ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

How did Georgians wash their hair? Did they wash it at all? Didn't they just wear wigs, which were full of revolting powder? Well, it wasn't quite as bad as that. In Culpeper's English Physician; and Complete Herbal, one of the most frequently reprinted herbals of the period, we find this observation: "The hair washed with the lye made of the ashes of the [barberry] tree, and water, will make it turn yellow. " Elsewhere he claims that infusions of the herbs wall-rue and maiden-hair can be used to prevent hair falling out, and also observes of the Southernwood tree that its ashes will, if mixed with old salad-oil and used to wash the hair or scalp, cure baldness. [1] Whether or not any of these plants will have any effect on hair growth, the recommendation proves that people must have been using herbal infusions as well as lye mixed with ashes to wash their hair, in the absence of anything better. Why would anyone use ashes to wash their hair? Because the...

There have been several noteworthy events in the past year or so.  The Eighteenth Century Poetry website has now got an updated and far more comprehensive entry on Elizabeth Craven. It used to list only one poem, and that was spurious! It has now got a far more accurate and comprehensive list together with an updated bibliography. https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00215.shtml Gale publications has brought out a new printed edition of Craven's story Modern Anecdote of the Ancient Family of the Kinkvervankotsdarsprakengotchderns, originally published in 1780. This is well deserved.  Ecco, Print Editions (April 20, 2018)  ISBN-10: 1379900565      ISBN-13: 978-1379900566  I have published my biography of Craven's close friend, the artist and novelist Sophie de Tott, who spent some years living with her at Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith,  Sophie de Tott, Artist in a Time of Revolution. This has bearings...