Category: History
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Visiting Red House
Despite my fondness for William Morris, I’d never visited Red House (National Trust) before, despite its status as the family home built by Philip Webb with Morris’s approval. I gave a talk there recently and found it much easier to get to than expected (despite floods, engineering works and rail strikes!) and it was well…
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Treatment in the nineteenth-century lunatic asylum
The nineteenth and early-twentieth century asylum was most likely to be run on a system of ‘moral management’. The term ‘moral’ is used here in a somewhat insidious way: it refers to a system of bodily and mental health, but has its roots in a conventional Victorian morality which insisted upon self-discipline above all else.…
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Beyond the Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy
It seems a long time since we could travel to visit exhibitions, but two months ago I was able to attend the opening event for the ‘Beyond the Brotherhood’ exhibition at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth. After a crazy couple of months, I have been revisiting it via the excellent catalogue, which…
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The nineteenth-century lunatic asylum
I’ve spent some time researching lunatic asylums, so I thought I’d post some of my findings here in a series. Please note I’m using the language of the time (‘lunatics’, etc)! The modern view of the nineteenth- and early-twentieth century lunatic asylum is coloured by dramatic stories of wrongful incarceration and Gothic buildings in which…
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Book Review: To See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters
Since 2019 marks the bicentenary of John Ruskin’s birth, there has been an explosion of interest in the form of events, books, articles, etc. The Radio 4 In Our Time episode devoted to Ruskin in 2005 wondered if 2019 would see as much enthusiasm for him as his centenary year in 1919: i can’t compare but…
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Sanditon: ‘when rich people are sordid’
What better way to go into September than discussing the best place to go for a seaside holiday. Where did you go? Where can you stay in a nice house, take the sea air to improve your health, and enjoy the company of the rich and fashionable? These conversations begin Jane Austen’s novel Sanditon, which opens with…