Classics Retold

Vapid is something or someone that is dull, uninspiring, tedious or lacking intelligence, spirit, and flavour.  It is commonly used to describe boring conversation, lifeless art, or shallow personalities.  Synonyms: Dull, insipid, flat, boring, tiresome, lifeless.  Antonyms: Lively, interesting, stimulating, spirited, sharp, pungent.  It came from the Latin word vapidus, which originally described drinks that had become stale or tasteless. 

The Victorian Workhouse was an institution that was intended to provide work and shelter for poor people who had no means to support themselves.  With the advent of Poor Law system, Victorian workhouses, designed to deal with the issue of pauperism, in fact became prison system detaining the most vulnerable in the society.  The harsh system of the workhouses became synonymous with the Victorian Era. It was known for its terrible conditions, forced child labour, long periods of working, malnutrition, beatings and neglect. It became a blight on the  social conscience of a generation leading to opposition from the likes of Charles Dickens. Dickens Oliver Twist illustrates the grim realities of a child's life in the Workhouse.  The exact origin of the system started with the Poor Law Act of 1388. In the event of Black Death labour shortage was a major problem.  The movement of workers to other parishes in search of higher paid jobs was restricted. At the same time h...

Eventide is an archaic word, which means the end of the day, or twilight or dusk. It is a poetic expression of evening, dusk, or sun set; the time just before nightfall. Eventide is a compound of two Old English  terms evening-time.  It has been part of English language since before 12th century. Even is derived from Old English word aefen meaning evening.  This is the same root that gave us the modern word eve. Tide is derived from the Old English tīd which originally meant "time", "period" or "season".  It has nothing to do with ocean tides. In the Middle English, after the Norman conquest it was spelled eventyde  "Evening" became the standard term in Modern English.  Similar compound words using the suffix "tide" include noontide, morrowtide and nighttide.

Budmouth is the fictional name. Thomas Hardy gave to Weymouth, a seaside town in Dorset, southern England.  Hardy's Wessex is a semi fictional version of southwest England where real places are given literary alter-egos.  The connection is so strong that the local secondary school is named Budmouth Academy after Hardy's fictional town.  In the Trumpet Major Hardy uses the name Budmouth Regis to reflect Weymouth's history as a favourite holiday spot for King George III.  The description of Budmouth's seaside features --- like Esplanade, the harbour dividing the town, and the view of Isle of Portland (Isle of Slingers) align exactly with Weymouth.  Budmouth races in Far From The Madding Crowd were inspired by the real horse races held at Lodmoor, just outside Weymouth. 

In most contexts bought discharge means discharge by purchase. It is a practice where a soldier pays a fee to be legally released from a contract or service before their agreed term is over.  While the term is primarily historical, it is still used in certain specific modern or legal contexts.  In military service buying your discharge colloquially means paying a fine to leave military service. This right is suspended during war time.  Buying discharge was a corner stone of how professional military, particularly British Army managed their manpower and society heirarchy.  They were separate for ordinary soldier and for officers. For enlisted men, discharge by purchase was often the only legal way to leave the service before their long term contract. It was a safety valve to recruits who later realise that they were not suited for military life.  In the absence of it they should desert or self-mutilate to get a discharge on medical ground. In mid 19th century Off...

It was now five o'clock in the morning.  The dawn was breaking.in brownish-grey. The air was cool, a light gentle breeze caressed Oak's face. In ten minutes the breeze was gone and wind roamed at large.  Some of the thatching on the wheat-stacks whirled aloft, and had to be replaced and weighted with rails that lay at hand.  This done Oak went towards barley.  A huge drop of rain hit his face; fierce wind howled round every corner, the trees rocked to the bases of their trunks, and the twigs clashed in strife.  Driving in spars at any point and on any system he covered more and more safely from ruin the seven fifty pounds of barley.  The rain was getting heavy, and Oak soon felt the water to be tracking cold and clammy routes down his back.  After finishing the job he slided down and stood at the foot of the ladder, fully soaked in rain.  Picture of his fighting in the fire at the same spot, eight months ago, came to his memory. Fight against the ...

John Flaxman was an English sculptor and draughtsman. His father also named John, was well known as a moulder and seller of plaster casts based in London. John Flaxman was the second son of John, the moulder by his first wife Lee. He was a sickly child, high shouldered, with a head too large for his body. His mother died when he was nine, and his father married another woman. He had little schooling and was largely self educated from his father's stock-in-trade. He studied classical literature in an effort to understand them. His father's customers helped him with translations of classical literature, advice and later with commissions of job.  Prominent among them were George Romeny, an English painter, Anthony Stephen Mathew, a clergy man and his wife Harriet, in whose house John Flaxman used to meet the best blue stocking society of the day. Here artists William Blake and Thomas Stothard became his close friends.  John Flaxman, while living in Rome, was commissioned by Georg...