"Tom is 44. His age + 6 is equal to 5/4th of (age-4), or 5x(age-4)/4. Multiply out by 4 to get rid of that divisor, and 4 x age + 24 = 5x(age-4), or 5x age-20. Add the 20 to both sides, and 4 x age + 44 = 5 x age, or 44 = Tom's age."
Well done if you got this!
Notes Dedopulos, T., The Medieval Puzzle Collection (London, Cartlon Books Limited: 2014) p. 134
Christmas was yesterday. If you missed this, I'll send help as you're obviously trapped down a well. In the spirit of Christmas traditions, here's a puzzle for you today. Solution will be posted tomorrow!
"How old are your really Old Tom?"
"That would be telling, my dear. But maybe you can figure it out for yourself. In six years' time, I'll be one and a quarter times as old as I was four years ago."
So, how old is Tom?
Notes Image: c. 1460, France, The Walters Art Museum, accession no. W.269
Dedopulos, T., The Medieval Puzzle Collection (London, Cartlon Books Limited: 2014) p. 77
London is crrently full of ice skating rinks so I was
curious as to when ice skating first became a leisure activity.
Ice skating has been around for 1000s of years, evidenced by
bone skates found my archaeologists. The earliest written account comes from
Walter Fitzstephen, a late twelfth century monk at Canterbury and a chronicler in
a passage concerning leisure activities details:
"In the winter holidays...when the vast lake,
which waters the walls of the city towards the north, is hard frozen, the youth
in great numbers got to divert themselves on the ice.
Some, taking a small run,
for an increment of velocity, place their feet at the proper distance, and are
carried sliding sideways a great way; others will make a large cake of ice, and
seating one of their companions upon it, they take hold of one another's hands
and draw him along; when it sometimes happens, that moving swiftly on so slippery
a plain they all fall down headlong.
Other there are who are still more expert
in these amusements on the ice, they place certain bones, the leg bones of some
animal, under the soles of their feet, by tying them round their ankles, and
then taking a pole shod with iron into their hands, they push themselves
forward by striking it against the ice, and are carried along with a velocity
equal to the flight of a bird, or a bolt discharged from a cross bow.
Sometimes, two of them thus furnished, agree to start opposite one to another,
at a great distance; the meet, elevate their poles, attack and strike each
other, when one or both of them fall, and not without some bodily hurt; and
even after their fall, they shall be carried a good distance from each other by
the rapidity of the motion; and whatever part of your head comes upon the ice,
it is sure to be laid bare to the scull [sic].
Very often the leg or the arm of
the party that falls, if he chances to light upon them, is broken: but youth is
an age ambitious of glory, fond and covetous of victory; and that in future
time it may acquit itself boldly and valiantly in real engagements, it will run
these hazards in sham ones."
The lake in this description is suggested to have been in the Moorfields area. As you can see, much of the medieval skating experience is still true today. Sore bottoms still abound!
Putting on boots: MS 551, Les miracles de la vierge, mis en vers par Gautier de Coincy, 13th century, f. 20 v. (view online)
Snowballs: detail from a fresco by Master Venceslao, Tower Aquila, Buonconsiglio Castle, Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, 14th-15th century
Description of the City of London, Newly Translated from the Latin Original; with a Necessary Commentary. A Dissertation on the Author, ... is Prefixed: and to the Whole is Subjoined, a Correct Edition of the Original, with the Various Readings, and Some Useful annotations. By an Antiquary, printed for B. White, translated by (London: Fleet Street, 1772) pp. 50-52
Allegedly the earliest Christmas carol, usually dated to the thirteenth century:
Lordings, listen to our lay —
We have come from far away
To seek Christmas;
In this mansion we are told
He his yearly feast doth hold;
'Tis t-day!
May joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love.
Lordings, I now tell you true,
Christmas bringeth unto you
Only mirth;
His house he fills with many a dish
Of bread and meat and also fish,
To grace the day.
May joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love.
Lordings, through our army's band
They say — who spends with open hand
Free and fast,
And oft regals his many friends —
God gives him double what he spends
To grace the day.
May joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love.
Lordings, wicked men eschew,
In them never shall you view
Aught that's good;
Cowards are the rable rout,
Kick and beat the grumblers out,
To grace the day.
May joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love.
To English ale and Gascon wine,
And French, doth Christmas much incline —
And Anjou's, too;
He makes his neighbour freely drink
So that in sleep his head doth sink
Often by day.
May joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love.
Lords, by Christmas and the host
Of this mansion hear my toast —
Drink it well —
Each must drain his cup of wine,
And I the first will toss off mine:
Thus I advise.
Here then I bid you all Wassail, Cursed be he who will not say, Drinkhail. May joy come from God above,
To all those who Christmas love.
Wassail translates as "your health", and drinkhail as "drink health". Both terms are Anglo-Saxon in origin and really deserve to make their way back into common usuage.
The original manuscript that contained this carol has been missing since 7th June 1879, but remains listed in the British Library's catalogue as Royal MS 16 E VIII. It was found in the midst of a miscellany alongside other documents such as a "short description of England" and "phases of the moon proper for any business".
EDIT: This video worked up until this blog post went live which is rather typical. You can find a performed version of this song however if you search for the group "Joglaresa".
Notes
Transcription (in Anglo-Norman) can be found in Douce, F. Illustrations of Shakespeare,
and of Ancient Manners: With Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of
Shakespeare; on the Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta
Romanorum; and on the English Morris Dance, Volume 2 (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807) p. 215
Rickert, E. Ancient English Chirstmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914) pp. 134-5
As part of my doctoral work I have needed to create a
database.
This did not go well.
I suspect part of the problem is that I am not a terribly
logically minded individual, and after attending a two-day course aimed at
students from all backgrounds run by my university and a week of staring at a
computer screen I had made little tangible progress.
So, like any good procrastinator, I decided to leave it and
pick it up when I felt like I had more time.
…fast forward 3 years…
What I thought I would do today was share was the gems of
three years of avoiding not being able to write a database.
1. Don’t use MS Word.
If
I had used MS Excel my life would have been a lot easier. I didn’t completely
abandon the project, I did gather the data for the database, but if I’d
gathered it in Excel I would have saved myself a lot of time later when I
actually had a database to work with.
2. A ) Go find someone who has worked with
databases.
B ) If they’re a historian, doubly go find
them
This is the more important of my two lessons. I was slightly
in denial about actually having to create a database and hoped that my Word doc.
would see me through (feel free to chuckle derisively at this point). I had the
good fortune to be put in contact however with a fellow researcher who had
spent 4 years working with a database who very kindly took pity on me and
knocked me one together.
3. Find a course aimed at historians, not a general
one.
Not everyone database-challenged may have the luck I had however,
and my helper/saviour/colleague recommended this course run by the IHR:
The course I attended was excellent, but I struggled to
convert what I’d been taught into something I could use with my historical
data. A simple google quickly brings up the IHR course, along with many others.
They’re not hard to find, but if you don’t look for them –
you don’t know they’re there!
