in Barley-chaffe, or dry Salte: as for the laying them in chests of Iuniper, or Cipresse, it is but a toy, and not worth the practise: if you hang Apples in nettes within the ayre of the fire it will kéepe them long, but they will be dry and withered, and will loose their best rellish.
I remember my Grandmother would store her excess apples from the tree, wrapped in paper and stored in cupboards in the pantry or outbuilding. I cannot remember which. They were often wrinkled but always delicious, and I think were Russets, which still remain my favourite apple.
At the bottom of the piece, I include the rest of his advice for storing apples. To summarise it, don’t store them near the ground, and put them on shelves ordered by variety based on which variety lasts longest. So at the back will be the long-lived species such as Russets and Pippins, to eat as spring approaches and at the front the ones you need to eat now such as the ‘Costard, Pome-water, Quéene-Apple‘ varieties.
Markham wrote many books, including one on the famous performing horse Marocco which starred in shows at the Bell Savage, just outside Ludgate in the City of London. Marocco would whinny in triumph with the naming of an English King, and snort with derision with the naming of a Pope, and could count and add up. He was rumoured to have been burnt at the stake as a witch in Edinburgh. But this does not appear to be true. Pocahontas also was shown at the Bell Savage, as was a Rhinoceros and other prodigies.
The Storage of Apples
If you want a more modern text on what to do with excess apples from your tree, have a look here, but do read on to get an insight into life in the 17th Century.
The place where you shall lay your fruit must neither be too open, nor too close, yet rather close then open, it must by no meanes be low vpon the ground, nor in any place of moistnesse: for moisture bréedes fustinesse, and such naughty smells easily enter into the fruit, and taint the rellish thereof, yet if you haue no other place but some low cellar to lay your fruit in, then you shall raise shelues round about, the nearest not within two foote of the ground, and lay your Apples thereupon, hauing them first lyned, either with swéet Rye-straw, Wheate-straw, or dry ferne: as these vndermost roomes are not the best, so are the vppermost, if they be vnséeld, the worst of all other, because both the sunne, winde, and weather, peircing through the tiles, doth annoy and hurt the fruit: the best roome then is a well séeld chamber, whose windowes may be shut and made close at pleasure, euer obseruing with straw to defend the fruit from any moist stone wall, or dusty mudde wall, both which are dangerous annoyances.
The seperating of Fruit. Now for the seperating of your fruit, you shall lay those nearest hand, which are first to be spent, as those which will last but till Alhallontide, as the Cisling, Wibourne, and such like, by themselues: those which will last till Christmas, as the Costard, Pome-water, Quéene-Apple, and such like: those which will last till Candlemas, as the Pome-de-roy, Goose-Apple, and such like, and those which will last all the yéere, as the Pippin, Duzin, Russetting, Peare-maine, and such like, euery one in his seuerall place, & in such order that you may passe from bed to bed to clense or cast forth those which be rotten or putrefied at your pleasure, which with all diligence you must doe, because those which are tainted will soone poyson the other, and therefore it is necessary as soone as you sée any of them tainted, not onely to cull them out, but also to looke vpon all the rest, and deuide them into thrée parts, laying the soundest by themselues, those which are least tainted by themselues, and those which are most tainted by themselues, and so to vse them all to your best benefit.
Now for the turning of your longest lasting fruit, you shall know that about the latter end of December is the best time to beginne, if you haue both got and kept them in such sort as is before sayd, and not mixt fruit of more earely ripening amongst them: the second time you shall turne them, shall be about the end of February, and so consequently once euery month, till Penticost, for as the yéere time increaseth in heate so fruit growes more apt to rot: after Whitsontide you shall turne them once euery fortnight, alwayes in your turning making your heapes thinner and thinner; but if the weather be frosty then stirre not your fruit at all, neither when the thaw is, for then the fruit being moist may by no meanes be touched: also in wet weather fruit will be a little dankish, so that then it must be forborne also, and therefore when any such moistnesse hapneth, it is good to open your windowes and let the ayre dry your fruit before it be turned: you may open your windowe any time of the yéere in open weather, as long as the sunne is vpon the skye, but not after, except in March onely, at what time the ayre and winde is so sharpe that it tainteth and riuelleth all sorts of fruits whatsoeuer.
