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Archive for the ‘Victoriana’ Category

Victoriana At The Arcade Of Arts & Arcana

Posted in Books, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lily Wight

Updated 09/06/2014

     All these amazing facts have been borrowed from the Snapping-Turtle Guide, Victorian Life by John Guy.

*The average life expectancy for a Victorian city-dweller was a measly 40 years!

*At the beginning of Victoria’s reign (1837) 20% of the population lived in towns.  By the end of her reign (1901) this figure had risen to 75%.

*Beer was less than a penny a pint causing problems with drunkenness… especially amongst children.

*This was probably because both boys and girls wore dresses until they reached about five years old.

*Thomas Edison didn’t just invent the phonograph (1877) he suggested talking-books for the blind.

*The Railway Age created affordable travel for all and inspired that Great British pursuit: a day-trip to the seaside!

*Victorian Artists and Poets reacted against The Industrial Age by incorporating romanticised Myths, Legends and The Natural World into their work.  (Click the…

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More Victorian Vixens At The Arcade Of Arts & Arcana!

Posted in Art, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2012| 4 Comments »

     Updated 30/9/2015

     If you would like to see more images from the Victoriana album just click below to link or go to the Gallery tab at the top of the homepage (www.lilywight.com).

     You can friend/follow Lily Wight on Facebook or follow @Lily_Wight on Twitter xxx

     Try another post 🙂

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Lily Wight’s Remarkable Victorian Trivia Generator

Posted in Books, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2012| 8 Comments »

  

*Postage stamps, matches, refrigerators, lightbulbs, antiseptic, inflatable tyres, cars, buses, telephones, iron bridges, railways, cameras, bandstands and promenades are all Victorian inventions.

*After the death of Prince Albert (1861) Queen Victoria dressed in black and had fresh clothes and a wash-stand prepared for Albert every day.

*She also spoke of “the mad, wicked folly of women’s rights”.  No comment.

*Only two British monarchs have reached their Diamond Jubilee.  Victoria celebrated hers in 1897.

*Britain and China went to war… over Opium trafficking!

*A large part of the world still speaks English today because of Victoria’s empire.

*The Commonwealth is made up of countries which were once under British rule.

*The River Thames was so thick with sewage that paddle-steamers could hardly move.  After 30 years of work a new improved sewage system was completed in 1875.  It is still in use today.

*Victorian architecture favoured Medieval Gothic and Classical Roman or Greek styles.

*The first Victorian computer was called the “analytic engine”.

 

     All facts borrowed from The Victorians by Robert Hull.

     Click here for another post 🙂

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More Victoriana At The Arcade Of Arts & Arcana

Posted in Books, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

     Updated 17/06/2014

     Here at The Arcade of Arts & Arcana we are not ashamed to trawl kids’ books for fascinating factoids.  Here are few of our findings…

 

*Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital opened in 1852.  If you scroll down the sidebar you will find a link to Children With Cancer UK, this site’s nominated charity 🙂 

*Edward Jenner helped to wipe out smallpox in just 40 years when free vaccinations became available in 1840.

*The bell residing in the Houses of Parliament clock tower was cast in 1858 and named for building supervisor Sir Benjamin Hall.  Big Ben of course.

*Building ships from steel instead of heavy iron was a very good idea.

*Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies (1863) influenced Parliament to pass the Chimney Sweeps Act.  The use of children as sweeps was finally stamped out in 1875.

*Today southeast Asia produces 90% of the world’s rubber.  Rubber seeds were originally sourced in South America, shipped to the UK for cultivation at Kew Gardens and re-distributed to Malaysia and Indonesia.

*The first bicycle, the Penny Farthing, was made in 1883 with solid tyres and no brakes.

*The first electric underground railway opened in London in 1890.  The system soon became known as “The Tube”.

*Many UK newspapers were founded in the Victorian era.  The Times rose to prominence by reporting on the blunders of The Crimean War.

*Many Scots families emigrated to Canada (settling Nova Scotia or New Scotland) due to their own, less well-known potato famine.

 

     All these facts are borrowed from The Victorian Age 1837-1914 by James Harrison.

     Click for another post 🙂

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Victoriana At The Arcade Of Arts & Arcana

Posted in Books, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2012| 16 Comments »

Updated 09/06/2014

     All these amazing facts have been borrowed from the Snapping-Turtle Guide, Victorian Life by John Guy.

*The average life expectancy for a Victorian city-dweller was a measly 40 years!

*At the beginning of Victoria’s reign (1837) 20% of the population lived in towns.  By the end of her reign (1901) this figure had risen to 75%.

