Before people had the handiness of paper-rolled ‘cigarettes’ for their tobacco intake, there was ‘snuff’ – where the tobacco was ground into a powder which was then inhaled (or “snuffed”) into each nostril. Snuff-taking was wildly popular in Georgian and Victorian England, albeit a rather middle-class activity (all the rich kids were of course taking […]
“Lady Lewson”, born Jane Vaughan (1700 – 1816) was one of 18th century London’s more colourful characters, and the probable inspiration for Dickens’ famed eccentric spinster, Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Jane had the good fortune of marrying a rich, elderly merchant . She herself was just nineteen. She moved to his stately home in […]
Marie-Louise O’ Murphy de Boisfaily (21 October 1737 – 11 December 1814) was the youngest child of an Irish army officer. She was a celebrated French beauty, one of the younger mistresses of Louis XV. The youngest of seven, Marie-Louise was born to ex-Irish army officer Daniel O’ Murphy and his French wife. Daniel had […]
2019 Note: Comments are turned off site-wide due to the frankly disgusting onslaught of racist (both leanings) messages I receive on this post almost on a daily basis. I am happy to leave the post up as when I wrote it I believed (and still do) that’s it’s an interesting little topic. Take it, or […]
Margaret “Peg” Woffington (18 October 1720 – 28 March 1760) was a celebrated Irish-born actress during Georgian times. Peg was born in Dublin in 1720. Her father – a bricklayer – died when she was young, leaving her family penniless and destitute . Her mother took in laundry, while little Peg sold watercress […]
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