Born in October 1757, Seymour Dorothy Fleming was the fourth of five children of Irish career soldier, Sir John Fleming and his wife, Jane Colman, granddaughter of the Duke of Somerset. Seymour was the surname of the Somerset dynasty and…
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Are Women People?
Women (With rather insincere apologies to Mr. Rudyard Kipling.) I went to ask my government if they would set me free, They gave a pardoned crook a vote, but hadn’t one for me; The men about me laughed and frowned…
Women’s History: Approaches from the History of Emotion
At particular moments in history, women have thought to be more emotional than men. The Victorians thought women were more emotionally unstable and inclined to hysteria. As late as 1912, one prominent doctor in the UK was arguing that women…
Lily, Duchess of Marlborough (1854—1909): A Portrait with Husbands
“If I had a daughter or a sister, I should teach her adaptability, and that learned I should have no further anxiety for her future,” observed Lily, Duchess of Marlborough, in 1890. “Let her please, not men alone, but people,…
Happy New Year!
Bringing in the New Year in Germany There is plenty of dancing going on in Germany. Glee-wine, a sort of negus and puneh, is brought in after supper and just before twelve o’clock. Every one is on the watch to…
An Australian Christmas.
A glorious sun rose on Christmas-day, and the moments were melting ones. The weather had been very wet through June, July and August; September, October, and November had been almost perfect. The bright beautiful green clothing the valleys and hills,…
Susan Cochrane, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (c.1710-1754) Part 2
After her husband’s death and a widow probably before she was twenty, Susan settled into Castle Lyon. Like other women of her status, she had access to significant wealth and property, and indeed, spent part of the 1730s in legal…
Susan Cochrane, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (c.1710-1754) Part 1
Susan Cochrane was the second daughter of the 4th Earl of Dundonald and Lady Anne Murray. Her parents married in April 1706 and her mother died in November 1710; she was one of four siblings. Susan was the second daughter,…
Margaret Treager and the Craft Industries
I would like to announce the publication of my new book, Embroidering History: An Englishwoman?s Experience as a Humanitarian Aid Volunteer in Post-War Poland, 1924-1925. The book provides a glimpse inside the inner workings of an early humanitarian aid project…