Thursday, November 25, 2004

100 years ago: A columnist thought that local agriculturists, and others, would perhaps be interested in the announcement that there had just died from old age, at Pickering, a ewe which was 20 years old, who had given birth to 34 lambs during her lifetime. She had been the property of a gentleman of Scarborough, who had formerly lived at Knapton Grange near York. After the owner left Knapton the sheep, which was believed to have been the oldest one on record, was well taken care of at Pickering, despite being blind for the last two years.

50 years ago: The seven-year-old boy who called at a York branch library for the first time surprised the librarian by selecting, as his first book, A Tale of Two Cities. An excellent book, of course, commented columnist Mr Nobody, but Charles Dickens certainly did not have seven-year-old readers in mind when he sat down to write it. Gently, tactfully, so as not to injure the manly pride of the borrower, the librarian tried to reason that perhaps the young man would like to change his mind and choose another book. The young man shook his head and clutched the book more firmly, A Tale of Two Cities was his choice and no one was going to make him change his mind, and that was that. Next day he was back, the book in his hand, which he handed over to the librarian. The boy declared: "you were right, mister. I didn't like it. It's called A Tale of Two Kitties and there isn't a cat in it!"

25 years ago: While an increasing number of tourists to Whitby in search of Dracula's footsteps aided the resort's holiday business, the townspeople keep a low profile on their famous vampire. Bram Stoker's classic had been frequently republished in the 82 years since it was written, but there was little evidence of Penguin's latest edition in Whitby. One bookseller admitted it was good for the tourist trade but that they didn't like to "make too much" of the link to Dracula, although plenty of people interested in him from outside the town promoted the connection. When the director of tourism for the east coast was commenting on whether the town should make more of its link to the book, he admitted: "Frankly, I'm very squeamish about horror stories and films."

Updated: 16:48 Wednesday, November 24, 2004