Jenny Greenteeth

A native of Shropshire, Cheshire and Lancaster in the West of England, Jenny Greenteeth is a freshwater fairy who feeds on the unwary who step too close to her watery abode. Her preferred diet is children, and she is associated most closely with the town of Ellesmere (Shropshire). Her first recorded appearance has been dated somewhere in the 19th Century. 

Commonly used to frighten children away from treacherous riverbanks, Jenny has long green hair that camouflages her amongst the pondweed,  and mottled green skin. Her arms are long, with thin bony fingers and sharp talons for nails, ready to snap out and snatch her victim. Her eyes are huge and lamp-like whilst her teeth, naturally, are green and fiercely sharp. There is only one Jenny Greenteeth, but she is able to exist in dozens of bodies of water simultaneously. 

Whilst many view Jenny as a simple boogeyman in the style of Baba Yaga or the Kappa, others have theorised that she represents a folk memory of human sacrifices, which were commonly thrown into marshy bogs. Her role as a threat in the parent’s arsenal is not restricted to keeping children safe from the waters where she lives, however: Jenny has also been cited as dragging off little children who do not care for their teeth to join her in the muddy depths. Fortunately, this usage has fallen entirely out of favour. Jenny is typically found in the water, but it has been said that she will also creep up into the treetops in search of prey. 

Jenny is also known as Jinny Greenteeth, Ginny Greenteeth, Wicked Jenny, the Sea Hag or Peg O’Nell from region to region. Her name is also given to duckweeds, which can give the surface a pond the appearance of solid ground to the casual viewer. These weeds were considered somewhat mystical for their tendency to immediately swarm back to cover where anything (or anyone) had fallen in. 

The Cat Sìth (Scottish Gaelic: [kʰaht̪ ˈʃiː]) or Cat Sidhe (Irish: [kat̪ˠ ˈʃiː], Cat Sí in new orthography) is a fairy creature from Celtic mythology, said to resemble a large black cat with a white spot on its chest. Legend has it that the spectral cat haunts the Scottish Highlands. The legends surrounding this creature are more common in Scottish folklore, but a few occur in Irish. Some common folklore suggested that the Cat Sìth was not a fairy, but a witch that could transform into a cat nine times.

As proposed by British cryptozoologist, Karl Shuker, in his book Mystery Cats of the World (1989), it is possible that the legends of the Cat Sìth were inspired by Kellas cats, which are probably a distinctive hybrid between Scottish wildcats and domestic cats only found in Scotland (the Scottish wildcat is a subspecies of the European wildcat, which is absent from elsewhere in the British Isles).

Typical Kellas cats (pictured here) resemble large black wildcats, but with some peculiar features closer to domestic cats, and have probably been present in Scotland for centuries, maybe even some two millennia or more. Others believe that the Cat Sìth was inspired by the Scottish wildcat itself.

In the British folk tale The King of the Cats, a man comes home to tell his wife and cat, Old Tom, that he saw nine black cats with white spots on their chests carrying a coffin with a crown on it, and one of the cats tells the man to “Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum is dead.” The cat then exclaims, “What?! Old Tim dead! Then I’m the King o’ the Cats!” Old Tom then climbs up the chimney and is never seen again.

@willow-wife

The wreck of the British four-masted barque „Bandaneira“ near Helgoland, 1901.

This is the solid silver Nether Stowey Hoard, dating from the Civil War (1642). Mob rule and looting was rife during the chaos of families fighting each other over whether the country should be ruled by Charles I or parliament. It is worth £37,000.

Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji

The first major showing dedicated to Fijian art outside of Fiji, Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji is a unique exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) in Cambridge, UK.

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The coronation spoon was first recorded in 1349 but its style is much earlier, therefore historians believe it may have been acquired during the reign of Richard I or Henry II. It was used to anoint James I at his coronation in 1603 and for every monarch since.

Wedding Dress in 3 parts, 1742, British MFA

The Howdah Pistol,

When the British ruled the world a new hunting sport developed in which the hunter would hunt from the back of an elephant, especially in India and Africa.  The intrepid hunter rode in a large saddle called a “howdah”.  However, new dangers came with the new sport, as dangerous animals such as lions and tigers would attack by surprise, and the hunters rifle was useless in the close quarters of a thick, dense jungle.  Thus a large caliber sidearm was needed.

At first hunters would just saw off regular double barrel rifles, typically in .577 Snider or .577/450 Martini Henry.  Eventually companies began making actual Howdah pistols to be sold on the market.  Big game hunters loved them because of their easy to carry size yet incredible power.  Eventually the Howdaw pistol would lose popularity to revolvers such as the enfield and webley.

Christmas Truce

The Christmas truce was a series of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides – as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units – independently ventured into “no man’s land”, where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another.

