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  • Daily History Picture: Heavenly Delights December 19, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Heavenly Delights

    Courtesy of Bosch a view of heaven. We see his hellish scenes too often…

    Witch Oven Near Florence December 19, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Witch Oven Near Florence

    This story appeared in 1893. It is a witchcraft report from Italy in a period when Leland assures us that there were still many cunning women and planet rulers making their living in the country. What is unusual is the advice given. In any case, first the preliminaries… At Ponte a Ema, about three miles […]

    Daily History Picture: Best Ankles Competition December 18, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Best Ankles Competition

    London 1930 a bobby helps to judge who has the best ankles.  

    For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow and WW2 December 18, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    For He's a Jolly Good Fellow and WW2

    A painful moment from 1939, at least for any Britons reading this post. Neville Chamberlain and his capable foreign minister, Lord Halifax, have travelled, 11 January, to Rome for a meeting of minds with Mussolini. In fact, Britain is just nine months away from a World War and a year and a half away from […]

    Daily History Picture: Amelia’s Last Hair Cut December 17, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Amelia's Last Hair Cut

    Amelia Earhart before rushing off for that round world flight…

    Immortal Meals #18: Breakfast in the Forbidden Palace December 17, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Immortal Meals #18: Breakfast in the Forbidden Palace

    The month is March 1912, the day unspecified, but you walk into the dining room in the Forbidden Palace in Peking and one breakfast is much like any other. The sole guest is about to have breakfast and the twenty five dishes for this important meal have just been laid out by the eunuchs. Beach […]

    Daily History Picture: Left Right Change December 16, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Left Right Change

    1967 Sweden changes driving from left to right: curiously fatalaties dropped…

    Roman Coins in Iceland December 16, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval
    Roman Coins in Iceland

    Roman coins have been found within and without the Empire. Denarii and solidii turn up in Scandinavia, Free Germany, Ceylon, Mainland India and Ethiopia, there is even one fascinating outlier in Madagascar (another post, another day). These coins will have arrived in two separate ways. Some will have been brought by Roman traders and some […]

    Daily History Picture: Dog Fight Over Parliament December 15, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Dog Fight Over Parliament

    Battle of Britain shot from the summer of 1940 with Parliament in the foreground. 30 Dec 2014: Andy the Mad Monk writes, ‘Sadly this picture is photoshopped.  The original does not have the clock tower in the foreground. Link to a copy of the original pic – note it is copyright to the Imperial War Museum […]

    Buying Flying Rocs and Sailing Ships December 15, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Buying Flying Rocs and Sailing Ships

    There is always a joy in imagining yourself in those fabulous nineteenth-century pantomime production where glitz, technology and spectacle came together and left audiences in London, New York, Chicago and Manchester speechless. It is only rarely though that we get to look behind the magician’s curtain, to see how things really worked, with very few exceptions […]

    Binoculars, Wanted Posters and Green Dresses: Irish-British Relations Post Independence December 14, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Binoculars, Wanted Posters and Green Dresses: Irish-British Relations Post Independence

    By the end of 1916 the British establishment and the establishment in waiting of a future Irish state had come to loathe each other. The cause for this was not only the long history of rebellion and suppression (‘Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag…’), nor was it just the fighting of the Easter […]

    Daily History Picture: Medieval Aristotle Reads in his Study December 14, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Medieval Aristotle Reads in his Study

    The great scholastic hero, Aristotle, shown at work in his study.

    Earth Light in Norfolk December 13, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Earth Light in Norfolk

    This site has sometimes given space to earth light stories. This particular example is perhaps the best Beach has come acros read. The author is rather verbose – ‘the hours sped by on rosy wing until the humming tongue of the great church clock told all the drowsy Market-town that it was midnight’ – and […]

    Daily History Picture: Hat Madness December 12, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Hat Madness

    New York 1939, when everyone wore hats…    

    A Dead American and A Riot in County Cork December 12, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    A Dead American and A Riot in County Cork

    This one’s a gem and reminded Beach of that great Limerick custom of beating up families who dare to bury their dead on the same day. Here we are a bit further to the south, near the normally more sensible Cork, but the problem is still a death. The year is 1867. A riot, originating […]