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A quaint little story here which could completely change the way we think of the history of our cheese forever! Stilton will never be quite the same again! Or perhaps it will… From BBC News:
An historian in Cambridgeshire has challenged the East Midlands’ exclusive right to produce Stilton cheese after discovering a 17th Century recipe.
Richard Landy was researching the Bell Inn in the village of Stilton, when he found a recipe for Stilton cheese.
Entitled “Recipe for Stilton”, Mr Landy said it confirmed the cheese originated in Cambridgeshire.
On the cheese theme, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post a recipe from 1591 for cheese tart. I love reading historical recipes – the turn of phrase is always so poetic. This one is from A.W. :A Book of Cookrye Very necessary for all such as delight therin
To make a Tarte of Cheese: Take good fine paste and drive it as thin as you can. Then take cheese, pare it, mince it, and bray it in a mortar with the yolks of Egs til it be like paste, then put it in a faire dish with clarified butter and then put it abroad into your paste and cover it with a faire cut cover, and so bake it; that doon, serve it forth.
http://alphainventions.com
I found an interesting article yesterday by David Smith, technology correspondent for the Observer, considering the dangers of the internet when trying to preserve information for history.
Historians face a “black hole” of lost material unless urgent action is taken to preserve websites and other digital records, the head of the British Library has warned.
Just as families store digital photos on computers which might never be passed on to their descendants, so Britain’s cultural heritage is at risk as the internet evolves and technologies become obsolete, says Lynne Brindley, the library’s chief executive.
Writing in today’s Observer, Brindley cites two examples of losses overseas. When Barack Obama was inaugurated as US president last week, all traces of George Bush disappeared from the White House website, including a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration, which is no longer accessible…
…Historians have become increasingly concerned that while the Domesday Book, written on sheepskin in 1086, is still easily accessible, the software for many decade-old computer files – including thousands of government records – already renders them unreadable. The ephemera of emails, text messages and online video add to the headache of the 21st-century archivist.
This really is pretty enlightening as I always had the vague idea that the internet was a godsend for ordinary people’s personal opinions on events to be easily recorded. Now it’s clear that, although the beauty of the internet is that ideas can be circulated quickly and universally, at the same time it also means that this information can be deleted and forgotten just as quickly! While a written page has to be at least burnt to be destroyed and forgotten, digital information can be lost with the click of a button or due to technology becoming obsolete – a bit worrying I must admit!
I am having a bit of trouble keeping up with Nicholas Crane’s journey around Britain. I have watched and enjoyed all of the episodes, the last two dealing with Scotland and Ireland, but this post is about the second episode: Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey: A Journey Through the Borders and Scotland.
From William Camden’s Britannia:
NOW I am come to Scotland, and willingly, I assure you, will I enter into it, but withall lightly passe over it. For I remember well that said saw, In places not wel knowne, lesse while we must stay , as also the admonition of that Grecian, ξένος ὢν ἀπράγμων ἴσθι, that is, Art thou a stranger? Be no Medler. And verily I should play an unadvised part if I would insist long in that wherein I am but little conversant. But yet, seeing Scotland also joieth in the name of Britaine, let it be lawfull for me (reserving the due honour to the Scotish) according to my purpose, having boldly undertaken to illustrate Britan, to proceed with their good favour, leave and license, and by withdrawing aside in some sort the curtaine of obscure antiquity, to point out with my finger, if I shalbe able, some places of ancient note and memorie.
Linlithgow Palace
The highlights of this episode were Linlithgow Palace, the Cairngorm Mountains and a strange bit where Crane packs his stuff into a waterproof bag and proceeds to swim with it across the river Tay.
Crane described Linlithgow Palace as the ‘Hampton Court of Scotland’ as it was the country’s main royal palace. For this reason, it is pretty much omitted from William Camden’s book as any mention of the Scottish royal family at that time could have been dangerous. Mary Queen of Scots was born at the palace in 1542 and at the time Britannia was being published, she was in prison in England only one year away from her execution. She had been a threat to Elizabeth I for years and so it’s clear that Camden didn’t want to cause any trouble by mentioning anything related to her in his book.
My favourite part of the programme was when Crane went walking in the Cairngorm Mountains using an Elizabethan map made by Timothy Pont, who was the first man to draw up detailed maps of Scotland. The mountains are beautiful and as evening draws in, Nicholas Crane puts up his one man tent on a peaceful plateau at 3000 feet and goes to bed. It looks so calm and beautiful and I would love someday to just put up my in some picturesque spot and sleep after a long day’s walking. That would be perfect.
Glen Tilt Map by Timothy Pont
I’ve taken a few more photos for comparison, again using the Britain in Old Photographs book, and I expect to post a few more over the weeks as I improve my cropping speed.
