19th Century
Bullet Points
Every once in a while I get involved with some project or other relating to my hobby of collecting and shooting antique firearms and while individually these may not justify a separate GP article, I [more…]
19th Century
19th Century
Enemies Within: Mouchard!
Autumn 1899, just weeks before the turn of a new century, saw two men released from Pentonville Prison on London’s Caledonian Road. Jailed seven years previously following an anarchist plot in Walsall, some continued to [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within, Part Four
In late February of 1894, a far-fetched tale appeared in the London penny dreadful newspapers. It concerned the untimely death of an anarchist, Martial Bourdin, blown up by his own bomb near the Royal Observatory [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within: Anarchy!
Only the nieve might think the nighttime streets of 1894 Soho, a den of immigrants and nere-do-goods, were not already alive with talk of the events of the previous chilly February afternoon. Passers-by investigating an [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within: Rendezvous on Windmill Street
Ruffians, alone or in groups of two or three, descend from different directions along gloomy London streets on a sharp winter’s weekday night in February 1894. Amongst them is a figure in a top hat [more…]
19th Century
Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?
I suspect that all Puffins are fervently hoping that the US Presidential Election will result in the return of the Donald to the White House. If this happens, it will be an unusual but not [more…]
19th Century
Enemies Within: A Curious Incident at The Observatory
On a crisp February afternoon on a non-descript Thursday in 1894, tram conductor Mr William Smith issued a through ticket from Westminster Bridge to Greenwich. On entering the horse-drawn tram, the passenger concerned wore a [more…]
18th Century
Reparations for Slavery
Free Gear Kier has said reparations are off the table only to find that the Commonwealth leaders have put it firmly on his table. The prediction has to be that this weakling will cave in [more…]
18th Century