Tuesday, December 7, 2004

100 years ago: Ladies who wore boas were putting themselves in serious danger, according to a columnist. A few days previously, according to Land and Water magazine, a girl in Cornwall wearing one was viciously attacked by a rat, which laboured under the delusion that it was on to a good thing in the way of food. A fox's head on an old lady's boa had also been seized with avidity by a foxhound, under the impression that he had at last found his hereditary enemy. "It is the one pleasure in the life of these animals, and we should not throw temptation in their way. We want less of Nature and more of artificiality in Society," he concluded.

50 years ago: Judging from some recent quotations Mr Nobody had heard, a single sprig of the traditional festive decoration of berried holly was likely to be a costly item. In direct contrast to a year before, holly berries were almost completely absent now, possibly because of the wet season. Even those trees which, over the years, had come to be relied upon for a supply, could not boast a single berry now, hence the price of £180 per ton for the berried variety which was recently given as the current marketing figure. To supply a ton from the Ryedale area, which was usually singularly blessed with berried holly, would be an impossibility. Another seasonal tradition, the annual feather-pulling onslaught, would be underway within the next few days. But the older method of hand plucking had now gone by the board on some of the larger farms. Labour costs and speed had led to the installation of electric plucking machines, which made the feathers fly in the traditional manner - only much faster and with less human effort.

25 years ago: York University provided a dial-an-escort service so that women did not have to walk alone through badly-lit areas of the Heslington campus after dark. The deputy bursar pointed out that the service was not just for women, as attacks on men were more frequent than most people thought, although attacks in general were not a regular occurrence. After an attack near to the university, students and staff were advised to refrain, wherever possible, from using unlit or isolated areas after dark, and if they required an escort one could be telephoned for.

Updated: 12:40 Monday, December 06, 2004