Spinning—showing the distaff in the left hand and the spindle or rock in the right hand
I’m not sure what the Three Kings were doing on the day after Epiphany, but, the shepherds, if they were like English farmworkers, would still be on holiday until next Monday, which is Plough Monday. By contrast, the women, according to folk customs, went back to work on the 7th, St. Distaff’s Day, the day after Epiphany.
A distaff is ‘a stick or spindle on to which wool or flax is wound for spinning’ and because of its importance in the medieval and early modern economy it became a synecdoche for women. St Distaff is a ‘canonisation’ of this use of the word. So, a day to celebrate women.
Robert Herrick (1591–1674), born in Cheapside, a Goldsmith, priest, Royalist and Poet wrote in ‘Hesperides’
Partly work and partly play You must on St. Distaff’s Day: From the plough, soon free your team; Then come home and fother them; If the maids a-spinning go, Burn the flax and fire the tow. Bring in pails of water then, Let the maids bewash the men. Give St. Distaff all the right; Then bid Christmas sport good night, And next morrow every one To his own vocation.
In London, the Fraternity of St Anne and St Agnes used to meet at the Church in London with that name. It is near to the (now closed) Museum of London on the junction of Gresham Street and Noble Street, by a corner of the Roman Wall. St Agnes is the patron saint of young girls, abused women and Girl Scouts. St Anne is the mother of the mother of the Son of God, and, thereby, the three generations of women are represented: maidens, mothers, and grandmothers.
The Three Mother Goddesses (and someone else) “Limestone relief depicting four female figures sitting on a bench holding bread and fruit, a suckling baby, a dog and a basket of fruit’ the Museum of London
Archaeologists discovered the sculpture while investigating the Roman Wall at Blackfriars, City of London. Scholars believe it depicts the Celtic Three Mother Goddesses, worshipped in Roman London. The fourth person is a mystery, maybe the patron of the temple(?) where the relief sculpture was displayed before it was used as rubble and became part of the defences of London.
The idea of triple goddesses is a common one. In Folklore and History they have been referred to as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, or even Maiden, Mother and Hag. They come in Roman, Greek, Celtic, Irish, and Germanic forms with names like the Norns, the Three Fates, the Weird Sisters, the Mórrígan and many more. The Three Fates, the Goddess Book of Days says, were celebrated during the Gamelia, the Greco/Roman January Festival to the marriage of Zeus and Juno. The Festival also gives its name to the Athenian month of January.
Natural History Museum, Oxford, K Flude photo.
There was a theory widely held that the original Deities, dating before the spread of farming, were mother goddesses (perhaps as depicted by the Venus of Willendorf) who were overthrown by the coming of farmers who worshipped the male gods which destroyed the ancient Matriarchy and replaced it with the current Patriarchy. Jane Ellen Harrison proposed an ancient matriarchal civilization. Robert Graves wrote some interesting, but no longer thought to be very scientific studies, on the idea. Neopaganism has taken these ideas forward.
Whatever the truth of the origins of the Three Mother Goddesses, the use of the terms Hag and Crone for the third is a great disservice to the Grandmother figure. These Goddesses represent the importance of the female for human society. The three phases of womanhood are equally as important in the continuation of the species, providing love, support, and experience through the generations. Compare these three generations of supportive deities with Ouranos (Uranus), Cronus (Saturn) and Zeus (Jupiter). Saturn castrated and deposed his father, Uranus. Later, he tried to eat his son, Jupiter. And then Jupiter is nobody’s idea of an ideal father.
