Our great grandparents were weird
Sometimes, I try to get into the mindset of a Victorian. They were a very peculiar people. I came across this story today. I won’t spoil it, though you can see what’s coming a mile away. I’ll just say, my reaction to that event would have been very, very different.
They had unfathomable viewns about death. Like the man who stuffed kittens and posed them in huge dioramas. Kittens are cute, he reasoned, so…? I’ve blogged about him before. (Post includes a link to the horrifying but entertaining crappy taxidermy site).
Walter Potter’s museum of dead animals was broken up and sold in 2003, though they have since gotten a number of pieces together again to show more than once.
Here’s more about Potter from Steyning Museum, which would have been local to the original collection. They tried, and failed, to buy some pieces for their collection (too expensive).
I sat next to a woman from Steyning Museum at a historical do once. She didn’t want to talk about the kittens.
Posted: April 7th, 2021 under history.
Comments: 17
Comments
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: April 7, 2021, 9:37 pm
Are those squirrels playing Lanterloo?
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: April 7, 2021, 11:39 pm
That’s a cribbage board, @durnedyankee, or I’m a monkey’s uncle.
My nephew hates it when I use that expression! (-;
Comment from ea
Time: April 8, 2021, 2:28 am
I think rich people of that era were not expected to have jobs but were expected to keep busy. Nothing worse than a freak with time and money on his hands to work on his “hobbies”
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: April 8, 2021, 1:45 pm
Like, Bill Gates telling us we all need to swap over to $50.00/lb lab grown hamburgers.
Comment from BJM
Time: April 8, 2021, 5:24 pm
@Stoaty…agreed about the Victorians…they were very weird…but they did invent the vibrator…so Yay Victorians. Taxidermy is too creepy for me. There was an item in yesterday’s Mail that some WAG/minorceleb/starlet stuffed her recently departed and much-loved horse.
No, just no.
Comment from Carl
Time: April 8, 2021, 6:51 pm
I saw the exhibition many years ago. It used to be in Arundel. It was weird. Apart from the tableaux, I particularly remember the two-headed lamb.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: April 8, 2021, 6:54 pm
For those put off by taxidermy, this article may trigger you.
Comment from Stephen Falken
Time: April 8, 2021, 7:03 pm
I just read that Britain will have herd immunity by Monday. When did we start calling a group of people a herd?
Comment from Jon
Time: April 8, 2021, 7:26 pm
That article did Trigger me. Good call, Al.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 8, 2021, 8:09 pm
Boo! I’m not allowed to see creepy taxidermy article:
“The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country.”
I could change the country on my VPN, but that sounds like work.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: April 8, 2021, 8:58 pm
Hmmm, Herd of peasants.
Trying to decide if that sounds better than:
Mob of peasants
Gaggle of peasants
Horde of peasants
Flock of peasants
Horde and Mob certainly carry connotations inconsistent with the desires of our new self appointed nobility, so I think herd, flock or gaggle are the better choices since they indicate a certain level of control over said group.
Comment from Stephen Falken
Time: April 8, 2021, 10:03 pm
Herd of sheeple (so, yes, herd is the best choice)
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: April 9, 2021, 12:25 am
@durnedyankee — How ’bout a drove of peasants, as in a drove of cattle?
Comment from Subotai Bahadur
Time: April 9, 2021, 12:54 am
I believe that the masters of the current regime would prefer:
A Submission of Peasants or a Grovel of Deplorables.
Subotai Bahadur
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: April 9, 2021, 1:17 am
@Subotai Bahadur — Good point. Or a shitload of slaves.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: April 9, 2021, 1:49 am
Ah, coffle, yes that’s the word!
A coffle of peasants.
An awful coffle of deplorables.
Comment from BJM
Time: April 10, 2021, 4:46 pm
@Durned…how about a Covefe of Conservatives?
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