Author: Kristine Hughes

Burke and Hare – The Comedy?

Tag line: No Job Too Small. No Body Too Big. No Questions Asked.

Burke and Hare, directed by John Landis, is a comedic take on the true story of the 1828 Edinburgh body-snatchers William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis). These two 19th century entrepreneurs discover that a dead body can fetch a hefty price when the demands of the leading medical professors Dr. Knox (Tom Wilkinson) and Dr. Monroe (Tim Curry) reach beyond that of the local supply. The film also features John Cleese, Hugh Bonneville, Isla Fisher, Stephen Merchant and an appearance by Christopher Lee.

Director Landis said of the film, “It has horror things within it — it’s about dissection and grave robbing, after all — but it’s a very black romantic comedy, hopefully in the tradition of the old Ealing Studios’ Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ladykillers.”

Simon Pegg, who plays Burke, said, “Hare’s the mastermind, the schemer. Burke’s a little more of a frustrated romantic. But they weren’t hand-rubbing, evil villains; they kind of fell into it, really. They felt they were justified. The movie dares you to be sympathetic towards them and, quite cannily, actually feel a little for them. And you constantly have to keep going, ‘No! They’re bad!’”

The film, which has been stuck in production glue – or congealed blood – for quite a while and seemed forever stalled, was finally being touted by it’s director in Cannes a few months ago and is said to be released in October in England. It’s U.S. release date is a somewhat vague “2011,” but we thought we’d give you the heads up, anyway. You can read all about the gruesome, real life events surrounding the crimes of Burke and Hare here.

Curiosity Corner – We Have a Winner!

What is it!?


A George IV sterling wine funnel, made by Joseph Angell London 1826.

I’m pleased as punch to announce that Louisa Cornell, one of our most loyal followers, made to correct guess below. While it’s noted as a wine funnel, rather than a strainer, Louisa’s guess is close enough for us. Here’s Louisa’s answer:

Is it a strainer of some sort? In looking at some old photos of my Mom’s china cabinet it looks like a piece my mother bought at an estate sale in England. She uses it to strain her tea as she makes it from the real thing – tea leaves, not tea bags. According to Judith Banister’s English Silver it might also be a wine strainer? Not sure I want to drink wine I have to strain. Tea is another matter altogether.

See I told you it would make me nuts. 

Louisa – You’re not nuts – you’re the winner! Email your snail mail address to me via the link in the left sidebar and I’ll send your Sense and Sensibility dvd on its way to you. Thanks to everyone for such enthusiastic guessing! 


And as I’d alluded to, Kat was the first winner, but disqualified herself. Here, at last, is her post received yesterday which couldn’t be aired, as it contained the answer:



It is a wine aerator/funnel. I make my own wine as a hobby. So i will not claim this prize.


The first person to correctly identify this item will win a DVD of the Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility. Please place your guess by using the “comments” link below this post.

Please Note: Only registered followers of this blog shall be eligible to win. You may register now by using the link in the right sidebar under “Those Who Call Number One London Home.”

Good Luck!

Camile Silvy – Royal Photographer

Actress Adelina Patti (1843-1919)
After reading a bit about the Exhibition on Camile Silvy running at the National Portrait Gallery 15 July – 24 October 2010, I was prompted to do a bit of research into the man. Camile Silvy was a pioneer of early photography and one of the greatest French photographers of the nineteenth century. This exhibition includes many remarkable images which have not been exhibited since the 1860s.
The Exhibition contains over 100 images, including a large number of carte de visites, focusing on a ten-year creative burst from 1857-67 working in Algiers, rural France, Paris and London, and illustrate how Silvy pioneered many now familiar branches of the medium including theatre, fashion and street photography and early image manipulation and photographic mass production.
Working under the patronage of Queen Victoria, Silvy photographed royalty (Prince Albert, at left) aristocrats and celebrities. He also portrayed uncelebrated people, the professional classes and country gentry, their wives, children and servants. The results offer a unique glimpse into nineteenth-century society through the eyes of one of photography’s outstanding innovators.


