Smuggler's Britain tells "the fascinating story of smuggling in 18th and 19th century Britain, when high taxes led to an dramatic increase in illegal imports. As the 'free trade'" grew, smugglers openly landed contraband in full view of the customs authorities: columns of heavily-armed thugs protected the cargoes." Includes a gazetteer with Google maps links so you can scope out some lonely
cove to land contraband of your own in the footsteps of your forefathers and introduces you to
famous smugglers like
Isaac Gulliver, who never killed a man in a long career. Though of course, it was an enterprise where things often would turn
ugly.
posted by Abiezer
on Oct 9, 2008 -
7 comments
The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft: A searchable database of people accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736. Currently, 3,837 people have been identified, 3,212 by name. 113 cases involved fairies, 74 had a known political or property motive, 70 involved some aspect of "white magic". This is the real, and utterly fascinating, history of a hysteria that griped a country and a continent for more than a century. Religion, folk belief, fear and local relations all played out in witchhunts - and we still do not really understand why, why they started or why they ended. Projects like this one are invaluable to help us begin.
(Co-developed by mefite Flitcraft)
posted by jb
on Feb 20, 2006 -
17 comments
Edinburgh's Scotsman newspaper has launched a digital archive covering all editions from 1817-1950.
There are several stories with an
American slant which may be something that interests you. There is coverage on such things as the hanging of the notorious bodysnatchers
Burke and Hare.
Unfortunately, after viewing the free archives it is a paysite, but I still think it's worth a look as there is easily a couple of hours of interesting reading on the free articles that are included.
The set-up and look of this site is brilliant as well.
posted by ClanvidHorse
on Jun 4, 2005 -
9 comments
Best laid schemes? Back in 1945 the
Bruce Plan [click on images for video footage] was a radical proposal to knock down, and then rebuild, the Victorian centre of the city of Glasgow. The city’s
slums* would be cleared;
new towns* would be established; Glasgow would rise again, triumphant, once again the second city of the
Empire*. In
1971*, there were grand visions of the Glasgow of the future; the Glasgow of tomorrow would be a bright, shining new city, and the
Clyde* would once again be something to be proud of. A fascinating film archive of the
Glasgow of the 20th century.
*All links contain embedded video goodness.
posted by Len
on May 17, 2005 -
13 comments
The Man Who Unwrote the Bible. In the mid-1720s,
Alexander Cruden took on a self-imposed task of Herculean proportions: he decided to compile the most thorough concordance of the
King James Version of the
Bible (777,746 words). The first edition of
Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737. Every similar undertaking before or since has been the work of a vast team of people. Cruden worked alone in his lodgings, writing the whole thing out by hand. Cruden's day job was as a "Corrector of the Press" (proofreader). He would give hawk-eyed attention to prose all day long. Then he would come home at night to read the Bible—stopping at every single word to secure the right sheet from the tens of thousands of pieces of paper all around him and to record accurately the reference in its appropriate place. He had no patron, no publisher, no financial backers: his only commission was a divine one.
Cruden's Concordance has never been out of print. A
new book tells the tale of Alexander the Corrector's bizarre,
sad life (scroll down to about half page).
posted by matteo
on Apr 3, 2005 -
10 comments
