tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-340933962024-03-19T19:48:46.167+11:00Victorian HistoryAn idiosyncratic selection of short bits about elements of Victorian history.Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-77762673293759785752017-08-04T11:11:00.001+10:002017-08-04T11:13:09.297+10:00Victorian Dial-a-Birch
Paul Townsend, a Bristol historian, recently posted the following article on Facebook. Paul has kindly given me permission to re-post it with credit to Paul Townsend, https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/
The article is of particular interest as my wife grew up only one street away from Oakfield Road, Clifton, Bristol.
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Mrs WalterDr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-18283022829674983132016-12-06T10:46:00.000+11:002016-12-06T10:54:41.357+11:00The First Royal Visit to Australia
HRH Prince Alfred, KG, Duke of Edinburgh
In general, I have tried to limit these blogs to England and
particularly London. But, of course,
during the reign of Queen Victoria, England, and therefore London, was the
centre of one of the largest empires the world had ever known. Events that took place in the far-flung
reaches of the Empire reverberated around the world and what couldDr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-76563914445113809602016-11-04T10:24:00.002+11:002016-11-06T10:12:28.330+11:00Knackered
Thomas Rowlandson, A Dead Horse on a Knacker's Cart
It must have been around 1967 when I made my first trip to Great Britain from the United States. It was there, I am reasonably certain, that I first heard the term, “knackered.” Someone used the expression “I am totally knackered,” and I gathered, from the context, that it meant that they were completely exhausted. I liked the word and soon Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-71279449340372407832016-05-19T14:30:00.000+10:002016-05-19T16:55:33.878+10:00“I saw the glitter of polished steel”
The tools of the trade
It is almost impossible for us to imagine the pain that was a part of
surgery before the development of anæsthetics in the middle years of the
nineteenth century. Yet even when the efficacy of ether and chloroform had been
demonstrated, there were those who opposed the use of these agents on moral and
biblical grounds. There were,
inevitably, deaths in the early Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-47055186908365729712016-05-12T11:26:00.000+10:002016-05-13T09:48:06.955+10:00Clerical Errors, a review
As readers
of this blog will have gathered, I enjoy a bit of historical gossip and what
could possibly be more fun than stories about clerics and their alleged sexual peccadilloes?
If you share this rather wayward inquisitiveness, you should really have a look
at Tom Hughes new book, Clerical Errors.
Hughes is
an expert in just such scandals. The
stories he tells are carefully Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-40480297975920109322016-05-09T13:51:00.000+10:002016-05-13T11:09:46.483+10:00St Pancras Station and Hotel
John O'Connor, St Pancras at Sunset (1884)
With the
expansion of capital and the emergence of the entrepreneurial middle class,
Gothic architecture began to appear in more commercial buildings. Much of its appeal to the middle class was,
in the early days of Victoria’s reign, its romantic medievalism and its apparent simplicity. It could be judged
by human, emotional criteria. Its Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-3823896677654964492016-04-22T15:21:00.000+10:002016-04-22T15:21:26.279+10:00The debate over the use of anaesthetics in childbirth
Victoria, Alfred and their children
The nineteenth century, and particularly the Victorian
years, saw enormous advances in medicine. New procedures were developed,
standards of cleanliness improved and for the first time pain relief was
possible with the development and use of anaesthetics. Progress, however, did not come cheaply. Reputations were made but,
equally, reputations Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-80327827700601054772015-11-30T12:14:00.000+11:002015-11-30T12:22:56.137+11:00Begging a humble gratuity, sir
An American view on Tipping
It seems odd that tipping should have been so roundly
despised by some Americans who made their way to England in the nineteenth
century. Nowadays, Americans treat it as
a “way of life,” although for many travelling overseas, the intricacies of how much to
give and under what circumstances is often a source of great confusion.
However, for Americans in the Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-46112290440942924842015-11-17T10:14:00.002+11:002015-11-17T10:14:54.093+11:00Help soughtI received the following query and am posting it in the hope that the person who wrote the initial comment might follow up on it and contact Tony Gee.Bruce Rosen
I am desirous of contacting 'Anonymous', who posted a comment about needing information on the black prize fighter called "Jem Wharton", following your 25th May 2010 blog, 'The Manly Art of Self Defence'. I am a prize ring historian andDr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-59994821163696694872015-09-24T12:56:00.005+10:002015-09-30T08:22:55.823+10:00Victoria on the Rails
The Royal Saloon, 1869
Although other members of the Royal family had travelled by
rail, especially Prince Albert, it was not until 1842 that Queen Victoria
recorded her first experience aboard a train.
This was quite a bold step for the reigning monarch considering the poor
safety record of this form of transportation.
