The WS Society is hosting a variety of events this year to celebrate the 200th birthday of its magnificent building in Parliament Square, the Signet Library. The most recent of these was a public lecture by Robert Pirrie WS on ‘Identity, Imagination and George IV in Edinburgh, 1822’ in which he explained how he is…
This was always going to be the most intense day of the trip. We would have the morning in Oxford, travel back to London in the afternoon, and catch a train to York in the early evening. But we know Oxford well and we knew what we wanted to do. Breakfast at Browns Cafe (est….
I’m an ex-Londoner and I miss it. I don’t get there as much as I’d like, but I keep an Oyster Card charged with about £5 at all times just in case. On the morning of 7 October 2019, I took my Lothian Buses Ridacard from its place and inserted my Oyster. Ready for the…
York in October is a magical place. There is a crispness to the air as the days shorten and prepare for winter. It is an ideal place to be (and I wish as I’m writing this that I was there now). We were there to be tourists and we started with a visit to Fairfax…
The next morning found us in the Troubadour in Earl’s Court for breakfast. Not an obvious choice, perhaps, but a very good one. The Troubadour is more well-known as a music venue. In 2019, you could get an excellent breakfast there. (It looks like you can still get brunch at the weekend.) Our visit to…
Normally, I don’t keep a journal during my travels, but I made a compromise last year. For years now, I have been starting each day with a ‘Morning Pages’ session. This is a practice that is meant to make me a proper writer. The idea is that I’m to get up each day and, before…
The final day of a holiday can be melancholy. You are not ready to go back to reality, but knowing you have to. This is balanced against wanting to squeeze every moment of enjoyment in that you can. If there is ever a way that I can become the Lord Mayor of York, I’ll take…
A benefit to having a hangover is not needing to stop for breakfast. We had an appointment to keep at our next destination and needed to be on the move anyway. The Oxford Tube had plenty of space. We got returns for we would be coming back through the next day. The visit was to…
I found inspiration for the novel I’m (still, a year later) working on
Sometimes being a historian is just plain fun… See ‘Armada chests and legal documents: Anderson Strathern‘ by Professor John W. Cairns the Edinburgh Legal History blog for a recent adventure featuring locked treasure chests, legal documents, and getting covered in the dust of ages. I was delighted to be invited along to the ceremonial opening…
