Category: History

Saint Leodegar

The St Leger has been run on Town Moor outside Doncaster since 1776, or thereabouts. It’s the oldest of the Classics run over a mile, six furlongs and 132 yards in September.

Rigaud and Handel

In yesterday’s post we were in the Private Chapel of St James at Great Packington and found no sculpture worth mentioning. Actually there are two recumbent plaster images succinctly dismissed by Pevsner as “rather bad”.

The Feildings

This portrait by van Dyck hangs in the National Gallery in London. It depicts William, 1st Earl of Denbigh (c 1587 – 1643). He had been to India in the early 1630s and is seen, looking florid,  in Indian dress with a servant helpfully pointing out a parrot for him to bag.

Colonel Jean

Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg died last month aged 98. His state funeral was held yesterday at the Cathedral Notre-Dame. Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were present with members of the royal houses of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Lichtenstein, Jordan, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Train-spotting in Ukraine

We returned to Kiev via Poltava after the election and again stayed at the Palazzo Poltava. I had a first floor room with a balcony and a view.

Introducing Bali

I met Bali yesterday morning and we clicked. His owner has a problem with her Achilles‘ tendon and cannot take him for walks. As she lives only a few doors away I stepped into the breach.

The Holodomor

The Holodomor was the famine of 1932/33 caused by Stalin’s reorganisation of agriculture in Ukraine and Russia. Something like five million Ukrainians died and the same number were born with defects or stillborn further depleting the population.

On the Battlefield

In Chisinau in February I averred that Englishmen, perhaps not women, prefer not to talk at breakfast. Rules are made to be broken. On Friday morning over scrambled eggs, ham and black coffee I found myself discussing the Battle of Poltava with a Spanish observer.