Geographic History

IT is a long time since I bought National Geographic's History magazine - indeed I am not even sure if I have ever bought it before the latest issue, January/February 2021.

But I found it hard to resist the cover, which promised articles on Homeric weapons, a long-lost Bronze Age culture in what is now Iran, Roman roads, and Napoleonic science in Egypt.

The latest National Geographic History - I had great expectations

The articles did not let me down - I found all of them, including ones I have not mentioned, very good reads.

A highlight was an amusing inscription on a Roman roadside innkeeper's gravestone, which relates a conversation between the deceased and a customer.

Paraphrased, it reads: "The inn's prices are one coin for wine and bread, two for stew, eight for the services of a young woman and two for hay for your mule. The traveller replies: 'This mule will ruin me'."

Spooky Historical Cemetery

FORCED to take a detour because the route I wanted to use was blocked by workmen, I cut through a cemetery near Old Street in EC1

What with its large gravestones and numerous tombs, it looked like a film set from a teen horror movie - and this was in broad daylight.

In fact Bunhill Fields is a burial ground that saw more than 120,000 interments from 1665 until it officially closed in 1854.

Among the graves of the well-known are those of Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan and William Blake.

But the one that caught my eye was a monument to Dame Mary Page, who came to an unfortunate end. 

Mary Page's tomb

The inscription in the photo above reads:

Here lyes Dame Mary Page

Relict of Sir Gregory Page Bart.

She departed this life March 4 1728

In the 56th year of her age.

Notable are the archaic spelling of "lies" and the use of "relict" to mean widow.

The reverse of the tomb is also interesting.

The other side of Dame Mary's tomb

In 67 months she was tap'd 66 times.

Had taken away 240 gallons of water

without ever repining at her case

or  ever fearing the operation.

It has been speculated she suffered from Meigs syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigs%27s_syndrome

15mm Plastic

IT is some time since I bought Wargames Illustrated, but I could not resist when, on visiting WH Smith in Holborn, central London, I saw the January issue of the magazine has a free 'frame' of plastic American Civil War figures.

In fact there are two frames - one of figures and one of bases for the figures.

January's Wargames Illustrated with its cover mounting

When I returned to the same branch of Smith's a few days later, the magazine had sold out, and I am not surprised.

The two ACW frames

What you get from the frames, which are part of a new line by Warlord Games, is 10 sprues of infantry, each with 10 figures, one gun with four gunners, and a mounted officer (described inside the magazine, rather bizarrely, as "cavalry").

So far so good, especially as the figures are superbly proportioned - metal figures in the same scale would, for example, have much clumsier muskets.

But what scale are they? Makers Warlord Games are, again rather bizarrely, being coy about this.

They have a two-page advert in the magazine, describing the figures as "Epic Battles scale."

Photos of painted figures are shown alongside a 1p coin "for scale," although this may be of limited use to non-UK readers.

Elsewhere in the magazine is a reference to the figures being "about 13mm," but according to my measuring they are true 15mm.

The problem comes when you detach the sprues of infantry and attach them two to a base.

Two infantry sprues on a base

They look great ... or would if they were meant to be soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars or earlier. But who wants ACW infantry marching literally shoulder-to-shoulder?

As for the paid-content of the magazine, well that is a matter of taste.

The magazine without the cover mount - a good read IF you like fantasy gaming and/or logistics