Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Erotic Book Plates, (ed) Drs Phyllis and Eberhard Kronhausen (New York 1970) A rather eccentric and intriguing book from what we will one day look back upon as the mid-twentieth-century sex revolution. Two radical Freudians, who would write half a dozen works on western sex habits, including an old favourite of this blog Walter, were able […]

Elizabeth Letts, The Perfect Horse I just love the idea of horse master race…

Sixtus V (the last of his name) was a grumpy counter-reformation pope who got mixed up with Philip II’s planned invasion of England: the invincible Armada. However, Sixtus, who hated Philip and saw the Spanish Empire as the greatest obstacle to the extension of his own power, made some strange conditions for lending money to […]

I’d love to know where this is. It was drawn in 1930

This is a haunting passage from the first volume of Cochrane’s Autobiography of a Seaman. The episode in question took place in 1794 while Cochrane was sailing on the Thetis. [63] The squadron sailed from Plymouth; and when about midway across the Atlantic an incident occurred worth relating… One night finding the temperature of the […]

Why elections are bad for democracy (if they don’t go your way). Perhaps not a typical history picture, but something special about this…

Two British sailors and friends in the fountains at Trafalgar Square

Beach previously tried to bring honour to the name of Johann Weyer who combined a skeptical attitude to witchcraft with and a believing attitude to the supernatural. His books, which are not unfortunately easily accessible in English, are full of gems. Here is a good one which combines a nasty solitary fairy and a witchcraft […]

Loved this…

A few days ago Beach had some Tripadvisor hotel fun looking at the variety of ghost/haunting/poltergeist experiences reported there. What most impressed him from his small sample was the number of incidents when the witnesses felt something pressing down on them. Two of these hauntings were quoted then, the rest are new. All italics Beach’s […]

Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 1490-1546) was a Tudor polymath who wrote on politics, classical learning and Christian living: his day job, meanwhile, was as a diplomat to Henry VIII. In Elyot’s most interesting book (at least to the modern reader) The Castell of Helth the author sets out tips for good living and cures based […]

Fighting against Miss America

Philip Thomas Tucker, Pickett’s Charge ‘For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and […]

Chinese in Roman London? It is well known that the Roman empire was a cosmopolitan place, even a tedious, sorry backwater like Britannia. The combination of soldiers, slaves and solid economic infrastructure meant unprecedented movement of individuals. However, what about the history story of the week, the claim that two Chinese bodies have been dug […]

Dear Reader, What a month. A phantom pregnancy (farce and fear), watching a five year old start school (tragedy), and lots of book editing (the highlight?), then there has been the fun of the American elections and new students (outstanding classes). There follow the c. 10000 most interesting words sent in to StrangeHistory. Thanks to […]