![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnStarting a couple of comments earlier than usual to mention there are a couple of new salon fics! These probably both need canon knowledge.
felis ficlets on siblings!
Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:
Unsent Letters fic by me:
Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:
felis ficlets on siblings!Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:
Three Fills for the 2022 Three Sentence Ficathon.
Chapter One: Protective Action / Babysitting at Rheinsberg (Frederick/Fredersdorf, William+Henry+Ferdinand)
Chapter Two: Here Be Lions (Wilhelmine)
Unsent Letters fic by me:
Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:
Just because one's king and brother is dead doesn't mean one has to stop writing to him.
Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-15 07:39 pm (UTC)More about these: their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather are ALSO named James Steuart/Stewart, and were more or less Whigs. They were all moderate and sometimes vacillating and of one of them it is said that he 'failed to give entire satisfaction to either side'. Of the grandfather, a family story is told that during the threatened Jacobite invasion of 1708, a kinsman urged him to flee to England since he had had a hand in drawing up a manifesto for William of Orange back in 1688. And he allegedly replied, 'Ay, ay, my dear, that is true, and I must draw this man's [James III] too.' Hee. Writing manifestos for invading princes apparently ran in the family. Our diarist was the grandniece of Janet Dalrymple, the 'Bride of Lammermuir'. Her sister Agnes married the Earl of Buchan and also studied mathematics with Professor MacLaurin, of MacLaurin expansion fame. I love that! James Steuart's wife was Frances Wemyss, the sister of Lord Elcho who was out in the '45.
Mrs Calderwood reminds me of my mother: she is opinionated, seems to enjoy talking to strangers, and is the person in the marriage who does all the arranging and managing. In Brussels, she hears that it is impossible to find and rent a well-furnished apartment, and then takes great satisfaction in telling us of the places she looks at before finally finding an apartment that fits her needs, and how she makes sure to find good furniture at reasonable prices. Meanwhile, her husband rests in bed at the hotel with a cold. Later in life, she manages their estate and writes a manual on estate management, while he...I have no idea what he does. The introduction calls him 'indolent' but also notes that he was good at languages.
She assures us that her brother was not actually a Jacobite, oh no, it is dreadfully unjust that he is not allowed to return home. I take this with a grain of salt, because of course she would say that while she was petitioning in his favour. It's unclear what her own opinions are. At one point she meets a committed Jacobite on their travels: 'He is a great Jacobite, and he dares not speak out, and the Pretender is in such distress, that in short he is miserable. I tell him I wish I may never have the toothack till I be troubled about the publick. At the same time, I can speak as much Jacobitism as he pleases, and he is very fond of me, because I tell him fine stories about the Highlanders and the Pretender in the time of the rebellion, and all the ill prats [gossip] of the Duke of Cumberland. I tell him to come to Scotland, and he will get as many Jacobites as he can set his face to; and he laughs and is so merry, and then comes a deep sigh.'
She writes with fascination of the different customs of different countries, and about Catholicism. The 19th century editor apparently removed some passages because they were too vitriolic towards that religion--but OTOH she arranges to have her sons go to a Jesuit school while they live there, as long as they don't have to attend mass etc. She also comments on dress: '...this country, where everybody, from their want of stays, goes two-fold.' Because their boobs hang down?? Also this: 'The Dutch stays contribute greatly to their vulgar look ; they run in like a sand-glass below, and stand out round like the same above ; they set their shoulders up to their ears, and bring them forward as the landward lasses do when they hold up their head.'
At one point they meet young Towneley, the son of Francis Towneley who was executed after the '45 (whose head, btw, was stolen back from the Tower by his relatives and kept in a bank vault until 1945, when it was buried). Here is her opinion on him: 'Mr. Townly is very bashful and grave, and has no liking to anything in particular, and I think seems to be one of little good or ill. His mother told Mr. Nidham that, when he was young, instead of play with his brothers, he used to sit by her and cut paper, or any such thing as that. I have often observed that the mind and body of folks are mismarrowed, and some men should have been
women, and he, I think, is one.'
