When I received Dorothea’s book [see pre­vi­ous blog entry] from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to’s com­pact stor­age facility.[1] I was reward­ed in a way that I could not have guessed. In fact, the coin­ci­dence involved is so extreme that I hes­i­tate to relate it, for fear of being thought a hoax­er. Read more »

Steve Muhlberg­er has been more pro­lif­ic in his blog, late­ly, and it has fea­tured some fine pieces on the psy­chol­o­gy of his­to­ri­ans. Entries such as “Is the past anoth­er coun­try?” among many, are well worth read­ing. I’m remind­ed of them when I re-shelve a nice lit­tle book that I recent­ly found in a sec­ond-hand shop ― an 1882 edi­tion of Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome. It’s just the sort of thing that delights any­one who is fas­ci­nat­ed by the past. It’s inscribed twice by ear­ly own­ers. The first inscrip­tion reads: “Dorothea Thor­pe, from Hughey Jnr., March 20, 1884″ The sec­ond reads: “Lavinia Mary Ford, from Dorothea’s Hus­band and in mem­o­ry of her. Charn­wood 18th Octo­ber 1934, St. Luke’s Day”. These excite the his­tor­i­cal imag­i­na­tion in me. Read more »