A Rainy? St Swithin's Day
In this newsletter
Hello
Social Media
History tid-bits
Hello
In stark contrast to my last newsletter where I was talking about a heatwave hitting the UK, we have now been under a deluge of rain and wind for what feels like weeks. Today is St Swithin’s Day, a British folklore holiday where the weather today is meant to predict the weather for the next 40 days. For me, we had a smattering of rain this morning, then it’s been blowing a gale and bright blue skies. What that will mean, who knows. I would also like to say a warm hello to all the new followers I’ve gained since my last newsletter, following my latest blog announcement, which I’ll go into now.
Social Media
If you didn’t catch my latest blog post (well, then read it here) then you might not know that I am making a few changes to Just History Posts. I’ve been running the blog for close to 7 years now, and with all the other bits of my life that have changed since I started it, it is getting increasingly difficult to run it all by myself. By far, the most time-consuming thing has been managing my social media accounts. I won’t repeat myself here too much, but I have made the decision to close the blog’s Twitter account, and to reduce my posts on Facebook to every other day instead of daily. That should help me manage all my other commitments whilst still bringing lots of history to you.
History Tid-Bits
I realise I’m having a bit of a theme of giving you Tudor-related news in these tid-bit sections, but I follow a lot of Tudor historians on Twitter and so tend to see lots of news from them! In my last newsletter I spoke about scanning technology which opened up a letter-locked letter that had not been opened since it was sent 3 centuries ago. Now technology is opening up more secrets for us: the British Library has used state-of-the-art imaging technology to look at an early 17th-century manuscript account of Elizabeth I’s reign. This technology revealed many parts of the manuscript which had been written over or had pages stuck on top of it to edit the writing, and it allowed researchers to peer at what had been hidden below. It gives an alternative account of events before editing and censoring by its writer, offering a different perspective on how people may have viewed events in the immediate aftermath of Elizabeth’s long reign. Find out more here!
I also enjoyed watching this short video from Historic Royal Palaces about some fragments of late 17th-century wallpaper in a room at Hampton Court Palace. Hidden behind glass and a curtain to protect the fragile design, a curatorial research volunteer pieced together the fragments to reveal the full design of a hunting scene. They then used records of the palace to uncover the man who was living in the room at the time the paper was likely still on the walls. A lovely personal connection to one individual from hundreds of years ago.
A slightly shorter post today, as I am in the midst of preparing my Facebook posts for the next few weeks. As always, thank you for reading, and until next time.
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