This book also gave me the experience of looking up a word in the OED, and seeing the very phrase in the book as the first OED quote! Here is the phrase: 'Here I saw the largest midden cock I think ever I saw, which I coveted, if I could have known what to do with him.' Very suggestive, but I don't think she meant it that way...
In 1758 James Steuart moved to Venice because of his gout, where he made friends with Mary Wortley Montagu. Here is from the 19th century afterword: 'James Steuart used to say of her that when she was in spirits he experienced more enjoyment from her conversation than he could derive from the most interesting book that ever was written. The climate of Venice was found not quite suitable for the invalid, so they took a house at Padua, and a pathetic leave of Lady Mary. Their astonishment was great when they discovered, on their settling themselves there, that Lady Mary was also installed in a house at Padua in their near neighbourhood, where she continued her kind ministrations.'
***
Here is the bit about Fritz incognito:
In this inn the King of Prussia lodged, in his travels through Holland incog; he was three days in Amsterdam, and nobody knew him. He had but one gentleman with him. He bought a great many flutes and other musicall instruments, and when the landlord said to his servant, 'I think your master is very fond of musick,' 'O yes,' says the servant,' he is cheif musician to the King of Poland.'
He travelled in the track-scoot, and there was a gentleman's sons and their governour ; he turned very fond of the governour, and they discoursed about the memoirs of the house of Brandenburgh, and the governour gave his opinion of it and found some faults, which the king defended. He, after he left Holland, let this man know who he was, and he has gone to pay him a visit. Severall of his own officers saw him, and did not know him, nor did his own embassador at the Hague. He had his hair covered with a wigg, and a coat all buttoned up about him. When he was going away from Amsterdam, he bid the landlord get him a coach; the landlord said he would get a waggon or a phaeton, for nobody travelled in coaches. When the waggon came to the door, he said: 'That is a bad thing to travell in; are there no better to be had?'
'The best people that comes to my house,' says the landlord, 'travells in it ; I have hired the same machine for German counts, ay, for English lords, and they never found fault with it, and I think it may serve you very well.' So the king stept into it. ' Now,' says the landlord, ' you sit like a king, I think.' He took some cold meat with him, and asked for a napkin to wipe his hand. 'No,' says the landlord, 'take just a sheet of paper, that will serve the purpose as well.'
Very soon after he was gone, it came out that he was the King of Prussia, and there was such comparing of notes, what he had said, and what he had done. The landlord sent him a present of some cains, to which he returned him a very pretty peice of silver-plate for the midle of a table, with casters, etc., very finely wrought but very slight. This present is keept in a fine carved box, which the landlord sets down on a table, and there he flourishes for a compleat hour in French, so fast and with so many demonstrations, that it is entertaining even to those who do not understand a word of it.
***
Some further bits about Prussia:
We had here lately two deserters from the King of Prussia ; the one was a Scots tallior, the other a London tradesman. The Scots folks have an excellent nose to smell out their countryfolks, and they came to this house. The tallior was a tall, clever-like fellow, and stood so upright, and held out his toes and up his head so well, that I asked him if he had been at the dancing school ? ' Truly, madam,' said he, ' I was never at the dancing school, but a good rung laid alongst my shoulders when I held down my head, made me soon learn to hold it up.'
The English lad looked very humble, and regarded the other as much his superior in wisdom and good behaviour, so the tallior was spokesman. He told us he had gone to London, to work at his trade, and a gentleman offered him ; if he would go over a trip to Holland as his servant; to which he consented, and, instead of Holland, he carried him to Hamburgh, and gave him over to the Prussian officers recruiting there. He had served these two years, and was so lucky as to come off safe from the battle ; eight days after which, he, with a party of fifty men, and a serjeant, were sent out a foraging, and all but the serjeant deserted. They were of all different nations, and had been trepanned in that way. These two had come together, without a farthing in their pockets ; but they did not go pennyless from this, for the Scots gave for their countryman, the English for theirs, the folks here because they had deserted from the King of Prussia ; and they were introduced to the Prince, who gave them each a ducat, which is the premium given by the Empress to every Prussian deserter.
