New answers tagged england
1
I cannot find anything on the poem itself, but Gustave Chatain is a well known French World War One historical figure who enlisted surreptitiously at age 14, received commendations, and rose to the rank of corporal. Here he is in a publicity photo with Foch.
The first of three tales in this booklet tells a (somewhat fanciful) version of Gustave's enlistment ...
1
This is rank speculation, since I couldn't find a copy of the poem, but I'm going to guess that your mother's "Ardefine" is actually "Ardennes fine". I believe the final "s" is silent, and of course "fine" can be synonymous with "beautiful".
The Ardennes is an area of forest, rolling hills, and other rough terrain running along the southern border of ...
0
Echoing the sentiment in my earlier comment, hospitals were chiefly a venue where the poor would go until the mid-century, and births occurred at home with ad hoc midwives otherwise.
The story behind hand washing before childbirth (an interesting read in its own right) elaborates on the reasons why hospitals attracted the poor:
Maternity institutions ...
12
The Erenow site has an image of the seal on it's page titled The Fears of Henry IV, although it isn't particularly high resolution, and doesn't provide further details for the source of the image:
This seems to match the description that you mentioned on p 242 of Charles Boutell's English Heraldry
"... a very remarkable Seal, used by HENRY IV. a short ...
2
In 1964 two Magdalen undergrads, Adam Poynter and Rory Donellan, fought a duel after Mr Donellan described a Lady Margaret girl whom Mr Poynter admired as "thick" and Mr Poynter slapped Mr Donellan with a glove. Honour was satisfied when Mr Poynter sustained a cut in his wrist and the gentlemen went back to Mr Donellan's room for a whisky.
86
English meadows and forests are and were full of psychoactive substances.
They were used.
Quite creatively.
In what psychiatrists call polytoxicomania. In what aficionados call synergistic combinations.
This answer defines 'drugs' as mind-altering substances. The psychoactives do not need to be on the level of effectiveness of Oktoberfest inebriation or ...
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