Recent work on human evolution has suggested that the role of the Grandmother might be crucial to our species’ ability to live beyond the age of fertility. Because, in evolutionary terms, once an individual cannot procreate their usefulness for the survival of the genes is finished. So what’s the point of putting resources into their survival? The theory is that, particularly with women, the Grandmother has such an impact on the survival of the next generation, that longevity beyond fertility makes evolutionary sense, and is selected for.
Yesterday was dedicated to Joan of Arc, and today is the anniversary of the breaking of the fabulous Portland Vase in 1845 by a drunken visitor to the British Museum. It looks immaculate despite being smashed into myriad pieces, a wonder of the conservator’s art. To see the vase and read its story, go to the BM web site here:
In the orthodox church, дед Мороз (Ded Moroz= father of frost), accompanied by Cнегурочка (Snieguroshka= fairy of the snow) brings gifts on New year’s eve, (which is on January 7th). He travels with a horse drawn troika.
First Published in 2022, and revised in January 2024
‘Drawing for Twelfth Cake’ at St. Annes Hill ’12th Night Cruikshank, Isaac, 1756-1811 printmaker. Published Janr. 10, 1807 by Thomas Tegg, 111 Cheapside’
I used the print above, two years ago for my post on New’s Day (in fact this is an update of it) and I use it in lectures on Christmas and Jane Austen. But I have always presented it in the context of explaining Twelfth Night Cake and the game that was played on Twelfth Night, which is, satirically, illustrated here.
Rushing to get the post done, I didn’t examine it in detail but assumed the papers they were reading, gave them satirical occupations to pretend to be, which would be funny to the contemporary audience in 1807. This year, I noted the title mentioned St Anne’s Hill, and thought I ought to at least try to find out what that referred to. And I then went down a deep and very enjoyable research rabbit hole.
But, more of that, later. Let’s begin with the more trivial aspect of the Print above from 2022 January 6th post, edited a little.
Yesterday was Twelfth Night for the modern Church of England, but today is Twelfth Night for the Catholic Church and in England in former times. It is also Epiphany or Three Kings Day and because of calendrical differences, Christmas Eve for the Orthodox Church. In Ireland, it is Nollaig na mBan: Women’s Little Christmas; when Women get to rest and let men do the work.
It used to be the big party night, featuring the famous Twelfth Night Cake and theatrical entertainments; mumming and wassailing. The cake transmuted into our present Christmas Cake. This, I regret because I have had a lifetime when a very heavy Christmas Dinner is followed both by Christmas Pudding and, then, the Christmas Cake is brought out. No one, in their right mind, wants a slice of heavy Christmas Cake at that time. Many of my American friends disparage fruit cake, but they are mistaken. Good Christmas Cake is something to be thoroughly enjoyed, but on the days following Christmas Day.
I gave a recipe for the Twelfth Night Cake in another post, (here it is) but the important point is that it had a bean and a pea in it. The one who got the bean was selected thereby as King for night and the pea the Queen. Cards/papers were then given to all the participants detailing a role they were to play for the rest of the night, with an introductory speech, or rhyme The King and Queen led the way and for the rest of the evening the party members adopted the persona; an aristocrat, a soldier, a cook, a parson, a dairy maid etc. The French do something similar with their Galette des Rois. The bean is called the feve, and may be replaced by a porcelain model.
In the illustration above, you will see the participants, pulling their role cards out of their hat. In the game, the women’s cards were drawn from a ‘reticule’ (bag) and the men’s from a hat. In the illustration above, the hat seems to be a revolutionary sans culotte’s cap. (and I have only just realised, while doing a third proofread of this article, that all the people in the Print are men.)
Here is an example of a Twelfth Night gathering, attending William Snooke were:
‘Mr and Mrs William Clifford and their seven children (and maid), John Fox Snr. and Sally Twining, Mr and Mrs William Fox, and William Weale. To feed this crowd took “Ham, Greens, 3 fowls roasted, Soup, Leg of Mutton, potatoes, Boiled rump of beef (large)” Desert included pudding, mince pies and a forequarter of home lamb. For supper, the assembled party consumed tarts, stuffed beef, mince pies, cold mutton, oysters, cold sliced beef, cold lamb, apple pies and pears.
