Increasingly controversial as it is, tomorrow is Australia Day, marking 231 years since the British First Fleet arrived in New South Wales.
Here’s a publication from 1901, announcing the “new” Australian flag.
And things aren’t going to be very comfortable for the official, mostly outdoor events here in Canberra (the capital city), that run over the 25th-26th!
The luxurious Harewood House in Yorkshire, England. We stopped for a visit on the way to York two days ago.
Yesterday we visited Downhill (or what’s left of it!), which is in County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.
Built by the bizarre English aristocrat Frederick, 4th Earl of Bristol and Lord Bishop of Derry – yes, he was both – the house is now a ruin, but the Mussenden Temple perched on the cliff at the edge of the estate survives. It is said he kept his mistress there.
I saw this book in Barcelona just over a month ago, and decided there was no way I was lugging something this big and heavy all the way home! I was glad to find it on The Book Depository, both in paperback and hardcover. Of course, if you buy from there you get the book with free shipping (I shudder to think how much it would be to Australia otherwise!).
This is one of those books that will appeal to history nerds, historical fiction and romance readers, etc.
On the 27th of August, 1798, a rebellion took place in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland.
In what would come to be known either as the Battle of Castlebar or the Castlebar Races, a force of two-thousand Irish rebels and French troops defeated six-thousand British troops.
This event was part of the larger failed Irish Rebellion of that year.
Today is the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death.
16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817
This early 1900s postcard is of the Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolution battle that took place in North Carolina on the 16th of May, 1771.
Scottish poet Robert Burns was born on the 25th of January, 1759.
The date is celebrated in Scotland and by the Scottish diaspora as Burns Night.
In Times Gone By... 