Night after night, something has been moving our mini-pumpkins in our garden. We set up a camera and caught the culprit! (S)He comes every night, multiple times a night, and either carries or noses them down to the other end of the garden!

Happy #WorldLetterWritingDay! To mark this occasion, here's a brief write-up of some of the letters I read @bodleian.ox.ac.uk today, between William and Eleanor Porden and various correspondents. Turnips make a very odd appearance! eleanorporden.com/2025/09/01/h...

Happy World Letter Writing Day! It seems very appropriate that I spent a very fruitful half day in the Bodleian Library, reading the various letters between the Pordens (Eleanor and William) and Francis Douce (antiquary and museum curator) and Benjamin D'Israeli. Whenever I visit an archive, I can…

This cat is adorable. Used to live in a cat café til we adopted her two years ago (she'd been there the longest as black cats are unpopular). She's gorgeous and funny BUT she's a typical black cat: daft as a brush. She's started trying to haul herself out of windows and we found her on the ...

A fine S. T. Coleridge letter up for auction at £10,000. A bit depressed. Longing for greatness. Pantisocracy. Infatuated with Mary Evans. Hits all the right notes, really. 😉

Not the biggest fan of the named Coke bottles as I always feel I'm stealing someone else's but in France it's been fun to pretend I'm Anaïs.

An alert to all creatives using #WeTransfer. Basically, stop immediately! As of August, they will begin scraping everything you send for AI purposes (see the new paragraph in their Terms and Conditions below). If, like me, you’re a voice artist, they’ll clone your voice. Avoid at all costs.

If you're a member of the Maritime Museum, please come to my talk tomorrow night, at 6.30pm, on the life of Eleanor Anne Porden! She's done much more than *just* being married to John Franklin - she was an acclaimed poet and fascinating person. Hope to see you there! www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/nat...

My beloved Captain is visiting us for a couple of days while he has dental work done and my lovely Anise is not thrilled. AT ALL.

I'm giving a masterclass on Revenge in Hamlet for visiting students next week and am creating a Powerpoint presentation. On the slide about Francis Bacon's essay on revenge, the design function has suggested, as an illustration, a picture of - you guessed it - bacon. 🤦‍♂️ #teaching #hamlet #bacon

Someone's happy it's the weekend. #cats #crazycats

We are indebted to @nuitsdeyoung.bsky.social‬ for sharing this fascinating piece with us.

Passport photos are unflattering for most of us mortals. Perhaps a better form of identification is thro' written description. See how the French described William Porden in his passport in my latest post: eleanorporden.com/2025/04/10/w... & compare this to his portrait! @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

William Porden’s passport identity revealed! While transcribing William Porden’s 1818 travel journal, I came across some details, in which he revealed how the officials at the customs house in Calais described him in his passport. I found it intriguing, not only because I gained a better idea of…

William Porden's #wotd: 'voiturier' - a coachman or driver. Porden describes being "besieged by Voituriers from the moment we entered Lausanne" - one of whom became such a wretched pest that "I was compelled the first night to drive him out of my Bed Room..." @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

William Porden #wotd - Camera Lucida: "a special device...which projects an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed onto the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure" (Wikipedia)

Nice morning commute

William Porden's #WOTD: 'riant', from the French verb 'rire' - 'to laugh'; thus here - "cheerful, smiling." He uses it to describe scenery near the French Alps: "The valley... soon changed to a riant foreground, of green turf and shrubs and wild flowers..." @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

My cat has just been sick on one of the books I've written. I wonder what score that would equate to on Goodreads? 🧐

Am dreading trying to get up off my nice, comfy sofa after running the #OX5 today @blenheimpalace.bsky.social to raise money for @oxhospitalscharity.bsky.social! Stiffening up rapidly now but all for an excellent cause, and beautiful weather for the day. We were part of The Runner Genes team!

For #Franklin fans, John Franklin lived at 60 Frith Street when he returned from his first overland expedition in 1822. He stayed there while writing his "Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea." Looked different then to this lovely painting but the houses are similar!

William Porden's #WOTD (actually 3) in 1818: "a la fourchette", literally meaning 'at/to the fork". Oxford English Dictionary says: "The earliest known use of... à la fourchette is in the 1810s. OED's earliest evidence for à la fourchette is from 1817, in Quarterly Journal of Science & Arts."

Today's #wotd from erstwhile traveller William Porden: 'vauxhall'. You may know of it in terms of its situation in London, and you wouldn't be wrong. In Regency times, Vauxhall Gardens were the place to be seen, although they also had a risque reputation. Travelling through France in 1818,

Yes he did!

William Porden #WOTD: 'quondam', meaning 'of an earlier time'. "My quondam Friend Henry Robinson Barrister was our fellow traveller... We renewed an acquaintance ... interrupted by my Quarrel with Mr Serjeant Rough..." @derbyshiredro.bsky.social @susiedent.com

Anise wonders if she's included in this book but I had to disappoint her. She's too young and, really, the back garden isn't very dangerous.

