Fed by Birds

Brompton Cemetery - the most peaceful place in London?

Brian Glover, Emmeline Pankhurst and inventor of self-help Samuel Smiles are buried there, as was Sioux Indian chief Long Wolf, who was involved in the defeat of Custer, until his remains were finally taken home in 1997.

Not to mention many other less famous inhabitants with such splendid names as W. Ornigsby Kettle. Collecting names is a good reason to go looking at graves: I seem to remember all the original EastEnders characters were named from Hackney tombstones, and Beatrix Potter reputedly took the names of her animal characters from those on the gravestones in Brompton - including a Peter Rabbett.

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Back from the South of France, with some new vocab - huîtres, hirondelle, bandes desinées - and some spectacular comic books (aimed at the very small, which suits my level of French reading). Luckily this is France, so even books for the tiny are pretty sophisticated. Fennec, by Yoann, is from the stable of Lewis Trondheim, and is the story of a small desert fox looking for a cave of blood (wait, can that be right?)

Anyway, it looks beautiful.

Gedeon Grand Manitou is by Benjamin Rabier, the creator of La vache qui rit.

The plot looks a little involved, but it's all very charming.

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A gallery of surprisingly attractive mosses can be found here (via That Rabbit Girl).

For the full moss experience, pay a visit to Wistman's Wood in Dartmoor:

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The costume collection at the Manchester Art Gallery has some nice mini online exhibitions, including one on work clothes through the ages. The overall worn by a worker in a jam factory in 1900 looks amazingly elegant:

And maids were equally well turned out:

As were poachers in 1840:

Most appealing is the country woman's red cloak from 1800 - the hood, we are told, was used to carry shopping:

Talking of cloaks, this site has an exhaustive history of the cloak, and drawings to help you distinguish between the cape, mantelet, pelisse, paletot and pardessus. All essential knowledge for the cloak wearer.

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Created by 18th-century German mapmaker Matthäus Seutter. Seutter seems to have the most amazing colours in all his maps.

Continue reading "Map of the Wind" »

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Actually, the first at least is still in print

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For those who want a more complete picture than that given in this earlier entry, here is the great Stanley Unwin to explain further. (Found via enthusiasm.)

Hope that's all straight now. On the subject of Stanley Unwin, I never realised that he was the star of a very peculiar Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series, The Secret Service. Apparently every week Father Stanley Unwin foiled someone's evil plan by talking nonsense, and sometimes taking the form of a puppet.

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A visit to the British Museum always raises the important question: who had the best jewellery? Was it the Romans:

Merovingian betrothal rings have a lot of charm:

The Egyptians are strong contenders, with a necklace decorated with gold flies:

18th-century England had a good line in spooky mourning jewellery:

Although they might be trumped by 16th-century Italians, who were happy to wear a rock crystal engraving of Tityus having his liver eaten by birds:

The 'Ram in a thicket' from the Death Pit of Ur might not strictly qualify as jewellery, but it does have gold genitals, copper ears and a fleece made of lapis lazuli. Also nice knees:

It's good to discover new ways of decorating yourself, such as this Etruscan ear cover:

But when it comes down to it, you can't beat a Viking hoard:

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Since quite a few people seem to end up here after searching for 'the world's most beautiful birds', here are a couple who live up to their names:

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