London Walking Tours by @BaroquePodcast
London
Joined June 2022
- Tweets417
- Following164
- Followers70
- Likes1.8K
Reign of London Tours retweeted
One of the oldest tree species on Earth,
The magnificent Ginkgo tree at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds, England, transforms into a golden spectacle each autumn,
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade.
If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?
On demands for reparations, whether through cash or debt relief, we have been down this track before. Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start. More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts. Labour are already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare.
There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born. And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain.
As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham should be Britain’s greatest defender. Instead, he is writing articles saying we need to confront our history (as if we haven't done enough of that) and considering another formal historical apology. Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again.
This is all another navel-gazing distraction. The Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards. That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats. If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
When will the demands stop?
Everyone knows the transatlantic slave trade was wrong. Britain played a huge role in stopping it.
So when it comes to the question of reparations, my answer is no.
It’s time for the Commonwealth to start looking forwards, not backwards.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Doğa harika!
Bir kamera, bir kuşun yuvasını baştan sona nasıl inşa ettiğini ve yavrularını nasıl dünyaya getirdiğini kaydetti.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
And it's filled with tales of smugglers and tunnels from over 100 years ago 👀
📍Robin Hood's Bay – at Robin Hood's Bay, England
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Shakespeare’s Woman of the Week: Rosalind in As You Like It.
One of my favorite of her lines: “When I think, I must speak.”
Rosalind is determined to control her own life, running off to the forest for more freedom.
She is fun with a sparkling wit and playful approach to life.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
This little leaf-crunching explorer is peak autumn-those tiny steps through the leaves are adorable 🥰
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Another time, almost another civilisation. London, just over a century ago, filmed c. 1910 - 1920 by someone who thought the future might want to see it. How lucky we are that they did.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
For centuries...
Before clocks or smartphones
Bells were the heartbeat of communities 🔔 – at Skipton, England
Reign of London Tours retweeted
This Victorian bathtub combined a bath, shower and body-spray system in a single unit.
Produced by Shanks & Co. of Barrhead, Scotland, the “Independent Plunge, Spray and Shower Bath” was designed to stand without a separate wooden enclosure. Its cast-iron tub was paired with a curved spray section, overhead shower and integrated plumbing fittings.
Versions of Shanks’ combined spray baths were already being exhibited in the 1880s, while illustrated sanitary catalogues around 1900 showed increasingly elaborate decorated models like this one.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
The magnificent alabaster tomb of William Phelip, 6th Baron Bardolph (d.1441) & Joan, Lady Bardolph (d.1447) at St Mary, Dennington, Suffolk.
Sir William fought with Henry V at Agincourt. In 1438 the couple obtained a royal licence for a chantry at Dennington.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Five places you can, and should, visit in Wales connected with the early Tudor Dynasty. Come explore #TudorWales 🏴
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate (1618–1680) was a brilliant 17th Century philosopher and royal exile who famously challenged the mind-body dualism of René Descartes...
Princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate was born into a royal family in Heidelberg, Germany, on December 26, 1618, to Frederick V (the "Winter King" of Bohemia) and Elizabeth Stuart. Her family lost their Bohemian crown just two years later, plunging her childhood into the chaos and displacement of the Thirty Years' War. Despite exile and financial uncertainty, she received a stellar, rigorous education in languages, mathematics, theology, and philosophy, earning the nickname "La Grecque" (The Greek) for her erudition.
Born in Heidelberg in 1618, Elisabeth was the daughter of Frederick V and Elizabeth Stuart. After her father’s brief reign as King of Bohemia collapsed, the family lived in exile in The Hague. Elisabeth received an exceptional education in languages, mathematics, science and philosophy, earning the nickname “La Greque” for her learning.
Then she encountered René Descartes.
In 1643, Elisabeth began corresponding with the philosopher about his claim that mind and body were fundamentally different substances. Her objection was devastatingly simple: if the mind has no physical extension, how can it cause a physical body to move?
Descartes answered, but Elisabeth kept pressing. His responses did not fully resolve the problem, and their exchange became one of philosophy’s enduring debates over mind and body. Her intellectual power was impossible to dismiss. Descartes dedicated his Principles of Philosophy to her, and their discussions helped shape his later work The Passions of the Soul.
Elisabeth’s life was not confined to philosophy. She became abbess of Herford in 1667, governing the community while opening it to religious outsiders, including persecuted Labadists and Quakers.
She died there in 1680.
For centuries, Elisabeth was often treated as a brilliant woman orbiting a great male philosopher. Her surviving letters tell a different story. She was the person asking the question that Descartes could never satisfactorily make disappear.
#archaeohistories
Reign of London Tours retweeted
This is the tomb of Henry III, who lies buried in the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor at the heart of the Abbey.
The large Purbeck marble tomb is decorated with slabs of purple and green porphyry and is inlaid with gilded Cosmati mosaic and pieces of coloured marble and glass.
While some of the decoration has been lost over the centuries, much still remains on the north side of the tomb.
#31DaysOfTombs #Glass
ALT The marble tomb of Henry III sits framed between two large, cylindrical stone columns inside Westminster Abbey. Atop the tomb lies a golden effigy of a reclining figure, facing right with arms folded. The front panel of the tomb is inlaid with a large piece of porphyry, framed by intricate gold mosaic patterns. Below this, a stone base features geometric patterns in gold mosaic alongside dark diamond and circular stone inlays. Directly above the tomb, a dark, heavy wooden beam structure arches between the two main stone columns. In the background, tiers of arched stone niches and Abbey windows rise behind the tomb.
