Drugs

National security

Hunting

Globalisation

Euro-scepticism

Judges

Expert witnesses

Notting Hill

National statistics

Crisis of masculinity

Gun control

Wimmin

War on terror

Freedom of thought

Whitehall control

Global warming

Property prices

I had indeed some misgivings as to the prudence of exchanging investments in the funds, productive of a fixed income without care or risk, for property not equally remunerative, & which might become less so (as in the event it did) & might also entail upon me many expenses, some necessary, some optional yet hardly to be avoided by a residential owner with duties to be performed & tastes to gratify.



But my solicitor thought (as most people then did) that of all forms of property land was the most secure & the most certain to maintain its value


Roundell Palmer: Memorials

Property boom

The English squire first drove the poorer Scotch one out of the market & he, in his turn, has been superseded by millionaires from London, Manchester & America. Incredible prices are given by the latter for all our first class forests & shootings

Colquhoun: Sporting Days 1866

A considerate husband

I have been visiting a great rifle man & was almost tempted to order one, the price of an efficient one being £70! I have rather satisfied myself that this would be an unwarrantable piece of selfishness

Gladstone to His Wife 1853

The art of shooting

Captain Townshend started from England for the far West with a brother officer & a complete hunters equipment. He was away 5 months in all, & during that time he shot buffaloes, elks, antelopes, several varieties of deer, wolves, beavers, wild turkeys, prairie hens & many other birds which it would be tedious to enumerate. The guns, the accoutrements, & all the further requirements for this & other kinds of sport are rather too shortly described in Captain Townshends volume


The Spectator review of Ten Thousand Miles of Travel, Sport & Adventure by F Trench Townshend BA, Captain 2nd Life Guards: 1869

Mr Preston's sporting prowess procured him admission into much higher society than he was otherwise entitled to enter. He was a capital cricketer; was so good a shot, that any house desirous of reputation for its bags on the 12th or the 1st, was glad to have him for a guest

Mrs Gaskell: Wives & Daughters

Economic development

THE PROSPERITY of the labouring classes, as well as of all other classes, depends in Jamaica, & in other communities, upon their working for wages, not uncertainly, or capriciously, but steadily & continuously, at the times when their labour is wanted, & for so long as it is wanted;

AND THAT if they would use this industry, & thereby render the plantations productive, they would enable the planters to pay them higher wages for the same hours of work than are received by the best field labourers in this country;

&, as the cost of the necessaries of life is much less in Jamaica than it is here, they would be enabled, by adding prudence to industry, to lay by an ample provision for seasons of drought & dearth;

AND THEY may be assured, that it is from their own industry & prudence, in availing themselves of the means of prospering that are before them, & not from any such schemes as have been suggested to them, that they must look for an improvement in their conditions

Queen Victoria - reply to petitions for reorganisation of Jamaican economy (drafted by Colonial Office)