This week’s historical how-to relates to my own interest as a bobbin lace maker and a curiosity as to how my craft was represented in the Collections held here in St Andrews. The craft of Bobbin lace was never a…
Sometimes you come across someone in the story of the University who just makes you stop and stare, whose erudition and achievements in enabling the work of others fills you with admiration and awe. Such a man is Sir…
For this week’s how-to, I thought I’d try some 16th century recipes from the first English translation of Europe’s most popular apothecary of the 15th and 16th century. I’ve grabbed St Andrews’ copy of A most excellent…
There is a scene early in Mansfield Park (1814) where Maria and Julia Bertram, then aged thirteen and twelve, deplore the ignorance of their slightly younger cousin Fanny Price. She cannot list the principal rivers in…
Corbet Stacey Catty and Caroline Gray were married at Carry’s home, 2 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh, on 4th June 1856. Later that day they said farewell to their family and friends after the wedding breakfast at Corbet’s…
This week’s Historical How-To comes from the papers of James David Forbes (1809-1868), who was Principal of the United Colleges of St Andrews University from 1859-1868. This archive focuses mainly on Forbes’…
This week’s blog takes a look at medicinal remedies. My attention was first drawn to The method of physick by Philip Barrough as it contains ‘the cavses, signes, and cures of inward diseases in mans body, from the…
Special Collections contains a number of publications and collected archives relating to the production and design of stained glass. As an aspiring stained glass artist I decided to look through the collections and…
For my daughter’s second birthday recently, I attempted to recreate Judith Kerr’s forgetful cat Mog in sponge cake and sugarpaste. This kind of novelty cake stretches back much further than I realised. I knew about the…
This week’s historical how-to takes a look at early vegetarian cooking. Although not a vegetarian myself, inspired by Vegetarian Week which has just passed, I thought I would delve into our collections for some veggie…