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September 10th, 2021  “Saint John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, the main gateway to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem,” black and white photograph by the British photographer Henry Dixon, 1880. The church was founded in the 12th century by Jordan de Briset, a Norman knight. Prior Docwra completed the gatehouse shown in this photograph in 1504. The gateway served as the main entry to the Priory, which was the center of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitallers). Courtesy of the British Library, London. Rules for politeness should be unnecessary. But although we have no belief in rules, there are certain hints which may be useful. There is a natural rhythm in life which varies with temperament. Quietness and gravity and steadiness of feature are signal marks of good breeding. Approachableness and patience in giving up the whole of one’s attention to those who seek it at the moment, are needed. Few things are so vulgar as to be everlastingly in a hurry. Egotism is also a mark of ill-breeding; one should beware of unnecessary apologies, for apology is only egotism in another form. Serious discussion with disinterested people on one’s personal domestic troubles, and particularly on one’s health, is decidedly bad form; so is carelessness in speech and conversation in any direction. Continue reading A Note on Ill-Breeding from a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem
September 8th, 2021 
The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee has a long heralded tradition of assisting farmers and growers through it’s Agricultural Extension Service. The following bulletin entitled Grape Growing in Tennessee discusses the Muscadine variety of grapes among others. Muscadine grapes are often found growing wild in Tennessee. On my grandfather’s West Tennessee farm, a stand of ancient tree-sized vines of Muscadine grapes provided several gallons of the fruit each year that were used in making homemade wine, jams, and jellies. With the skin on the jams and jellies would be of a purple colour. Removing the skins allowed for beautiful emerald green coloured jams and jellies.
to read about growing grapes in Tennessee
September 8th, 2021 
The Lost Art of Wine Making at Home
Some Recipes Popular a Century Ago Revived to Show How Our Forefathers Brewed Their Own Beers, Made Their Own Ciders, Distilled Their Own Liquors.
The manufacture of homemade liquors is all but a lost art. A century ago every farm had its formulas, whether for the brewing of beer, or the making of cider, or wines from the fruits of the locality. But the wines of commerce became so cheap, and the coming of the railway made them so easily obtainable that, except in a few rare cases, the homemade sort fell into desuetude; whether innocuous or not is in dispute. Much water has passed under the bridge since Macculloch, writing in 1816, said, “the price of the sugar is the price of the wine.” Even in those days it was probably true only of certain kinds in certain conditions. Continue reading Homemade Wine Recipes from the 16th and 17th Centuries
August 24th, 2021  Sloop of War Jamestown – Photo from book The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series 1, Vol. 3. Several years ago, I purchased a small memory book entitled Album of Love from the mid 1800s.
Much like scrap books of today, these books were used to keep memorabilia such as autographs, photos, newspaper clippings, and sometime drawings and water colors. They were elaborately designed and published using fine rag paper and often contained beautiful engravings. In this particular book which belonged to one Mrs. Kitty Lenox of Trenton, New Jersey living in Philadelphia at the time, we find beautiful poems written by friends wishing her well upon a departure. I will share some of these beautiful words with you below. She apparently went by the name Kate. The date in the cover of the book is Sept. 1870, however most of the writings are from 1861 and 1862 during the Civil War. The book also contains several romantic engravings.
Perhaps the most significant poem in the book is one written by a sailor serving in the US Navy who was departing the port of Philadelphia on the Sloop of War, Jamestown, which in October of 1861 was re-commissioned to defend the Atlantic Coast from Confederate privateers.
Parting Words to Kate
Farewell! The (word is hard to make out) trxxxxx ocean calleth me;
The white-sailed vesel awhile my home must be!
Duty far across the ever-rolling main
Has called me — called me not in vain
I go to other lands; yet think ye not,
My own dear friend, you shall never be forgot!
Oh, “twas no easy task to bid my soul
Its memory of sorrow to control!
Farewell! farewell! and Should I no more
Return to my own, my loved, my native shore,
Oh, “in a better country” in the land
Where dwell God’s pure redeemed one, may I stand!
Farewell! the patient hand that hold me here,
Think you I shall not find it everywhere?
Yes, yes, this trust Shall every fear dispel—
God will protect me ever!. Kate — Fare ye Well!
