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Hair played a central role in the creation of appearances in eighteenth century England, indeed big hair and wig wearing remain an evocative symbol of eighteenth-century England today. English fashions dictated that hair was central to the display of social status, youth and beauty, though establishing the motivations for the widespread custom of wig wearing can be problematic because wigs do not often survive in the historical record. Hair is encountered in the archives preserved as a keepsake, or as a piece of evidence to be used in court, but the wigs so popular in the eighteenth century remain elusive today in their physical form. This study traces eighteenth-century understanding of physical nature of hair as part of the body and attitudes to its transformation. It seeks to understand the everyday practice of adapting hair and strategies of use in wig wearing, using descriptions in contemporary journals and hairdresser's manuals and archival records containing accounts of individuals. In the absence of surviving artefactual evidence, it draws heavily on portraiture and caricature to establish the cultural and social significance behind the central place of hair in the creation of appearances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first Duchess of Marlborough has been recognized as a powerful figure in court politics under Queen Anne. Her patronage of artists, sculptors, and architects – Laguerre, Rysbrack, Talman, Wren, Vanbrugh – has been examined by scholars. In this essay I take a different tack. I focus on a series of artefacts that played an important part in the Duchess's life: the jewels she amassed, the Turkish tent that her husband the Duke of Marlborough had used on the battlefield, and a sculpture of Queen Anne that she erected at Blenheim. Drawing on a wide range of sources from her own correspondence and contemporary biographies to caricature and popular print, I ask how an elite woman of immense wealth, but little formal education, strategically employed material things to exert influence socially and politically, and what were the unpredictable consequences thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the factors responsible for the deterioration of Scotland's relationship with England in the 18th century and its impact on the economic condition of the former. It is stated that Scotland had always reaped rich dividends in business during its association with England. The passing of the Act of Security in 1703 by the Scottish Parliament and the nomination of a Protestant successor to Queen Anne of Great Britain, deteriorated the relationship between Scotland and England.

This article explores the Georgian interior as represented in conversation, piece portraits. It discusses the relationship between real and depicted rooms and furnishings and considers the meanings and values conveyed by painted interiors. The article begins by examining the relatively bare settings of Arthur Devis, which emphasized restrained good taste, in contrast to William Hogarth's more lavish scenes of refined consumption. It then discusses the implications of Devis's reuse of the same interiors for different patrons. Such settings were not intended to represent specific spaces. Rather, like the interiors of Hogarth's modem moral subject paintings, they were to be understood as signifiers of abstract virtues--their generic quality enhancing their legibility. Moving on to the 1760s, the article considers Johan Zoffany's revitalization of the conversation piece, combining lavish description of things with a new sense of intimacy and affect. In contrast to Devis, Zoffany notably depicted rooms and objects owned by his patrons, albeit combined in invented ways and with fictive possessions in order to strengthen their iconographic power. The article ends by speculating about some of the reasons for this distinction, including the social status of their patrons, the changing nature of the art world and developments in the luxury debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers the concept of credibility in the pamphlet disputes of the late seventeenth century, particularly during the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Crisis. For certain authors, maintaining a credible public face in the teeth of printed ad hominem attacks was extremely problematic, a problem felt acutely by Roger L'Estrange, upon whom this essay focuses. As the Surveyor and a Licenser of the Press, as a vocal supporter of the Duke of York's succession to the throne, and as one who spilt much ink in disparaging the King's Witnesses who were making the allegations of a Popish Plot, L'Estrange became the target of many who sought to discredit him in his positions as the Surveyor, a Licenser, and an author, as a means to discrediting the political positions he defended so vigorously. In turn L'Estrange attempted to defend himself in print, and the strategies by which he tried to fashion a credible authorial self in the public domain sheds light on the book trade, pamphlet discourse, and the concept and practice of the professional author writing for the print marketplace. Very few people were vilified more extensively in the press in this period than L'Estrange, and partly as a result of these hostile contemporary pamphlet attacks L'Estrange's reputation has suffered down to the present day. The essay also tracks L'Estrange's reputation through the centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the issues concerning the chastity of theater actress Anne Bracegirdle England. Focus of writers on the sexual virtue of Bracegirdle; Suitors of the actress; Consideration of chastity as the defining feature of the actress; Interpretations on the reputation of Bracegirdle.

Peter the Great's 105-day visit in 1698 caused a minor stir in London but left a lasting impression on the Tsar. He naturally enjoyed contact with the court of William III, but more influential were two admirals, Sir David Mitchell and Peregrine Osborne, Marquis of Carmarthen, who oversaw his introduction to English shipbuilding practice at Deptford, arranged sailing lessons on the Thames and visits to the Woolwich Arsenal, Royal Observatory and Royal Mint. He also attended a naval display at Portsmouth and visited Oxford. For two decades following Peter's visit, British influence in Russia reached a peak. It manifested itself in social custom, in craft practice and in ships and naval organisation. Through the influence of the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation it reached a significant sector of the population, before relations cooled once again and the two nations pulled back from this era of unprecedented cordiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I consider Victorian prison imagery. Punitive labour was conceived of as an idealized and abstract form of modem urban labour. Mayhew and Binney's Criminal Prisons of London of 1862 contians many compelling images of prisoners moving about the prison, or exercising, wearing masks or veils in conformity with the separate system. I suggest that there is the adoption of an anti-narrative mode in the depiction of masked or veiled figures and seek to establish the kinds of gratification experienced by viewers of these images. I explore the way that W. P. Frith brings together the ideas of speculation and punitive labour in The Race for Wealth (1877-80). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the eighteenth century writing in England. Discovery of the Atterbury Conspiracy; Indepth look at the Sutherland Collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England; History of England; Examination of the work of some literary authors in the eighteenth century.