"London in 1731" is a wonderful guide book to the city which was penned sometime in the early 18th century and subsequently brought up to date. The author is supposed to be a Portuguese merchant named Don Manoel Gonzales but the internal evidence demonstrates that this is almost certainly a nom de plume. It is more likely that our author was an accomplished native of London. The guide was edited by Professor Henry Morley and published by Cassell as part of their wonderful little National Library series in 1888. The author now turns his attention to the import and export trade as it was carried on by individual merchants who were independent of the incorporated companies. The Americas, including the tobacco and sugar plantations in the Caribbean, were a rich market. Trade in tobacco was particularly lucrative with many merchants acting as middlemen to supply the European market.
The publication, for profit, of intimate details of the British Royal Family by their former servants is at least 350 years old. What may be the first example of this exploitation of "insider knowledge," was published in 1658 by a former servant of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort to Charles I. The book details the "Receipts" – recipes for medicinal cures and favourite foods of the Royal Family – contained in the Queen's Closet. Some of the medicinal recipes are quackery indeed, and all the more interesting for that. Our first instalment consists of the author's justification for his act of betrayal. Those who are familiar with the rash of publications that followed the death of Diana, former Princess of Wales, will surely recognise some of the self-serving notions indulged in by our author.
Every November the new Lord Mayor of London holds his Show - a colourful procession of the City Guilds and dignitaries through the streets of the City. At the head of the procession are two enormous effigies of giants. These are Gog and Magog, the traditional guardians of the City of London and they have been carried in the Lord Mayor's Show since the reign of Henry V. Their origins lie in the distant past and are quite unknown to us. Over the centuries, many people have produced various "explanations" of their origins. Perhaps the most entertaining was that of John Galt who published his History in 1819. In this series we will present his full text, Chapter by chapter. Here is The final chapter.
Every November the new Lord Mayor of London holds his Show - a colourful procession of the City Guilds and dignitaries through the streets of the City. At the head of the procession are two enormous effigies of giants. These are Gog and Magog, the traditional guardians of the City of London and they have been carried in the Lord Mayor's Show since the reign of Henry V. Their origins lie in the distant past and are quite unknown to us. Over the centuries, many people have produced various "explanations" of their origins. Perhaps the most entertaining was that of John Galt who published his History in 1819. In this series we will present his full text, Chapter by chapter. Here is Chapter 16.
Every November the new Lord Mayor of London holds his Show - a colourful procession of the City Guilds and dignitaries through the streets of the City. At the head of the procession are two enormous effigies of giants. These are Gog and Magog, the traditional guardians of the City of London and they have been carried in the Lord Mayor's Show since the reign of Henry V. Their origins lie in the distant past and are quite unknown to us. Over the centuries, many people have produced various "explanations" of their origins. Perhaps the most entertaining was that of John Galt who published his History in 1819. In this series we will present his full text, Chapter by chapter. Here is Chapter 15.
This web site was made with PostNuke, a web portal system written in PHP. PostNuke is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL license. You can syndicate our news using the file backend.php
