merry the fellowship leaves rivendell day to all who celebrate it

On August 27th 1788 the trial began of Deacon William Brodie, a respected pillar of Edinburgh society by day, a thief and housebreaker by night.

Brodie is said to have been the inspiration of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which was published a century later.

The prestigious title of deacon did not refer to religion, as many assume, but instead to his presidency of one of Edinburgh's trades guilds. His trade was as a cabinet-maker and his position as deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights made him a member of the town council.

The trial of William Brodie for breaking into and robbing the General Excise Office for Scotland took place at Edinburgh on 27th and 28th August, 1788. The story of his strange career is as enthralling as any romance. The double life which he so long and successfully led – as a respected citizen and town councillor by day, and by night the captain of a band of housebreakers – was the wonder of the country at the time. Nowadays you would call it a celebrity trial.

Brodie was quite rich with 10,000 pounds and three houses that he inherited from his father. He also inherited the business, allowing him to sustain the wealth. Traveling in the highest social circles, Brodie had the key to almost all of the richest people’s houses. Literally. No wealthy Edinburgh resident would ever think that such a respected man would keep a copy of their key in his drawer and that he would slip inside their homes after nightfall to steal everything worth taking.

During the day, he was a well-known gentleman who shared jovial times with his rich customers and enjoyed the company of highly respected persons such as himself, but during the night, Brodie could be found gambling in the dark corners of Edinburgh, accruing debts that forced him to consider a life of crime, and so, he became a thief.

After installing a lock in a rich man’s home, Brodie would also make a copy of the key for himself. Not because he collected souvenirs, but because he intended to visit those homes again, some other night when a burglary without breaking in but entering the house with a key would be his tactic. In this way, the man had supplemental payment to support his double life as a gentleman by day and a gambler in the evenings. On top of everything, Brodie had to support his five children by two mistresses who didn’t know of each other’s existence.

Allegedly, his criminal career began around 1768, when he stole 800 pounds from a bank that he sneaked into during the night by using a key. The Deacon’s nightlife was filled with gambling, robbing, and stealing. He didn’t mix his daily business and finances with his nightlife. Whenever he would fall into debt while gambling, he had the “ace key” that would pay off his debts.

Another source says that although Brodie had already robbed a bank, his real criminal career began in the summer of 1786 when he met George Smith, an Englishman. Brodie and Smith got into business together, targeting the rich people’s homes in Old Town. By the end of that same year, the duo had successfully robbed a tobacconist and a goldsmith’s.

Soon, the Deacon and the Englishman recruited two other members to their group: Andrew Ainslie, a shoemaker, and John Brown, a thief. In 1787, the gang stole tea from a grocer’s store in Leith. Back then, tea was a valuable commodity, a luxury that only members of the elite could afford to buy.

Encouraged by their success, the gang, led by the Deacon, decided to steal the revenues of Scotland from an Excise office in Chessel’s Court on the Canongate. They organized an armed raid, and for the first time, instead of welcoming themselves inside with a key, they broke in. However, they managed to steal only 16 pounds when they were caught. The unsuccessful robbery led Brown to claim the King’s Pardon the same night and named Smith and Ainslie as the culprits.

When his partners got arrested, Brodie traveled to London, and from there he boarded a ship to Amsterdam. But, since there was a reward for Brodie, he was tracked down in Holland and shipped back to Edinburgh. He and his friend Smith were tried on August 27, 1788. Although at first there wasn’t any strong evidence against Brodie, he was convicted after a disguise, pistols, and of course, copied keys were found in his workshop. After a trial that lasted only 21 hours, Brodie was hanged in front of 40,000 people on October 1st that very year.

You can read an account of his trial here https://archive.org/.../trialofdeaconbro00brod_djvu.txt

Fun fact: Along with cabinets, Brodie designed other articles of furniture, including the gibbet he himself would be hanged on.

"He proudly boasted to the crowd that the gallows upon which he was about to die was the most efficient of its kind in existence."

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (4 August 1900 - 30 March 2002)  b. Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon. 