*Beer was less than a penny a pint causing problems with drunkenness… especially amongst children.

*This was probably because both boys and girls wore dresses until they reached about five years old.

*Thomas Edison didn’t just invent the phonograph (1877) he suggested talking-books for the blind.

*The Railway Age created affordable travel for all and inspired that Great British pursuit: a day-trip to the seaside!

*Victorian Artists and Poets reacted against The Industrial Age by incorporating romanticised Myths, Legends and The Natural World into their work.  (Click the Gallery tab for an album of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.)

*Thank whatever gods you believe in for the invention of chloroform!  Available for use on patients as an anaesthetic from 1847.

*According to royal protocol no one is allowed to propose to a queen so Victoria had to ask for Albert’s hand in marriage (and we all know where he kept the ring *warning* this link features adult content)!

*Women (and anything they earned or owned) were considered the property of their husbands or fathers until legal amendments beginning 1882.

 

     Click for another post you might enjoy 🙂

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Sensational Steampunk Insects

Posted in Art, Victoriana, tagged , , , , on June 16, 2012| 10 Comments »

Make Something Mondays!

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

steampunk

Via Beautiful Life

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Sir John Tenniel’s Alice In Wonderland… Curiouser & Curiouser!

Posted in Art, Books, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 14, 2012| 9 Comments »

Alison Doherty

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Dracula The Un-Dead. Bram Stoker Lives!

Posted in Books, Macabre, Reviews, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2012| 25 Comments »

Updated 03/06/2014

     Despite obvious extensive research and the Stoker seal of approval belated Dracula sequel Dracula The Un-Dead is a wasted opportunity which panders to modern tastes instead of keeping faith with the original vampire classic.

     Dacre Stoker and collaborator Ian Holt throw in everything from Elizabeth Bathory and Jack The Ripper to The Titanic creating a convoluted yarn which, although fast paced, struggles to find themes and focus.

     This sort of  Victorian Gothic Alternative History, or Literary Re-imagining, has been done far more successfully before by author Kim Newman whose Anno Dracula series is both effortless and ingenious in its use of similar settings and characters.

     The Un-Dead reads more like a sequel to Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula movie and when Dracula intones to Mina’s son “I am your father!!!” you may just die laughing.

     A fun read, but shouldn’t this have been a modern-day classic?

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Flaming June! Lily Wight’s Victorian Hotties!

Posted in Art, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , on June 1, 2012| 5 Comments »

     Welcome to June at Lily Wight ~ The Arcade of Arts & Arcana.

     As The Olympic Flame winds its way around our green and pleasant land and with the nation on the brink of celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee there has never been a better time to be British (please ignore our coalition government and “double-dip” recession).

     I am dedicating this month’s musings to the era of another great female monarch, Queen Victoria and her dubiously monikered Age of Empire.  Victoria reached her Diamond Jubilee year in 1897 and there is every possibility that, in a few short years, our current reigning queen will wreck her record as Blighty’s longest-serving monarch.

     If Victorians are remembered for their conquests and industry perhaps future generations will refer to Ma’am’s subjects as Neo-Elizabethans from The Age of Technology and Terrorism 😦  We are certainly grateful for the extra days off work, the street-parties, the televised pageantry and Wills and Kate 🙂

     Our favourite Victorian Pre-Raphaelite maiden, The Lady of Shalott, will be appearing in the homepage sidebar all month as June’s Magickal Thing (more on her later) just click the pics to link to some new sample images from the brand new Gallery Album ~ Victoriana.

     See you back here soon, Blogsprites xx 

     Click for a link you might like 🙂

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Cracking Corset!

Posted in Victoriana, tagged , , , , on May 16, 2012| 3 Comments »

I love your blog! I would like to present you with The Versatile Blogger Award! Congratulations.
For information on what to do next just follow the link in the sidebar on my homepage x

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Cage Coffins

Posted in Macabre, Victoriana, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2012| 8 Comments »

Amazing!

Country & Victorian Times

Although this is a bit different from what I usually post, I came upon this picture on the internet and just had to share. I have read and watched a lot on the subject of the undead and vampires, and even read about this cage over graves before. However, I have never actually seen a picture of one before and found it unique. So, I know what your asking, “so what does this have to do with this site and why is it posted?” Well, it has to do with the Victorian era and all of their superstitions and what we now know of as irrational fears.

The caged grave as seen above was used to prevent one of two things. 1: If you were to come back alive and become a walking undead then you wouldn’t be able to remove yourself from this cage and you could be dealt…

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