Andrew Ayton

@andrewayton

Historian (ret’d Univ of Hull, UK) working on late medieval military, maritime, soc & economic; & Napoleonic. MSS, prosopography, networks. Classical music, wildlife, cinema, coins, postal history, Dorset, France, Hungary. 🦋& #Shugborough Staffs pictures.

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Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· 3d

A selection of worn Purple Hairstreaks from the last week in our Staffs garden. During hot weather they are more likely to come down from canopy of oaks that lie along the eastern boundary of the garden. 19 species in the garden so far this yr. #butterflies #Shugborough @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Faded purplish butterfly with torn wings resting on green leaf in sunshine.

A further specimen - faded and battered; bluish tinge to body more evident. On green leaf of different shrub.

A third battered Purple Hairstreak, a shadow of its former glory - the papery thinness of the wings highlighted by light and shadow.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· 3d

A female Wheatear at #Shugborough yesterday evening; for me, the first sighting of this species here in 23 years. Spotted next to Hadrian's Arch - a massive stone structure standing amid what is now parched grassland. #birds

Female Wheatear (brownish back, white stripe above eye) standing erect and watchful, back to us but facing left; amid sparse strands of dry grass. Blurred grey structure beyond bird is base of Hadrian's arch at Shugborough.

The same female Wheatear a few minutes later: perched on a fence post with barbed wire. Buff underparts and distinctive white rump more apparent in this picture.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· 18d

This paragraph rather leapt out from David Runciman’s review of Samuel Moyn’s Gerontocracy in America (current @lrb.co.uk). Context: ‘the remorseless greying’ of some areas of US academia; but these are also my thoughts precisely.

A paragraph from David Runciman’s review of S. Moyn, Gerontocracy in America - from current London Review of Books

‘To deprive older academics of the privileges they have been hoarding is not to cut them off from the benefits of the community to which they belong. They can still write books and give papers and go to seminars and hang out in libraries - in fact, liberated from the administrative burdens of a professional existence they can do more of these things, only without being able to control how their younger colleagues manage it. As someone who quit professional academia aged 57 but still lives in a university town and maintains a connection with the institution for which I worked, I can testify to the truth of this. I enjoy going to seminars more than I used to. I enjoy reading academic papers more than I used to. I don't have to sit in meetings that take all day and go nowhere. I don't have to worry about how to mark a piece of work that has almost certainly been written by a machine. The price of this emancipation is having no say in the way the university goes about its business and a less well-padded income than I had in the past. It feels like a good bargain.’

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jun 25

Congratulations! Inherited from my maternal grandmother.

Octagonally shaped, rather weathered plate, fixed to the wall, depicting RH Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield, seated and facing to viewer’s left.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jun 18

The first Comma butterfly in our Staffs garden since late April. Progeny of the overwintering ones, I suppose. Interesting still-life with a greenish-coloured fly.

Comma butterfly (orange, scalloped wings, with dark patches) facing a green-coloured fly, both perched on a green vine leaf.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jun 6

Have just finished this book & in complete agreement with the TLS review; highly recommended. Congratulations @pittsmike.bsky.social on a splendid achievement.

First 2000 characters of:

How Easter Island was cut off from its past
Christina Thompson’s review of Mike Pitts
‘Island at the Edge of the World
The forgotten history of Easter Island’. 384pp. Bloomsbury. E25.
Over the course of three centuries, the inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, carved, transported and erected about 400 stone statues, the largest of them weighing in at more than eighty tons. This involved, as Mike Pitts puts it, "a sequence of major operations, with many opportunities for something to go wrong".
Cut from the living rock with nothing more than stone tools, the statues were transported for miles over a hilly land-scape, levered up onto stone plinths or bases, and crowned with specially fitted stone topknots, each weighing another seven or eight tons.
The evidence for this tremendous labour is everywhere on Easter Island, but, writes Pitts, "We have almost no evidence of how it was done". Or why. Or when.
Or by whom exactly. None of this has ever stopped anyone from trying to unravel what has come to be known as "the mystery of Easter Island".
The reason there is so much uncertainty surrounding the history of Easter Island is not that it is so terribly ancient; the entire human history of the island stretches back less than 1,000 years. Rather, it is because that history is marked by a radical discontinuity that began not in some moment of prehistoric upheaval or after the first European contact in 1722, but with a series of events in the southern hemispheric
effectively cut off modern Rapa Nui from the knowledge of its own past.
In the autumn of 1862, three Chilean ships sailed to the island from Peru, returning with 507 islanders described as
"colonists", who were sold as servants and labourers in the port of Callao. In December, a further eight ships made the journey, returning with hundreds more kidnapped islanders bound for South American plantations and guano mines.
These in turn were followed by yet more ships. It was a short-li…

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· May 15

Admiral Anson for ever remembered at Shugborough

Bust of George Anson on Hadrian’s Arch at Shuborough

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· May 14

Seth Rogen’s climactic, redemptive rant In Good Fortune (Aziz Ansari, 2025) says it all.

