Beauty, Sex & Power at the Restoration Court

… Or, what not to read on a packed bus. I don’t often harp on here about things written recently (or, Continue reading →

Beware, gents: A pair of Mantraps! 1780s

Just wanted to share these two lovely prints, depicting a couple of women of dubious morals, or ‘MANTRAPS’ as the Continue reading →

Exhibition: Ruin & Reputation in the Georgian Era

Last week i was delighted to find myself with an invite to the launch of a new exhibition at No.1 Continue reading →

Two at a Time for a Shilling! (1798)

… Clearly the gentleman doesn’t have expensive taste. – ‘The Economy of Love, or Two at a Time for a Continue reading →

The reluctant father: An c18th joke

‘A girl big with child had two gallants, one with a wooden leg; the question was put, which, he who Continue reading →

Sex & The c17th City

The tendency of women to gossip about their sex lives with their friends has set men a-fretting for centuries. Far Continue reading →

The Ruined Girl, 1786

THE RUINED GIRL. ‘Oh! fatal Day when to my Virtues wrong, I fondly listen’d to his flattering Tongue, But oh! Continue reading →

The 70-Year-Old Virgin, 1738

To Georgian Edinburgh, where in the summer of 1738 an almost-centenarian wed a nervous “undefiled” lady of about seventy. My Continue reading →