More from Christina Faraday
Quarrelling Artisans at Whitehall Banqueting House
The court performances of the early seventeenth century presented an image of perfect political harmony; but backstage the reality was very different.
Samuel Pepys’s Cheese at Seething Lane
Flames are racing towards your house: what do you save? In 1666, Samuel Pepys prioritised his cheese.
More in United Kingdom
Three dames and a dildo.
In c.1340, a professional scribe of Shropshire copied down a fun fireside tale. Three women are off on a pilgrimage. On the road, one of them finds ‘a great huge penis, draped about with just its muzzle peeking out’ from behind a hawthorn bush. This episode considers a variety of stories of wandering genitalia, and the problems with picking up a disembodied penis off the road.