6th January 1775, William Snooke’s Diary taken from this Pinterest post
St Anne’s Hill
Now, let’s go down that rabbit hole and look a little deeper.
The caption mentions St Anne’s Hill. I believe this refers to St Anne’s Hill, near Chertsey (SW of London on the River Thames) where the grand house was owed by Charles James Fox, the leader of the Whigs, a persistent opponent of King George III. He was a supporter of the American and French Revolutions, which explains the red bonnet used to pull out the cards in the illustration.
I am, as I write, researching this and am now struck with the fact that Fox died in Sept. 1806, but the print is dated Jan. 1807. But if I am right about St Anne’s Hill, the central character is Fox who, just before he died, saw his Foreign Slave Trade Bill of 1806 began the dismantling of this pernicious trade in the British Empire. He was Foreign Minister and assumed a couple of civil chats with the French would end the long-standing war, but he soon discovered that Napoleon was not to be trusted in negotiations and the war went on for another 9 or so years.
Charles James Fox was a mercurial figure with many radical views. He was also a notorious gambler and loved the high life. One of his many lovers was Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. He married, Elizabeth Armistead, an ex-mistress of the Prince of Wales, and it was in her house that they lived in at St Anne’s Hill. I am pleased to report that she is credited with calming his life-style time, and he spent more time at St Anne’s where they would ‘read, garden, explore the countryside and entertain friends’ (Wikipedia).
Cruikshank’s illustration is, of course, not designed to document quaint Twelfth Night customs but is a political satire and I have now just discovered the British Museum version of this print, and. It is dated to 1799 which makes much more sense!
At the back right of the print is a notice which says:
‘Rules to be observed at this Meeting 1. That the Cake be decorated with appropriate insignia 2 That the tickets be deposited in a Bonnet Rouge and drawn in Rotation 3 That the Old Fashioned Game of King and Queen be exploded & Catch as Catch can Substituted in its stead.’
The bonnet rouge is defined by the Collins Dictionary as a ‘redcap worn by ardent supporters of the French Revolution’ or ‘an extremist or revolutionary’. The last point relates to Fox’s opposition to the King, and the expression Catch as Catch Can refers to a free form of wrestling without rules.
The characters in the scene (all men) are all political figures, mostly associated with the opposition to the very right-wing Government of William Pitt. During the war with France, the opposition was led by a supporter of the French Revolution, a position that, many on what we would now call the left of the political spectrum, agreed with. But, for those on the right, which included Pitt’s government, this was tantamount to treason. Pitt suspended many civil liberties in ‘Pitt’s Reign of Terror’; arrested and indeed executed leading members of those demanding political change. The Government even suspended Habeas Corpus to make it easier to arrest their opponents,
Fox is seen drawing a 12th Night Game ticket which is marked ‘Perpetual Dictator’. To his right is Frances Burdett, a radical politician, who supported universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vote by ballot, and annual parliaments. Note that this is well before these aims became the core of the Chartists campaign for electoral reform. (for other figures, look at the British Museum notes on the print. )
Burdett is shown holding a ticket saying ‘Keeper of the Prison in Cold Bath Fields’. This is a satirical reference to a serious political crisis. The Cold Baths Fields was the site of a medical spring in Clerkenwell, London, where a prison was situated where radicals were imprisoned. They were held in poor conditions despite the recent rebuilding under the aegis of the prison reformer, John Howard. Burdett exposed it in the House of Commons and began a campaign against the magistrates involved in the arrests.
