Category: History

Semper Opera House

A good game is to name structures called after their architects. Let me get you started in Paris with Charles Garnier’s opera house and Gustave Eiffel’s tower and in Vicenza, the Basilica Palladiana by Andrea Palladio.

At Flores, in the Azores

  At Flores, in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a flutter’d bird, came flying from far away; “Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!” 

French History

Kings, queens, wars and treaties swirl through Lord Norwich’s history of France. I had not realised that French King Louis VIII invaded England in 1216.

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Red-Veined Sorrel

Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) is easy to grow, decorative and edible. Like spinach it’s rich in potassium which lowers blood pressure and I expect it to become very fashionable in gardens great and small.

At The Circus

Bertram Mills, born in 1873, was brought up on a small farm in Chalfont St Giles. His father was an undertaker and used the farm as a place to rest his horses. As a teenager Bertram developed an equestrian affinity and was soon driving a four-in-hand between Oxford and London.

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We Shall Fight Them

Paddy L-F made his name writing this sort of prose. On Friday night there was thunder and lightning and rain. On Saturday morning it was windy with dark clouds over the mountains that threatened further rain, so we drove south away from the Cretan Sea to Paleochora on the Libyan Sea, where the sun was… Continue reading We Shall Fight Them

War and Peace, Part I

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Soúdha must be one of the most beautifully sited in the world. It is kept perfectly. The lawns had been watered the morning we visited.

Antikythera

At the belated St Patrick’s Day dinner I attended last week there was an interesting guest: Michael Wright, a mechanical engineer, although that hardly does him justice. We have to go back some way to understand his achievement, in fact to Antikythera in the Aegean in about 80 BC where a cargo vessel carrying booty… Continue reading Antikythera