Merriam-Webster
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I didn’t know what an armillary sphere was until I saw this page and was prompted to look it up at Merriam Webster, where the definition is:- “ar·mil·la·ry sphere: an old astronomical instrument composed of rings showing the positions of important circles of the celestial sphere”. Then I realised that such spheres are often seen in…
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The Bard’s Richard is always getting “the treatment” – of the theatrical kind, that is. I’m not talking about a conventional, straightforward production of the play, but of performances that vie with one another to be most noticed. To me that should read most outlandish. Sorry, but I’m an aging old traditionalist…. Originally, of…
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I haven’t read Sir Simon Jenkins’ book The Celts: A Sceptical History, and to be honest I don’t think I’m likely to. Like Jenkins, I too am half-Welsh and half-English, but I don’t fancy being descended from “sociable sailors”. What’s the old saying about sailors having a girl in every port? I should imagine…
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Rightly or wrongly, when someone has had a shock, it’s often the impulse of those around him/her to offer a “stiff drink”. This usually means spirits, although I admit that in Britain a cup of tea is as likely “to do the trick”! The spirits thing appears in novels and films, and is well…
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The following article is from the excellent Merriam Webster online dictionary, and although I tried to post just the link, I couldn’t get it to work. So I’m posting the article in full, and state here and now that none of it is my work. It’s all Merriam Webster, very interesting and deals with the…
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The following paragraph is extracted from the Rye Museum :- “….The river (which we know as the Rother) made its way south east from Appledore across the marsh to an outfall into the sea at New Romney; by the 12th century this marsh river was converted into a canal 6 miles (9.7 km) long to…
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