One of the prisoners was Edward Despard who had associations with the London Corresponding Society, the United Irishmen and United Britons. Despard was married to Catherine, the daughter of a free black woman from Jamaica, and it was she who, with Burdett, led the campaign against these arrests without trial. The attorney general spoke about her letter in this demeaning manner:
‘it was a well-written letter, and the fair sex would pardon him, if he said it was a little beyond their style in general’
He did not comment on her colour. She described the imprisonment of her husband as being :
“in a dark cell, not seven feet square, without fire, or candle, chair, table, knife, fork, a glazed window, or even a book”
Despard was freed in 1802, went to Ireland, and back to London, where he was arrested again and accused of a being the alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate the King. There was little real evidence. Horatio Nelson was a character witness, and appealed to the King for clemency. It was given, but only in so far as Despard was not disembowelled but ‘only ‘Hanged and Drawn’ at Horsemonger Lane Gaol (1803) – the last time someone was drawn through the streets at the tail of a horse before execution for treason. These are his last words:
Fellow Citizens, I come here, as you see, after having served my Country faithfully, honourably and usefully, for thirty years and upwards, to suffer death upon a scaffold for a crime which I protest I am not guilty. I solemnly declare that I am no more guilty of it than any of you who may be now hearing me. But though His Majesty’s Ministers know as well as I do that I am not guilty, yet they avail themselves of a legal pretext to destroy a man, because he has been a friend to truth, to liberty, and to justice
(a considerable huzzah from the crowd)
because he has been a friend to the poor and to the oppressed. But, Citizens, I hope and trust, notwithstanding my fate, and the fate of those who no doubt will soon follow me, that the principles of freedom, of humanity, and of justice, will finally triumph over falsehood, tyranny and delusion, and every principle inimical to the interests of the human race.
(a warning from the Sheriff)
I have little more to add, except to wish you all health, happiness and freedom, which I have endeavoured, as far as was in my power, to procure for you, and for mankind in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Despard
After his death, his family denied that Catherine was his wife but merely his ‘house-keeper.’ I assume, without knowing, this might have been because they wanted the inheritance rather than, or perhaps, as well as naked prejudice.
Francis Burdett married into the fabulously rich banking family the Coutts, and their daughter was the famous Angela Burdett Coutts who was a philanthropist who collaborated extensively with Charles Dickens.
@Phew! What a ride – this is what I love about my job, you find things out that link disparate parts of your knowledge, creating an ever-interwining web of history.
I have republished my post of the Chinese New Year which you can see here:
On the 11th day of Christmas My true love sent to me 11 pipers piping; Ten lords a-leaping; Nine ladies dancing Eight maids a-milking; Seven swans a-swimming Six geese a-laying Five golden rings (five golden rings) Four calling birds; Three French hens; Two turtle-doves And a partridge in a pear tree.
The Northern Sky at Night in January.
The Quadrantid meteor shower appears from the point of the Plough’s handle about January 3rd/4th. At the peak there may be 100 meteors an hour, but it will be low in the north-eastern sky and best seen from low light pollution areas. Twinkling above the Southern Horizon will be Sirius and this month’s brightest star. In the NE, the Plough can easily be seen. The Orion nebula south of Orion’s belt will be seen as a hazy patch with the naked eye. (from the Night Sky. Month by Month by Gater and Sparrow)
Twelfth Night Cake
Now is your last chance to make your Twelfth Day cake. This is a recipe from 1604 by Elinor Fettiplace:
Take a peck of flower, and fower pound of currance, one ounce of Cinamon, half an ounce of ginger, two nutmegs, of cloves and mace two peniworth, of butter one pound, mingle your spice and flower & fruit together, but as much barme [the yeasty froth from the top of fermenting beer barrels] as will make it light, then take good Ale, & put your butter in it, saving a little, which you must put in the milk, & let the milk boyle with the butter, then make a posset with it, & temper the Cakes with the posset drink, & curd & all together, & put some sugar in & so bake it.
I found this on the excellent www.britishfoodhistory.com, where you can find more cooking instructions for Twelfth Night Cake.
If you want a more modern recipe, the following is from the BBC. Please remember to add a pea, and a bean to the recipe. These will be useful once you have read my Twelfth Night post.