Still from the film in which the Seth Rogen character, a tech bro who after experiencing the life of the mass of ordinary folk for a few weeks, sees the light .

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· May 10

Birthday visit to Letocetum (now, Wall, Staffs) - Roman baths and mansio. Rather impressive, lovingly preserved and interpreted by local volunteers.

67 year old chap standing in remains of bath house. Victorian church, with spire, amid trees, in background.

View of the Roman site from churchyard; village of Wall beyond, and low, wooded hills in distance.

Artist’s impression of Letocetum settlement in early Roman period - mansio in foreground, bathhouse behind, with wider settlement beyond.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 28

Rewatching ‘The Eligible Bachelor’, one of the late, feature-length Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes episodes, I couldn’t help noticing his bust of General Gordon (left), which is very similar to ours (right), bought 25yrs ago in a tiny antique shop in Cottingham, Yorks.

Bust of General Gordon, on a shelf with books with pictures on the wall behind. This, from the TV series.

Very similar, but not identical, bust of General Gordon, rather dusty because on the top of a bookcse in our dining room. Some ceiling beams in the background.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 26

Movie you’ve watched more than 6 times with a gif Doubtless, quite a few candidates, but coincidentally rewatched this y’day evenjng:

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 21

A bit of a red-letter day (18 April): stopped in tracks by unfamiliar birdsong at Coalpit Lane Covert. A Pied Flycatcher, the first I've seen at #Shugborough in 20+ years. Appropriately enough, its song perch on a majestic veteran oak. @nationaltrust.org.uk With apologies for poor photos!

Bird silhouetted against sky high in an oak tree - white underside and black head visible

Bird silhouetted against sky; perched in oak tree, black head turned it its left

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 21

Green Hairstreaks (7/4/26) - Satnall Hills, #Shugborough, Staffs. On the usual patch of bilberry. In the right-hand image: the punctata form: white dotted streak on the forewing as well as hindwing. @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Green butterfly resting on bilberry foliage

Green butterfly - with white dotted streak on both wings - on bilberry foliage

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 21

Brimstone - the 6th species in our garden this year (20 April). Green-veined White was the 5th, but it wouldn't be photographed.

Butterfly resting on green foliage with wings together: greenish-yellow wings, brown antennae

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 21

Holly Blue was the 4th species of butterfly to appear in our Staffs #GardenMeadow this year (on 8 April). On the apple blossom

Butterfly with wings closed (blueish white, scatter of black dots) on white blossom.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 14

Post a gif from your favourite movie from the year you turned 18. I went to university and became a medievalist, but the Napoleonic period haunts me still.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 13

Now that everyone is talking about Hungary, may I point out that the *really* interesting phase of Hungarian history - the ‘great power in the region’ phase - came before the early modern period? Here’s the book on the subject that I edited 25 years ago; still readily accessible and fairly priced. 😉

The front cover of P. Engel (ed. A. Ayton), The Realm of St Stephen. A History of Medieval Hungary (I.B. Tauris, 2001); the design includes an image from the 14th century Illuminated Chronicle: King Stephen I (depicted as a mounted, armoured warrior, accompanied by other equestrian fighters) defeating the gyula in Transylvania.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Apr 6

Orange-tip (male) is the 3rd species of butterfly to appear in our #GardenMeadow this year. Fine, sunny day here, as elsewhere.

White butterfly with bright orange tips to fore wings. It has settled on green foliage.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Mar 17

Locally, the first day of spring is when the butterflies emerge from hibernation: today, a warm day here saw (as usual) a comma and a peacock in the sunny end of our garden. Mediocre ‘phone pictures, but good to think that these #butterflies spent the winter with us.

Comma butterfly taking in the sun, amidst grass and leaf litter.

Peacock butterfly basking in the sun, amidst the leaf litter.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Mar 9

Photos thrown up by your ‘phone. This from a few years ago: me and Dvořák in Prague.