AB Maloney, U S Navy
U.S. Sloop of War Jamestown Sept. 20th, 1862
February 23rd, 2026 
From the classic British Movie, The Shooting Party, a 1985 British drama film directed by Alan Bridges based on Isabel Colegate’s 9th novel of the same name published in 1980 we find a scene set in the billiards parlor whereupon the host of the weekend shooting party Sir Randolph Nettleby walks in on Lord Gilbert Hartlet, known to be a crack shot in the bird hunting realm, sighting in a new set of Purdy shotguns, guns handmade in England by James Purdy & Sons since the year 1814 :
The Billiards Parlor: About 30 minutes into the movie…….
Sir Randolph Nettleby (played by James Mason) “Did I see you with a new pair of Purdy’s today Gilbert?”
Lord Gilbert Hartlet(played by Edward Fox, uncle of Laurence Fox from British crime drama Lewis ): Yes indeed, best guns I ever had, paid the fidler…nothing like Purdy’s for small ….and fiddish….other than Henry Hollanders, Patience, and experience….but I only ever go to Purdy now….Cockrell Hanson’s a very good begginers gun….but my first self gunder….
Sir Randolph: I imagine you must be pursued by them all now Gilbert
Lord Gilbert: Yes, very vulgar…now the only people to whom IÂ give…unsolicited testimony are Purdy….
In the Billiards Parlor: About 37 minutes into the movie…..
Sir Randolph Nettleby:Â Ah…Gilbert, yes…yes…. I didn’t realize it was you….
Lord Gilbert: My Dear Randolph forgive me.... I wasn’t about to take a pot shot at your Roman Emperor……but with these new guns I thought my laird and I just have a minute or two of drill before we got going
Sir Randolph Nettleby:Â I wouldn’t have thought that you’d need it…Â things went like clockwork yesterday….anyway wouldn’t have mattered…Julius Ceasar….It’s just one of those casts I can get’em at the British Museum.…..not that you’d have be loaded….at least I hope you wouldn’t….
Hokie dokie…..so just what is one these casual casts available at the British Museum. Well, first of all, they are unique and rare in today’s art market as the one’s made today simply can’t hold a candle to the ones made in yesteryear.
June 4th, 2021 
Reprinted from FineModelShips.com with the kind permission of Dr. Michael Czytko
The SAN FELIPE is one of the most favoured ships among the ship model builders. The model is elegant, very beautifully designed, and makes a decorative piece of art to be displayed at home or in the office.
Doubts on San Felipe’s historic authenticity I have heard voiced or seen many times, mainly in forums on ship history and ship modelling. There was the contribution of Toni Alvarez Silva of April 1999 in some forum, who went three times to the Museo Naval in Madrid. He could not get any information there whether the San Felipe existed or not. He also contacted Mantua and Artesania Latina and asked them about their model kits of the San Felipe, without getting convincing responses. Continue reading Historic authenticity of the Spanish SAN FELIPE of 1690
February 24th, 2026  Wyggeston’s Chantry House in Leicester: grade II* listed and part of the Newarke Houses Museum. Built by William Wyggeston as a chantry house. Privately built chapel
Secondly, a chantry chapel is a building on private land or a dedicated area or altar within a parish church or cathedral, set aside or built especially for the performance of the “chantry duties” by the priest. A chantry may occupy a single altar, for example in the side aisle of a church, or an enclosed chapel within a larger church, generally dedicated to the donor’s favourite saint.
Many chantry altars became richly endowed, often with gold furnishings and valuable vestments. Over the centuries, chantries increased in embellishments, often by attracting new donors and chantry priests. Those feoffees who could afford to employ them in many cases enjoyed great wealth. Sometimes this led to corruption of the consecrated life expected of clergymen. It also led in general to an accumulation of great wealth and power in the Church, beyond the feudal control of the Crown. This evident amassing of assets was one of the pretexts used by King Henry VIII to order the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England.
At the time of the Dissolution, chantries were abolished and their assets were sold or granted to persons at the discretion of Henry and his son King Edward VI, via the Court of Augmentations. Many Tudor businessmen, such as Thomas Bell (1486–1566) of Gloucester, acquired chantries as financial investments for the afterlife, but yielding income streams in the here and now, derived from chantry rents; or the chantry assets could be “unbundled” and sold on piecemeal at a profit.
