Early Modern Whale

I suppose I’ve always given Thomas Campion short shrift (mainly for not being John Dowland). But I’ve just been looking back at his words, ...

I have been reading, with interest and approval, Joseph Swetnam. There goes what professional reputation I have! But no, I do not mean the ...

My image here is a composite from part of the title page, the final page, and a portion of the recto of signature H2 (rotated) from the rapi...

Whee! I am in the current EMLS , writing at considerable length about transvection, the purported flight of witches, and how it got repres...

The Guardian ran a piece about the exhibition being put on by the Society of Antiquaries for the 330 th birthday of the institution. He...

This Scene again withdrawing brings A new and empty Face of things; A levell'd space, as smooth and plain, As Clothes for Lilly strec...

Following on rather unseasonably from my last post about pack ice in the Channel off Plymouth, I thought to have a look at what else went on...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/05/climatechange.sciencenews This link is the Guardian reporting the likely disappear...

Nothing to do with early modern literature, or whales, but Blogger now lets users post videos, so here is a bit of the geothermal activity n...

When Sir Cloudesley Shovell's 'Association' went down on the Gilstone in 1707, it took with it what was possibly his (or the shi...

Here I am at the top of Valahnukur, a minor peak in the Thorsmork ('Thor's Forest', no less) area. Booth Junior is playing a Nin...

Off very soon for another holiday, this time, a week in Iceland. I thought this might give me a topic for a post, but the country itself is ...

One of those 17 th century names you know of (learned allusions to The English Gentlewoman , that kind of thing) but don’t read … well, th...

“For though we should not say that eating of Blood were as great a sin, as Fornication, in every respect, yet we may say, that by virt...

When the virtuoso Elias Ashmole got married for the second time, to the older but wealthier Lady Mainwaring, it was so as to “be enabled to ...

So that my family can access it, a couple of images from my trip to the Scilly Isles. The first, way out at sea near the Bishop's Rock l...

The witch of Wapping, Or An exact and perfect relation, of the life and devilish practises of Joan Peterson, that dwelt in Spruce Island, n...