A merry life & a short one!: The Drunkard’s Coat of Arms, 1707

Alcohol has long been accountable for the peaks and troughs of many romantic relationships, from bleary-eyed beginnings to booze-fuelled disputes and Continue reading →

A New Sort of Holyday for Husbands, or a warning to troublesome wives, 1733

Here is a particularly heartwarming (*cough*) report of one man’s enthusiastic embrace of widowhood in London in 1733. Yes folks, the ‘new Continue reading →

A Lesson for 2014: The Perils of Drunken Sickness, c1700

A slight diversion from the romantic theme for a moment to wish you a happy new year, and to offer Continue reading →

Some familiar c18th New Year’s Resolutions

Struggling to come up with some New Year’s Resolutions for 2014? Here is some eighteenth-century inspiration (and some of them Continue reading →

A Romp Loving Miss Under the Mistletoe (1796)

Ah, Christmas. For centuries it has been the season of love, giving, and sentimental sickliness of all persuasions. But, let’s Continue reading →

An c18th night out – the dreaded ‘before’ & ‘after’ pics

In the eighteenth century, one of the favoured methods of catching a potential suitor’s eye was to head to a Continue reading →

Is gin the answer to your matrimonial problems?

Are you plagued by a nagging wife? Driven to distraction by a drunken sot of a husband? If an extreme Continue reading →

Can drinking tea turn you into a whore?

In eighteenth-century England, there were many reasons why families might have been torn apart, or why dutiful wives and hardworking Continue reading →