Depictions of the Royal Mail Coach often took a nostalgic view of a “simpler time” before the introduction of the railroad. In the following excerpt from “The English-Mail Coach”, an 1849 essay, English writer Thomas De Quincey defends the old mail-coach system by describing the rush of riding as a passenger atop the carriage.
From the May 1833 issue of The Sporting Magazine, this excerpt from the article “Grouse Shooting in the North” speaks to the merits of the Kingston breed of English Setters, and accompanied an engraving after Marshall’s Colonel Henry Campbell Shooting on the Moor.
During Count Sándor’s stay in Melton Mowbray, an amused press reported on his bold feats in riding and fox hunting. C. J. Nimrod, a writer for The Sporting Magazine, relays his impressions of the count in his article “Nimrod’s Visit to Melton Mowbray,” published in May 1829. Listen to what he had to say!
Artists like Barye took advantage of the access to wild and exotic animals provided by zoos like the Mênagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In this recorded excerpt, English zoologist and writer Edward Turner Bennett describes constrictors in The Tower Menagerie (1829), a collection of anecdotes about animals kept in the British Royal Family’s zoo.
In the early 1900s, fashionable women wore large hats adorned with flowers, ribbons, lace, and most strikingly, birds. This recording from the winter 1897 issue of Harper’s Bazaar speaks to the detrimental impact that the fashionable hat trade had on birds.
Dogs have been called “man’s best friend”, but when did these close bonds first take shape? The Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck wonders about the origins of our canine companionship in this excerpt from his book Our Friend the Dog.
Taken from an account of his travels in South America, this audio recording of Catlin’s writing recounts the artist stealthily approaching a colony of flamingos.
In the weeks preceding Edouard Vuillard’s stay in Romanel, he visited friends in L’Etang-la-Ville, a small town outside of Paris. There, he realized his growing appreciation for nature and its striking simplicity, and expressed it in a letter to his friend Swiss artist Félix Vallotton dated August 10, 1900. Listen to a recording of Vuillard’s thoughts on country life.
Though sensitivity toward animals increased in the 18th and 19th centuries, artists continued to paint the very birds that hunters happily continued to hunt. Ruffs and reeves were a delicacy for sportsmen. The Cook’s Guide and Housekeeper’s & Butler’s Assistant, an 1861 book by Charles Elmé Francatelli, who served as chief cook to Queen Victoria, includes this recipe for the second course roast—“ruffs and reeves”.