British cartoon depicting Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile to Elba Island.  He carries a broken sword, symbolizing his defeat after War of the Sixth Coalition, and he rides a jackass, symbolizing the fact that the Brits thought he was a jackass.

Bonaparte would escape Elbe and regain control of France, a period known as the “Hundred Days”.  He would be permanently exiled after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

A pair of grape scissors in their case. Victorian dining etiquette dictated that it was incredibly rude for diners to touch food with their fingers. Grapes were a popular dessert item and were only allowed to be touched once they had been properly cut with a pair of scissors. The trendsetting book ‘The Manners and Tone of Good Society’ stated that ‘When eating grapes, the half closed hand should be placed to the lips and the stones and skins adroitly allowed to fall into the fingers and quickly placed on the side of the plate, the back of the hand concealing the manoeuvre from view.’

19th-Century "Time Capsule" Warship Emerging Near D.C.

A warship submerged for two centuries in a river near Washington, D.C., could provide new insight into the relatively obscure War of 1812, say archaeologists who are preparing to excavate the wreck.

The war started because the British, who had been fighting with France since 1803, imposed restrictions on U.S. trade with the French, infuriating Americans. Relations worsened when British ships began intercepting U.S. vessels on the high seas, removing any British-born sailors, and forcing them to serve in the British navy.

The U.S. Congress declared war on the British—including their Canadian colonists—in June 1812.

Scientists have known about the unidentified wartime shipwreck, which lies in the Patuxent River about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of the nation’s capital, since the early 1970s. Read more.

Historians fret fate of War of 1812 sites

BENEDICT, Md. — On a grassy hill a mile west of the Patuxent River, historian Ralph Eshelman can see the same bucolic view of fields and placid water anxious British soldiers likely saw when they landed in the summer of 1814 — the first stop in their campaign to burn Washington to the ground.

Despite an earlier raid that was repulsed by American militia, the more than 4,000-man British force faced no resistance on Aug. 19 as it swarmed ashore in Southern Maryland. Four days later, after defeating disorganized American defenses at Bladensburg, the soldiers marched into Washington unopposed, setting fire to the Capitol and White House and demoralizing the nation.

“It’s the only time the nation’s capital was ever occupied by a foreign power and this is where it started,” said Eshelman, who has co-written a new book about the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay region to be published this month. “There was no actual conflict, but this is a very, very important site.” Read more.

These postcards were drawn by the political cartoonist Kem (Kimon Evan Marengo 1907-1988), who during the Second World War produced over 3,000 propaganda cartoons for the British Ministry of Information.

Kem prepared these between March and October 1942. The illustrations are based on five scenes from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. The battle between the Allies and the Axis powers was depicted here as the mythical battle between Fereydoon and Zahhak.

FYI: Fereydoon = good guy; Zahhak = bad guy with serpents growing out of his shoulders. In this series, Hitler is Zahhak. Click here for more.

A picture from an 1899 edition of Harmsworth Magazine entitled ‘If London Were Like Venice’. In the late 19th century it was believed that London was subsiding and would eventually be partially submerged by the River Thames. In response to this theory Harmsworth Magazine released a series of manipulated photographs imagining landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Regent Street, Horse Guards Parade and Her Majesty’s Theatre surrounded by canals filled with gondolas.

Archaeologists accuse MoD of allowing US company to 'plunder' shipwreck

The Ministry of Defense is facing a legal battle and parliamentary questions after letting a US company excavate a British 18th-century warship laden with a potentially lucrative cargo.

Lord Renfrew is among leading archaeologists condemning a deal struck over HMS Victory, considered the world’s mightiest ship when she sank in the Channel in 1744.

In return for excavating the vessel’s historic remains, which may include gold and silver worth many millions of pounds, Odyssey Marine Exploration is entitled to receive “a percentage of the recovered artefacts’ fair value” or “artefacts in lieu of cash”.

Lord Renfrew, a Cambridge academic, said: “That is against the Unesco convention, in particular against the annexe, which states that underwater cultural heritage may not be sold off or exploited for commercial gain. Odyssey is a commercial salvager. It’s not clear that payment could be obtained other than by the sale of the artefacts which are raised – which, of course, is how Odyssey has operated in the past. To raise artefacts simply for sale would be regarded by most responsible archaeologists as plundering.” Read more.

CURIOUS CHARACTERS FROM BRITISH FOLKLORE

Name: Fatlips

A woman who had lost her lover in the ‘45 Rebellion once made her home in a vault among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, Scotland. It was said that she had vowed she would never look on the sun again until her lover returned. When she heard he was dead, she would only come at night. She told her neighbours that while she was out, her cell was tidied up by a little man, a spirit she called Fatlips. He wore heavy iron shoes with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault to get rid of the damp.