All I really remember from R.E. lessons in school, was to be kind to other people, and to treat those around us with respect.

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Let's get unconscious, honey.

Hello 🙂 Thanks very much 🫶

'Let Virgo come from Heaven, the glorious star, The Zodiac's joy: the planet's chief delight ... That virtuous Virgo born for Britain's bliss: That peerless branch of Brute: that sweet remain Of Priam's state: that hope of springing Troy ...'

'Starlight has what you need'.

Froissart, Richard II meeting with the rebels of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

When the Tories criticise the current Government, or promise this and that, I can't help but immediately think, you had all those years in office but chose to utilise your resources and energy on endless popularity contests within the party. They have a mountain to climb to reclaim goodwill.

🧱 Foundation from Montaigne: “We cannot know for certain where death awaits us, so let us expect it everywhere. Preparing for death is preparing for freedom. Those who have learned to die have unlearned to live in servitude.”

Elizabeth herself was a frugal eater: she habitually eschewed rich food and watered her wine, and was apt to attribute her strong constitution to the fact that she was 'not tied to hours of eating or sleeping, but following appetite; nor delighted in belly cheer to please the taste.'

In the course of a single year, [Elizabeth's] Court consumed 1,240 oxen, 8,000 sheep, 310 pigs, 560 flitches of bacon, 13,260 lambs, 2,752 pullets & capons, 1,115 dozen chickens, 1,360 dozen pigeons, 1,428 dozen rabbits, 60,000 pounds of butter, & 600,000 gallons of ale.

beforehand some knowledge of Elizabeth's frame of mind. One morning Sir Christopher Hatton emerged from an audience with the Queen and, seeing Harington, kindly warned him, 'If you have any suit today, I pray you put it aside. The sun does not shine.'

moment to present the Queen with an application on behalf of oneself. Sir John Harington took the view that the most propitious time to tackle her was in the morning, before other business intervened to distract her. [ ... ] Before making any such appeal, however, it was as well to try and ascertain

came below the knees. [One] luckless courtier appeared before her in a tasselled doublet [which] she was less complimentary [on]. Rudely she spat on the fringed cloth, commenting scornfully, 'The fool's wit was gone to rags.' [There] required a nice judgement to be able to tell exactly the right

(All from Elizabeth I, by Anne Somerset). Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603) 'felt so strongly about what men about her wore that in 1594 she put all her courtiers to considerable expense by issuing an order through the Lord Chamberlain that no one would be admitted to her presence wearing a cloak that