Last weekend I traveled south to the famous ‘re-enactors fair’, as is my wont about once a year. There I was on the look out for new, old things – if you see what I mean? Among the items I purchased were the following three rather contrasting items …

It is hard to say which is my favourite out of these three. The leather flask, shaped like a bottle, is just gorgeous. It is lined with pitch and was the sort of thing used throughout the period all my characters hail from, and so it should prove very useful for keeping my throat moist, as well as an interesting artifact to look at.

The chain shot is something I have been after for some time. My pirate captain Burwash has oft’ spoke of such shot – the sort used to break a potential prize’s spars (masts and yards) and rigging – but up until now he has only been able to show round shot and double head. Now the children can see another variety of artillery shot too.

The little flea glass is a lovely thing, made of wood and horn. It is intended for my character Sir William Petty when I start doing Scientific Revolution sessions with him (which will very much suit the new national curriculum). I am currently tracking down a variety of instruments and apparatus he can demonstrate – from Napier’s Bones to a camera obscura, from Van Leeuwenhoek’s early microscope to a glass prism, to name but a few of the things I would like to get.

I’ll put up news stories here as I obtain or make more things.

Sir William Petty has received some lovely letters from children he met during a recent visit to a Doncaster school. Here is a colourful one from Aimee:

You can see from the artistic talent displayed above why Aimee was given the important job of designing a new St Paul’s cathedral. As Sir William would say, she has the ‘steady hand of a limnist’.

Here is one from Alicia, who obviously refused to be made miserable by an demonstration which showed how the fire spread so easily through the streets of London, instead happily laughing as the houses were consumed …

In contrast, the letter from Poppy tells how she enjoyed putting the fire out (actually a boy called David who, as you can see from Poppy’s illustration, was bravely playing the part of a burning house) …

Poppy has drawn a very fine portrait of Sir William on her letter, with his green coat, periwig and lace-lined neck-cloth.

At another school I visited very recently, the children were so involved in the story, and so keen to draw, that during their ‘indoors playtime’ (and we’ve had a few of those in Yorkshire lately) they also wanted to draw. When Sir William returned from the teacher’s little coffee house he was handed several unprompted drawings and messages the children had fashioned up on their own initiative. 

Here the story of the Great Fire is explained very succinctly indeed by a Key Stage One child …

We had already learned about the sparks (shown very clearly in this drawing) carrying the fire across the city, but were only really at the start of the story when the child drew this.

Sometimes I like to work out which particular part of the story these illustrations (which I receive often) show. For example, the following clearly shows the fire just as it started, with a worried looking gentleman pointing it out to others …

Whereas in the drawing below the fire has definitely spread to Thomas Farriner’s neighbour’s house. The gentleman shown here is so distraught his wig has fallen off, and if the redness of his face is anything to go by, the heat of the fire has certainly  ‘cooked his noddle’!

So, just a few of the letters and works of art Sir William has received. I hope you enjoyed them as much as me.

Click on the following link to find out more about Sir William Petty and the Great Fire of London.

Next time, some portraits of Captain Eynos the Elizabethan Sea Rover, sketched by older children.