The politicks here is, that the King of Prussia has accused the Empress of designs to destroy him and the protestant religion, that she had made an alliance for that purpose with France, and that he, upon that handel, which he himself contrived, had done what he has done, as he accused the King of Poland of being in the plot ; all which they say is false, and that he behaved very cruelly to the Saxons. And many a story of that kind is firmly beleived, one of which I shall mention, to give you a swatch of the rest : viz. that he killed the whole cats in Saxony, and made the Saxons buy mousetraps of him at an extravagant price. If they were good mouse-traps I should not grudge him double the common price for them, for we are like to be devoured with mice, and can neither get a cat nor a trap worth a farthing. They tell me that it is not a common complaint here, for there are but very few mice in the town : I tell them that the mice must be protestant, by their being so plenty in Saxony and in this house, where they know there are no fast days.
Pardon this degression, and my speaking of cats and kings in the same page ; but when kings turn mice-catchers, it must diminish their dignity.
***
There are some further bits about Prussian politics, I can share them if you want.
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 08:12 am (UTC)The "Fritz incognito in the Netherlands" tale sounds vaguely familiar, especially pretending to be a musician for the King of Poland (who's also the Prince Elector of Saxony). (BTW, that means quintessentially he took his undercover identity from Joachim Quantz, the greatest flutist of the era, who had indeed worked in Saxony and met a young Fritz there before moving to Berlin years later when Fritz became King.) Another thing worth looking up would be the relevant passage in Lehndorff's diaries, because like Mrs. C., Lehndorff learns about the Frederician adventures only later via gossip and reporting, not via first hand information, and it might be interesting to compare how the story is reported in the Netherlands vs how in Prussia.
The politicks here is, that the King of Prussia has accused the Empress of designs to destroy him and the protestant religion, that she had made an alliance for that purpose with France, and that he, upon that handel, which he himself contrived, had done what he has done, as he accused the King of Poland of being in the plot
Ah yes, Fritz remembering he's the champion of Protestant Freedom every time he goes to war with MT. This in 1756 was a bit tricky because on the MT side wasn't just (Catholic) France but (extremely Protestant) Sweden and (Orthodox) Russia, but the Brits, who were of course allied with Prussia, fell for it line and sinker. As opposed to, it seems by your quotes, the Dutch! This said, certainly MT's goal was to destroy him, true enough. It's also telling that Mrs. C. writes "The Empress" and not "The Queen of Hungary" in terms of her own alliances/beliefs.
all which they say is false, and that he behaved very cruelly to the Saxons
He did, and I salute you, insightful Dutch people. This said, the story of Frederick the Cat Killer is definitely wrong. His war crimes in Saxony did not include cat extermination! Especially since this early in the war, he was still going to some effort of only sacking the palaces of the elite. He'd squeeze the country dry later. (While leaving the cats alive.)
Pardon this degression, and my speaking of cats and kings in the same page ; but when kings turn mice-catchers, it must diminish their dignity.
LOL. Well, this King was a dog person, and what would Mrs. C. say if she knew he negotiated for the return of his favorite dog the last time he made war in Saxony?
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 08:37 am (UTC)Yeah, I remember that from Catt.
(BTW, that means quintessentially he took his undercover identity from Joachim Quantz, the greatest flutist of the era
Oh, good point! I was wondering why Poland/Saxony, given his feelings about them. This makes sense.
His war crimes in Saxony did not include cat extermination!
I mean, we say that now, but the one thing salon has taught me is that two years from now, we'll find that little known factoid of the time Alcmene and Glasow conspired to steal royal seals to issue an royal decree ordering all the cats exterminated. :P
Glasow: I figured if you're committing treason, the royal dog favorite is a must-have to get on your side.
