The arrival of the latest History Carnival reminds me of a meme I was trying to promote, but haven’t actually got around to completing myself.

So, five texts that I wish had survived but apparently haven’t:

1. The complete works of Isabella Whitney, the first poet of London. (Which I suspect must include a significant number of anonymously published ballads, and possibly more books – given that the two we know of survived only in one copy.)

2. The complete works of Sappho – well of course: one has to include the mother of poetry. (The “newest” poem is here.)

3. The memoirs of Phryne, courtesan of Thebes. (What a read that would be.)

4. The private diary of the Empress Wu – the only woman to ever rule China in her own right. (And her tomb has yet to be excavated.)

5. The private memoirs of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, her compatriot in ancient Egypt.

(Well OK, the last two probably never existed, but they should have.)

Please, compile your own list (including plenty of women, of course) and leave the link in the comments here!

… is now up, at Clioweb.

Do check out the great posts (I particularly liked the “invention of nothing”), and pictures – love the Swedish witch.

And if you missed No 14, hosted by yours truly, it’s here.

Here’s the best analysis I’ve read of why the city was so physically vulnerable, and the reasons behind its current Mad Max state.

I’d like to think – and do think – that in a European city in the same circumstances people would be far more inclined to pull together and help each other; aside from anything else there’d be far fewer guns around to empower the ill-intentioned.

It was in the Indian city of Varanasi that I first realised that provision of lavatory facilities is a feminist issue. Simply there are none, or at least weren’t when I was there eight or so years ago. For the men this wasn’t a problem; they just went anywhere. (One of the many things in Varanasi that contribute to it being a total hole of a place – if someone tells you to put it on their tour itinerary, ignore them.)

Women’s movements were effectively restricted to the range of their home, and the homes of any relatives or friends that might be along their intended route.

The above image is of London, Kensington High Street, about 1860. Then the same restrictions applied on Englishwomen.

“The middle-class diarist Ursula Bloom explained that when she was a girl ‘there were no public lavatories in England, and it was thought the height of indecency ever to desire anything of the sort.’ She went on to recall that ‘in London fashionable ladies went for a day’s shopping with no hope of any relief for those faithful tides of nature until they returned home again.’ …

Edith Hall, a working-class woman who was born in Middlesex in 1908, recalled that while walking with her mother along the Thames during the First World War, she asked, ‘There aren’t many lavatories for ladies, are there?’ Her mother matter-of-factly answered: ‘ Well, we are more lucky now … There didn’t seem to be any at all when we were young … Either ladies didn’t go out or ladies didn’t ‘go’.’ ” (Quoted in Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London’s West End, Erika Diane Rappaport, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 82)

This also brings back memories of my agricultural science studies (my first degree – my only explanation is that I was only 17 when I chose it). We were the first year in which women were a majority, and the first-year excursion included virtually no facilities. Only wholesale revolts forced the bus to wait for the long queue using each farmer’s one and only loo. (And this was in northwest NSW, so no trees as an alternative option.)

*Image from Old and New London, By Edward Walford, Illustrated, Part 49, hard to date, but perhaps 1890s.)

History

Trying to sweat out a cold and fever with vigorous physical exercise is a really bad idea. I think my thigh muscles must have gone into meltdown, and they’re only very slowly recovering.

Dr Natalie says: Be sensible. Stay home in bed next time.

Dr Natalie asks herself: What would she do then?

And answers: Probably the same again.

Do as I say, not as I do.