tidbits cross time
Oct. 19th, 2011 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliOne colonel of a nineteenth century calvary regiment, which wore red coats, insisted on recruiting only red-haired men, and getting only chestnut horses. It caused problems.
One piece of folklore recommended that on St. Andrew’s Day and St. George’s Day, when vampires are most active, you should stay awake all night telling stories. Vampires can not approach while stories are being told.
In ancient Greece, girls who died unmarried were sometimes called "bride of Hades."
David's attempt to paint The Oath of the Tennis Court was rather hindered by the need to keep painting out people who had fallen from grace.
In 19th century Virginia, the economic decline of the area meant that a Virginian needed hard work, shrewdness, thrift, and careful management to prosper. Many Virginians objected strenuously to it, as becoming Yankees.
The rose never became as prominent in Chinese poetry and the like as it did in almost everywhere else -- in spite of all evidence pointing to China as the origin of the rose and its cultivation.
Ancient Greek vases from part of the classical era frequently depicted brides and bridegroom about the same age -- beardless young men, and women by height not much younger -- in spite of the men marrying in their late twenties and women in their mid teens.
One 19th-century woman assured another in a letter that the rumors that Dolly Madison used rouge must be false, since she had seen her color come and go at a ball.
Many Roman religious rites required that the women involved be univirae -- the wives of only one husband. The laws of Augustus, however, imposed penalties on widows (and widowers) who didn't remarry within a year.
When 19th-century Canada imposed steel tariffs on Imperial steel, they didn't even claim it was for revenue. They bluntly stated they were protecting their own industry and if Parliament wanted to overrule them, they could try ruling a hostile country.
In colonial Virginia, the biggest expense of running for office was the booze. Polls would have tables next to them, and when a voter had cast his vote, he went to the table for his candidate and received a drink -- a toast, as they put it.
Romans didn't give daughters individual names, only a feminized version of their fathers'. This may have been less awkward than it would appear -- because of female infanticide.
The first British reference to _General_ Washington is in Cornwallis's letter about his surrender in Yorktown.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the English were quite notorious for their amazing corpulence.
In Rome, Ceres was the goddess of marriage. Which helps explain why she was the most popular goddess to depict a woman of the imperial family as. (Plus, of course, the associations with fertility, and the wheat ration that was handed out to the proles.)
One piece of folklore recommended that on St. Andrew’s Day and St. George’s Day, when vampires are most active, you should stay awake all night telling stories. Vampires can not approach while stories are being told.
In ancient Greece, girls who died unmarried were sometimes called "bride of Hades."
David's attempt to paint The Oath of the Tennis Court was rather hindered by the need to keep painting out people who had fallen from grace.
In 19th century Virginia, the economic decline of the area meant that a Virginian needed hard work, shrewdness, thrift, and careful management to prosper. Many Virginians objected strenuously to it, as becoming Yankees.
The rose never became as prominent in Chinese poetry and the like as it did in almost everywhere else -- in spite of all evidence pointing to China as the origin of the rose and its cultivation.
Ancient Greek vases from part of the classical era frequently depicted brides and bridegroom about the same age -- beardless young men, and women by height not much younger -- in spite of the men marrying in their late twenties and women in their mid teens.
One 19th-century woman assured another in a letter that the rumors that Dolly Madison used rouge must be false, since she had seen her color come and go at a ball.
Many Roman religious rites required that the women involved be univirae -- the wives of only one husband. The laws of Augustus, however, imposed penalties on widows (and widowers) who didn't remarry within a year.
When 19th-century Canada imposed steel tariffs on Imperial steel, they didn't even claim it was for revenue. They bluntly stated they were protecting their own industry and if Parliament wanted to overrule them, they could try ruling a hostile country.
In colonial Virginia, the biggest expense of running for office was the booze. Polls would have tables next to them, and when a voter had cast his vote, he went to the table for his candidate and received a drink -- a toast, as they put it.
Romans didn't give daughters individual names, only a feminized version of their fathers'. This may have been less awkward than it would appear -- because of female infanticide.
The first British reference to _General_ Washington is in Cornwallis's letter about his surrender in Yorktown.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the English were quite notorious for their amazing corpulence.
In Rome, Ceres was the goddess of marriage. Which helps explain why she was the most popular goddess to depict a woman of the imperial family as. (Plus, of course, the associations with fertility, and the wheat ration that was handed out to the proles.)
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