Alcmene: I did not condone any of the other things he did with the seal! I betrayed him as soon as I found out.
Fritz: Good dog.
It makes me want to look up the Lady Mary biographies and the letters edition we have to see whether she's mentioned.
One footnote in Grundy, saying LM probably received Margaret's daughter Anne Durham at the same time as she received James Steuart. No mention in the letters that I can see, either by searching or in the index.
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 12:23 pm (UTC)Yes, his first attempt at travelling incognito, to Straßburg, blew up not least because he had no idea of how the kind of avarage nobleman he was trying to play would act. He must have believed he could at least impersonate Quantz for a few days, having known him for a long time.
I mean, we say that now, but the one thing salon has taught me is that two years from now, we'll find that little known factoid of the time Alcmene and Glasow conspired to steal royal seals to issue an royal decree ordering all the cats exterminated. :P
LOL, great point. Given all the other unlikely stuff that turned out to be true, I could believe it. Then again, I think if Fritz had gone after the Saxon cats, Poniatowski would have mentioned it in his takedown on Fritz' using Saxony and Poland to finance his war. :)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 12:52 pm (UTC)Headcanon accepted. This makes soooo much sense!
Poniatowski would have mentioned it in his takedown on Fritz' using Saxony and Poland to finance his war
Wasn't Poniatowski a dog person, though? Or am I thinking of someone else? :P
Right, yes, Catherine's memoirs:
When we entered my cabinet, my bolognese pet dog raced towards us and barked angrily at Count Horn. But when it noticed Count Poniatowski, the animal was visibly overwhelmed with joy and affection. Since my cabinet was rather small, no one other than Leo Naryshkin, his sister-in-law and myself noticed. But Count Horn wasn't deceived, and when I returned to the dining room, he grabbed Count Poniatowski at his coat and said: "My friend, there's no worse traitor than a Bolognese spaniel. Whenever I fell in love with a woman, I always gave her such a dog as a gift. Through the animals I always learned if anyone was more favoured than I was. This rule never fails. (...)
I mean, I'm being thoroughly silly, I doubt Fritz exterminated Saxon cats or that Poniatowski's apparent good relationship with Catherine's lap dog would have prevented him from caring!
But it *is* true that ever since I joined salon, my life has turned into a series of episodes of "You're Wrong About." ;)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 03:05 pm (UTC)"The letters written by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to the Steuarts at this time were preserved by Lady Frances in an envelope on which she had written '27 Letters from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, which are decisive of the short acquaintance necessary to the adhesion which generally takes place when superior minds are brought together.'
These letters were printed in 1818 at Greenock by their son, Sir James Steuart-Denham, in a neat volume, accompanied by a short memoir, which has been quoted more than once in this book. The most interesting of these letters were afterwards incorporated in Lord Wharncliffe's edition of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's correspondence." (Ha, that's the fifth James Steuart in a row...)
Thanks for the background on the Fritz bits! I think, going by how she jokes about it, Mrs C did not actually believe the tale of Frederick the Cat Killer, she quotes it just to show what rumours/gossip is going about.
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 09:41 pm (UTC)Huh. So what would the average Scotsperson and Englishperson have said? Would they have actually said the Queen of Hungary?
(also, lol to Frederick the Cat Killer!)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 08:26 am (UTC)MacLaurin expansion fame
Clearly I studied the wrong kind of math. TIL!
This book also gave me the experience of looking up a word in the OED, and seeing the very phrase in the book as the first OED quote!
That is neat!
In 1758 James Steuart moved to Venice because of his gout, where he made friends with Mary Wortley Montagu.
Oh, he's that James Steuart! I see his name in her letters a lot.
In this inn the King of Prussia lodged
Does she mention the name of the inn?
in his travels through Holland incog; he was three days in Amsterdam
The longest vacation Fritz is capable of, sigh.
they discoursed about the memoirs of the house of Brandenburgh, and the governour gave his opinion of it and found some faults, which the king defended
Lol, oh, Fritz. It's a wonder you kept your incognito at all.
