As a friend who is a special collections librarian commented, “First edition, first issue in first state dust-jacket”.
Parliamentary History
Dickens and Parliament
Earlier this week I gave a micro-lecture at an event to celebrate Dickens’ connections with Parliament, and I reproduce some of it here. Having had an indifferent education up to 12 and then famously being put to work in a boot-blacking factory by his feckless and Micawber-like father, Dickens joined a solicitor’s office at the […]
16 October 1834 in a Word Cloud
This is what happened when I put the whole text of The Day Parliament Burned Down into Wordle! Click to enlarge…
A Follow-up to Spencer Perceval’s Death-Table
My blogpost of 11 May 2012, which sparked a lot of interest, needs an update – especially in relation to my speculation that it may have been the Commons Chamber table between 1730-1800. In thinking about the comments to that posting, I had forgotten that Phillis M. Rogers, Curator of Works of Art at the […]
The Table Spencer Perceval Didn’t Die On
Today is the 200th anniversary of the day when the British Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons. He was shot at 5.15pm at point blank range on 11 May 1812, by John Bellingham, a deranged shipping agent driven mad by his attempts to get the government to […]
Parliament and the Portcullis
The use of the Portcullis as a specifically Parliamentary symbol is not a particularly ancient one. In fact it dates from the building of the new Palace of Westminster the 19th century. The genius of Charles Barry’s design for the west front of the Palace (below right) was – among other things – to match it to […]
