It is some months since my last diary entry, but this does not indicate a quiet summer away from Historical Association business. In May and June I was pleased to accompany large groups of Bath Branch members to Mells Manor, the home of the Earl and Countess of Oxford and Asquith (Lord Oxford is the great-grandson of Herbert Henry Asquith), and Rodmarton Manor, a house and contents built in the Cotswolds Arts and Crafts style. I attended the Historical Association Conference in Harrogate in May. The Bath Branch committee has met to plan the 2017-18 season of lectures. I have discussed the promotion of our branch with members of the editorial team of Bath Life, the first outcome of which will be our first magazine advertisement in the forthcoming (2-16 September) edition. And, in our ninetieth anniversary year, I have been able to accept on the Bath Branch's behalf an invitation for members to attend a Civic Reception with the Mayor of Bath before our pre-Christmas buffet in the Guildhall.
Our speakers for the new season come from Cambridge, Bristol, Leicester and London. We begin with our local friend Jennifer Scott, Director of Bath's wonderful Holburne Museum. The title of Jennifer's lecture is William Holburne and George IV: the Art of Collecting. It will set in their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century contexts the interests and enthusiasms of some of our great collectors of decorative and fine art.
This is the programme in full ...
22 September 2016
William Holburne and George IV: the Art of Collecting
Jennifer Scott (Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath)
13 October
Members' visit to Bath Record Office
27 October 2016
Oliver Cromwell: Hero or Villain?
Professor John Morrill (Selwyn College, University of Cambridge)
24 November 2016
Historical Legacy Problems and Democratic Regime Change in Europe
Professor Geoffrey Pridham (University of Bristol)
8 December 2016
Civic Reception and members' Christmas buffet at the Guildhall, Bath
16 January 2017
The Ladies' Grand Tour
Professor Roey Sweet (University of Leicester)
23 February 2017
Democracy and Despotism in British India
Dr Sean Lang (Anglia Ruskin University)
23 March 2017
Dissenting, Methodist and Evangelical Literary Culture in England, 1720-1800
Professor Isabel Rivers (Queen Mary University of London)
27 April 2017
Hogarth, Handel and the Foundling Hospital: a Story of Creative Philanthropy
Caro Howell (Director of the Foundling Museum, London)
Each lecture will take place on a Thursday evening at 7.30 at the Friends Meeting House, York Street. In the weeks preceding each one I will endeavour to introduce the lecturer and her or his subject in this diary.
Mike Short
Thursday, 1 September 2016
Sunday, 3 April 2016
James, Duke of Monmouth (Thursday 28 April) and the AGM
James, Duke of Monmouth, was Charles II's first and favourite son. He blazed like a comet through the skies of Stuart England. He was a rake, a rebel and a revolutionary. After invading England in 1685 in an attempt to replace his Catholic uncle, James II, as king and being defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor - the last to be fought on English soil - he was executed for high treason on Tower Hill aged 36.
This season's final lecture will be given by Dr Anna Keay, Director of the Landmark Trust. You may have seen Anna last autumn in the fascinating Channel 4 series Restoring Britain's Landmarks which showed the work Anna and her colleagues undertake at the Landmark Trust. Other television series in which Anna has appeared include The Buildings that Shaped Britain (Channel 5, 2006) and The Tower (Channel 4, 2001). She also contributed to BBC television programmes on the Golden Jubilee (2002) and the State Opening of Parliament (2003-2006).
Anna's books include The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power (Hambledon Continuum, 2008) and The Crown Jewels (Thames & Hudson, 2011). Anna's latest book, The Last Royal Rebel: The life and death of James, Duke of Monmouth, will be published by Bloomsbury next month.
The AGM
Anna Keay's lecture will be followed by a brief Annual General Meeting, during which the HA Bath Branch programme for 2016-17 will be announced.
Mike Short
This season's final lecture will be given by Dr Anna Keay, Director of the Landmark Trust. You may have seen Anna last autumn in the fascinating Channel 4 series Restoring Britain's Landmarks which showed the work Anna and her colleagues undertake at the Landmark Trust. Other television series in which Anna has appeared include The Buildings that Shaped Britain (Channel 5, 2006) and The Tower (Channel 4, 2001). She also contributed to BBC television programmes on the Golden Jubilee (2002) and the State Opening of Parliament (2003-2006).