For those who may not know or have forgotten, the Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg were written by Fritz in the 1740s.
Fritz, if you want to be incognito, you have to criticize your own works, and then for bonus points, try to fish for compliments from the people you're talking to. :P
The politicks here is, that the King of Prussia has accused the Empress of designs to destroy him and the protestant religion, that she had made an alliance for that purpose with France, and that he, upon that handel, which he himself contrived, had done what he has done, as he accused the King of Poland of being in the plot ; all which they say is false
Lol, relevant to my recent write-up on Saxon diplomacy! TLDR: The King of Poland (his prime minister, really) had plotted for over a decade to destroy Fritz, but he hesitated when the time came and so wasn't part of this particular plot when Fritz invaded and tried to see how many war crimes you could commit per day in one country.
viz. that he killed the whole cats in Saxony, and made the Saxons buy mousetraps of him at an extravagant price.
Lol, I mean, this is the guy who made Jews buy porcelain from him, so it wouldn't be entirely out of character! But that is an amazing rumor, and one I could not make up.
There are some further bits about Prussian politics, I can share them if you want.
If you're asking me, I always want!
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 12:13 pm (UTC)Hang on, though, if he was having that discussion with the governor of two gentleman's sons, wouldn't that be....drumroll... Henri de Catt? Whose big virtue in Fritz' eyes was to NOT recognize him and be impressed? Who, going by that description, sounds very much as if he did recognize him, and played along?
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 12:46 pm (UTC)[personal profile] cahn, this is the trip where he took Glasow and met Catt, whose great virtue was to be impressed with Fritz without knowing he was king (or while pretending not to recognize him)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 01:48 pm (UTC)In Catt's defense: He wasn't a Prussian soldier (let's not forget, in Straßburg Fritz had been recognized by a deserter), this was before Fritzmania, so I don't know whether or not he could have seen the reproduction of a portrait, and even if he did, it would have been likely one of the very generic, stylized ones predating the 7 Years War. So maybe we're wronging Henri de Catt.
Incidentally, what's the data situation - were there any 18th century royals who pulled off an incognito successfully? Because with Wilhelmine and Heinrich - or Joseph on the Habsburg side - travelling under another name was just a way to ensure you didn't have to go through all the ceremonies, but everyone still knew who you were (and better had the correct chairs ready). And you're the one who read the Peter the Great biography - did he manage that carpenter stint in the Netherlands at least for a while, or was it always an open secret?
(Someone still needs to write the AU where FW kidnaps him.)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 03:20 pm (UTC)Well, Alexei managed to disappear for quite a while before being exposed. Like, he managed to make it to Vienna safely, and then to be hidden for a while by the Austrians.
And there was Bonnie Prince Charlie (does he count as a royal?).
In both those cases, there are of course people in the know, but the general population (like when BPC apparently went to London) wasn't thronging and pointing.
Also, with the caveat that my source is a single modern bio, it *seems* that Louis XV pulled it off on this occasion. The difference between him and Fritz seems to be that while neither had the foggiest clue how "normal" nobility lived, Louis XV was willing to let his companions be his guide, while Fritz...probably was not. :P
Marie Antoinette's masked balls were generally an open secret, right?
According to one of your write-ups on Sophie of Hanover, future G2 managed to stay incognito for at least a whole hour :P, when meeting Caroline of Ansbach:
My son, the Prince Elector, has urged his son to choose a princess wherever he wanted, but his impulses drove him completely incognito to Ansbach where he talked ot the Princess for an hour unrecognized under the alias of "von Busche", and fell so muich in love in her that he didn't want to look for another.
Part of the problem with Fritz is that he wanted his incognitos to last for days at a time, which is much harder than what Louis and G2 were going for!
Of course, 2-meter-tall Peter had it the hardest. ;)
His namesake Keith: Being crosseyed is also hard, even when you're not a royal!
did he manage that carpenter stint in the Netherlands at least for a while, or was it always an open secret?
