Happy New Year!

The Hoydens will be back in 2012 with more history, more books, and more great guests. Have a merry and safe New Year's celebration and we'll see you soon.

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Brandywine Springs Tour -- September 21

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Alright, I hope this isn't too last-minute of a notice, but I think we've come to a consensus. Although I did say I'd do a tour with just a few people, it seems that there are several people who can't make it this week, but can make it next week. Since this isn't anything where there's a reservation or set plans involved, I've decided to wait the extra week in order to allow more people to attend. I hope this isn't a problem for those who said they could come this week. And for what it's worth, the Weather Channel's long-term forecast has it in the 70's with a 0% chance of rain on the 21st. All in all, this seems like the best thing to do. We can nail down a time that's best for everyone, but since a few seemed to indicate that early afternoon was good, I'm suggesting 1:00 for now. The tour should take somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on how much I ramble on. As I mentioned before, we'll walk through the...
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Hooked on Classics, yet again

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I can justify this post to myself as advance promotion for my Elgin Marbles romance, The Edge of Impropriety , due out in mass paperback next spring -- or as a warning that you might want to bu y it now, with its gorgeous trade cover while they last... But really, it's pure delicious escapism that's plummeted me into the midst of Steven Saylor 's fabulous Roma Sub Rosa mystery series, set during the final years of the Roman Republic and teaching me oodles about a history I find increasingly fascinating. And, I should add, featuring a detective hero I'm entirely smitten with. Gordianus the Finder is not only smart and sensual, he's deeply good and deeply inquisitive about his world. Besides his intelligence, Gordianus's major asset seems to be what he learned during his youthful wanderings outside of Rome, particularly in Alexandria, where Greek culture and Asian mystical traditions have taught him something about the provincialism of his own world (and where he...
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Eastburn-Jeanes Lime Kiln District History

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 Abel Jeanes Mansion  I know that I've written this before, but one of the things I find most interesting about the history of Mill Creek Hundred is the variety of people and activities that have taken place here over the past few hundred years. In fact, if there's one thing I'd like people to take from this site, it's that this area's story is a lot more than just, "It all used to be farms." For my money, one of the more interesting industries to pop up in MCH operated in the area just below Paper Mill Road, between Polly Drummond Hill Road and Pike Creek. In this tract, for most of the 19th century, operated the limestone quarries and lime kilns of the Jeanes and Eastburn families. Although some parts of its history are a little sketchy on details, there's enough information about the subject as a whole for me to drag spread it out over several posts. In this post, I'd like to deal with the 19th century history of the site and the families inv...
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