Statue of Antonin Dvorak with a chap in a linen shirt, beige trousers and panama leaning against the base. Sunny day, blue sky; building behind.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Mar 5

A little snatch of Chiffchaff from garden today. The bird is just visible, moving slightly, on the right margin of the video.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Feb 27

Rewatching Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. Definitive, of course, and hugely enjoyable. We reach ‘The Musgrave Ritual’, and … trigonometry. Prompted to ask how many of my followers, after school, have ever employed this knowledge? I haven’t. And don’t get me started on log tables and slide rules.

Cover image of the DVD of the 1980s UK Granada TV series ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes’: Jeremy Brett, as Holmes, in top hat; in the background the Reichenbach Falls with Holmes and Moriarty falling - except that Holmes didn’t.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jan 24

In my parents’ things, I find this rather splendid photo of B.U.F Cricket Club, 1910. My great grandfather, Albert Bartlett (b. 1875), is at the left end of the back row. He lived into the early-mid 1960s & I have fuzzy memories of him. I assume he was a rather better cricketer than his g’g’son!

B/w photo of a cricket team, in whites, lined up in two rows: six standing, with six seated in front. Various hats and a lot of tremendous moustaches. Edwardian England at play.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jan 21

Richard Vaughan’s #ornithology books are worth remembering too. ‘Arctic Summer’ came out when I was an undergraduate. We talked a good deal about birdwatching. Only later did I read his books on late medieval Burgundy.

Front cover of Richard Vaughan’s ‘Arctic Summer’ - a group of wildfowl swimming on smooth blue sea. Rocky coastline.

Front cover of Richard Vaughan’s ‘In Search of Arctic birds’ - sea birds flying over the sea.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jan 18

Easiest to reply with images from fields guides: about a dozen different species of tits in Europe. The Marsh Tit, fairly similar in appearance to the Black-capped Chickadee, does have a ‘chick-adeedeedee’ call in its repertoire.

Page of Chickadees from Field Guide to the Birds of North America

Page of tits from A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe (Peterson, Mountfort, Hollom)

Description of the Marsh Tit in the Peterson, Mountfort and Hollom field guide:

MARSH TIT Parus palustris
page 213
Du - Glanskopmees
Fr - Mésange nonnette
Ge - Sumpfmeise
Sw - Kärrmes
Identification: 4}'. Has black cap and chin. Distinguished from Coal Tit by having no white patch on nape, no wing-bars and browner upper-parts; from very similar Willow Tit by glossy black crown (instead of dull sooty), smaller black bib, absence of light patch on closed wing, and distinctive call-note. Cheeks and under-parts dull greyish-white. Juvenile greyer above, with dull sooty crown, not distinguishable from young Willow Tit. Seldom more than two together in mixed winter flocks of tits.
Voice: Most distinctive. A loud "pitchew," or "piti-chewee"; other notes are a deep, nasal "ichair," and a scolding "chick-adeedeede." Song varies from a repeated single musical note, to four- or five-note phrases such as "pitchaweeoo."
Habitat: Deciduous woods, hedges, thickets, etc., less often gardens.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jan 17

Our nearest one, at Great Haywood, occupies a similar position, but is rather younger. #PostboxSaturday

Red GR postbox set in a white-painted wall.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jan 17

Hellebores heralding the new year’s resurgence of life in our Staffs garden.

Hellebore flowers - white, ruby-dappled - just opening among green foliage and amidst leaf litter.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Jan 17

Stafford’s hexagonal VR for #PostboxSaturday. It’s out of use; an operational dual aperture ERII stands nearby.

A red hexagonal Victorian postbox standing on paved surface. A branch of Santander bank behind the box.

Foreground: dual aperture postbox, painted red. Behind it, a few yards away, the red Victorian box; behind and to right of that, two red telephone boxes. A very British townscape detail.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Dec 24

The @royalhistsoc.org Transactions arrives with the last post before Christmas. The TRHS has evolved into a really substantial annual publication.

The front cover of the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 7th series, vol. 3, 2025. Cover art: ‘Comrades in Arms! Britain and the USSR’ - detail showing flags of UK and USSR from a 1940s poster.

Andrew Ayton@andrewayton· Dec 12

I thought the point of Oxford Very Short Introductions was to be provocative (at least from the author’s point of view): an opportunity to project stimulating stuff into trade book world (alongside the pap). I love them. Currently Juliette Atkinson’s George Eliot, which I’m hugely enjoying.