Cultural

The Emperor Theodosius

David Jones profiles the man of whom Gibbon wrote: ‘the genius of Rome expired with Theodosius’.

Tudor Antiquaries

Joseph M. Levine introduces the modern historians' forerunners; the men who invented the techniques and defined the problems of studying the past.

Cola Di Rienzi

Stewart Perowne describes how, in the fourteenth century ‘the last of the Roman tribunes’, but one of the first of political liberators.

Lady Granville as a Letter-Writer

Prudence Hannay introduces Lady Granville, the younger daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She bridges the gulf between two very different social periods. Brought up among the most dashing personalities of ‘the Devonshire House set’, she died in the great age of mid-Victorian respectability.

Garrick’s Shakespeare Jubilee, 1769

When David Garrick, the most distinguished actor of his day, organised a splendid festival in honour of our greatest dramatist, writes Carola Oman, everything favoured him except the weather.

Manuscripts and Men

C.V. Wedgwood assesses the impact of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1869-1969

Romantic Bohemia

Joanna Richardson describes how, during the 1830s, the world of Bohemia offered a warm and fruitful climate to artists and writers.

The Writing on the Wall

The Tower of London, writes E.A. Humphrey Fenn, contains on its walls an extensive collection of prisoners’ graffiti.