Temples, Walls, And Some of the Roman Antiquities of Bath

A Lecture Delivered at the Guildhall, March 2, 1853 by Rev. H.M. Scarth, M.A., Rector of Bathwick.

To understand the ancient history of the country in which we live, to know something of the arts and manners of the people who have preceded us, to ascertain what we owe to them, and to know what influence their times and their works have had upon our own, can never be an unprofitable study.

But if traces of great works of past ages are still to be found amongst us, and if these works exhibit a great knowledge of art, if they shew the hand of a people highly civilized, they become deeply interesting, and we may derive much benefit from their consideration. The study of them will cast much light upon the records of ancient history which have been handed down to us; they serve to give life and light to that history, and fill its pages with living realities when we see the very stones and remnants of buildings which the hands of the men of whom we read have put together. Continue reading Temples, Walls, And Some of the Roman Antiquities of Bath

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Gallop of the Common Horse by Eadweard Muybridge 1887

Eadweard Muybridge was a fascinating character.  Click here to learn how Eadweard committed “Justifiable Homicide” after shooting his wife’s lover in 1874.

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Classic Restoration of a Spring Tied Upholstered Chair

This video by AT Restoration is the best hands on video I have run across on the basics of classic upholstery.  Watch a master at work.  Simply amazing.

Tools:

Materials:

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Making a High-end Turntable

Click here to visit the New Yorkshire YouTube channel.

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man

The arsenicals (compounds which contain the heavy metal element arsenic, As) have a long history of use in man – with both benevolent and  malevolent intent. The name ‘arsenic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘arsenikon’ which means ‘potent'”. As early as 2000 BC, arsenic trioxide, obtained from smelting copper, was used as a drug and as a poison 2.

Hippocrates (460 to 377 BC) used orpiment (As2S3) and realgar (As2S2) as escharotics. Aristotle (384 to 322 BC) and Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 AD) also wrote about the medicinal properties of the arsenicals. Galen (130 to 200 AD) recommended a paste of arsenic sulphide for the treatment of ulcers. Paracelsus (1493 to 1541) used elemental arsenic extensively. He is quoted as saying ‘All substances are poisons … The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy’ – an apt statement for the arsenicals 3. Continue reading A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

The Master of Hounds

Photo Caption: The Marquis of Zetland, KC, PC – otherwise known as Lawrence Dundas
Son of: John Charles Dundas and: Margaret Matilda Talbot
born: Friday 16 August 1844
died: Monday 11 March 1929 at Aske Hall
Occupation: M.P. for Richmond Viceroy of Ireland
Vice Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire
Lord – in – Waiting to Queen Victoria
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

 

THE MASTER OF HOUNDS

The great masters of antiquity, if we may so style them—Meynell, Beckford, Corbet, Lee Anthone, John Warde, Ralph Lambton, Musters—have been described as paragons of politeness as well as models of keenness. George Osbaldeston hardly possessed the former quality in so marked a degree. Coming to present times, I cite as examples the late Lord Penrhyn, Lords Portman, Lonsdale,  and Harrington, and Mr. R. Watson of Carlow, Mr. J. Watson (Meath), Captain Burns- Hartopp, and Captain Forester, eminently successful masters. Last but not least the eighth and present Dukes of Beaufort. Continue reading The Master of Hounds

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

A Short Note on Manners for the Young Man Wishing to Make a Goodly Impression Whilst Avoiding Duels

Over the years I have observed a decline in manners amongst young men as a general principle and though there is not one particular thing that may be asserted as the causal reason for this, one might speculate…

Self-awareness and being aware of one’s surroundings in social interactions is something worth contemplating should a young man wish to make a goodly and lasting impression with future mother and father-in-laws, potential business clients, educated members of the clergy and perhaps the occasional fixer should one be inclined to take up politics—Caveat; not all fixers are especially socially adept, what?

Rather than bore the pants off the young man who perchance stumbles blindly into this article, let’s just get down to it and present a few dos and dont’s thus cutting to the proverbial chase.

A Few Don’ts, Never’s and God-forbids: (From personally observed behaviours of a few slobs, sloths, and whatchamacallems.)

