Author Archives: dgm

What seems a long time ago, but it was only in the middle of 2013, we visited Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. It was only on our way back from Sri Lanka that I discovered that Jane Austen’s brother was buried … Continue reading →

While rooting around the bowels of Welsh papers online in search of examples of Hayman’s Balsam of Horehound adverts I came across this rather splendid advertisement for replacement teeth from 1861: Merthyr Tydfil Telegraph 8 February 1861 What I find … Continue reading →

I was documenting some nineteenth century medicine bottles the other day and came across this rather nice example in bluish glass: and it was embossed Hayman’s Balsam of Horehound suggesting that it had held a cough medicine of some sort. … Continue reading →

In the dispensary of Dow’s pharmacy there’s a rather impressive safe made by Thomas Perry and Son of Bilston near Wolverhampton in England. The safe is pretty substantial, and painted with a rather nice wood grain effect We can guess … Continue reading →

Recently, now the hot weather is over, I’ve been doing some work in the garden, planting and laying out garden beds, and in the process using the UK Royal Horticultural Society plant data sheets to help plan my planting. Not … Continue reading →

This morning, while working on the project, I came across a bottle of Stephens blue endorsing ink. Actually, I found a second bottle of violet endorsing ink later in the day, but by then I’d solved the mystery of what … Continue reading →

Recently I’ve been reading a Lucy Sussex novel built around the attempt to identify the story around the anonymous author of a newspaper serial published in a local paper in goldrush Australia. Coincident with this, Katherine Bode launched a rediscovered … Continue reading →

The moors round Halifax and Bradford are for ever associated with the Brontes. But there’s also another history there, as for example in the Chartist inspired near insurrection of 1842 sometimes referred to as the Pull Plug riots, which saw soldiers … Continue reading →

I tried to find out what happened to Kate Dickinson after Valentine Baker’s trial for rape and assault, but I’ve drawn a near total blank. Secretly I wanted her to become a campaigner for women’s rights or alternatively one of … Continue reading →

We were in Port Fairy a few days ago and parked outside of the Ederle restaurant, and there it was, an 1870’s short door receiving pillar still in use by Australia Post The design is slightly more ornamental than the … Continue reading →