(Source: Reprint from Wikipedia)
May 22nd, 2021  H. M. Scarth, Rector of Wrington By the death of Mr. Scarth on the 5th of April, at Tangier, where he had gone for his health’s sake, the familiar form of an old and much valued Member of the Institute has passed away. Harry Mengden Scarth was bron at Staindrop in Durham, on 11th May, 1814. In due time he entered at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and took his B.A. degree in 1837. Continue reading The Late Rev. H.M. Scarth
May 22nd, 2021 
A Lecture Delivered at the Guildhall, March 2, 1853 by Rev. H.M. Scarth, M.A., Rector of Bathwick.
To understand the ancient history of the country in which we live, to know something of the arts and manners of the people who have preceded us, to ascertain what we owe to them, and to know what influence their times and their works have had upon our own, can never be an unprofitable study.
But if traces of great works of past ages are still to be found amongst us, and if these works exhibit a great knowledge of art, if they shew the hand of a people highly civilized, they become deeply interesting, and we may derive much benefit from their consideration. The study of them will cast much light upon the records of ancient history which have been handed down to us; they serve to give life and light to that history, and fill its pages with living realities when we see the very stones and remnants of buildings which the hands of the men of whom we read have put together. Continue reading Temples, Walls, And Some of the Roman Antiquities of Bath
May 19th, 2021 
Eadweard Muybridge was a fascinating character. Click here to learn how Eadweard committed “Justifiable Homicide” after shooting his wife’s lover in 1874.
May 11th, 2021 
The arsenicals (compounds which contain the heavy metal element arsenic, As) have a long history of use in man – with both benevolent and malevolent intent. The name ‘arsenic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘arsenikon’ which means ‘potent'”. As early as 2000 BC, arsenic trioxide, obtained from smelting copper, was used as a drug and as a poison 2.
Hippocrates (460 to 377 BC) used orpiment (As2S3) and realgar (As2S2) as escharotics. Aristotle (384 to 322 BC) and Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 AD) also wrote about the medicinal properties of the arsenicals. Galen (130 to 200 AD) recommended a paste of arsenic sulphide for the treatment of ulcers. Paracelsus (1493 to 1541) used elemental arsenic extensively. He is quoted as saying ‘All substances are poisons … The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy’ – an apt statement for the arsenicals 3. Continue reading A History of the Use of Arsenicals in Man
May 9th, 2021  Photo Caption: The Marquis of Zetland, KC, PC – otherwise known as Lawrence Dundas
Son of: John Charles Dundas and: Margaret Matilda Talbot
born: Friday 16 August 1844
died: Monday 11 March 1929 at Aske Hall
Occupation: M.P. for Richmond Viceroy of Ireland
Vice Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire
Lord – in – Waiting to Queen Victoria
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 
THE MASTER OF HOUNDS
The great masters of antiquity, if we may so style them—Meynell, Beckford, Corbet, Lee Anthone, John Warde, Ralph Lambton, Musters—have been described as paragons of politeness as well as models of keenness. George Osbaldeston hardly possessed the former quality in so marked a degree. Coming to present times, I cite as examples the late Lord Penrhyn, Lords Portman, Lonsdale, and Harrington, and Mr. R. Watson of Carlow, Mr. J. Watson (Meath), Captain Burns- Hartopp, and Captain Forester, eminently successful masters. Last but not least the eighth and present Dukes of Beaufort. Continue reading The Master of Hounds
April 28th, 2021 
Over the years I have observed a decline in manners amongst young men as a general principle and though there is not one particular thing that may be asserted as the causal reason for this, one might speculate…
Self-awareness and being aware of one’s surroundings in social interactions is something worth contemplating should a young man wish to make a goodly and lasting impression with future mother and father-in-laws, potential business clients, educated members of the clergy and perhaps the occasional fixer should one be inclined to take up politics—Caveat; not all fixers are especially socially adept, what?
Rather than bore the pants off the young man who perchance stumbles blindly into this article, let’s just get down to it and present a few dos and dont’s thus cutting to the proverbial chase.