According to Massie, it not only wasn't an open secret, it was such a non-secret that the first place he was planning to work in the Netherlands, he was thronged by crowds from day 1 and basically treated like the object of a petting zoo, to the point where he cut his visit short and went to Amsterdam instead.
Massie does include on occasion, in Riga, where he apparently wasn't recognized by one guard, who pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot him if he didn't stop doing what he was doing, but the local governor knew who Peter was and tried to smooth it over. (Not very successfully; Peter would later cite his treatment in Riga as a reason for starting the Great Northern War!).
In general, the Riga authorities took him at his word about wanting his incognito respected, which turned out to be not what he wanted (namely to have his cake and eat it too):
In Peter's mind, Riga was a city of meanness, inhospitality and insults. As he traveled around Europe, Riga suffered further by contrast. In most of the other cities Peter visited, the reigning sovereign was there to greet him, and even though Peter insisted on his incognito, these electors, kings and even the Austrian Emperor always found a way to meet him privately, to entertain him lavishly and to pay his bills.
(Someone still needs to write the AU where FW kidnaps him.)
Hear, hear! Now, which of us is most prolific? ;)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 09:42 pm (UTC)AHAHAHA this was the most hilarious part of the whole thing :D
(Someone still needs to write the AU where FW kidnaps him.)
Yes absolutely! (But not me!)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-17 05:03 am (UTC)Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 01:05 pm (UTC)MacLaurin expansion fame
Clearly I studied the wrong kind of math. TIL!
It's just a Taylor series! ...mildred, please tell me your college physics class did Taylor series?? It's the only part of calculus I still use on a very regular basis, at least conceptually, because it's such a useful way of thinking about approximations when you just take the first couple of terms for small x.
(Heh, I just had a conversation with my best-friend-the-math-educator last week where we were talking about math pedagogy, and she pointed out that Taylor series are really the most useful part of calculus for the vast majority of people, and it's really irritating that in most high school calculus it gets shoved to the back -- and if one takes Calculus AB, like I did because it was what my school had, it never gets mentioned at all. I was really fortunate that I got this gap covered at second high school. But it was physics where it got really hammered in because it gets used everywhere for approximations!)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 01:11 pm (UTC)If we did, it left no trace in my memory, much like the October 1752 entry on the disappearance of the non-cousin Marschall!
Keep in mind, I only did two semesters of physics, before switching my major from physics, where they expected us to do math without teaching us math, to math, where they taught us math before expecting us to do it. (My physics prof was very surprised at the following facts:
1. I was noticeably better than my classmates at a number of physics problems that were heavily math-focused.
2. I complained that the math was the reason I was dropping my physics major.
3. I was switching my major to math.
I told him it could all be explained by the fact that I was extremely good at math if and only if you actually taught me the math first!)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 03:10 pm (UTC)Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 03:24 pm (UTC)At MY university, there were the officially posted math requirements, which said, "If you are taking physics class X, you must be taking math class Y simultaneously," and then there were the secret math requirements which you only found out when you were taking the class, and which consisted of "Physics class X professor will assign problems that presuppose you have taken math class Z," and that, my friends, is why I did not succeed in my originally intended physics major. Had the official requirements said, "Don't take X until you've taken Y *and* Z," I might have a physics degree too!
*grumble*
(Instead, I have a math degree.)
ETA: Mind you, there were other problems with how physics was taught that played a role, such as the fact that lectures consisted of proofs, while homework and tests consisted of solving problems, which meant you were basically lecture-less and were teaching yourself physics on the side. In math class, they either taught us to solve problems and tested us on solving problems, or taught us proofs and tested us on proofs! (Also in high school physics, they taught us problem-solving and tested us on problem-solving.)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 10:22 pm (UTC)I bet your university does not do the thing that MY university did, which is that the extremely-highly-recommended (not actually mandatory) math courses for physics (I think there were indeed four) in principle taught you the math you need to know for physics classes, but crucially not in the same order the physics classes expected you to know them! First-semester mechanics expected you to know vectors and matrices, but linear algebra was not taught until second semester (first semester math was multivariate calculus). (If you hadn't had single-variable calculus yet, you had to do another sequence of both math and physics which I don't know about.) So what happened was that the first-semester mechanics class basically taught a crash course in linear algebra in the middle so that they could do any of it... Maybe, twenty-five years later, this has changed. I hope so!
