The Long Eighteenth Century
What Did the Old Pretender Pretend?
The story of England’s Glorious Revolution is generally summarized as follows: In 1688, the Protestant nobility of England, outraged by attacks on their constitution, rose up against the man usually described as the last Stuart king, James II, and offered his throne to his daughter and son-in-law, William and Mary of Orange.* James fled to…
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England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty
As I may have mentioned before, I’m happily bopping around in the long eighteenth century*. In the process I’m stumbling across all kinds of stuff that makes my brain fizz with ideas. Some of it I’m hoarding. But some of it is just too good not to share Today’s case in point: Admiral Sir Home…
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Word With a Past: Silhouette
I’m poking around in the long eighteenth century these days and stumbling across lots of surprising tidbits. Take silhouettes. I had long known that charming likenesses cut from black cardstock became a popular and affordable alternative to oil portraits in the mid-eighteenth century. To the extent that I thought about the word at all, I…
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