ALT An extreme close-up shows a corner of an ornate Cosmatesque mosaic set into a light brown stone frame. The frame has a stepped-in design with a smooth, polished finish, showing slight signs of age and wear. A border of geometric mosaic pattern lines the inside of the frame. This pattern consists of alternating gold, dark blue, and red triangles that form star-like shapes. The gold triangles are gilded, while the blue and red ones are made of glass tesserae. Below the top border and to the left of the right border is a large spiral shape made of the same mosaic materials. The spiral is composed of alternating gold and red triangles. In the center of the spiral is a round, raised stone element. To the left of the spiral is a dark red porphyry stone panel, partially visible. The entire mosaic is set into a mortar bed, which is visible in the gaps between the tesserae.
ALT An extreme close-up of a mosaic. Triangles of gold leaf, red, and blue tiles form two adjacent diamond patterns outlined in thick, rough grey mortar. A strip of textured brown stone bounds the mosaic on the right side.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Jane Seymour REALLY liked cash (see my new book on her). She also apparently really liked bowls. The Earl of Rutland was furious when he presented her with a gift of gooseberries and she stole the bowl. Here’s the pictorial proof 😆 #janeseymour #queenjaneseymour #tudor #tudors #sixwives
Reign of London Tours retweeted
The Old Cornish Accent:
This video is a wonderful view into the old Cornish accent and spirit. This fascinating interview of 77 year old Cornish maid Emanda Billings in 1964 is a great insight into the everyday life of our recent ancestors. She was born in Victorian England (1800s), a world in which we've lost all connection.
The Cornish accent (also called Anglo-Cornish or Cornu-English) developed as local Celtic speakers shifted to English between 1300 and 1750, adopting regional West Country English while keeping a strong Brittonic language substrate. ⏳️
Reign of London Tours retweeted
On this day in 1758 Horatio Nelson was born.
Nelson went on to become a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy. He is undoubtedly best remembered for his crashing victory at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
To this day Nelson remains Briton’s most famous sailor.
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Haughmond Abbey in Shropshire, which was occupied by Augustinian canons until it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539. The abbot’s lodgings are particularly lavish, taking up around a third of the monastery’s site. The abbey overlooks the site of the Battle of Shrewsbury, which was fought in 1403. The abbot attempted, unsuccessfully, to mediate between the royal forces and those of Henry Hotspur before the battle took place #haughmondabbey #battleofshrewsbury1403⚔️ #henryv #medievalabbey #medieval
Reign of London Tours retweeted
Arundel Castle has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk and their ancestors for over 850 years. From the 15th to the 17th centuries the Howards were at the forefront of English history, and a certain Thomas Howard was Anne Boleyn's infamous uncle. It's magnificent!
Reign of London Tours retweeted
In June 1860, Elizabeth Packard kissed her six children goodbye.
She thought about the dinner she would cook later. She thought about the laundry. She thought about the quiet life of a mother in Illinois.
She had no idea that when the front door clicked shut, it would stay locked for three long years.
Her husband, Theophilus Packard, was a respected minister. To the neighbors, he was a man of God. Inside their home, he could not stand a wife who thought for herself.
Elizabeth liked to read. She liked to debate religion. She had her own opinions about life and faith. In the 19th century, a woman with a mind of her own was treated as a danger.
Theophilus decided to end the argument. He didn’t need a crime. He didn’t need a witness. Illinois law let a husband commit his wife to an insane asylum without evidence or a public hearing. He simply had to say she was “disturbed.”
One morning men arrived at her home. They did not listen to her logic. They did not care about her tears. They took her to the Jacksonville Insane Asylum.
Elizabeth was 43, perfectly sane, and suddenly a prisoner.
Inside she expected people who needed medical help. Instead she found a warehouse of “inconvenient” women: wives who argued about money, daughters who refused marriages they did not want, women who were simply too independent.
“This is not a hospital,” she realized. “It is a cage for the unwanted.”
Doctors tried to break her. They told her that if she admitted her husband was right and she was wrong, she could go home. They wanted her to say she was crazy for wanting her own thoughts.
She looked them in the eye and said, “I cannot buy my liberty by a lie.”
She did not give up. She wrote. She hid scraps of paper in the linings of her clothes. She tucked notes under floorboards. She recorded every abuse and every story of the women around her. She became a secret journalist inside a living nightmare.
After three years she was released. Her husband locked her in a room at home and planned to send her to another asylum in a different state.
This time friends helped her reach a judge. A trial was ordered.
The courtroom was packed. Theophilus was confident. He brought “experts” who claimed her religious doubts proved her mind was broken.
Elizabeth stood up. She did not shout. She spoke with the calm power of the truth. She explained her beliefs. She showed the jury that a different opinion is not a disease.
The jury needed seven minutes.
They came back with one word: Sane.
She walked out a free woman and found that her husband had taken the furniture, the money, and the children. She was alone and penniless.
Most people would have disappeared. Elizabeth did the opposite.
She spent the next forty years traveling the country. She stood before legislatures and demanded new laws. She said a woman’s mind is her own, and the law must protect it.
Because of her, states changed their laws. They made it illegal to lock a person away without a fair trial and a medical exam.
She turned private pain into a public shield for thousands of other women.
You can take a woman’s home, her money, and her children.
You cannot take her voice. 🌹