I can't remember Taylor series explicitly being taught in college (then again I kind of think they expected us to already know them), but I think every single class I had made approximations that were the first term or two of a Taylor series!
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-17 08:52 am (UTC)It boggles me that multivariate calculus would be taught before linear algebra! Never mind the physics, that just doesn't make sense from a math standpoint. I mean, in multivariate calculus you need to multiply matrices, to calculate determinants, to find the equations of planes, etc.
Math and physics
Date: 2022-07-17 11:57 am (UTC)Math and physics
Date: 2022-07-17 11:55 am (UTC)First semester: multivariate calculus for math; Newtonian mechanics for physics
Second semester: vector calculus for math; waves, optics, and thermo for physics
Third semester: linear algebra for math; electromagnetics for physics
First semester mechanics expected you to know at least vector calc, so what happened was that the first-semester mechanics class
basically taught a crash course in linear algebra in the middle so that they could do any of itwent ahead and did it anyway, telling you "you should already know this," notwithstanding that the prereq for course enrollment in the official catalog was "concurrent enrollment in multivariate calc." *banging head*Whether we were expected to know Taylor series but never taught them, covered them but I forgot, or I just didn't stick around long enough to encounter them, I have no idea. (Suspect the third, though.)
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 03:11 pm (UTC)Oh, cool! Glad to fill in some blank spaces for you.
Does she mention the name of the inn?
Yes, here's more info about the inn: 'We lodged in the inn called the Morning Star, the best in the town. There was a convention of all nations, and it was quite full.'
For those who may not know or have forgotten, the Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg were written by Fritz in the 1740s.
Hee, the book told me that in a footnote! : D
If you're asking me, I always want!
Well, here you go...I told you she was opinionated! This follows on from the bit about the cats.
The King of Prussia says, on the other hand that the Queen made a defensive alliance with France, and that she was getting herself ready for next year, and, in the meantime, was sowing suspicions privately from court to court, so that they might come to his ears, and give him the alarm, that he might be the first aggressor, and then France was obliged to join her : and that the Queen of Poland and the Empress, being both great bigots, had contrived to fall upon him and destroy him ; that then the Saxons being under a popish king, and no protestant power able to defend them, the protestant religion would be suppressed, not only there, but in the whole empire.
My oppinion of this story is, that the Queen, though a great bigot, had other motives than religion to attack the King of Prussia ; that she certainly intended to fall upon him as soon as she was ready, and that the King of Poland was to assist her ; and that Prussia, by being first ready, has prevented her ; and that he has cried out religion, as folks do fire when they want assistance; and that this has not been a sudden impulse of his, but that he has laid his scheme some time before, to make religion a handle to exequte what he intends. Some say, it is that a protestant emperor should be chosen time about with a popish ; but I think this is too distant a prospect for him, who is no younger than the present Emperor, and it must be [necessary], in the first place, to make himself able to effect such a law being made. Whatever he intends to effect by it, it appears to me to be no new scheme, for, when did we see kings make such a work about their faith, when nobody was asking them any questions about it ? It is several! years since our newspapers were full of the King of Prussia's confession of faith; in this point he was Calvinist, in that he was Lutheran, in another he agreed with neither. He tolerated all religions, and built a fine chapell for the papaists, ordered all his soldiers to go to their respective churches, when, at the same time, I suspect he was much of Coully Kan's mind, who made first the Alcoran, and then the New Testament be read to him, and, after hearing both, declared he would make a religion better than any of them.