Anna's books include The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power (Hambledon Continuum, 2008) and The Crown Jewels (Thames & Hudson, 2011). Anna's latest book, The Last Royal Rebel: The life and death of James, Duke of Monmouth, will be published by Bloomsbury next month.
The AGM
Anna Keay's lecture will be followed by a brief Annual General Meeting, during which the HA Bath Branch programme for 2016-17 will be announced.
Mike Short
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Charlemagne and Rome: Alcuin's epitaph for Pope Hadrian I in St Peter's Old and New (Thursday 24 March)
When the Roman Pope Hadrian I died on Christmas Day 795 Charlemagne, then King of the Franks and King of Italy, commissioned a monumental stone epitaph to adorn the pope's tomb. The epitaph was composed by Alcuin of York, English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher, a respected member of the Carolingian court. The monument was made in Francia and taken to the fourth-century St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
In 1505 Pope Julius II decided that the ancient basilica should be demolished and replaced with the grandest building in Christendom. The first designs for the new St Peter's were those of Donato Bramante. Progress was very slow. Other architects became involved. In the mid sixteenth century Pope Paul III coerced Michelangelo to become the superintendent of the building programme. The St Peter's we see today is largely his design. Very little survives of the first St Peter's, but on the west wall of the Portico, to the left of the central door, a visitor may see Charlemagne's epitaph for Pope Hadrian.
Our lecture on 24 March will be given by Joanna Story, Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leicester. Professor Story's main research interests focus on Anglo-Saxon England, Carolingian Francia and Italy, especially Rome, in the period from roughly AD 600 to 900. Her well-illustrated lecture will tell the story of Charlemagne and Alcuin's epitaph for Pope Hadrian, why it was made and why it survived. It will reveal much about the cultural politics of Renaissance Rome in the grip of Reformation and Counter-Reformation and about the network of connections that had bound Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia to Rome and the Cult of St Peter eight centuries earlier.
Mike Short
In 1505 Pope Julius II decided that the ancient basilica should be demolished and replaced with the grandest building in Christendom. The first designs for the new St Peter's were those of Donato Bramante. Progress was very slow. Other architects became involved. In the mid sixteenth century Pope Paul III coerced Michelangelo to become the superintendent of the building programme. The St Peter's we see today is largely his design. Very little survives of the first St Peter's, but on the west wall of the Portico, to the left of the central door, a visitor may see Charlemagne's epitaph for Pope Hadrian.
Our lecture on 24 March will be given by Joanna Story, Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leicester. Professor Story's main research interests focus on Anglo-Saxon England, Carolingian Francia and Italy, especially Rome, in the period from roughly AD 600 to 900. Her well-illustrated lecture will tell the story of Charlemagne and Alcuin's epitaph for Pope Hadrian, why it was made and why it survived. It will reveal much about the cultural politics of Renaissance Rome in the grip of Reformation and Counter-Reformation and about the network of connections that had bound Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia to Rome and the Cult of St Peter eight centuries earlier.
Mike Short
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
The Admiral's Wife: Family, Navy and Nation in the Life of Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle (Thursday 25 February) and three new visits
Our February lecture is to be given by Elaine Chalus, Professor in British History at Bath Spa University. Professor Chalus's primary research interests are in English political and social history in the long eighteenth century. Her current research project focuses on the diaries of Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle (1778-1857) and the correspondence of the larger Fremantle family.
Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle, known to her family as Betsey, was the main author of the extensive Wynne Diaries and the wife of the Royal Navy officer Thomas Fremantle, a close associate of Nelson.
Betsey Wynne's rakish father became a friend of Casanova. He got into financial difficulties, sold his Lincolnshire estate and took his family abroad. When Betsey was 18 the Wynne family had to be rescued from Livorno during the French invasion of Italy. Soon afterwards Betsey married the family's rescuer Thomas Fremantle in the home in Naples of the British envoy Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma.
Thomas became Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Fremantle, first Baron Fremantle, and a close personal friend of Lord Nelson. Betsey and Thomas's children included the politician the first Baron Cottesloe, a Royal Navy officer after whom the city of Fremantle in Western Australia is named, and an Anglican Dean of Ripon.
The Wynne Diaries provide a vivid account of a well-connected English family abroad, mainly in Germany and Italy, in the last years of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth. Thomas was frequently absent at sea. Betsey's letters detail the challenges of raising their growing family without him as well as her thoughts on the Nelson-Hamilton scandal and other matters.
