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  • Writer's pictureWilliam Tyler

Bitesize History

April 2019. The first time the Cornish language was used in a prime time television advert; For Kelly's Cornish Ice Cream


Allegedly, Oliver Cromwell referred to Magna Carta as Magna Farta. I do so wish this is true!


Origin of the word Bosphorus: From original Greek, bosphorus or ox's ford. Pliny in his Natural History tells us that it was because oxen could cross it by way of a ford. Yet the Greeks did not use the word in a literal sense!


It is thought that red squirrels travelling along Viking trade routes first brought leprosy with them to Britain.The link between red squirrels and leprosy is well documented.


The colour orange was first described in English as yellow-red. It took the name orange from the imported Spanish fruit and is first recorded in 1502, when Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII, bought orange coloured cloth for her daughter Margaret. Oranges first arrived here a little earlier, sometime in the late 15th century.


In December 2017 J. Salmon the producers of scenic postcards went out of business; reflecting the fact that we no longer send holiday postcards as we once did. The heyday of postcards was in the early 20th century, before the First World War, as I can vouch for in my own collection of Worthing and West Sussex cards. As such I am a deltiologist, collector of postcards.The written contents are normally depressingly familiar, along the lines of 'we are making the most of it despite the weather'. The first postcard sent is dated to 1840 (note arrival of postage stamps in the same year). It was sent and received by Theodore Hook, It fetched £31,750 at auction in 2002

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