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  • York-London Horse Race April 12, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    York-London Horse Race

    This story comes out of Kirby’s Wonderful Museum, vol IV, p. 359. Kirby claimed to have extracted it from a 1618 publication, The Abridgement of the English Chronicle. We are back to stupid sport bets. In this moneth [but which year?], John Lepton of Kepwick, in the county of Yorke, Esquire, a gentleman of an […]

    The Tower Monster #8: A York Parallel July 22, 2015

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Tower Monster #8: A York Parallel

    One of the Notes and Query readers also suggested this as a parallel: a protean entity comes under a door and changes into different shapes or is perceived to do so. But first some background. Sir John Reresby (obit 1689) was a diarist who fought on the right side in the English civil war and […]

    Death in the Garden September 13, 2011

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Death in the Garden

    It is a gentle summer evening in York in 1108. Archbishop Gerard nods his head at a couple of monks, smiles beatifically at the veiled wife of a local well-to-do and then passes into the cathedral rose garden. Here, however, his expression changes. He now has the face of a man who knows what he […]