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  • Ghost Riot and Fakery, 1897 February 20, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Ghost Riot and Fakery, 1897

    An 1897 ghost story, with a small ghost riot, exceptional for this extraordinary illustration from the Illustrated Police News. Regrettably the story was not more widely reported. Can anyone give more? drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com PLUMSTEAD, near Woolwich, has for the past week been the scene of a ghostly visitation, in which the ‘spirit’ […]

    Daily History Picture: Three Tatler Girls February 19, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Three Tatler Girls

    Three 1920s girls from Tatler Magazine (British upper class)

    Japanese Mermaid in India February 19, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Japanese Mermaid in India

    This mermaid account is perhaps most interesting for the insight it gives into the mermaid trade in the east. We are in Delhi (Anon 1870). I was quite astonished to hear from some of my friends that a real mermaid exposed in the chouk of this city, could be seen on paying a single piece. […]

    Doom! Doom! Doom! February 18, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Doom! Doom! Doom!

    This is one of those WIBT (wish I’d been there) moments, described by Lloyd George some two decades after the event. First some background. 4 August 1914 Britain had given an ultimatum to Germany stating that Germany would have to remove its troops from Belgium forthwith. If Germany continued to violate Belgian neutratlity then Britain […]

    A Fairy Foot? February 17, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    A Fairy Foot?

    In 1871 a man in a cattle market in Ipswich (England) watched a dealer remove, from his pocket, various objects and was shocked to see a small skeletal foot there. On being asked what the object was: the cattle dealer responded that it was a ‘fairy foot’ and that it was a ‘sovereign protection against […]

    Daily History Picture: Titania! February 16, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Titania!

    1939 British Titania from Midsummer Night’s Dream

    Who Coined ‘World War’? February 16, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern
    Who Coined 'World War'?

    ‘World war’ is a magnificent phrase. It alliterates, it promises a vast scale, and it doesn’t get lost in tiresome Latinate polysyllables. But where does the expression come from? The Longer Oxford Dictionary gives its earliest reference in English to 1848 and the People’s Journal.* Actually the phrase seems to have been used earlier in […]

    Daily History Picture: Toby the Sapient Pig February 15, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Toby the Sapient Pig

    Toby the Sapient Pig.

    Daily History Picture: You Can Always Drink Wine… February 14, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: You Can Always Drink Wine...

    1960s advert (?) from UK

    Daily History Picture: Truman Capote February 13, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Truman Capote

    An immortal, Truman Capote looking wonderfully rafish.

    Snail Slime Love Spell February 13, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Snail Slime Love Spell

    Location: nineteenth-century Ireland Aim: to find out who you are destined to love Ingredients: a snail, two plates, a May night Method: (i) find a snail while walking at night in May (perhaps May 24, the night between the worlds?) (ii) put this snail between two plates before going to sleep (iii) sleep (iv) in […]

    Daily History Picture: WW1 German Attack February 12, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: WW1 German Attack

    Horrific WW1 pic from German lines.

    Mermaid Monday: Bread-Eating King-Killing Mer-Woman February 12, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Mermaid Monday: Bread-Eating King-Killing Mer-Woman

    This is a mermaid account from mid late 1910 and from County Clare in Ireland. The last reported appearance of a mermaid is so recent as the end of April, 1910. Several people, including Martin Griffin, my informant, saw what they are firmly convinced was a mer-woman in a cove a little to the north […]

    An Ancient Count of St Germain February 11, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient
    An Ancient Count of St Germain

    If you want to write a wacko book about humanoid lizards and immortals with kilts and poor sword etiquette living among us this might just be the passage for you. Beach’s reading from today is from Herodotus (‘I never disappoint’) of Halicarnassus and the hero is one Aristeas (seventh century BC), known among the Greeks […]

    Were There Really Arrow Storms? February 10, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval
    Were There Really Arrow Storms?

    There are a number of antique and medieval references to massive numbers of arrows creating arrow storms in battles. Some readers will remember, for example the arrows blotting out the sun at Thermopylae: ‘Good, we shall fight in the shade etc’. But did these arrow storms really take place? Just how many arrows could an […]