Michaelmas Goose

This coming Monday is Michaelmas, so you've still got time to get yourself a goose. Just make sure you don't pick any blackberries afterwards. Professor Nick Groom explains.... September 29 is Michaelmas: the Feast of Michael and All Angels. It was also one of the four quarter days of the English business ... Read More...

Come to the Fair

Forget Glastonbury and the Notting Hill carnival - the Bartholomew Fairs of old would have dwarfed them, and far outdone them for debauched behaviour too. For his August post, Prof Nick Groom looks at England's history of late summer fairs... The end of harvest in England was usually celebrated in the ... Read More...

A Walk in the Woods in Midsummer

Today is midsummer, and Professor Nick Groom turns his attention to the woods. Trees are a special part of our national identity, and they need us as much as we need them... Woods occupy a special place in the imaginative topography of England. The greenwood is the haunt and habitat of ... Read More...

A Startling Bedside Manner

Next time you complain about your GP, spare a thought for the Victorians... From The Reverend Prince And His Abode Of Love by Charles Mander (1976): As a doctor his bedside manner was startling. He seemed more intent on reducing his patients to gibbering mental wrecks over the state of their souls ... Read More...

Stonehenge and British art

Visiting Stonehenge this half-term? Here's Alexandra Harris' post on its influence on British culture, from Turner to Hepworth... Stonehenge is a good example of how a particular landmark in the English countryside could inspire different kinds of appreciation. Its image was particularly potent because it signified strength and endurance while at ... Read More...

To Whit, Spring Bank Holiday

From speaking in tongues to cheese rolling in Gloucester, this month Professor Nick Groom looks at the origins, customs and meaning of Whitsun... Whit Sunday is the seventh Sunday after Easter, also known as ‘Pentecost’ (from the Greek for fiftieth, counting inclusively). It is therefore part of the cat’s cradle of Eastertide dates ... Read More...