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British History

Out of 200 styluses found during excavations, this was the only one with an inscription

Cool Finds

This Ancient Roman Souvenir Stylus Is Inscribed With a Corny Joke

Loosely translated, the message reads, ‘I went to Rome and all I got you was this stylus’

Moving on

A Statue in the U.K. Had to Be Moved Because It Was Too Popular

Visitors flocked to see ‘Seated Figure’ by the artist Sean Henry—and damaged the surrounding landscape of the North York Moors in the process

The Charles Dickens Museum Acquires ‘Lost’ Portrait of the Author as a Young Man

The 1843 painting by Margaret Gillies surfaced at an auction in South Africa in 2017

Cool Finds

The First Investigation Into the Allied Waterloo Field Hospital Is Unearthing Cannonballs—and Limbs

The dig, conducted by military veterans and service members, suggests just how close Napoleon’s forces might have come to victory in the epic battle

L to R: Preparatory sketch for "Scylla" and 1938 oil painting of "Scylla"

Tate Acquires Archive of Works by Little-Known Surrealist Ithell Colquhoun

The collection, featuring some 5,000 sketches, drawings and commercial artworks, promises to instigate a ‘re-evaluation of her whole career’

Alan Turing Will Be the New Face of Britain’s £50 Note

Persecuted at the end of his life, the British mathematician and code-breaker is now widely admired as a father of computer science

The entrance to Taiohae Bay, on the island of Nuku Hiva, where Herman Melville lived in 1842.

How a Voyage to French Polynesia Set Herman Melville on the Course to Write ‘Moby-Dick’

We retrace the journey that had a long-lasting influence on the enigmatic author’s improbable career

The ruins of the Grey family's ancestral seat, Bradgate House

Is This the Childhood Home of Lady Jane Grey, England’s Nine-Day Queen?

Stone structures unearthed below the brick ruins of Bradgate House may date to the Tudor period

Seaweed, it's what's for dinner.

A Remote Scottish Island Needs Help Protecting Its Seaweed-Eating Sheep

North Ronaldsay is looking to hire a warden to rebuild the dike that has long kept its sheep on the coastline

The Fortingall Yew.

Trending Today

U.K.’s Oldest Tree Is Being Besieged by Tourists

Visitors to the Fortingall Yew are snapping twigs, stealing needles and tying beads and ribbons to branches, which experts believe may be stressing it out

Cool Finds

Scotland’s Tiny Artificial Islands Date to the Stone Age

Five crannogs in the Outer Hebrides were built 5,000 years ago, perhaps for ritual purposes

Smithson and Hungerford family members scanned a geneology treee, searching for their place among the clan.

Mr. Smithson’s Family Goes to Washington

A contingent of descendants, related to the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, embarked on a tour of the museums

Hans Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves convinced Henry VIII of his bride-to-be's charms

Historian’s New Novel Raises Controversial Theory: Henry VIII Divorced Anne of Cleves Because She’d Already Given Birth

Alison Weir acknowledges the claim, which pulls on previously unexplored evidence, is “inconclusive and speculative” but says it might make readers think

Trove of English Court Records Reveal Stories of Murder, Witchcraft, Cheese Theft

Archivists are cataloging documents from the Assizes court in the Isle of Ely, which tried serious crimes

An activist holds up a rainbow flag inside Botswana's High Court to celebrate Tuesday's landmark ruling.

In Landmark Ruling, Botswana Strikes Down Colonial-Era Law Criminalizing Homosexuality

‘A democratic society is one that embraces tolerance, diversity and open-mindedness,’ Justice Michael Leburu said of the ruling

The warder is the first of five missing pieces to materialize since the remaining chessmen’s discovery in 1831

Cool Finds

A Medieval Chess Piece Potentially Worth $1.2 Million Languished in a Drawer for Decades

The Lewis warder, part of a larger trove of 12th-century ivory chessmen, was purchased for £5 in 1964

Cool Finds

The Oldest Film of a Solar Eclipse Has Been Restored and Released Online

In 1900, magician, astronomer and filmmaker Nevil Maskelyne used a special adapter to film the astronomical event in North Carolina

Watch Rare Footage of a Smiling, Sunglass-Wearing Queen Victoria

The remarkably clear 1900 film was found in the MoMA archives

Stereoscopic portraits of Queen Victoria. Dated 1854.

Two Unseen Photographs of Queen Victoria Released in Honor of Her 200th Birthday

Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were early and eager adopters of new photographic technologies and commissioned many personal family portraits

All four chicks are growing quickly, quadrupling in size from around 8 centimeters tall at birth to more than 30 centimeters last week

Tower of London Welcomes Baby Ravens for the First Time in 30 Years

The four chicks eat at least once every two hours, feasting on a diet of quail, mice and rats

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