Mermaid Monday: Mermaid in Berlin October 9, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Bit of a melancholy mermaid story this week that has, sorry, little to do with mermaids and nothing to do with the sea. The following story has been published at Berlin under quasi-official sanction [those Prussians!]: ‘On the 15th, the wife of a painter in Old Schonhaus Street, brought into the world a most wonderful […]
Best Ghost Story: Paris Station Ghost October 8, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
This is one of the very best ghost stories: partly because of how its written; partly because of how difficult it is to explain away. The author is Shane Leslie, an Irish member of the British establishment in the 1920s and 1930s, a cousin of Churchill and a witty and delightfully gossipy talker. He had […]
Flight Hoaxes at Norwich October 7, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Beach recently came across this remarkable hoax from Norwich UK from 1826. The public are respectfully informed that Signor Carlo Grain Villecrop [these sound like foreign names made up by an English writer], the celebrated Swiss Mountain-flyer, from Geneva, and Mont Blanc, is just arrived in this city, and will exhibit, with Tyrolese pole, fifty feet […]
Daily History Picture: Benign Swastikas October 6, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
Edmonton, Canada, ice hockey team: before the Nazis dishonoured the swastika.
Daily History Picture: Dunkirk Evac October 5, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
Notice the captured German helmet.
The Scholar Who Went with the Fairies October 5, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modern
Peter Alderson Smith is an English scholar who in 1987 wrote a really very good book on Irish fairies: W. B. Yeats and the Tribes of Danu. In the middle of the book there is one of these passages where you think: what?!? Beach to help inattentive readers has italicized the relevant clause. Note that […]
Daily History Picture: Train Fairies October 4, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
This is from Andrews, Ulster Folklore.
Daily History Picture: Remembering Cats October 3, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
Loved this, remembering a cat.
Daily History Picture: Death of Cornish October 2, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
A tragic map: it was all over by 1800, pace Cornish nationalists…
Mermaid Monday: Mermaids Off Islay October 2, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
Here is a mermaid story from the Scottish islands 1857 (Anon 1857). The declaration of two fishermen on the Argyleshire coast appears in the Shipping Gazette. They say: ‘We the undersigned, do declare that on Thursday last, the 4th June 1857, when on our way to the fishing station, Lochindaal, in a boat, and when […]
Beachcombed 88 October 1, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Beachcombed
Dear Reader, Gentle September. Little teaching, lots of writing. Tortoises slowly taking their leave. There follow the most interesting words sent in to StrangeHistory. Thanks to all contributors and linkers… Enjoy October! Beach A Jack the Ripper Urban Legend: Ultweets on twitter came up with a 1909 version… Annie Kidnapped by the Fairies: Chris S. on […]
