England

Margaret Fuller in Europe: 1846-1850

‘Give me truth: cheat me by no illusion’ demanded this intrepid American enthusiast, who, during her early middle age, landed in Europe for the first time. There, writes Joyce Clark Follet, she found love, adventure, hardship and the revolutionary cause she needed.

Lord Derby of the Oaks

On June 9th, 1774, a fête champêtre, magnificent even by eighteenth-century standards, attracted an appreciative concourse of the English nobility and gentry. Olive Fitzsimmons describes the event.

I.K. Brunel, Engineer, 1859

Uniquely of engineers, the reputation of Brunel lives on, commemorated by a university, dockyards, steamships, and countless other works of his discipline. But what, asks Walter Minchinton, were his achievements?

Helena, Marchioness of Northampton

Helena Snakenborg came to London in the train of a visiting Swedish Princess. Appointed a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth, writes Gunnar Sjögren, she married twice and lived in England for seventy years.

Cobbett’s Views on Schools

William Cobbett, English political reformer, was himself was largely self-educated. Molly Townsend describes how he regarded contemporary schooling as ‘a melancholy thing to behold’.

Charles I’s Dwarf

C. Northcote Parkinson describes the life and times of Jeffery Hudson of Oakham, Rutlandshire, a remarkable member of Charles I's court who nonetheless measured under three feet tall.

Almack’s and Society

 Turner describes how, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, this exclusive London club was presided over by a feminine oligarchy, equal in power to the Venetian Council of Ten.

Adrian IV: England’s Only Pope

M. Foster Farley describes how, during his five years in the Vatican, Nicholas Breakspear had important dealings with the Holy Roman Empire, England and Ireland, and the Norman kingdom of Sicily.