Three visits
There will be a members' visit to Bath Record Office on Thursday 17 March (a change of date from that given earlier) in the evening. Details are available from me (mikeshort20@btinternet.com or 01225 812945).
Two afternoon visits for members have been organised to Mells Manor (home of the Asquith family) and St Andrew's Church, Mells, on Thursday 26 May and to Rodmarton Manor, near Cirencester, on Thursday 23 June. Details of the visits and application forms will be sent to members in March.
Mike Short
Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle, known to her family as Betsey, was the main author of the extensive Wynne Diaries and the wife of the Royal Navy officer Thomas Fremantle, a close associate of Nelson.
Betsey Wynne's rakish father became a friend of Casanova. He got into financial difficulties, sold his Lincolnshire estate and took his family abroad. When Betsey was 18 the Wynne family had to be rescued from Livorno during the French invasion of Italy. Soon afterwards Betsey married the family's rescuer Thomas Fremantle in the home in Naples of the British envoy Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma.
Thomas became Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Fremantle, first Baron Fremantle, and a close personal friend of Lord Nelson. Betsey and Thomas's children included the politician the first Baron Cottesloe, a Royal Navy officer after whom the city of Fremantle in Western Australia is named, and an Anglican Dean of Ripon.
The Wynne Diaries provide a vivid account of a well-connected English family abroad, mainly in Germany and Italy, in the last years of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth. Thomas was frequently absent at sea. Betsey's letters detail the challenges of raising their growing family without him as well as her thoughts on the Nelson-Hamilton scandal and other matters.
Three visits
There will be a members' visit to Bath Record Office on Thursday 17 March (a change of date from that given earlier) in the evening. Details are available from me (mikeshort20@btinternet.com or 01225 812945).
Two afternoon visits for members have been organised to Mells Manor (home of the Asquith family) and St Andrew's Church, Mells, on Thursday 26 May and to Rodmarton Manor, near Cirencester, on Thursday 23 June. Details of the visits and application forms will be sent to members in March.
Mike Short
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
The Lessons of the New Deal: Did President Obama Learn the Right Ones? (28 January 2016)
Aldous Huxley wrote 'That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach'.
When Professor Tony Badger comes to Bath for our first lecture of 2016 his subject will be The Lessons of the New Deal: Did President Obama Learn the Right Ones? When Franklin D Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932 he faced an economic crisis of unprecedented severity. What characterised Roosevelt's approach to it was his humanity and his willingness to innovate and to improvise in order to test what would work in the circumstances. Roosevelt was an outstanding communicator and a shrewd political operator.
Barack Obama's presidency began in January 2009, soon after the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank and during a very sharp decline in stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange. Toxic debt was causing the foreclosure of many thousands of mortgages. Business were facing bankruptcy or laying off workers.
Roosevelt was re-elected three times and Obama was given a second term by the American people. Did the similarity of the challenges faced by the two men lead to a similarity of approach? Had Obama learnt the lessons of history?
Tony Badger is a leading specialist in American political history. Until 2014 he was the Mellon Professor of History at the University of Cambridge and Master of Clare College. His book FDR: The First Hundred Days (Hill & Wang, 2008) was widely acclaimed. Among his other publications The New Deal: The Depression Years 1933-1940 (Palgrave Macmillan, 1989) has particular relevance to his lecture on 28 January.
I will be publishing details in January of a members' visit to Bath Record Office on Thursday 10 March. The evening visit will begin with an introductory talk by Colin Johnson, Principal Archivist, and will be followed by a tour of the archives.
Finally, let's end with a somewhat gloomy thought from George Santayana: 'Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it'.
Mike Short
When Professor Tony Badger comes to Bath for our first lecture of 2016 his subject will be The Lessons of the New Deal: Did President Obama Learn the Right Ones? When Franklin D Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932 he faced an economic crisis of unprecedented severity. What characterised Roosevelt's approach to it was his humanity and his willingness to innovate and to improvise in order to test what would work in the circumstances. Roosevelt was an outstanding communicator and a shrewd political operator.
Barack Obama's presidency began in January 2009, soon after the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank and during a very sharp decline in stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange. Toxic debt was causing the foreclosure of many thousands of mortgages. Business were facing bankruptcy or laying off workers.