Silvy became a member of the Société Française de Photographie in 1858. By 1859, he had moved to London and opened a portrait studio producing cartes-de-visite, the small, calling card-sized photographs invented by André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1854. At the height of ‘Cartomania’ in the summer of 1861, he was personally conducting as many as forty sittings a day, but the following year he began the habit of leaving the studio in the hands of others during the winter months, at first in those of his partner, Auguste Renoult, and then, after the partnership was dissolved in May 1864, in those of other members of his staff. 
Silvy kept record books in which he recorded the day-to-day business of the studio, as well as one unmounted print from each sitting, placed four to a page, with the name of the sitter entered above. From volume two onwards, the date was also recorded daily. There are some seventeen thousand sittings, spread over twelve volumes, acquired by The National Portrait Gallery in 1904.

Silvy continued to make and exhibit extraordinary larger photographs, some of the best being views taken immediately outside the studio. One of these from 1859 or 1860 (now in the J. Paul Getty Museum) shows a man buying an evening paper from a boy who leans against a lighted gas lamp on a misty afternoon. A figure hurrying along the pavement is caught in a blur—probably used deliberately for the first time to suggest rapid movement.

Lady Elizabeth Hay, the 2nd Duchess of Wellington

Lord Palmerston
 (1784-1865)

Lord Dufferin
(1826-1902)

Earl of Essex
(1803-1892)



 In 1868, when the popularity of the carte-de-visite had waned, Silvy sold his London studio and returned to France. In 1869, at the age of 35 Silvy abruptly retired from photography. He fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 before being diagnosed with manic-depression in 1875. Silvy would spend much of the next three decades in various psychiatric asylums. With his health wrecked by poisoning from photography chemicals, he succumbed to bronchopneumonia in the Hôpital de St Maurice, France in 1910.  Silvy died at age seventy-five.
Camile Silvy – Self Portrait
Photographs appearing in this post are copyright Luminous Lint or the National Portrait Gallery or Paul Frecker London

A Visit to Avebury in Wiltshire

from Victoria…

Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire
A few days ago I was wandering around the library and I noticed the book Off The Tourist Trail. I was especially attracted by the name Bill Bryson on the cover. More details on the book and Bryson below.  Immediately I grabbed it, as I love to travel but, like most of us, I prefer fewer tourists around than camera-wielding hordes. 
  
Avebury vs. Stonehenge is their  recommendation for a more leisurely visit to a great megalithic site. Stonehenge might be more famous, the book says, but it is fenced, crowded with tour buses, much smaller in size, and you can’t get close to the stones.  In Avebury, you can walk among the stones, touch them and even pet the sheep. Here is a lovely short film about Avebury.
 I have visited Avebury several times and I definitely agree. You can really get the gist of Stonehenge from pictures or driving by, but to experience the great thrill of standing next to a 5,000-year-old sacred stone, Avebury excels. It is about 20 miles north of Stonehenge.

There are many places to park and get out to hike around. Be sure to wear walking shoes as you will want to cover a lot of territory.  In the center of the circle, give or take a bit, there is a  village and manor house run by the National Trust. There are some interesting displays in the outbuildings about the history of Avebury, the stone circle, the farm and the village. The Red Lion pub is a good spot for relaxation.
The manor house dates from the 16th century. Sometime in the middle ages, most of the stones were either removed or buried due to the pagan associations they suggested to superstitious residents.  The entire site was re-discovered in the 1930’s, the stones dug and stood  up once more.  Continuing studies reveal more and more information about the area.
The Stone Circle at Avebury dates from about 2500 BC and must have been built for religious and ceremonial purposes. Nearby is the conical Silbury Hill which is manmade but still mostly unexcavated. Various technological processes will enable more and more of it to be explored without endangering its internal construction as time goes by.  Silbury Hill is the largest prehistoric earthwork in all of Europe.  Nearby are also several Long Barrows, (above, left) burial sites, some of which can be entered, though when I was there, I found a pile of trash left by previous visitors. Shame!
The fine museum at Avebury contains many bronze weapons and items of jewelry from ancient times found in this neighborhood.  Silbury Hill, below.

By all means, go drive by Stonehenge, but plan on spending most of the day at Avebury, just a half hour’s drive away. Stonehenge, below, without the fences.

Now back to Bill Bryson.  I have read that he has moved back to England since his book, Notes from a Small Island, was written.  But at the time it was published in 1995, he had moved to the U.S. after several years in Britain. It is a humorous homage to the UK and its culture and well worth reading. In fact, everything Bryson writes is excellent!  Go Bill!
We hope you enjoy living in Britain. In fact, we are really envious.