Edge of the winter

Quietly wondering whether the first Duke was planning to paper the walls with those, or had another practical use in mind for them...

They don’t feel shame – or they'd admit neither skipping the text, nor using AI. What they typically feel is juvenile superiority of a person who, to someone having spent a year translating a book, returns, “I cd have done it in minutes with my gadget” (and believes result wd be the same, too).

Need more #18thC in your life?? OF COURSE YOU DO! Click below for an incredible programme of events from our friends @cecs-york.bsky.social #skystorians #18thC 🗃️ www.york.ac.uk/eighteenth-c...

A reminder that the last time sun was distinctly visible around my neck of the woods was 5th January; total amount of sunny days this [calendar] winter so far has been below ten.

Two libraries: (l) part of Downhill House (itself a recipient much architectural flak in its day), destroyed by fire in 1851, & (r) a modern multi-award-winning building elsewhere, victim to no natural calamities. I appreciate the latter is at least habitable, but when and how have we gone so wrong?

Could this be /whispers cautiously/ the first good news of 2026?

The snow has now left these particular "Scoticanian shores," but during the four days of it in its various states I managed to take enough pictures to bore people with them for quite some time.

Polite reminder to the south of England re. what “snow” actually means. Even this only lasted 2.5 days before starting to melt…

Some natural sepia conditions provided by this small pond and light today. Weather only changed about 6 times in the couple of hours I was out.

My last photo of 2025 - wishing everyone a lighter, happier 2026 with less doomscrolling and more meaningful archive encounters, good books and time for research (yes, I’m sad, but easily pleased)!

misty morning by the river

Lots of excitement here, despite the TBR pile muttering all sorts about "books you already have."

Happy Christmas everyone (or whatever you celebrate, even if it's only a few days of not working)!

Once worked with a collection donated to a large archive, where archive lost touch with donor - so no photocopying allowed, just in case long-dead donor minded. When asked about quoting from the material, archive advised me to “just paraphrase.” 🙄

A small piece of sea off Hoy

Rejoiced to find this reviewer (of one of the newer e-mail services) had either time-travelled or been reading too many eighteenth century letters lately...

The river once more

“If opinion and feeling trump facts and thinking, what are the consequences?” A thought-provoking article with little to disagree with, despite its age, except that the problem is of course not confined to social media 'doing history' - and that SM at its best is still a tool, not an oracle.

There is a new medical history feed at bsky.app/profile/did:... which, although not limited to any particular time, may be of interest to folk also watching #c18 #c19 #earlymodern and others.

the living dead

Quick walk before all light was lost (currently dusk at 15:30 in this sad part of the world)

Quintet

“I have in my collection a very interesting unpublished manuscript of Princess Lieven’s, which informed my writing, but which I’m neither going to quote directly from, nor reproduce in an appendix, bc I will NEVER, ever die and you lot can just ask me at any time.” 🙄

Another day, another side of the lough...

Amused at “Crozier museum now!” reaction in a certain community to the news of sale of what had been the Crozier family home and is now a bunch of offices in Banbridge town centre. 1/10 🧵 armaghi.com/news/banbrid...

“Write what you know” is advice I still think sensible, but how to reconcile it with published works by authors who not only do NOT know but more alarmingly, do not show any inclination to find out?

Looking across the Narrows towards Strangford and the Mournes in the background. Sound up for the bells, birds and wind.

A brilliant thread on how - and more importantly, why - the literary blended with and influenced the historic almost to the point of no return. Really look forward to the article!

Mount Stewart is colouring up nicely (even though that bright yellow was brown in less than two days)...

Read this while on the road, and though there may not be enough 'pure' history for some, it's thoughtful, [darkly] funny and absorbing. It didn't bring peace to my uneasy relationship with museums/heritage sites (nothing could do that), but I enjoyed the book! #HistBookChat

A very happy birthday to Francis Crozier, who still has more of them than the King (thanks to dates varying depending on the source), but today is the real one, according to his father - I wrote about the mystery in www.thethousandthpart.com/notes/the-ma... #NavalHistory #PolarExploration

Very pleased to have spotted Captain Crozier among the famous locals in the Down County Museum, between Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Andrews Jr. (the latter of the Titanic fame).

Timeline cleanse, with lots of foam and none of that North Sea rubbish.

Such a shame the Guardian chose to concentrate on "solved the mystery" and "'incredible' likeness" (firmly in the eye of the beholder tbh) rather than details/process of the search/find, given that this lady comes from a [presumably] unmarked grave in a 'wrong' cemetery. #NavalHistory

Beach ‘forest’ #CoastalPhotography

Quick run (well, a brisk walk) before sunset; pleased to report none of that cloudless summer nonsense remains.

Enjoy reading in September! Here is an updated list of new #nonfiction #books about the #18thcentury scheduled for this month: regency-explorer.net/new-releases/ #Regency #Napoleon #history #JaneAusten #read #18thc

Finally starting to read this in its entirety, having previously enjoyed extracts here and there. Someone really ought to repeat his route next year to mark its 230th anniversary! #HistBookChat #IrishHistory

It bothers me slightly that we still don't know Croker's reaction to having mountains, then not having mountains.

Cupid’s Arrow/Crow Conversation

Yet to read this, but such a great cover, too - enjoyed reading the interview with its designer yalebooks.co.uk/an-interview... #NapoleonicHistory

Foggy river this morning instead of the sea - could it possibly mean the start of the season known elsewhere as "autumn" and practically invisible here?

Picked up "Second Identity" for commute reading; yet to break through its multiple waves of history to the main topic, but enjoying some of Cobb's observations a little too much. I could almost forgive him his dislike of hills and Scotland (not in a million years, Sir😀) #HistoryBookChat

Layers and stairs (another sunny day ignored ☑️)

Learning from @hartleyspecialc.bsky.social that the Duke of Wellington was once sent a dog, ship's biscuit and preserved meat from an Arctic voyage, I suspected John Ross - wrongly, bc it seems the goods came from Parry's 2nd expedition. The sender is Capt. Hill en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hi... 1/3

#C18 #NavalHistory #HistoryBookChat

‪Enjoy reading about the #18thc in August! Here is the updated list of new #nonfiction #books about the 18th century scheduled for this month: regency-explorer.net/new-releases/ #Regency #Napoleon #history #JaneAusten #read #18thc

Spot the odd one out on the horizon! (She is B.A.P. Unión, the Peruvian training ship, fifth from the left - and is, I hope, rightfully scornful of the lowly supply boats around her).

So tempted to follow this advice at work, but the tragedy is that no one would even notice...