I hear he is adored in Scotland for being the head of the protestant religion, but I wish he may not be like many an honest man's head which has led his body a gray gate ; not but his intentions are good, but who can depend upon executing their projects ? The world is not as it was long ago, when one man could raise his fortune, and pursue and execute his schemes in a few years. The states of Europe are now so fixed, that it takes more than the life that any single person can promise, to plan and execute anything out of the common road ; and, if he should arm the protestants, and bring them over to his party, his death, or the failling of any scheme, will leave them in a very bad state. We will not find it in Britain, but it will be found most surely elsewhere.
Many towns in Germany are half and half, who live very peaceably together at present, but if set by the ears, must fall heavy on the protestants, who are the weakest party. I wish the protestants very well, and therefore beg the King of Prussia (unless he can promise upon at least thirty years' life, success to all his undertakings, and that his heir shall follow his plans exactly) not to meddle with them, at least those who are subjects of another prince, and whom he has no hopes of becoming master of.
Now, I will tell you what I think he might exequte : the Saxons are protestants, and have a popish king who is otherways provided for ; he has shown he is not able to protect them, so that, if the King of Prussia could make them beleive he has abdicated the crown, they may call a convention of the states, and call a king of their own religion, and let him be head of his own protestant subjects, but not of any body else's.
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 09:43 pm (UTC)My oppinion of this story is, that the Queen, though a great bigot, had other motives than religion to attack the King of Prussia ; that she certainly intended to fall upon him as soon as she was ready, and that the King of Poland was to assist her ; and that Prussia, by being first ready, has prevented her ; and that he has cried out religion, as folks do fire when they want assistance; and that this has not been a sudden impulse of his, but that he has laid his scheme some time before, to make religion a handle to exequte what he intends.
My opinion is that Mrs Calderwood is pretty sharp :D
Re: Letters and Journals of Mrs Calderwood
Date: 2022-07-16 09:40 pm (UTC)and of one of them it is said that he 'failed to give entire satisfaction to either side'.
Heh!
In Brussels, she hears that it is impossible to find and rent a well-furnished apartment, and then takes great satisfaction in telling us of the places she looks at before finally finding an apartment that fits her needs, and how she makes sure to find good furniture at reasonable prices. Meanwhile, her husband rests in bed at the hotel with a cold.
Heh. This sounds a little like my mom too. Though to be fair, when we went on vacations our dad did almost all the childminding. But I suspect he has never arranged the logistics of a family vacation since marrying mom (although he took a number of business trips while working and arranged those)
(whose head, btw, was stolen back from the Tower by his relatives and kept in a bank vault until 1945, when it was buried)
Holy crap. (I always am sort of weirdly fascinated by how body parts get disattached and secreted in various places... it is so weird to my 21st-century mentality!)
I have often observed that the mind and body of folks are mismarrowed, and some men should have been
women, and he, I think, is one.'
Aw, that's kind of neat that she makes that observation.
He bought a great many flutes and other musicall instruments, and when the landlord said to his servant, 'I think your master is very fond of musick,' 'O yes,' says the servant,' he is cheif musician to the King of Poland.'
Ha, this is cool!
This present is keept in a fine carved box, which the landlord sets down on a table, and there he flourishes for a compleat hour in French, so fast and with so many demonstrations, that it is entertaining even to those who do not understand a word of it.
Lol, I just like her turns of phrase here :D
The politicks here is, that the King of Prussia has accused the Empress of designs to destroy him and the protestant religion, that she had made an alliance for that purpose with France, and that he, upon that handel, which he himself contrived, had done what he has done, as he accused the King of Poland of being in the plot ; all which they say is false, and that he behaved very cruelly to the Saxons
:D I get a kick out of seeing things I know about in other sources!
Pardon this degression, and my speaking of cats and kings in the same page ; but when kings turn mice-catchers, it must diminish their dignity.
this is AWESOME :D She sounds really fun.