Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Beach has frequently pointed to burning libraries, lost books or in this case lost sheaves of papers. First, let’s introduce the author ‘Ariel’ writing in the Blackburn Standard in 1892. ‘Ariel’ wrote a column for this publication from the late 1880s and then right through the 1890s apparently ending in 1900: normally termed ‘Passing Notes […]

So awkward, love the eyes… EC writes, 30 May 2016: I don’t have an ironclad source but the internet is saying that the woman is Clara Bow and the picture dates to the 20s, i.e. before the NSDAP had worked up a head of steam. (1), (2) https://www.tumblr.com/sydneyflapper/53971362765/missclarabow-leafwoman-i-used-to-think    

If you don’t know what an aquamanile is look it up. I had to and am now a better person for it…

Chanan Tigay, The Lost Book of Moses (Harper-Collins, 2016) This blogger has a dilemma. There are three pages of a century-old book he wants about an obscure English county. The book is not present in any library in the world, but one copy exists in the hands of a bookseller who wants about two hundred […]

Michael F. Robinson, The Lost White Tribe (Oxford University Press) Really intrigued by this one: a bit of pleasant Victorian madness. They’ll be talking about Welsh Indians in Iowa next.  

This was one that really whets the curiosity. We are brought back to London in the early seventeenth-century, whereas this is being remembered in the later 1600s. What the hell is going on here? Dr Lamb, who was killed by the Mob for a conjurer, about 1640,* met one Morning Sir Miles Sands and Mr […]

Chanan Tigay, The Lost Book of Moses (Ecco) Biblical shenanigans and antiquarians. It doesn’t get any better… Reading this now and definitely worth the price of entrance.

Beach has recently been looking lovingly through the various volumes of medieval armour and arms, particularly those of Guy Francis Laking (all online and all free if you have time and inclination). Particularly fascinating is the high silliness of the crests that were put on the top of the helmets. Above is perhaps the only […]

The strangest painting technique ever employed? The Mountain Man of Fan-Yang, an artist from T’ang China perhaps holds the prize in what for Europe would have been the early Middle Ages. The Mountain Man’s preferred method was as follows: as you remember this think about a French or Irish monk inking a manuscript. Mountain man […]

We are digital human beings living in caveman’s body. This, at least, is the perspective of a growing number of nutritionists and their followers: who explain problems in human health through our eating Neolithic or, worse, industrial foods. The natural conclusion is that, for our bodies’ sakes, we can surf the internet and drive cars, […]

This story haunted Beach more than any other he has covered in the last couple of weeks. There are several Beachcombian themes that come together and then rip a man’s life apart: ghosts, English deference (and its disappearance), the eccentricities of those in religious office, and the loneliness of each and everyone of us in our […]

13 or 14 Century Wild Man with thanks to Bruce…

In 1982 Argentina invaded two British possessions the Falklands (2 April) and South Georgia (19 March). The British, under a determined Margaret Thatcher, sent a task force to retake the islands, something that was finally achieved 14 June of that year. The deadly struggle between the two sides included many moments of tragedy: all too […]

Ronald Hutton (ed), Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery and Witchcraft in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic (Palgrave Macmillan 2016) Academic essay collections fall into different categories including such old and tried favourites as: ‘new directions’; ‘pot pouri’; ‘the EU gave us some money so we had a conference’; and ‘x is wrong and […]

Dear Reader, Exhausted after yesterday finishing the last exams. Will drift back into consciousness over the next week, for now sitting out in the garden with the tortoises. Thanks, as always, to the multiple linkers: Amanda, Invisible, Chris S, Joan, Ricardo, Wade and others. I’ve put the very best contributions below to the posts from […]