cktimes.ca Archives for Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Men and women who gave their names to history
Wednesday, June 4, 2003
Both of us have backgrounds and interests in literature as well as history so we hope that you won't mind if we become a bit historically frivolous and we combine our literary and historical backgrounds and look at word origins. We hope that it goes a long ways to ward off any states of doldrum that may be occurring due to a spring that just will not arrive.And...speaking of the word "doldrum", it may interest you to know that the word came about as a result of one Frederick Doldrum (1784-1839) whose career, as a sailor, was beset by misfortune. It seemed that no other sailor of his time managed to sail into so many long spells of windless calm to which he eventually gave his name. Other highlights of his life included arriving too late at The Battle of Trafalgar and being killed in a typhoon
(ironically enough) in the Azores that sank his ship. And you thought that you had bad luck!
In the days of summers past, many men of a sporting disposition diligently searched for a type of hat that, although it reached its zenith of popularity in the 1890s, it was really very much in style all the way from the 1860s to the 1920s. The hat is called a Boater and it was invented by a man called Charles Edwin Boater (1838-1903). In the early 1860s, he introduced the flat-crowned, straw hat, inspired by seaman's headgear, that bears his name. Although Boater attempted to first sell it to the working class of London, England it did not really take off until English public school students starting wearing them.
Another item of clothing that has been often been talked about, ridiculed, praised and often dreaded was the corset! Although one usually associates this item of support with women, it was not the case when Etienne Corset (1760-1832) invented the corset. Originally, he constructed these boned and stiffened undergarments to help preserve the figures of French officers after they had passed their prime. It was not until much later that women decided to use the corset to prolong their youthful appearance.
Being only human and always subject to the temptations of food and liquid libations, there may be a tendency among some of us to "go on a binge" every now and then. However, before you contemplate doing this we would like to provide you with some background information on the word "binge". Sir Oswald Binge (1678-1768) was an English country squire who really knew how to eat and drink. In one recorded dinner at his club in London, Binge consumed, with three friends, two dozen venison pasties, an entire roast pig, twenty quails, four brace each of partridge, pheasant and grouse, a dozen bottles of claret and five of port. Although severely reprimanded and warned by his doctors, Binge had the last laugh by outliving most of them by dying at the ripe old age of ninety!
Next week... more men and women who gave their names to history.
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
