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In May 1876 the diarist Francis Kilvert was visiting Oxford. Enjoying a peaceful sunny day in a quiet college garden, he suddenly heard a disturbance: ‘the voices and laughter and trampling of a ...

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Locals called the area ‘La Cività’; a clue, perhaps. It was proposed as the site of Pompeii as early as 1637, but formal digs did not begin until 1748. The site’s value was as a source of antiquities ...

Swear words are a constant, but their ability to cause offence is in flux. In the 1600s, today's obscenities were mundane. Scene from The New Art and Mystery of Gossiping, Being a Genuine Account of ...

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