If you’ve ever been the victim of the notorious stinging nettle, urtica dioica (see the image above,) you’ll know it darned well does sting! It also itches and continues to do so for quite some time. As a child the remedy I knew was the well-known folk cure of rubbing the sap of dock leaves…

“….It all started with a chance encounter. A young woman, resplendent in an Elizabethan gown embroidered with stars, her lovely face framed by an exquisite lace ruff, stared out of a cabinet miniature at art historians Elizabeth Goldring and Emma Rutherford. They had come upon the portrait in a private collection and it quickly transpired…

A fond memory from my childhood is an early-1950s holiday spent with my maternal great-aunt in the Dorset village of East Chaldon (aka Chaldon Herring). She and my great-uncle lived in one of a short terrace of thatched cottages and I had a bedroom (third or fourth from the camera in the Google Maps photograph…

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @ sparkypus.com A medieval scribe busy scribing.  Royal MS 18 E. III, fol. 24r The British Library, London THE SETTING Following the sudden death of King Edward IV (1442-1483) at his palace of Westminster on the 9th April 1483 an unseemly scramble ensued to get his son,  now King Edward V,  from where…

The sweating sickness has featured in this blog before* but now I have come upon another article about it which is worth bringing to attention. If you go here (https://allthatsinteresting.com/sweating-sickness) you’ll discover a lot about the disease that ripped through England in the late 15th century. The article places the sickness’s arrival to shortly after…

I was casting around for something to watch recently and happened on a TV series called MY LADY JANE. It’s a fantasy and comedy version of the story of Lady Jane Grey…a version without the tragic real-life ending. In this version, there are shapeshifters called Ethians in the kingdom who turn into animals for half…

In the course of seeking information about a certain Sir Ralph Paynell of 14th-century Lincolnshire, of whom more in a later article, I happened upon an astonishing story about other members of the Paynell family, this time in the 15th century. It was related to the Tudor antiquary, John Leland in his 1530s Itinerary (see links…

It’s always good to learn of something that is bound to help boost the reputation of King Richard III. We already love Josephine Tey for her iconic book The Daughter of Time, which set the record straight about Richard, but she didn’t only write as Josephine Tey. At this Barnard Castle site https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/barnard-castle/st-marys-parish-church/the-castle-players-present-dickon-a-play-about-richard-iii/2024-11-16/14:30/t-jzpqmny I came…

On 25 August 2024 Bruges was entertained by the first Golden Tree Procession for seven years before thousands of spectators. The occasion is a visual and musical spectacle that is usually held only every five years but the arrival of the pandemic hampered schedules this time.  The procession (“….[which] involves 1,600 extras, seven large floats…

I like to give the heads-up about any talks or other events I discover that may be of interest to those readers who are able to attend such occasions. So first, Philippa Langley’s tour continues and on 19 SEPTEMBER she will be giving a talk, taking Q&A and book-signing at the Electric Palace in beautiful…