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  • In pictures

Pepys and the plague

Through its long history, London has survived some enormous epidemics. During the 1665 Great Plague of London, the city burned, shops closed, the streets emptied and bodies piled up. Read Samuel Pepys’s account of how the city pulled through.

  • Article

The eye of darshan

The Hindu concept of darshan means “divine revelation”, but it’s also about the multilayered ways in which we see the world around us. Adrian Plau explains how one image in a Panjabi manuscript relates to darshan, and why it’s so striking.

  • Article

The Ladies of Llangollen

As we celebrate LGBT History Month, Sarah Bentley explores the relationship between the two 18th-century women known as the Ladies of Llangollen.

  • Article

Parasites and pests from the medieval to the modern

Humans have been reluctant hosts to a plethora of unpleasant parasites for centuries. And medieval evidence shows our modern distaste for these little irritations is just as ancient.

All stories (14)

Images

  • Burma: a lady attended by a servant bringing an elephant and another servant holding a parasol. Watercolour.
  • A gentleman's servant. Drawing by an Indian artist.
  • Surgery as the servant of the nation of war
  • Rama and Sita enthroned with servant and monkey. Lithograph.
  • A servant ironing clothes. Watercolour by an Indian artist.
  • Head servant with his wife offering him betel leaves. Gouache drawing.
  • Head servant with his wife offering him betel leaves. Gouache drawing.
  • A servant carrying a serving dish. Watercolour by an Indian artist.
  • A laughing servant-boy holding a teapot observes the silhouette of an older servant, who is standing behind a screen, preparing to swallow a small fish. Woodcut by Kunio, 1785.
  • A Sikh pandit's servant. Gouache painting on mica, by an Indian artist.
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