Meanwhile, somewhere in 18th century London, people are dying from the small pox...

...and hemorroids.

There's a macabre fascination with the stated causes of deaths and the proportions of death from each cause. As we are looking at the eighteenth century, it will be of little surprise that small pox claimed many lives, 1206 deaths by small pox in an annual report of deaths in London. That's more than ten times as many as those who died of mortification. My image of a lady seeing another at the ball in an identical gown and snuffing it on the spot was ruined by reading that mortification is localized death of tissue, like in gangrene.

The French Pox was clearly too busy talking about art and philosophy so only chalked up 76 deaths. One poor sod died of piles, 46 from cancer, 99 drowned, one nervous soul was frightened to death, 3 murdered, only 5 slovenly people made the effort to die of lethargy and, in what I imagine was a freak carpeting accident, 80 people were overlaid.

Comments

Meanwhile, somewhere in 18th century England, fireworks are "transitory and useless"

Often it seems that human nature never changes and - bar a few details - some complaints could be heard today. Aren't fireworks a waste of money? These huge displays along the Thames, on such a scale, surely the money could be put to better use. Well, this chap seems to think so in his letter of January 1749. However, just as now, not everyone shares his opinion. Certainly not the Duke of Richmond, who gave a grand entertainment to the Duke of Modena on Monday 15th May of the same year.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Poland...

...co kurwa? Where does Poland begin and end? The border has shifted all over the place! In the 18th century, there is a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its borders encompass Lithuania, much of Latvia, Belarus, a good chunk of Ukraine and much of the Poland we know and love. Prussia has left teeth-marks on the Baltic coast and the western border wiggles around a bit and is generally a little further east. Słupsk, Koszalin, Szczecin, and Wrocław fall outside the border, but Gdańsk, Piła, Poznań and Katowice are within the Commonwealth. One administrative area of the Commonwealth, of culinary and linguistic interest to me, is: województwo ruskie, the Ruthenian Voivodeship. It's capital was Lwów, or Lviv as we know it today, and much of it is now in Ukraine. The dumplings filled with potato, cheese curd and onion, take their name from wój. ruskie, so pierogi ruskie were named after this area of the commonwealth and have noth...

Meanwhile, somewhere in Prussia...

...Catherine the Great is born. Greatness to come later, she was born Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg on the 2nd of May 1729 in Stettin, Pomerania. At this point, Stettin, is in Prussia, part of the Roman Holy Empire. Today it is know as Szczecin which, you may already know, is in Poland. Her native tongue was German, but she became fluent in French, essential for hob-nobbing with the elite of 18th century Europe. She first met her second cousin, Peter, when she was 10 and found him loathsome. Peter later became Peter III of Russia. Despite Princess Sophie's dislike of Peter and that fact that Peter's mother (The Empress Elizabeth of Russia) disliked Sophie's mother, the Empress took a shine to Princess Sophie. The Princess had worked hard to master the Russian language and converted to the Eastern Orthodox church in 1744 and took on the name Ekaterina Alekseyevna. She married Peter in 1745 . Peter succ...

Meanwhile, somewhere in the 18th century...

Search This Blog