Excerpt from MY MOTHER BIDS ME, a Novel of Jane Austen's England on the Eve of Waterloo. Roisin scampered off down the lane and sat in a niche on the packhorse bridge to read her letter. Water sparkled and chuckled over the pebbles way below, giving expression to her own abounding joy. She had recognised the handwriting at once as that of ...

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        Sex, Religion and Politics in the Regency style. She had always been a wild child, hard to discipline and, after a shaky start, possessed of abundant energy; feisty, daring, imaginative, mercurial. Born Caroline Ponsonby, with the prefix of 'Lady' added when her father was promoted to the Earldom of Bessborough, she was the niece of ...

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          Mary Wilkinson's blog yesterday (thanks, Mary!) brought to mind a throng of reflections about errant cows!In the past, I've had them trespass right up to a picture window and do no more damage than churn up the lawn, but it seems they're no longer as docile as they once were. You used to be able to feed them hand-plucked grass, but it's ...

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   Another unsung hero.  The prevailing wisdom was 'Go West, young man.' He had read Westward Ho! as a child. But he'd never been one to ply with the tide, since being caned for scrumping in the vicar's orchard when his brother was the culprit. There were dark rumblings in Europe, though Mr Chamberlain had assured everyone that war had been averted. Samuel watched his ...

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         Text Version of the Ten Commandments as reported by a correspondent of The Tablet's Notebook columns. (Specific page unavailable without login.) Chastening to recall the original Text Message had no DEL button! 1) No1 b4me.Srsly. 2) dnt wrshp pix/idols 3) no OMGs 4) no wrk on w/end (sat4now; sunl8r) 5) pos ok – ur ...

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       Still on the Browning theme, this is my favourite love poem of all time. Overall, his writing is muscular, arresting, vigorous, Shakespearian, and best suited to dramatic interpretation. He's an actor's poet, and one on his own. Browning's work is so strikingly original that it stands out from his contemporaries' in ways that are beyond a personal ...

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