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Breaking News: Wellington defeats Napoleon at Waterloo
Read now to access more details of Breaking News: Wellington defeats Napoleon at WaterlooThe Battle of Waterloo on 18th June, 1815, is a key date in British history. But how was it reported at the time? As you'd expect, not impartially...
Level: 1 Introductory
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Did Waterloo prevent a fresh Anglo-American war?
Read now to access more details of Did Waterloo prevent a fresh Anglo-American war?Believing Bonaparte to be resurgent in France, some Americans pushed President Madison to reignite the recently quelled hostilities of the 1812 War. Waterloo defeated these hopes as soundly as it defeated Napoleon's - at least in the view of the British as captured by The Morning Post.
Level: 1 Introductory
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London's 1818 public health crisis
Read now to access more details of London's 1818 public health crisis200 years ago today, the Morning Post shared a report into a health crisis gripping London - and how public health solutions offered a way out of the mess.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Match report: England v Scotland, 1872
Read now to access more details of Match report: England v Scotland, 1872The first international football match took place between England & Scotland in Glasgow, on November 30th 1872. Here's how it went.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Match report: The first England v Wales rugby international
Read now to access more details of Match report: The first England v Wales rugby internationalThe first England v Wales rugby match took place on Saturday 19th February, 1881. This match report suggests that Wales' skills on the pitch had yet to show themselves.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Building the first Thames sewer system
Read now to access more details of Building the first Thames sewer systemThe original Thames sewer system became a pressing need following the clean-up of London streets. But even the stench of the river overpowering the Houses of Parliament couldn't persuade the Board of Works to speed up the building process. This editorial from The Morning Chronicle of 20th July, 1859 explores why the fight against cholera had ...
Level: 1 Introductory
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Queen Victoria on the Chartists
Read now to access more details of Queen Victoria on the ChartistsQueen Victoria and her advisors were alive to the possibility that some Chartists might try to attack her. These extracts from her personal journal show, during the years of Chartist activity, the risk was never far from her mind.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Tory Trades Unionism: 19th Century Style
Read now to access more details of Tory Trades Unionism: 19th Century StyleThe Conservatives have announced plans for their own Trades Union movement, hoping to steal support from a traditionally left-leaning grouping. It has echoes of the late 19th Century...
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Meetings with a polite Opium Eater: Charles Knight on Thomas De Quincey
Read now to access more details of Meetings with a polite Opium Eater: Charles Knight on Thomas De QuinceyThe publisher Charles Knight recorded his meetings with Thomas De Quincey in his autobiography, Passages of a Working Life during Half a Century. He tells of a shy, but smart, man.
Level: 2 Intermediate
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What were Victorian pauper's graves like?
Read now to access more details of What were Victorian pauper's graves like?An account of a tragedy in a London graveyard gives an insight into the way the poor were buried in 19th Century England.
Level: 1 Introductory
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A Victorian Christmas: Christmas Day In The Workhouse
Read now to access more details of A Victorian Christmas: Christmas Day In The WorkhouseFor its December 25th, 1840 edition, the Morning Chronicle polled workhouse managers to discover what the poor of London could expect for their Christmas Day. The following is an extract of their report.
Level: 1 Introductory
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A Victorian Christmas: Charles Darwin in New Zealand
Read now to access more details of A Victorian Christmas: Charles Darwin in New ZealandIn 1835, Charles Darwin had what he hoped would be his last Christmas before returning to Britiain.
Level: 1 Introductory
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A Victorian Christmas: Victoria's Christmas
Read now to access more details of A Victorian Christmas: Victoria's ChristmasVictoria spends Christmas 1837 with a "merry" Lord Melbourne.
Level: 1 Introductory
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A Victorian Christmas: Thackeray goes to the pantomime
Read now to access more details of A Victorian Christmas: Thackeray goes to the pantomimeIn this extract from Roundabout Papers, William Makepeace Thackeray describes a festive entertainment which takes liberties with history. Not that Thackeray is above taking a few liberties of his own...
Level: 1 Introductory
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A Victorian Christmas: Christmas in Dreamthorp
Read now to access more details of A Victorian Christmas: Christmas in DreamthorpThe essayist and poet Alexander Smith's Dreamthorp is a collection of essays he wrote in the countryside. This extract, titled Christmas, is anchored in the December of 1862, and includes some personal views which are very much of their time.
