19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 6
March 2nd, 1809. We are back in Portugal at last. It has been a circuitous journey across ridges and valleys, avoiding the French troops on the lower ground, but we have managed it without any [more…]
Hobbies
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 2
First Class Previously I regularly visited the continent travelling by train, ferry and hovercraft. Subsequently I went via the channel tunnel but before the high speed rail link to St Pancras had been completed. After [more…]
19th Century
Milestones in Nineteenth Century Firearms Development, Part Two
In my introductory article we saw that by the beginning of the 19th century the flintlock was firmly established as the state-of-the-art means of ignition in military and sporting firearms. In this article, we will [more…]
Hobbies
The Basel Problem
One sometimes gets very interesting results when one turns divergent sums upside down. The Basel problem was asked by Pietro Mengoli in . He asked what is the exact summation of the reciprocals of the [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 5
January 19th, 1809. Our return to Lisbon will not be like our march north. Then we were travelling with an army in good order on broad roads through a populated area near the coast. Now [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 1
In the prologue we recalled a fond age of travelling to the near continent via rail, ferry and hovercraft. This landscape changed with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. At the beginning of Eurotunnel operations, [more…]
19th Century
Milestones in Nineteenth Century Firearms Development, Part One
Some weeks ago, and quite by chance, a friend offered to sell me a rare mid-19th century rifle, the design of which I had long found to be of interest. Although I was not at [more…]
19th Century
A Bear’s Diary – Part 4
September 19th, 1808, Lisbon. We are in port at last, and I am glad to have my paws on the ground. It was a difficult passage out of the Channel, and we had to tack [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, prologue
Previously, underused first class carriages formed an overnight , £5 a seat, train between Glasgow and London. It was called the Nightrider. In those days Scotsman would travel with ghettoblasters and a cardboard tray of [more…]