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  • Ghost Wreck and Murdered Monkeys December 13, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Ghost Wreck and Murdered Monkeys

    A busy day today, but ran cross this ‘charming’ sea tale about a ghost wreck: we’ll get to the monkeys shortly. There is a book to be filled with supernatural stories at sea: perhaps it already exists. This deserves, in any case, to be jammed respectfully into a footnote somewhere. The British sailing ship Glooscap, […]

    Dumb Duels #7: Circus Duel March 14, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Dumb Duels #7: Circus Duel

    Obviously this never happened. But credit to the hack who came up with it. Note the event took place in France, the favourite land of madness for 19C English journalists… A curious duel has taken place in a travelling circus temporally stationed in village outside Paris. Two acrobats quarrelled and resolved to fight a duel. […]

    A Monkey in the Late Roman Army December 20, 2014

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient
    A Monkey in the Late Roman Army

    Do you remember the ape buried in Iron Age Ireland? Well, here is a cousin, who also travelled far from home. In 2001 a monkey, a macaque, in fact, was dug up at Iulia Libica (Llívia), a late Roman settlement in the Pyrenees. He was, at death, 78 cms tall: a young male. It goes without […]