Saturday, June 26, 2004

100 years ago: There was rather a "silly" discussion going on at present amongst the members of a certain Yorkshire Rifle Volunteer Corps as to the social standing of the cyclist company. How it started was not quite clear, but that very wide word, "gentleman", cropped up pretty constantly in the letters, and around this the battle raged. According to columnist TT there should be no difference of class recognised in a Volunteer Corps other than that denoted by the stripes upon the arm. It was really "so very, very comic" this chatter of class distinction, in his eyes, as one would think a few dukes, and possibly a Royal Prince, had dropped into the corps in some mysterious way. What was the difference in social status between the "rock-bed lowest member (who is he by the way?) and the highest young exquisite? Does the real tip-top private go to Court, and are any of them known outside their own native headquarter's town?"

50 years ago: The woman who kept an antique shop in King's Court, York, impressed tourists with a new attraction: she was keeping shop whilst wearing a Victorian costume consisting of a long dress, bonnet and shawl. When she first wore the clothes one Saturday as she served in the shop, Americans and members of a party from Dijon were quick to snap her in her Old World get-up in an Old World setting. Her innovation was in answer to a "dare" from neighbours, and having done it once she promised to wear them again during York Festival. She did surprise one group of visitors, as she had taken a seat whilst the shop was empty and so when they came in they thought she was a dummy, until she stood up to serve them.

25 years ago: "Rampant" peacocks living in York's Museum Gardens were not proving very attractive exchange items, as staff were trying to reduce the population after a child was scratched by one. The problems were being caused by there being six males and only two females, the immature males especially being a problem during the mating season. An ideal number of females would be three to every male, and so if nobody wanted the males then more females would have to be introduced to the gardens.

Updated: 15:31 Friday, June 25, 2004