Banana Tree Flower with Io Moth, by Maria Sibylla Merian — who was born #onthisday in 1647.

From her pioneering Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (Insects of Suriname), first published in 1705.

See more prints by her in our online prints shop: https://t.co/ASX37Nx31n

Maria Sibylla Merian was one of the earliest modern entomologists. In a time when insects were still thought to spontaneously generate ("born of mud"), she exhaustively documented the life cycles of 186 different species, illustrating them with diagrams beautiful enough to be artworks in their own right, while also scientifically accurate.

Her contributions included showing how different species of larvae feed only on specific plants, and how insects shed their exoskeletons to grow. She set herself apart from other botanical artists by painting from life, breeding and raising insects herself; for the book mentioned here, she personally traveled to Suriname to study and paint them in their native environment.

SURINAM TOAD JUMPSCARE

Born #onthisday in 1799, the English botanist Anna Atkins. As well as being considered by many to be first woman to create a photograph, her stunning 1843 book of algae cyanotypes is thought to be first book illustrated with photographs: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cyanotypes-of-british-algae-by-anna-atkins-1843 #OTD

my name is Casc and wen the day is ides of march the king must pay with all my frends (but firstly me) i do the stab i set us free

the prequel:

my name is Casc and in the nite wen sway of erth doth shayk with mite wen tempests flaym and portents sho i run away to cicero.

my name is Cass and wen it storms with fyre and portentous forms and other romans tayk their rest i walk outsyd i bare my brest

My nayms unnown

And wen it’s sprynge

I go to warne

The wuld-be kynge

Though he’ll not heede

Mine dredful truthe

I shoute “Bewayr”

I saye the sooth

Well, those got better.

2004

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2008:

2009

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It’s an old tradition that during a leap year women could propose to men. This was usually depicted as old or ugly women trapping men, but some art focused more on the role reversal and could be quite cute.

I have a soft spot in my heart for the last one because it plays on the idea of “undesirable” people, a tall masculine woman and a shy effeminate man, finding each other but instead of mocking them depicts it as sweet that she could finally ask him because he was too shy and insecure to ask her.

Turns out the story of the last picture continues. Apparently the guy’s father isn’t convinced the woman can provide for his son.

Also, I found some more cute ones

@sneez

Hence the now infamous headline:

Happy Killing of Captain Cook Day!

“On February 14, 1779 Captain James Cook of the british royal navy was killed by natives in Kealakekua Bay, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Cook was a true savage, who sailed across the world bringing murder, rape, disease, and colonialism to native peoples all over the Pacific.

When he was killed, Cook was trying to kidnap the Hawaiian Aliʻi (tribal chief) Kalaniʻōpuʻu in response to an unknown person stealing a small boat. In the process, he had threatened to open fire on the islanders.

At this point, the Hawaiians decided they had enough of Cook’s bullshit, threatened with mass murder and the kidnapping of one of their tribal leaders, the Hawaiian islanders finally gave this piece of shit what he deserved: a beatdown on the beach, and a knife to the chest. This put an end to a lifetime of predatory behavior and conquest of lands in the service to the british empire.

So how about instead of celebrating a boring consumerist holiday like Valentine’s Day, we celebrate something awesome, like the death of Captain Cook …”

Happy un-un-birthday Lewis Carroll, born #onthisday in 1832. Pictured here: the frontispiece to The Rectory Umbrella, a magazine produced by Carroll and his 10 siblings, when he was around 17 years old. More in Jenny Woolf’s essay here: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-mystery-of-lewis-carroll #otd

one detail that’s too often left out of the narrative of bonfire night is that when guy fawkes was first arrested he gave the authorities the most pathetic excuse for a fake name ever when he told them that he was called john johnson

Today’s the day

It’s the day!!

He definitely did, but since the whole book is supposed to be a translation of something he found and not something he personally wrote, they’re switched for the audience’s convenience. There’s a lot more to it, but here’s a chart of Shire months from the appendices at the end of RoTK. Elves and men are different, but there was no handy chart.

Happy… [squints] Winterfilth, everybody