These two photos above are of High Street, Ealing Broadway. The top one was taken in 1937 and shows the old police station on the right, which was demolished in 1970 and has now been replaced by the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre. We now have a Subway where Easiephit used to be, which was a shoe shop which, after finding this branch, I’ve now discovered to be a chain. The building at the end of the road was Sayers, then advertising its 1837-1937 centenary sale, and it is now the Arcadia centre, housing among others McDonalds, HMV and TK Maxx. That building has recently been under threat from the Ealing Leaf redevelopment, which I think has now been postponed.
Here, the white building on the right was the site for Ealing Broadway Station. The top photo was also taken in 1937. That building is now retail as a huge new entrance to the underground station and an office block were built just to the right of it. Apart from that, not much has changed here, other than the block of flats on the left, but now this road is bumper to bumper most of the time so I can only imagine how quiet it must have been then.
A friend drew my attention to this Hovis ad on YouTube, which depicts the most iconic moments in British history over the last 122 years, all compacted into a 122 second-long sequence. I really enjoyed it and like Hovis as a brand, it’s quite a nostalgic, poignant look at British history, to tap into the British psyche, bringing up moments we all associate with each decade.
The discussion on YouTube referred to a kind of nationalistic British pride being demonstrated in the ad, but to be honest, it is trying to sell us a product and I don’t think there’s much harm in it. Do comment with your thoughts on it though.
Oh, and by the way, please don’t feel the need to go out and buy Hovis bread after watching it now – I’m only posting it for its history theme, not to advertise! 
You can also watch a film about the making of the ad here.
The illuminated opening of the Gospel of St Matthew
I was having a look through the British Library Website in the Virtual Books section, where you can view medieval manuscripts in detail online, particularly through their Turning the Pages programme. I came across the Lindisfarne gospels, which had the most incredibly beautiful illuminations that I thought I’d put up an image of one here – I admit it has already made it to my desktop wallpaper! Do go to the website here, because there’s no other way of viewing so many of the pages of the manuscript all in one place.
The illuminated opening of the Gospel of St Matthew
The Lindisfarne Gospels are thought to have been written by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne early in the 8th century. The illuminations are an amazing example of Insular art, a combination of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic art and the intricacy of the detail and depth of colour are unusually well preserved. The original manuscript is written in Latin, but in the 10th century, it was translated into old English by Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street. It was kept in Durham Cathedral until the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, when it was removed, later owned by Sir Robert Cotton and then moved to London in the 18th century.
The Tate Britain has announced today the opening of a new exhibition, Van Dyck and Britain, which will run from 18th February to 17th March this year. I first came across the work of Anthony van Dyck after I went to see Charles I: King and Martyr; a small collection of images at the National Portrait Gallery, demonstrating the different reactions of artists towards Charles I’s execution. That tiny exhibition has finished now, so I hope this new one at the Tate will give an even more detailed and fascinating insight into the early 17th century monarchy.
Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was the greatest painter in seventeenth-century Britain. Though trained in Flanders, he had a huge impact on British cultural life as the principal painter at King Charles I’s ostensibly elegant court, where his impact was similar to that of Hans Holbein at the court of Henry VIII.
Van Dyck was born and trained in the great art centre of Antwerp. He made a brief visit to London in 1620-21 before returning in 1632 to King Charles I’s court. Intensely ambitious and hugely productive, he re-invented portrait-painting in Britain, retaining his pre-eminence until his premature death at the age of 42. Working in a period of intense political ferment during the run-up to the British Civil War, van Dyck portrayed many of the leading characters of the period. His iconic portraits of King Charles I have shaped our view of the Stuart monarchy, while the compositions he used influenced many future generations of British painters.
King Charles I by Van Dyck, 1636
King Charles I by Van Dyck, 1635
I’m afraid I’m going to indulge myself in a little nostalgic local history now. I live in Ealing, now a suburb of greater London, but previously a small town in its own right. These images are from a book of old photographs of Ealing and Northfields in a series called Britain in Old Photographs, which covers many areas of the country. I tried to take these photos from roughly the same positions as in the old ones, although it was pretty difficult as the roads were clearly empty then, so unlike me the photographer was able to stand in the middle of the road without getting killed. I apologise if this doesn’t interest you, but I’ve always found it interesting to compare old photographs to those of today and see how things have changed, even with places I don’t know.
Ealing Town Hall was designed by Charles Jones and cost £16,000 to build. It was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales (future king Edward VII) on 15th December 1888. Not a great deal has changed, except the tree has grown substantially and the old lampposts and tramlines have been replaced by heavy traffic.
This photo, taken on 10th July 1901, is of the opening of the electric tramway in Ealing outside the town hall. You can see how the tree covered spaces beside the town hall are now full of taller buildings and the area has certainly lost any feeling of the countryside it once had. Also, we now have many more lampposts and a nice advertisement directing us to the McDonalds round the corner – great! ( :
