I got a huge kick out of this.
From The Daily Mail:
The instruction booklet was a little worse for wear. But then it does date back to 1577.That didn’t stop a group of gardening enthusiasts using it to recreate an Elizabethan watering contraption known as the “Great Squirt”.
Full article, complete with a drawing of the original and a photo of the recreation.
Frock Flicks is a new podcast dedicated to costume movies, and the second episode was on the new “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” movie. You can also subscribe through iTunes (just type in “frock flicks” in the search box in the podcast directory and it will come right up).
From This is Leicestershire:
Archaeologists hunting the real site of the Battle of Bosworth may have found the most important clue of all.
They believe they could have found the site of the marsh, a key feature of the battle which forever changed the course of British history.
Interesting development! I thought I had blogged about the renewed search for the true site of the battlefield, but I couldn’t find anything in the archives. I think it may have gotten lost in the shuffle when I was inundated with a bunch of other news articles! Anyway, here is the archaeology page from the Leicester County Council’s page on the battle and what they are hoping to find.
While this is only tangentially Tudor-related, Foose reminded me in comments to the Elizabeth open thread that I wanted to comment on the passing of Deborah Kerr. (And yes, I’ll do some more “open threads” in the future on some other topics, since it was kind of fun to read other people’s thoughts on “The Golden Age”).
I first really got into the Tudors when I was about 14 years old, which was also about the time that I really got hooked on watching old movies. I think it was around this time that American Movie Classics and channels like that starting popping up and I fell in love with some of the old movies (not to mention forming crushes on some of the actors, in particular Cary Grant and Yul Brynner). So, of course, I started seeking out old historical movies, and I’m pretty sure the first Tudor one I watched was “Young Bess” (1953). Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger (who were married to one another at the time) star as the young Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, Charles Laughton reprises his role from “The Private Life of Henry VIII” (1933) as the big king himself and Deborah Kerr played Katherine Parr. Interestingly, the boy who played Edward VI in “Young Bess” would go on to play the son of Kerr’s character in “The King and I” (one of my all-time favorite movies).
When the news came out the Deborah Kerr had died, the coverage mostly mentioned the famous kiss on the beach in “From Here to Eternity” and her roles in “The King and I” and “An Affair to Remember”, but I also thought of her in the role I first saw her - Queen Katherine Parr in “Young Bess”.
I have no idea when I’m going to get a chance to see the movie, but if you have and want to comment on it, this is the place!
I’m going to leave the survey open for another two weeks because I’m going to be very, very busy in the next week or so, so I don’t think I’ll get a chance to deal with all of that this weekend.
BTW, I was originally hoping to get the October podcast out this weekend (Oct 13-14), but it looks like next weekend is more realistic. I’m slowly moving them up towards the beginning of the month, but I probably won’t start getting them out in the first week of the month until the start of the new year.
Here’s the link to the survey, if you haven’t already taken it.
It’s just slightly past our period, but this was too good not to share. Since I know some of you are fellow needleworkers or are interested in historical fashion, I thought some readers might find this interesting.
Welcome to Plimoth Plantation’s newest blog. The Embroiderers’ Story will chronicle the progress of a particular project being carried out by the members of Plimoth Plantation’s Colonial Wardrobe & Textiles Department, along with essential help and support from members of the historic needlework community.
Over the next year, we will be recreating a 17th-century embroidered jacket, such as that worn by Dorothy Cary, later Viscountess Rochford, in this portrait dated c. 1614-1618. The work will be done entirely by hand, using 17th-century techniques and modern materials that most closely replicate the original linen cloth and silk and metal threads.
Here is the rest of the introductory post and you can find the newest entries on the main blog page.
(Found via Lavender Rose Ramblings who will be stitching on the project! Congrats!)
