culture
-
Here is the second part of our interview with Dominic Smee, continuing from yesterday’s post. JL: How did your experience change your outlook on your scoliosis? After the documentary, has your life changed and in what ways? DS: These days, I have learnt to embrace my scoliosis as part of who I am instead of…
-
With thanks to Kim Harding It is very easy to take the first steps on a ‘Beginner’s Guide to Heraldry’, when you are hugely aided by the heraldry guide provided online by the Mortimer History Society. Easily-accessed guides and quizzes at every stage help the newbie learn all about shields and arms and how to…
-
Oh, lawks, now the Bard’s Richard III is a pirate! Whatever next? I suppose no one has yet had him arrive on stage in a UFO. Have they? Must check….because maybe I can sell the idea to some ambitious avant-garde director. 😄 Unfortunately, according to the Tanks website, (Cairns, Queensland, Australia) this seafaring event has…
-
Winter savory (Satureja montana) was used more in medieval times than today. It grows to between 10 and 40 cm (4 and 16 in) tall. The leathery, dark green leaves are opposite, oval-lanceolate or needle-like, 1–2 cm long and 5 mm broad. The flowers appear in summer, between July and October, and range from pale lavender or pink to…
-
Archaeology Today reports that the remains of St Leonard’s, a medieval hospital, have been discovered while repairing a sink hole in York. It dates from the 12th or 13th centuries and wasn’t destroyed until H8 got his hands on it during the Reformation, so Richard III would certainly have known of it. Read more about…
-
On 2 April this year I posted about a stage version of Tey’s wonderful The Daughter of Time, see https://murreyandblue.co.uk/2025/04/02/the-daughter-of-time-see-the-play-of-the-book/. It was showing at the Knutsford Little Theatre from the end of April to the beginning of May. Now a play-of-the-book has reached a London venue, the Charing Cross Theatre, and will be showing from…
-
Salisbury Museum’s annual Festival of Archaeology will be held on July 26 and 27. But as an opener to the proceedings, on Thursday, July 24 at 7.30pm at the Salisbury Methodist Church on St Edmund’s Church Street, Dr Turi King will give a talk titled ‘DNA Detective: Using DNA to Uncover the Secrets of our…
-
Here is the second in a proposed series of mediaeval recipes. Figs in a coffin means a pastry filled with figs! Ingredients Royal pastry: 4 cups (500g) of pastry flour 1 teaspoon (3g) of salt 1 1/2 cups (345g) of butter 4 egg yolks, beaten 2-4 tablespoons (30-60 ml) of cold water Fig Filling: 8…
-
6th July was the date of Richard III and Anne’s coronation. English Heritage is celebrating with the Richard III Festival at Middleham Castle on the weekend of 5th – 6th July. Here is a link with more information: Richard III Festival
-
Medieval hawking and falconry for the royals….
100 Years War, Battle of Hastings, Black Prince, Boke of St Albans, Chaucer, Conrad the Younger, Crecy Poitiers and Agincourt, Edward 2nd Duke of York, Edward I, Edward III, falconry, Frederik II.Holy roman emperor, Froissart, Gaston Phoebus, Harold Godwinson, hawking, Henry V, Henry VIII, James I, John Commins, John II of France, Parlement of Foules, Pero López de Ayala, Philip the Bold, Richard Almond, Richard II, Royal Mews Charing Cross, William I“….To authors on works on hunting, [men] such as Gaston III, compte de Foix (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_III%2C_Count_of_Foix) and Edward, Duke of York (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward%2C_2nd_Duke_of_York), hunting was not just a sport or pastime, it was the essence of life itself….” So writes Richard Almond in the Introduction to his book Medieval Hunting. And as you read this work,…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 