If horse_ebooks traded its hooves in for fingers, used those fingers to turn book pages in order to learn quantum mechanics, applied that knowledge to quantiumly mechanize a time machine, used that time machine to travel back to the nineteenth century, and while thoughtfully sipping cocoa at whatever the 1800’s version of a Starbucks was (Ftarbuckf?) read a French-Portuguese phrasebook, then utilized its still fresh-from-the-oven fingers to translate the phrasebook to English without first actually learning English, then THIS would be that book.
EDIT And if that hasn’t sold you yet, here are some choice excerpts:
Featuring DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS VOCABULARY
TAXONOMY!
COMMON SAYINGS!
ALSO FEATURES CONVERSATIONS, ANECDOTES, LETTERS, WHATEVER “IDIOTISMS” ARE , AND MORE!
I could enumerate the wonders you could find in this book for hours, but in the end I prefer to let the book speak for itself. Book, do you have any parting words?
Well said, English As She Is Spoke. Well said.
The phrase is a display of confidence in a particular outcome; for example, ‘She’s always late. If she gets that train I’ll eat my hat’.
The Oxford English Dictionary also gives an earlier form - “I’ll eat Old Rowley’s hat”. This is never used now, and the lack of references to it in print seem to indicate that it never was commonplace.
Old Rowley was the name of a favourite horse of Charles II, and the name later transferred to Charles himself. The source of the mocking nickname appears to be the king’s reputation with the ladies. This piece was printed in The Biographical History of England, 1775:
In some of the State Poems, Charles II, is ridiculed under the nick-name of Old Rowley, which was an ill-favoured stallion kept in the Mews, that was remarkable for getting fine colts - Mrs. Holford, a young lady much admired by Charles was sitting in her apartment, and singing a satirical ballad upon “Old Rowley the King,” when he knocked at her door. Upon her asking who was there? he with his usual good humour replied, “Old Rowley himself, madam.”
It isn’t entirely clear why Charles’ hat should have been singled out for consumption, although it’s possibly an allusion to the large, florid headgear favoured by the king and his courtiers, which would have been especially difficult to eat.
OMG
Antonia Fraser, describing Charles’ behaviour at the wedding of his niece Mary to William of Orange. After the short reign of his brother James, Mary’s father, they ruled the country together as William III and Mary II.
It seems that being King of England didn’t stop Charles from being an embarrassing uncle.
(via fuckyeahcharlesthesecond)
Ohhhhhh yessss
Sir Peter Lely, William III of England
William III & II (Dutch: Willem III; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702) was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange (Dutch: Willem III van Oranje) over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland. By coincidence, his regnal number (III) was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as “King Billy”. In what became known as the “Glorious Revolution”, on 5 November 1688 William invaded England in an action that ultimately deposed King James II & VII and won him the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland. In the British Isles, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. The period of their joint reign is often referred to as “William and Mary”.
A Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith. Largely because of that reputation, William was able to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. William’s victory over James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by the Orange Order. His reign marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover.
im gunna piss this ended up on mym DASH William III NEVER ends up on my dash
Crying because the government once tried to get Charles II to do what they wanted by making French wine imports illegal
Thought you guys might enjoy this!
“Founded by Louis XIV for disabled men. Tomb of Napoleon and, since 1872, the Army Museum.”
I’m having feels!
This place, originally known as Les Invalides, has a great history:
Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated 24 November 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers: the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. The selected site was in the then suburban plain of Grenelle (plaine de Grenelle). By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d’honneur (“court of honour”) for military parades. It was then felt that the veterans required a chapel. Jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruant’s designs after the elder architect’s death. The chapel is known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides. Daily attendance was required.
Shortly after the veterans’ chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme from its most striking feature (see gallery). Inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the original for all Baroque domes, it is one of the triumphs of French Baroque architecture. Mansart raised its drum with an attic storey over its main cornice, and employed the paired columns motif in his more complicated rhythmic theme. The general programme is sculptural but tightly integrated, rich but balanced, consistently carried through, capping its vertical thrust firmly with a ribbed and hemispherical dome. The domed chapel is centrally placed to dominate the court of honour. It was finished in 1708.
The interior of the dome (see gallery) was painted by Le Brun’s disciple Charles de La Fosse with a Baroque illusion of space (sotto in su) seen from below. The painting was completed in 1705.
Read more here.
The maze at Hampton Court Palace, designed for William III
Hampton Court
Soon after their accession to the English throne, King William III (r 1689-1702) and Queen Mary II (r 1689-94) commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild Hampton Court.
William liked both the pleasant site and the good hunting at Hampton Court, but thought the buildings needed replacing.
He decided to go ahead with improvement work, because he didn’t care for the monarch’s principal residence at Whitehall Palace, and needed a substitute.
Read more at the Historic Royal Palaces website.
View of Kensington Palace, including a statue of William III
Kensington Palace
For purposes of state and ceremony, it remained the official centre of the court during their reign, but neither the King nor the Queen enjoyed the thought of living there.
William suffered from chronic asthma and the damp riverside location of Whitehall threatened to weaken his already delicate health.
Read more at the Historic Royal Palaces website.
Statue of William III at Kensington Palace
A sketch of the Battle of Seneffe, 1674 - Artist unknown
Seneffe is a town in present-day Belgium and, on this day in 1674, was the result of William III’s draw (or loss, depending on your source) against Louis XIV’s army.
For five weeks previously, both sides in the Franco-Dutch War had been at a stalemate. Finally, on 10th August, William III decided to head for Paris in a tactical manoeuvre designed to force Louis into action.
The French side, (under the command of Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé) sent 5000 horsemen to Seneffe to occupy William’s troops.
This blocked the Dutch-German-Spanish advance, and the two armies came to blows. William’s 60,000 men were met by Condé’s 45,000. After 10 hours, 8,000 men had died.
By the end of the battle, a total of 29,000 troops had perished and both sides were claiming victory.
Embedded/linked below is a thesis detailing the Dutch Order of Battle for the day.
heheheheh