  • Never set a drink on a polished piano, grand or otherwise, without a coaster suitable to the task.
  • God-forbid one does not understand that one may substitute the word fine-furniture for piano in the above sentence.
  • Don’t tread on a fine looking Persian rug without first ascertaining from its owner do they prefer shoes be removed.
  • Never sit on a sofa cushion unless one is willing to cough up the dough needed to repair the rip in the $500 per yard fabric should one’s hefty derriere bust the seams.  Gently pick up the cushion and set it aside in a caring manner prior to planting one’s arse and only if one has been invited to take a seat in the first place.
  • Never should one prop their feet up after taking a seat…not on a coffee table, foot cushion or other furnishing unless invited to do so by the clear and present owner of said furniture.
  • God-forbid one does not turn one’s phone off prior to entering the abode of the host,  one should never remove it from one’s pocket, and never enter an abode with it visible unless one is a medical doctor on emergency call duty and has clearly established this protocol with the host prior to the visit.  The best thing to do is leave the phone in one’s car prior to the visit.
  • One should never talk more than one’s host.  One of the least enforced linguistic skills amongst the new millennium’s children is  turn-taking.  Let it be known that  I do actually know a few sixty year olds that have never fully assimilated said skill. If one does not understand this point, I suggest one look it up.  Never attempt to change the topic of conversation of the host unless one is a life-long acquaintance of the host well-versed in the other’s idiosyncrasies and personality traits— Otherwise, a duel might well ensue….

More later….as I quickly become bored with ill-mannered dandies….

 

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

The Basics of Painting in the Building Trade

PAINTER-WORK, in the building trade. When work is painted one or both of two distinct ends is achieved, namely the preservation and the coloration of the material painted. The compounds used for painting—taking the word as meaning a thin protective or decorative coat—are very numerous, including oil-paint of many kinds, distemper, whitewash, tar; but the word ” paint ” is usually confined to a mixture of oil and pigment, together with other materials which possess properties necessary to enable the paint to dry hard and opaque. Oil paints are made up of four parts—the base, the vehicle, the solvent and the driers. Pigment may be added to these to obtain a paint of any desired colour. Continue reading The Basics of Painting in the Building Trade

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Carpenters’ Furniture

IT requires a far search to gather up examples of furniture really representative in this kind, and thus to gain a point of view for a prospect into the more ideal where furniture no longer is bought to look expensively useless in a boudoir, but serves everyday and commonplace need, such as must always be the wont, where most men work, and exchange in some sort life for life. Continue reading Carpenters’ Furniture

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Of Decorated Furniture

DECORATED or “sumptuous” furniture is not merely furniture that is expensive to buy, but that which has been elaborated with much thought, knowledge, and skill. Such furniture cannot be cheap, certainly, but the real cost of it is sometimes borne by the artist who produces rather than by the man who may happen to buy it. Furniture on which valuable labour is bestowed may consist of—1. Large standing objects which, though actually movable, are practically fixtures, such as cabinets, presses, sideboards of various kinds; monumental objects. 2. Chairs, tables of convenient shapes, stands for lights and other purposes, coffers, caskets, mirror and picture frames. 3. Numberless small convenient utensils. Here we can but notice class 1, the large standing objects which most absorb the energies of artists of every degree and order in their construction or decoration. Continue reading Of Decorated Furniture

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

The English Tradition of Woodworking

THE sense of a consecutive tradition has so completely faded out of English art that it has become difficult to realise the meaning of tradition, or the possibility of its ever again reviving; and this state of things is not improved by the fact that it is due to uncertainty of purpose, and not to any burning fever of individualism. Tradition in art is a matter of environment, of intellectual atmosphere. As the result of many generations of work along one continuous line, there has accumulated a certain amount of ability in design and manual dexterity, certain ideas are in the air, certain ways of doing things come to be recognised as the right ways. To all this endowment an artist born in any of the living ages of art succeeded as a matter of course, and it is the absence of this inherited knowledge that places the modern craftsman under exceptional disabilities. Continue reading The English Tradition of Woodworking

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

The Birdman of St. James Park

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Hereford Cathedral Choir Easter Sunday 2017

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Greatest of All Time

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

La Femme Paysanne: Traditional Farming in France

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Of the Room and Furniture

THE transient tenure that most of us have in our dwellings, and the absorbing nature of the struggle that most of us have to make to win the necessary provisions of life, prevent our encouraging the manufacture of well-wrought furniture.

