Been reading about WW2 recipes. How would you do them now when some of the basic ingredients are no longer made? Powdered egg? Household milk? My wife spent most opf her working life as a cook, and her take on Marguerite Patten's stuff is that a lot of it is so labour intensive it would be out of th...

The Playfords were operating for three generations - the viol was declining when they started and extinct by the time they stopped. More appropriate than the accordion (as one local bozo uses for it) but not really ideal. The "violin played like a cello" might have been a pardessus de viol...

They look pretty similar to a Lothians "ugly" but with more in the neck and less in the crown - might be worth comparing notes with Scottish costume historians.

Anybody from here making plans for the re-enactment in Czechia in 2020?

Between the Monarchs, there was a puritan period from when dancing instruction manuals certainly haven't survived -likely were not published or printed. Nonsense. The first three editions of Playford were all published under the Commonwealth. So was the first edition of Playford's "An Introduc...

Your main problem might be making sure your hogshead of stale urine didn't come to the attention of the environmental health department or any American presidents with weird kinks.

I thought you used to be able to view recent posts? Where did that go?

I don't know anyone who's been to that and liked it. Sponsored by Agent Provocateur and it shows - very little interesting historical content.

Comments on this? Have they got much wrong?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/8773336 ... -a-poleaxe

Linking two of your themes: a friend of mine is a lady in her 90s who was a driver during WW2, delivering and collecting barrage balloons all over Britain in her Dodge truck. She did this alone, and when she adopted a stray dog she found near Birkenhead, the authorities let her keep it in the cab wi...

A galliard is usually thought of as 6/8, but wouldn't that do?

Guthrie's book looks good - can I get it on paper? lulu.com maybe?

Some moulds are fixable. Mildew (the commonest) is not one of them.

Wouldn't quarterstaff be a bit more feasible?

Three folksong texts by that title here:

http://www.laterradelrimorso.it/elencocanti

Is that any help?

The re-enactment content in this documentary by the Bulgarian Adela Peeva is the section on Bulgaria near the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swwhIxMagI I get the impression she had to scrape a few barrels to get attitudes like that, but maybe somebody here knows the Bulgarian battle re-enactm...

These two: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Robert_Campin_013.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Robert_Campin#/media/File:Robert_Campin_012.jpg It seems rather likely that Robert Campin was a relative of mine (I think of him as Umpty-Greats-Grandpa Bob). Thinking of ...

Has anybody got a translation of Sinklars Visa, the Danish ballad about an invading Scottish army getting wiped out by a bunch of Nordic peasants in 1612? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kringen http://www.skjaldesang.dk/estrato.php?Page=vissang&sid=522 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX...

Will there be any non-camping (B&B or self-catering) accommodation?

I got it from a download site that no longer exists, and I've no idea where they got it. I can email it to you, three files totalling about 15Mb.

Send me a PM or email with your email address.

GDGD tuning is used for the modern violin in Arabic music. If anybody wants a tutor on Arabic violin, I can pass it on; about 180 pages PDF in Arabic, but most of the content is in scores and diagrams so you don't need to understand the language to get most of it. I've been using it for an appropria...

They spread whipworms all across Europe...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 083458.htm

Is this the "Dutch painting" you meant?

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36756&p=373306

I was astonished that nobody here has direct experience with period mousetraps.

That wording prohibits the philabeg, which is what the guy in that picture was wearing. (Maybe somebody can identify the tartan? - I don't have a reference handy).

Lots of laws have been passed with no intention of ever enforcing them.

Anybody here got one of these? If so, do you use it?

http://homes.ottcommunications.com/~fre ... etrap.html

(Personal interest for me - my surname is extremely rare and I am probably related to Robert Campin).

The extent of such bans has been wildly exaggerated. The point was simply to stop people kitting themselves out as an army. It no more banned everyday clothing than the present-day ban on paramilitary outfits interferes with battle re-enactments or Scout camps. It didn't have much effect on not-so-e...

A piano has a wider range of uses than anything available in 1533. If you wanted reach a concert-hall or stadium-sized audience, you needed an organ, church bells or a loud wind band. If you were playing for a small audience in an aristocrat's house, you might do it with some sort of lute; most such...

Where, and used in what sort of context?

Galpin's "Early English Instruments of Music" is old but a good start.

I used to see prices of 6/8d and 13/4d in pre-decimalization New Zealand in the 60s. Guineas as well. The old units survived just fine despite there being no actual coins at those values.

Some people get coddled about history.

Come to think of it, poaching was a late manifestaion of the English resistance.

Or a meringue?