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  • First Vehicular Suicide? June 19, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    First Vehicular Suicide?

    Beach read this story, tried to forget it but couldn’t. There are two questions. First, did it really happen? 19C British newspapers are usually quite reliable, but 19C French newspapers are not. If this had been clipped from a French newspaper it could have been a complete invention, it would be interesting to see whether […]

    Beggar for a Day June 18, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Beggar for a Day

    Beach has long been curious about the begging life and was fascinated to run across this article from 1889 about how difficult it was to make money in London by holding out your hand. A clearly middle class man took a bet with his friends, after dinner, and presumably after taking port, that he could […]

    The Male Midwives Called Peter and the Empty Box Trick June 17, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Male Midwives Called Peter and the Empty Box Trick

    The Chamberlen brothers were first generation French Hugenots whose father had fled to Britain in 1569: one brother Peter was born in Paris (1560) and the other brother Peter was born in Southampton (1572). Yes, you read that right. Two sons and both were called Peter: a fair introduction to a very unusual family. (And […]

    Dog Glove Magic Disease Near Dublin (or Leicester) June 16, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Dog Glove Magic Disease Near Dublin (or Leicester)

    Elder daughter’s birthday party in a swimming pool coming up in minutes so this is just a curiosity pulled out of the rusty filing cabinet without too much thought. The following is dated to 1341 and appeared in the Annals of Ireland. The Irish annalistic tradition is incredibly complex in its early phase and rather […]

    Daily History Picture: Monkey Escape June 16, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Monkey Escape

    Enjoyed this.

    Tree-Felling Ghosts or Youth Vandalism? June 15, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Tree-Felling Ghosts or Youth Vandalism?

    This is a very confusing story: perhaps one reason for taking it seriously. We are in Orkney in March 1907. There were certainly believed-in ghosts in Orkney but in 1907 there was also still strong belief in trows: the local fairy population. Ghostly happenings have disturbed the town of Kirkwall, the capital of the county […]

    Daily History Picture: Dancing in New York June 15, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Dancing in New York

    Postwar New York

    Daily History Picture: Planet of Apes June 14, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Planet of Apes

    Visit set of Valley of the Dolls…

    Birth Pangs Spell June 13, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Birth Pangs Spell

    Location: this spell was attested in Salem, Massachusetts, 1670. It was used by one Zerobabel [[great name]] Endicott (Carter 1986, 23). Zerobabel (aka Zerubabbel) was a physician and here we have the sometimes thin line between 17C magic and 17 medicine.* Aim: to relieve birth pangs Ingredients: ale wort, ant nest, ant trowel, pre-heated oven, […]

    Daily History Picture: Richard III June 13, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Richard III

    Sorry…

    Daily History Picture: Panties Day June 12, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Panties Day

    Panties raid south California Uni.

    Immortal Meals #33: Fairy Feast 1912 June 11, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Immortal Meals #33: Fairy Feast 1912

    Oh to have been there… Walter Yeeling Evans Wentz was an American eccentric and mystic who from 1908 to 1911 studied British, Irish and Breton fairies. Readers may have come across his curious The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, brought out in November 1911, the single most bizarre book every published by Oxford University Press […]

    Mysterious Coffin Deposit June 10, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    Mysterious Coffin Deposit

    John Aubrey (1626-1697) gives this curious description in Remaines (1689). What has he found here? At Priorie St Mary in the parish of Kington St Michael [in Wiltshire], have been formerly, and also lately found upon digging in the garden, in consecrated ground, severall coffins of freestone; they have all a hole, or two in the […]

    Paul Stoller and Dongo June 9, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Paul Stoller and Dongo

    Paul Stoller was an American anthropologist who learnt sorcery among the Songhay people of Niger. After training, in the 1970s, with Adamu Jenitongo, ‘one of the most knowledgeable and arguably one of the most powerful Songhay sorcerers of his era’, he undertook a second apprenticeship with Hamidou Salou. Unfortunately in this apprenticeship the young American […]

    Daily History Picture: Suffrage in Ohio June 9, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Suffrage in Ohio

    Come in and learn why women ought to vote.