We mean to outgrow our houses—our lease expires after so many years and then we shall want an entirely different class of furniture; consequently we purchase articles that have only sufficient life in them to last the brief period of our occupation, and are content to abide by the want of appropriateness or beauty, in the clear intention of some day surrounding ourselves with objects that shall be joys to us for the remainder of our life. Another deterrent condition to making a serious outlay in furniture is the instability of fashion: each decade sees a new style, and the furniture that we have acquired in the exercise of our experienced taste will in all probability be discarded by the impetuous purism of the succeeding generation. Continue reading Of the Room and Furniture

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

American Farming Circa 1954

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

David Starkey: Britain’s Last Great Historian

Dr. David Starkey, the UK’s premiere historian, speaks to the modern and fleeting notion of “cancel culture”.   Starkey’s brilliance is unparalleled and it has become quite obvious to the world’s remaining Western scholars willing to stand on intellectual integrity that a few so-called “Woke Intellectuals” most certainly cannot undermine his historic intellectual credibility and contribution to British History. This is an interview worth watching.

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

King James I, Witch-Hunter

Mortlake Tapestries at Chatsworth House

Click here to read copy of Daemonologie

Home
Top of Pg.
Archives

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Quotations

The eye is the window of the human body, which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world.”

— Leonardo Da Vinci

The True and Correct History of DJ Vinyl Scratching

New York is well known for hotdogs, the Empire State Building, the Ponzi Scheme, and the Brooklyn Bridge among its many claims to fame. However, contrary to popular belief, DJ vinyl scratching is not one of them. Caveat; Most New Yorkers in fact believe the phenomena originated there.

In the [...] Read more →

Artistic Endeavour in the Absence of Country Gentlemen

The Garden at Somersby Rectory by W.E.F. Britten

When one thinks of the English countryside or rural France replete with rambling country house estates and fairly tale chateaus sitting alongside grand chapels and country church spires, one might imagine a realm of manners, neighborly love, and country gentlemen. However, history informs us [...] Read more →

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas – from Ghost Stories of M.R. James

I

Verum usque in præsentem diem multa garriunt inter se Canonici de abscondito quodam istius Abbatis Thomæ thesauro, quem sæpe, quanquam adhuc incassum, quæsiverunt Steinfeldenses. Ipsum enim Thomam adhuc florida in ætate existentem ingentem auri massam circa monasterium defodisse perhibent; de quo multoties interrogatus ubi esset, cum risu respondere solitus erat: “Job, [...] Read more →

The Age of Chivalry

CHAPTER 1 – Introduction

KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS

On the decline of the Roman power, about five centuries after Christ, the countries of Northern Europe were left almost destitute of a national government. Numerous chiefs, more or less powerful, held local sway, as far as each [...] Read more →

The History of Witchcraft in England – The Beginnings

The Beginnings of English Witchcraft

It has been said by a thoughtful writer that the subject of witchcraft has hardly received that place which it deserves in the history of opinions. There has been, of course, a reason for this neglect—the fact that the belief in witchcraft is no longer [...] Read more →

Penal Methods of the Middle Ages

CHAPTER I

PENAL METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Prisons as places of detention are very ancient institutions. As soon as men had learned the way to build, in stone, as in Egypt, or with bricks, as in Mesopotamia, when kings had many-towered fortresses, and the great barons castles [...] Read more →

Country House Essays Book Now in Print

Country House Essays, the book is now in print. This is an eclectic collection of both original, and historical essays, poems, books, and articles created for our loyal reader hear at CountryHouseEssays.com. It is jam packed with reprints of articles from this website. The cost is $49.95 for this massive [...] Read more →

Clarivoyance by C.W. Leadbeater

Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, India, 1890

CLAIRVOYANCE

by C. W. Leadbeater

Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Pub. House

[1899]

CHAPTER IX

METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT

When a men becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable [...] Read more →

Westminster Confession of Faith – 1646

CHAPTER I. Of the Holy Scripture.

Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary [...] Read more →

Growing Muscadine Grapes in Tennessee

The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee has a long heralded tradition of assisting farmers and growers through it’s Agricultural Extension Service. The following bulletin entitled Grape Growing in Tennessee discusses the Muscadine variety of grapes among others. Muscadine grapes are often found growing wild in Tennessee. On my grandfather’s West Tennessee [...] Read more →

Platform of the American Institute of Banking in 1919

Resolution adapted at the New Orleans Convention of the American Institute of Banking, October 9, 1919:

“Ours is an educational association organized for the benefit of the banking fraternity of the country and within our membership may be found on an equal basis both employees and employers; and in full appreciation [...] Read more →

Parting Words to Kate from The Sloop of War, Jamestown

Sloop of War Jamestown – Photo from book The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series 1, Vol. 3.

Several years ago, I purchased a small memory book entitled Album of Love from the mid 1800s.

Much like scrap books of today, these books were used to keep [...] Read more →

Historic authenticity of the Spanish SAN FELIPE of 1690

Model of San Felipe

Reprinted from FineModelShips.com with the kind permission of Dr. Michael Czytko

The SAN FELIPE is one of the most favoured ships among the ship model builders. The model is elegant, very beautifully designed, and makes a decorative piece of art to be displayed at home or in [...] Read more →

The Late Rev. H.M. Scarth

H. M. Scarth, Rector of Wrington

By the death of Mr. Scarth on the 5th of April, at Tangier, where he had gone for his health’s sake, the familiar form of an old and much valued Member of the Institute has passed away. Harry Mengden Scarth was bron at Staindrop in Durham, [...] Read more →

Classic Restoration of a Spring Tied Upholstered Chair

This video by AT Restoration is the best hands on video I have run across on the basics of classic upholstery. Watch a master at work. Simply amazing.

Tools:

Round needles: https://amzn.to/2S9IhrP Double pointed hand needle: https://amzn.to/3bDmWPp Hand tools: https://amzn.to/2Rytirc Staple gun (for beginner): https://amzn.to/2JZs3x1 Compressor for pneumatic [...] Read more →

A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man

The arsenicals (compounds which contain the heavy metal element arsenic, As) have a long history of use in man – with both benevolent and malevolent intent. The name ‘arsenic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘arsenikon’ which means ‘potent'”. As early as 2000 BC, arsenic trioxide, obtained from smelting copper, was used [...] Read more →

Books Condemned to be Burnt

BOOKS CONDEMNED TO BE BURNT.

By

JAMES ANSON FARRER,

LONDON

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW

1892

———-

WHEN did books first come to be burnt in England by the common hangman, and what was [...] Read more →

U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act – Full Text

UNITED STATES PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION ACT

TITLE I – PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION OFFICE Chapter Section 1. Organization and Publications . 1 2. Legal Provisions as to the Plant Variety Protection Office . 21 3. Plant Variety Protection Fees . 31

CHAPTER 1.-ORGANIZATION AND PUBLICATIONS Section 1. Establishment.2 There is [...] Read more →

The Master of Hounds

Photo Caption: The Marquis of Zetland, KC, PC – otherwise known as Lawrence Dundas Son of: John Charles Dundas and: Margaret Matilda Talbot born: Friday 16 August 1844 died: Monday 11 March 1929 at Aske Hall Occupation: M.P. for Richmond Viceroy of Ireland Vice Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire Lord – in – Waiting [...] Read more →

Here’s Many a Year to You

” Here’s many a year to you ! Sportsmen who’ve ridden life straight. Here’s all good cheer to you ! Luck to you early and late.

Here’s to the best of you ! You with the blood and the nerve. Here’s to the rest of you ! What of a weak moment’s swerve ? [...] Read more →

The Hunt Saboteur

The Hunt Saboteur is a national disgrace barking out loud, black mask on her face get those dogs off, get them off she did yell until a swift kick from me mare her voice it did quell and sent the Hunt Saboteur scurrying up vale to the full cry of hounds drowning out her [...] Read more →

The Billesden Coplow Run

Smith, Charles Loraine; The Billesdon Coplow Run, Leicestershire

*note – Billesdon and Billesden have both been used to name the hunt.

BILLESDEN COPLOW POEM

[From “Reminiscences of the late Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq”]

The run celebrated in the following verses took place on the 24th of February, 1800, [...] Read more →