By Gender reveal parties, which started some time in the 2000s, have become increasingly elaborate and Instagram worthy. Some excessive stunts have even caused raging wildfires. When I was younger these parties weren’t around but I do remember old wives tales of practices that were supposed to reveal the gender of
Pear Power
Being stuck inside the house on lock-down is certainly very challenging, but it has meant that I have had ample time to enjoy my rather petite pear tree explode into blossom. Eating Fruit Eating fruit in the early modern period was complicated in terms of health. David Gentilcore’s excellent book
The monster of Kirkthorp
Stories of monstrous birth were popular in early modern England. Lots of historians have analysed the materials produced about these children and shown that the meanings attached to them changed over time. In the sixteenth century people interpreted them as a portent or omen from God. In the seventeenth century people also
Mary Hicks Witch of Huntingdon
On 28 July 1716 the Huntingdon assizes condemned Mary Hicks for witchcraft. According to the published narrative of her case, Mary lived in Huntingdon with her husband Edward and their 9-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth was apparently the ‘Aple of his Eye’. This picture of domestic happiness shattered when Mary became
A Dubious Death
Over the past couple of weeks I have been reading through some of the correspondence of the Radcliffe Family, who lived in Hitchin in the eighteenth century. One case has been copied out of the notes of Sir Hans Sloane, a successful medical practitioner who treated Queen Anne and Kings George