Hardly a week went by without some reference in the Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-59923556317140687212015-08-06T14:02:00.000+10:002015-08-06T14:02:55.517+10:00The Full English Breakfast - Myth or Reality
The
first time I went to England, in 1967, there were still many reminders of the
great Victorian Era. I remember the rag
and bone man coming round and the milkman who still used a horse-drawn float. But because I was staying in a flat, I was
not to know the joy and comfort of that great Victorian institution, the Full
English Breakfast. I did not discover
that until 1985 Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-59253565716243327102015-05-04T11:07:00.000+10:002015-05-04T11:07:22.866+10:00Victorian Vision, London and Manchester at the End of the EraIf a picture is worth 1,000 words, who can decide the value of a moving picture? In this blog, I want to look at some moving images from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Some of these are definitely Victorian (in the sense that they were made before the death of the Queen), while others are a few years later. But, even those made before and immediately after the Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-37808273614766512582015-04-17T11:56:00.000+10:002015-04-17T11:56:42.413+10:00Faster, Lower, Deeper - The First Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable<!--[if !mso]>
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Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-74294276582763338942015-02-11T14:52:00.000+11:002015-02-12T09:03:39.158+11:00The "Sewer" or the early days of the London Underground
To understand the development of the London
Underground, or “Tube,” one has to look at both the growth and sprawl of the
metropolis and the existing modes of transport in the middle years of the
nineteenth century. As the population of London expanded from one million in
1800 to more than 2,350,000 by mid-century modes of transport became
increasingly mechanised and the Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-79565290179205461712015-01-25T20:58:00.000+11:002015-01-25T20:58:45.834+11:00"March came in like a Lion," The Great Blizzard of 1891If you had read the Meteorological Office's summary of observations for February 1891, you could hardly be blamed for assuming that spring would be sunny and delightful. The weather in February had been exceptionally dry, although there was a more than usual amount of fog, particularly towards the latter part of the month. There was surprisingly little rain; according to the Met, lessDr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-6724803936436232072014-06-19T14:04:00.000+10:002014-06-19T16:06:55.669+10:00Income vs Expenditure in Working-Class Victorian England
East Enders
Every school student must be aware of the financial advice that Charles Dickens has Mr Micawber offer the eponymous hero of his novel, David Copperfield. In fact, Micawber offers this guidance twice within a dozen pages.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds aughtDr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-30873580221977623132014-06-18T13:45:00.003+10:002014-06-18T22:00:30.755+10:00Bryant, May and the Match Girls Part 3
. . .Go to the mouldering lane
Where the match-girls cry in their terrible pain;
Where the phosphor eats to the festering bone,
Till the Merciful Angel claims its own,
And the sufferers gladly die. . .
Go, shareholders, you with the dividend fair,
Go, see and consider it well
How the daughters of women are perishing there
In your Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-988201124089492962014-04-28T12:27:00.000+10:002014-06-09T11:08:49.531+10:00Bryant, May and the Match Girls Part 2Unlike the 1871 "strike," the 1888 walkout was not over taxes on matches. It was concerned primarily with wages and working conditions and was clearly aimed at the management of the factory. According to Charles Booth's survey of London, in the late 1880s and early 1890s there were over a thousand young women and girls employed in the match-making trades. In May of 1888, more Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-32203311687688804222014-04-25T16:05:00.000+10:002014-04-28T10:20:01.023+10:00Bryant, May and the Match GirlsWhen I started to explore the match girls' strike of 1888, I was not surprised to learn that there was a long history of problems in the match trade, nor that even after the strike there were issues that were not fully addressed. As a result rather than just one blog, the exploration has extended over three. In the first one, I will look at the origins of the strike and the backgroundDr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-78157138138423040082014-01-06T14:10:00.001+11:002014-01-12T22:34:46.490+11:00Conquering the Channel
A Caricature of Captain Matthew Webb (Vanity Fair, 9 October 1875) shortly after his conquest of the English Channel
With the failure of J B Johnson's attempt on the English Channel, interest in the possibility of a successful crossing grew. By the middle of the '70s, it had reached fever pitch and another attempt was soon to be made. This time the swimmer was Matthew Webb or, as he was more Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-86265881412938113352014-01-05T11:25:00.000+11:002015-02-13T11:33:14.742+11:00The Challenge of the ChannelWith the growth of leisure time in the later years of Victoria's reign, the variety of sports both for participants and spectators grew rapidly. Men and women competed against time, the elements and one-another. Much was conquered but much remained and in 1870 the English Channel retained its mystique and its reputation as being unconquerable - at least by swimmers. There was something Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-80047341426348452602013-12-20T12:53:00.003+11:002014-01-06T18:45:14.387+11:00The Ashes
The Ashes
Cricket may well be the most English of games, and there is certainly no more fiercely fought series than the clashes between England and Australia. The series is affectionately known, in both countries, as "The Ashes" and is usually fought out every two years.
It was the Northern summer of 1882 and although England had lost in its previous Australian tour, it had never been Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-7595947578638688342013-11-26T13:26:00.000+11:002013-11-26T13:26:36.338+11:00The Challenge of the Channel With the growth of leisure time in the later years of Victoria's reign, the variety of sports, both for participants and spectators, grew rapidly. Men and women competed against time, the elements and one-another. The greatest challenges, and those which had the greatest appeal to the public, were almost always against nature. Although mountains and rivers were conquered, the Channel Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-57442878529917022182013-10-14T13:44:00.001+11:002013-10-14T13:45:53.248+11:00London to Brighton by Coach in Under Eight Hours!With the opening of the London to Brighton rail line, in 1841, coach travel between the two cities declined dramatically both in importance and frequency. Why, one might ask, would someone choose the discomfort and danger of coach travel when, by the middle years of the Old Queen's reign, the trip could be completed with relative ease in less than half the time it would take by coach?  Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34093396.post-10612524831279094462013-02-15T11:42:00.003+11:002013-02-15T12:02:17.018+11:00Victorian Valentines
Valentine's Day is now one of the best known and most popular celebrations in the world. Although not a "holiday" in most places where businesses are open as usual, it is widely celebrated with the exchanging of cards and the sending of gifts.
By the middle years of the nineteenth century, Valentine's day had become a popular event in Great Britain. Two factors, I believe, Dr Bruce Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11591761401001848135noreply@blogger.com0