Joanne Major

Strange as it may seem, the best idea we can get of Kitty’s famous bonnet is from a painting of two girls dressing a kitten by candlelight.

A sentry found Cromwell's head and kept it. At his death, the sentry bequeathed it (what an inheritance!) to his wife and daughter.

Newspapers, plays and paintings portrayed the romance of elopement — but what was the reality?

With Wimbledon in full swing, thoughts – naturally – turn towards that perennial British summer favourite, fresh strawberries and cream.

Despite Queen Victoria writing that it had been a ‘very fatiguing day, in the Garden at Buckingham Palace, where I used to sit so often in former happy days,’ her journal suggests that she spent little time outside.

Among the personages here attracting public notice, is an original, or would-be original, generally known by the appellation of ‘The Green Man.’ He is dressed in green pantaloons, green waistcoat, green frock, green cravat, and though his ears, whiskers, eyebrows and chin are better powdered than his head, which is, however, covered with flour, his countenance, no doubt, from the reflection of his clothes, is also green.

The following excerpt from Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King talks about an illness that struck Harold down as a young man when he was Earl of East Anglia. This story only appears in the chronicle Haroldi Vita. The said book was written around 1205, however there may well be some truth to the story.

She tumbled from her horse and the press loved the idea of a fallen woman, falling. Overnight, Kitty became a sensation.

His rambles take him all along Piccadilly, Oxford Street, Regent Street... He has one questionable habit, which is a liking for tobacco...

One thing we need to get straight, you don’t use cheese to make these cheesecakes. They are more akin to a Yorkshire curd tart.

An ancient building, made of timber and plaster with a flat tiled roof, the Cheesecake House stood in the park from at least the reign of Charles II (and perhaps even earlier). To gain access to the front door, you crossed the small stream which ran in front of the building via a rudimentary wooden bridge. Samuel Pepys was a visitor; in 1669 he took his wife. They sat outside in their coach and ate ‘a cheesecake and drank a tankard of milk.’

So, how to make the perfect cup of Georgian-era coffee? Mrs Maria Eliza Rundell, in A New System of Domestic Cookery, 1808, gives a recipe.

I always look forward to the annual Lincoln Medieval Christmas Market hosted by the Travelling Historical Market.

... but perhaps you don’t know who Dando was. He was an oyster-eater [and] used to go into oyster-shops, without a farthing of money...

They were an item of clothing that transcended any notions of class or status and worn throughout most of the eighteenth century by all women, from nobility down to fishwives. These petticoats had a variety of uses. Usually tied at either side of the waistband, they had a gap in the side seams which allowed access to a pair of pockets worn underneath.

There are many tall tales told about Mary (Moll) King, a shrewd businesswoman who was the proprietor of King’s Coffee House in London’s Covent Garden. Several sources say she was a thief, stealing watches from ladies’ pockets and held in Newgate before being transported on more than one occasion.

A Jack-in-the-Green was once a traditional sight in English May Day celebrations. Dancing at the head of processions on the day, often noisy and drunk, the Jack-in-the-Green was a man who covered himself in a conical or pyramidal framework decorated with green foliage, concealing his body. He resembled a walking tree or bush. The parades were riotous affairs...

Horace Walpole claimed that Bolingbroke asked Reynolds to give Diana’s eyes ‘something of Nelly O’Brien, or it will not do.’

It is said that Courtoy arrived in England with many gold Louis d’or coins, which he invested with the Bank of England. Thereafter, he commenced trading on Oxenden Street as a hairdresser and peruke (wig) maker. His trade took him into the best houses in London and he was soon very well known.

In a ditch, between St Albans and Colney Heath in Hertfordshire, lay a poor starving girl, half-naked. Two bakers travelling along the road discovered and rescued her. They took her to an alehouse near the turnpike where the local surgeon and apothecary, Mr Humphries, was sent for. Under his care, the girl recovered.