Level: 1 Introductory
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How did Newcastle celebrate the 200th anniversary of Shakespeare?
Read now to access more details of How did Newcastle celebrate the 200th anniversary of Shakespeare?The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare is being well marked around the nation, and around the globe (and the Globe). But how was the 200th anniversary marked?
Level: 1 Introductory
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Queen Victoria on William Shakespeare
Read now to access more details of Queen Victoria on William ShakespeareWhat did the Queen of England think of the Bard of Avon? We dip into her diaries to find out...
Level: 1 Introductory
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A modest liking for Liverpool
Read now to access more details of A modest liking for LiverpoolIn the 1880s, W D Howell lived in England, recording his impressions of the places he visited. In this extract from Seven English Cities, his Atlantic crossing ends in the docks of the Mersey.
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A day at Doncaster - and an hour out of Durham
Read now to access more details of A day at Doncaster - and an hour out of DurhamThe lure of the races proves overwhelming - as does the splendour of Durham.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Two Yorkish episodes
Read now to access more details of Two Yorkish episodesA visit to the site of a Civil War battle - and a hanging tale of a murder.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Nine days' wonder in York
Read now to access more details of Nine days' wonder in YorkWilliam has much admiration for the Minster - but the joy of York is to be harshly curtailed...
Level: 1 Introductory
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In smokiest Sheffield
Read now to access more details of In smokiest SheffieldWilliam arrives in Sheffield - finding a city struggling environmentally and economically.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Some merits of Manchester
Read now to access more details of Some merits of ManchesterIn Manchester, William is struck by the city's dignity - and woollen socks.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Florence Nightingale on what makes a good nurse
Read now to access more details of Florence Nightingale on what makes a good nurseIn the 1881 letter to trainee nurses at St Thomas' Hospital, Florence Nightingale outlines what she believes makes a good nurse - a woman without "womanly weaknesses".
Level: 1 Introductory
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A 19th century autopsy unmasks a poisoner
Read now to access more details of A 19th century autopsy unmasks a poisoner14 physicians gather at a graveside to untangle a tale of American settlers, poison, weak alibis, murder and suicide.
Level: 1 Introductory
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The outgoing Prime Minister and his replacement: Gladstone makes way for Rosebery
Read now to access more details of The outgoing Prime Minister and his replacement: Gladstone makes way for RoseberyAs Downing Street changes hands again, we dip into the archives to find out what happened in 1894 when ill-health forced William Gladstone to quit in favour of his foreign secretary Lord Rosebery. This extract originally appeared in The Northern Echo.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Death on the tracks: A 19th century train crash
Read now to access more details of Death on the tracks: A 19th century train crashAn 1853 inquest takes evidence about a fatal train crash at New Cross.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Building the London Underground
Read now to access more details of Building the London UndergroundIn 1853, Parliament gave permission for the world's first underground railway. It promised a short, cheap burst of luxury travel - and to run the buses out of business.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Swept away: Brighton's Chain Pier collapses during a storm
Read now to access more details of Swept away: Brighton's Chain Pier collapses during a stormA winter storm in 1896 battered Brighton's first pier, finishing off the already condemned structure. But newer attractions also took a hammering.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Milton Keynes rallies in support of the Corn Laws
Read now to access more details of Milton Keynes rallies in support of the Corn LawsOn January 23rd, Milton Keynes celebrates 50 years as a new town. But the history of the villages which came together to form the heart of modern Milton Keynes reaches back far further - as this report of a meeting against the Anti Corn Law League in 1844 shows.
Level: 1 Introductory
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It's 1892, and the future's bright for gas lighting
Read now to access more details of It's 1892, and the future's bright for gas lightingThe new electric lighting will never be more than a luxury product, stockholders in the Gas Light & Coke Company are reassured at the company's 1892 meeting.
Level: 1 Introductory
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The Lords against the gunboats: When the House of Lords took on Lord Palmerston
Read now to access more details of The Lords against the gunboats: When the House of Lords took on Lord PalmerstonIn 1850, The House of Lords gathered to condemn the British Government's use of a blockade to force reparations from Greece. Their intervention wasn't warmly received, as this extract from the Portsmouth Telegraph shows.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Election days: 1868 - Herring and mutton
Read now to access more details of Election days: 1868 - Herring and muttonWhy did Liberals wave herring in the streets on polling day in 1868?
Level: 1 Introductory
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