1684 July. Mistris Dorothy Gray, Adminnestratrix of the Goods and Cattles of Mr Edward Gray, late of Plymouth, deceased, […]

The '60s produced the identity politics Obama decries, but they were also a time when transracialism became a driving force, especially among the young. This was the spark that gave the counterculture its funky fire.

Now there was in Shakespeare's time a pipe called the eunuch flute. It was not an instrument that could generate sound but only a contrivance for imparting to the voice a trembling or buzzing sort of tone not unlike that which children produce by means of a piece of paper folded over a comb.

The nineteenth century waas par excellence one of naval scares, not necessarily boosted by diplomatic crisis as in the period of intermittent war, when it had been Britain's turn to rattle the sabre, impressment serving as a successful diplomatic weapon in 1770 (the Falklands), 1787 (Holland) and 1790 (Nootka Sound).