A Few Don’ts, Never’s and God-forbids: (From personally observed behaviours of a few slobs, sloths, and whatchamacallems.)
- Never set a drink on a polished piano, grand or otherwise, without a coaster suitable to the task.
- God-forbid one does not understand that one may substitute the word fine-furniture for piano in the above sentence.
- Don’t tread on a fine looking Persian rug without first ascertaining from its owner do they prefer shoes be removed.
- Never sit on a sofa cushion unless one is willing to cough up the dough needed to repair the rip in the $500 per yard fabric should one’s hefty derriere bust the seams. Gently pick up the cushion and set it aside in a caring manner prior to planting one’s arse and only if one has been invited to take a seat in the first place.
- Never should one prop their feet up after taking a seat…not on a coffee table, foot cushion or other furnishing unless invited to do so by the clear and present owner of said furniture.
- God-forbid one does not turn one’s phone off prior to entering the abode of the host, one should never remove it from one’s pocket, and never enter an abode with it visible unless one is a medical doctor on emergency call duty and has clearly established this protocol with the host prior to the visit. The best thing to do is leave the phone in one’s car prior to the visit.
- One should never talk more than one’s host. One of the least enforced linguistic skills amongst the new millennium’s children is turn-taking. Let it be known that I do actually know a few sixty year olds that have never fully assimilated said skill. If one does not understand this point, I suggest one look it up. Never attempt to change the topic of conversation of the host unless one is a life-long acquaintance of the host well-versed in the other’s idiosyncrasies and personality traits— Otherwise, a duel might well ensue….
More later….as I quickly become bored with ill-mannered dandies….
May 7th, 2021 
PAINTER-WORK, in the building trade. When work is painted one or both of two distinct ends is achieved, namely the preservation and the coloration of the material painted. The compounds used for painting—taking the word as meaning a thin protective or decorative coat—are very numerous, including oil-paint of many kinds, distemper, whitewash, tar; but the word ” paint ” is usually confined to a mixture of oil and pigment, together with other materials which possess properties necessary to enable the paint to dry hard and opaque. Oil paints are made up of four parts—the base, the vehicle, the solvent and the driers. Pigment may be added to these to obtain a paint of any desired colour. Continue reading The Basics of Painting in the Building Trade
May 7th, 2021 
IT requires a far search to gather up examples of furniture really representative in this kind, and thus to gain a point of view for a prospect into the more ideal where furniture no longer is bought to look expensively useless in a boudoir, but serves everyday and commonplace need, such as must always be the wont, where most men work, and exchange in some sort life for life. Continue reading Carpenters’ Furniture
May 7th, 2021 
DECORATED or “sumptuous” furniture is not merely furniture that is expensive to buy, but that which has been elaborated with much thought, knowledge, and skill. Such furniture cannot be cheap, certainly, but the real cost of it is sometimes borne by the artist who produces rather than by the man who may happen to buy it. Furniture on which valuable labour is bestowed may consist of—1. Large standing objects which, though actually movable, are practically fixtures, such as cabinets, presses, sideboards of various kinds; monumental objects. 2. Chairs, tables of convenient shapes, stands for lights and other purposes, coffers, caskets, mirror and picture frames. 3. Numberless small convenient utensils. Here we can but notice class 1, the large standing objects which most absorb the energies of artists of every degree and order in their construction or decoration. Continue reading Of Decorated Furniture
May 7th, 2021  Petworth House – Carving by Grinling Gibbons THE sense of a consecutive tradition has so completely faded out of English art that it has become difficult to realise the meaning of tradition, or the possibility of its ever again reviving; and this state of things is not improved by the fact that it is due to uncertainty of purpose, and not to any burning fever of individualism. Tradition in art is a matter of environment, of intellectual atmosphere. As the result of many generations of work along one continuous line, there has accumulated a certain amount of ability in design and manual dexterity, certain ideas are in the air, certain ways of doing things come to be recognised as the right ways. To all this endowment an artist born in any of the living ages of art succeeded as a matter of course, and it is the absence of this inherited knowledge that places the modern craftsman under exceptional disabilities. Continue reading The English Tradition of Woodworking
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