Roosevelt was re-elected three times and Obama was given a second term by the American people. Did the similarity of the challenges faced by the two men lead to a similarity of approach? Had Obama learnt the lessons of history?
Tony Badger is a leading specialist in American political history. Until 2014 he was the Mellon Professor of History at the University of Cambridge and Master of Clare College. His book FDR: The First Hundred Days (Hill & Wang, 2008) was widely acclaimed. Among his other publications The New Deal: The Depression Years 1933-1940 (Palgrave Macmillan, 1989) has particular relevance to his lecture on 28 January.
I will be publishing details in January of a members' visit to Bath Record Office on Thursday 10 March. The evening visit will begin with an introductory talk by Colin Johnson, Principal Archivist, and will be followed by a tour of the archives.
Finally, let's end with a somewhat gloomy thought from George Santayana: 'Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it'.
Mike Short
Monday, 2 November 2015
The Modern Significance of Stoic Ideas and Practice (26 November 2015)
Stoicism was one of the four principal schools of philosophy in ancient Athens. The others were Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum and Epicurus's Garden. Stoicism flourished in Athens for 250 years. Subsequently it was taken up by the Romans Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Their works continue to influence ideas and practice to the present day.
The three great Roman Stoics focused on practical advice and guidance on how to achieve wellbeing or happiness. Four central ideas are the importance of developing an excellent rational mental state, overcoming negative emotions based on mistaken judgements and embracing positive emotions, living in harmony with nature, and understanding what can be controlled (our mental state and judgements) and what cannot (external processes).
On 26 November Christopher Gill, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter, is coming to the Friends Meeting House to talk to us about The Modern Significance of Stoic Ideas and Practice. His most recent books have been a translation of Marcus Aurelius's first six books of Meditations with an introduction and commentary (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Naturalistic Psychology in Galen and Stoicism (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Marcus Aurelius wrote 'You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this and you will find strength'.
I hope that, if you come to the Friends Meeting House on 26 November, you will be stimulated and entertained. Perhaps you will also be strengthened.
Mike Short
The three great Roman Stoics focused on practical advice and guidance on how to achieve wellbeing or happiness. Four central ideas are the importance of developing an excellent rational mental state, overcoming negative emotions based on mistaken judgements and embracing positive emotions, living in harmony with nature, and understanding what can be controlled (our mental state and judgements) and what cannot (external processes).
On 26 November Christopher Gill, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter, is coming to the Friends Meeting House to talk to us about The Modern Significance of Stoic Ideas and Practice. His most recent books have been a translation of Marcus Aurelius's first six books of Meditations with an introduction and commentary (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Naturalistic Psychology in Galen and Stoicism (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Marcus Aurelius wrote 'You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this and you will find strength'.
I hope that, if you come to the Friends Meeting House on 26 November, you will be stimulated and entertained. Perhaps you will also be strengthened.
Mike Short
Monday, 12 October 2015
The Shanghai British and the First World War (22 October 2015)
I have written before about Professor Robert Bickers's excellent book The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 (Allen Lane, 2011). In it Robert tells the epic story of opium wars, conquest and rebellion in the last years of the Qing imperial dynasty and the European colonial 'scramble' for China.
Robert's lecture for us moves on to the First World War. Nearly 200 Britons, resident in China in 1914, died in service during the war. Hundreds more joined the colours. Robert, who is Professor of History at the University of Bristol, will explore the experience at home in Shanghai, and on active service, of the Shanghai British community. He will show how difficult it proved cleanly to break apart the pragmatic alliances forged by the British and Germans in China.
Our visits to the archives and library of Downside Abbey have been enjoyed greatly by those members who have attended. A third visit will take place on Thursday 5 November. Please contact me if you are interested in joining it.
Mike Short (01225 812945)
Robert's lecture for us moves on to the First World War. Nearly 200 Britons, resident in China in 1914, died in service during the war. Hundreds more joined the colours. Robert, who is Professor of History at the University of Bristol, will explore the experience at home in Shanghai, and on active service, of the Shanghai British community. He will show how difficult it proved cleanly to break apart the pragmatic alliances forged by the British and Germans in China.
Our visits to the archives and library of Downside Abbey have been enjoyed greatly by those members who have attended. A third visit will take place on Thursday 5 November. Please contact me if you are interested in joining it.
Mike Short (01225 812945)
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