The Heritage of DressByWilfred Mark Webb

Have you ever wondered why we wear the type of clothes we do? Packed with outlandish outfits, this exciting history of fashion trends reveals the flamboyant fashions adopted (and discarded) by our ancestors.In the days before cosmetic surgery, people used bum rolls and bombastic breeches to augment their figures, painted their faces with poisonous concoctions, and doused themselves with scent to cover body odor.Take a fresh look at history’s hidden fashion disasters and disco...

The Anglo-French writer and historian, Hilaire Belloc also found fame as an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, soldier and political activist, whose comic verses and collaborations with G. K. Chesterton cemented his literary reputation during the early twentieth century. This eBook presents Belloc’s complete fictional works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 3)*...

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould was a late Victorian novelist, antiquarian and eclectic scholar. He is remembered particularly as a writer of famous hymns, notably, ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’. He was a prolific author of diverse subjects, producing over 200 books by the time of his death at the age of ninety. Among his most enduring works are his seminal ghost stories, revealing the author’s interest in occult studies. This comprehensive eBook presents Baring-Gould’s collected w...

Funeral Customsby Bertram S. Puckle"A funeral is a ceremony marking a person's death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. These customs vary widely between cultures, and between religious affiliations within cultures. In some cultures the dead are venerated; this is commonly called ancestor worship. The word funeral...

Originally published in 1934. A fascinating and detailed history of the best of English secret hiding places and passages. The illustrated contents include: Tradition and Truths - Priest Hunting Days - Warwickshire - Staffordshire - Leicestershire - Northamptonshire - Worcestershire - Harvington Hall - Nottinghamshire - Derbyshire - Lincolnshire - Berkshire - Buckinghamshire - Oxfordshire - Gloucestershire - Yorkshire - The North - Lancashire - Cheshire - Shropshire - Herefordshire - Monmo...

AN exhaustive treatise on funeral customs, ancient and modern, has yet to be written. Leaving to the theologian and philosopher the thankless task of assigning the mystery of death its proper place and functions in the scheme of creation, the writer has confined himself to a general survey of those practices which surround the physical fact of death, a subject which is as immense as it is fascinating. Whilst investigation shows that almost all our present usages have their origin in stupid...

It is with the drama as with plastic art and many other things: the plain man feels that he has a right to put in his word, but he is rather afraid that the art is beyond him, and he is frightened by technicalities.

Clothing, A Historical Consideration traces the history of clothing in the western world from the Greeks to the high fashions of the late 19th century. A good brief survey of the subject.

Etymology for children, first published in 1918. "Nearly all children must remember times when a word they know quite well and use often has suddenly seemed very strange to them. Perhaps they began repeating the word half to themselves again and again, and wondered why they had never noticed before what a queer word it is. Then generally they have forgotten all about it, and the next time they have used the word it has not seemed strange at all."

Brought up to enter a learned profession, Henry Melton very successfully overcame his ‘aversion to going into trade’ and became hatter to the Prince of Wales. First published in 1865, Hints on Hats is a delightfully idiosyncratic account of Melton’s rise from opening a shop (having seen an opportunity for wealth and fame) to hatter to Edward VII and Prince Albert, whose patronage he was quick to exploit. First published in 1865, this book is part of the V&A Fashion Perspectives Series. Sel...

Are you minded for a jaunt through the island of Erin where tears and smiles are near related and sobs and laughter go hand in hand? We will walk, and will take it in donkey-cart and jaunting-car—by train and in motor-cars—and if you suit yourself you will suit me. Leaving Dublin we will circle northward, with a visit to Tanderagee Castle and the tomb of St. Patrick—God bless him,—then on past the Causeway and down to Derry, and so into the County of Mayo, where in the midst of a fair you ...