Interesting expression today from William Porden: "these Knights of the Awl and Thimble" when recounting a procession in Brussels. According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, this could denote a member of a certain trade or profession, perhaps jokingly. @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

Another wonderful word from William Porden: "excrementitious" in relation to frequently finding "ordure" near churches in 1816 France. He asks: "[is French] food less nutritious and more excrementitious than that of the English?" @derbyshiredro.bsky.social @susiedent.com

Hilarious observation, delicately put, by William Porden on a woman's flatulence during prayer: "I found in the early part of the morning an old woman at her devotions in which her fervour did not prevent her from sounding her posterior Trumpet." 🫣 @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

I walked a different way home today and came.across this chap, only a couple of metres away. Not sure if he's the one I usually spot further downstream or a different one. Very brave; didn't fly away!

Today I made a discovery that I barely thought possible regarding the grave of Eleanor Anne Porden/Franklin, on the two-hundredth anniversary of her burial. Huge thanks to the team at Westminster Archives for their help with this. eleanorporden.com/2025/03/01/t...

Two centuries … and a discovery Last week I wrote a special post dedicated to Eleanor Porden’s death, two hundred years ago, on 22 February 1825. Today, 1 March, marks the two-hundredth anniversary of her funeral. It is also the day that I made a discovery that I had been hoping for, for years,…

Picked up this postcard today from Westminster Archives!

This heron has so much patience (or perhaps too much time on its hands!). It was there in the fog at 9.30am and still there in the sun at 3.30pm.

#OnThisDay in 1825 the poet Eleanor Anne Porden died. A remarkably bright, witty, intelligent and compassionate woman, who was also the first wife of arctic explorer #SirJohnFranklin. It would be two months before he received the devastating news: recordoffice.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/s... #EYALove

Two hundred years ago today, poet Eleanor Anne Franklin (nee Porden) died. On my blog today, I look at how her husband John Franklin remembered her while on his second overland expedition in Northern Canada. eleanorporden.com/2025/02/22/t... RIP, Eleanor. @derbyshiredro.bsky.social

Two Hundred Years Ago Today… Portrait of Eleanor Anne Porden, by Richard Westall Exactly two hundred years ago today, on 22 February 1825, Eleanor Anne Franklin (née Porden) died in the same house - 55 Devonshire Street, London - in which she was born on 14 July 1795. While it always seems strange…

@derbyshiredro.bsky.social added an interesting post to their blog today regarding Mrs Edith Gell and her links to less savoury aspects of the British Empire. Mrs Gell is of interest to me as she wrote 'John Franklin's Bride' about Eleanor Porden recordoffice.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/t...

#NewYearsEve and I'm in the Weston Library writing poems, which is a new venture for me. I thought I'd give it a go having recently taught a lovely group of Japanese students about poetry (one even attempted a villanelle!). Happy New Year to you all; wishing you peace for 2025.

Day 24: Today I thought I'd include a passage rather than a word. Eleanor wrote a Christmas poem that she shared with her sister - the link is below and goes to my website, with the full poem included. @derbyshiredro.bsky.social eleanorporden.com/2023/12/24/w...!

Day 23: Lappets - these were decorative hanging parts of a headdress or garment. They were often worn in a pair, or as a singular long strips and were a popular form of women's headwear until the early 20th century. They're still a feature of religious garments.

Day 22: Warming pan - A more straightforward word today. A warming pan in a bed acted like our modern hot water bottles and was placed amongst the sheets to take the edge off the cold. Embers from the fire would be placed inside the pan in a vessel similar to this in the photo.

Jack boots: Leather boots, with protective wings around the knee joint, worn by the Household Cavalry regiment of the British Army. The term originates in the 17th century, with its origin possibly from the French word 'jacque’, which means ‘coat of mail’. Thus, jack boots were very heavy to wear!

Day 20: Sight hunting. In her travel diary, Eleanor refers to going 'Sight Hunting' with Miss Appleton. This was the Georgian equivalent to our 'sightseeing'. I rather like the idea of hunting down sights! When Eleanor visited France in 1816, 1818 and 1821, women commonly travelled to the continent.

Day 19: Cotillon. A French country dance that was popular in 18th-century Europe and North America. It was rather similar to an English country dance and was the forerunner of the quadrille and square dance. The English called it a Cotillion. Apparently, The French word originally meant "petticoat"

Day 18, Mirliton: The eunuch flute, onion flute, or mirliton is a simple tube-shaped instrument used during the 16th and 17th centuries. The sound it makes is similar to a kazoo; in fact, the famous Dance of the Mirlitons from The Nutcracker Suite can be translated as ‘Dance of the Kazoos’!

Day 17: 'Tag, rag and bobtail': riffraff or rabble. More commonly written as 'ragtag and bobtail' but, in her diary, Eleanor inverted the order to 'tag rag'; her meaning is the same. The phrase has its origins in the 16th and 17th centuries to refer to the lower classes of society.