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Fritter-filled Paunches: Pancake day in Reformation England
By Elly Barnett – @eleanorrbarnett On the Monday before Lent, wrote comedic poet John Taylor in 1639, a farmer returned home to his wife ‘busily making Pancakes for him and his family’. After he criticised the quality of the fare – ‘the coursenesse of the flower, the taste of the Suite [suet- fat], the thicknesse of the Batter’…
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The roots of vegetable politics
By Carys Brown (@HistoryCarys) Boris Johnson’s declaration last week that Brexit ‘can be good for carrots too’ caused a mixture of despair, mild amusement, and utter confusion. For those trying to get their heads around Britain’s Brexit-based future, this was hardly the ‘clarity’ they demanded. What few registered, however, was that Johnson had unwittingly tapped into a…
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England’s First Double Agents?
By Fred Smith | @Fred_E_Smith The disturbing events which have recently unfolded in the small English town of Salisbury appear to belong more to the set of a Hollywood spy thriller or the pages of an Ian Fleming novel than to reality. From a historical perspective, the role of spies and informants on all sides during both the…
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Call for Papers: Reconsidering Illness and Recovery in the Early Modern World
By Rachel Clamp (@racheljclamp) and Claire Turner (@_claire_turner_) With many conferences being cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, Rachel Clamp (Durham University) and Claire Turner (University of Leeds) have decided to hold an online interdisciplinary conference. Their aim is to provide a space for scholars at all stages of their careers to discuss and share…
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Levelling, enclosure, and coronavirus
By Max Ashby Holme The law doth punish man or woman That steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater felon loose That steals the common from the goose. – Excerpt from “The Goose and the Commons” (c. 17th cent.) [1] As lockdown measures in the UK are eased, we must consider…
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