Ax Traditions

 

When the elections are a circus and the clown wins, despite all the very serious concerns that arise, there is at least some extraordinarily funny news - not least seeing the prospective defence secretary trying to throw an ax but missing the target and hitting a military drummer who is lucky not to be injured by this hatchet job! 

How very fitting! Fasces, a bundle of rods tied around an axe, was an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of the civic magistrate. The Italian fascists took their name and symbol from this. The tradition seems to continue in one way or another!

Put[a]in and chums can sit back and feel secure with this gang left with responsibility for defence and security!

Watch for yourself: 

"Fox News host throws ax, hits drummer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrVdFnjEjs 

Washington like many western cities has Roman inspirations with its Capitol and like. However one Roman inspiration has taken this long to fulfil - the great clowns performing at the Circus Maximus!

Repeat-Offender Rent Boy trespassing the White House

 

From a family background of rent boys, the common upstart family renting out properties tried to ape clumsily old genteel landed families by naming themselves after the location of their properties - Dump!

D. Dump, overweight, over-the-top, fat ugly sow, is rejoining V. Put[a]in, V. Orbán, B. Netanyahu and Kim Jong Un etc. in the club of the worst world leaders. Chairman Put[a]in is of course pleased that his lowly Bolshevik servant has won an election that does not even need to be distorted in Soviet style when there are enough stupid voters.  The German elections of 1933 spring to mind. Maybe the Soviets and neo-Soviets have been making elections unnecessarily laborious when the UK and the US have shown how easily dumb voters can be fooled?!

How the "world's greatest country" of a 333 million population could not find better candidates than the two of 2024?!

The number three (3) in various combinations seems to be bad for elections, 333 million population, 1933, 30 odd per cent voting for Brexit... 

The United States has been regarded as a developed country, but even developing countries have not voted for a president as stupid as the United States for the second time. The crème de la crème  of America, white, rich and thick!

One might just forgive the electorate for electing a villain once, but to re-elect what is now even legally a criminal, is an unforgivable crime against all decency and reason - the restoration of the wild-wild west, the Mickey Mouse government taking the mickey.

While Russia remains rich in natural resources and the resilience of the Russian people to continue to endure brutal oppression from their own Russian rulers, the USA remains rich in the stupidity of its voters.

Now it almost feels like it would have been better to vote Dump in four years ago, because now we would get rid of it, assuming it had not completely destroyed the world by now. 

The ugly sow could greatly improve its style with a Mexican or Colombian necktie or a Glasgow smile to reflect the Ayrshire cow's Scottish background!

The state of US politics in 2024 and it is likely to get only worse from the new year. 

Centenary of the Acerbo Cup

 

The Coppa Acerbo in Pescara, Abruzzo, Central Italy, was founded a century ago in 1924 by Diego de Sterlich Aliprandi Marchese di Cermignano and Giacomo Acerbo Barone dell'Aterno among others in memory of the First World War Hero Tito Acerbo, brother of the Barone.

The Acerbo Cup was an original motor race with much character anybody could watch free from their village or a hilltop or road side in a spontaneous community spirit without having to pay some big company to see cars that did not all look the same in those days. 

It has been rightly described as the golden era of racing in the interwar period and until 1961. Now all the cars look all the same. It is like a sterilised remote video game where the live driver is largely a robot following remote instructions while not to say that no skill is involved. Back in the olden golden days the racing cars had no safety features, not even seat belts. Death, violent or otherwise, was accepted as a normal part of life until the 1960s. 

In the modern or contemporary "egalitarian" world, formula drivers are remote millionaires who arrive in their jets and disappear immediately after the race. In the old days the racing drivers were normal people who mingled with and befriended local people.  This is just another example of the organic original natural world being replaced by a sterile technocractic profitocracy.

If one ran out of petrol during the race, as could happen, making the race more exciting, one could stop even at a closed petrol station and someone would quickly appear to put some petrol in the tank to enable the driver to continue racing. Nowadays if it was England, either nobody would be there or the staff would just say they are closed and do nothing, despite whatever pleadings might be made, and seemingly oblivious to the opportunity to earn a bob or two, which shortcoming at least would not be a problem in a Middle Eastern country where the petrol station would demand a huge amount of money for any petrol (if any). 

If one driver's car broke down, the driver ahead of them would help his competitor to follow him to come second at least. 

People were still human until the 1960s. One can watch the documentary on Netflix: The Acerbo Cup (2015 by The Talking Tree SRL).

But if you thought motor racing a century ago was pericoloso, compare it to the first aerial circumnavigation of the world also a century ago in 1924 when the British Royal Air Force attempt was led by Squadron Leader Archibald Stuart-MacLaren, who flew in the Apennines in heavy clouds barely seeing where they were going, not very far from Pescara at some point. 

From The Telegraph

The Palio di Siena horse race in Tuscany and other palio races around Italy still retain even more character than the original motor racing - not only wild and wonderful human character but formidable horsepower. 

One can only thank the wonderful Italians, despite their sterilised constitution from 1946, for the true victory of retaining much original character and colour in this increasingly sterilised world. Viva Italia! 

People in Pescara still enjoy vintage motor racing

The Enchanted August

In 1923 Elizabeth Gräfin von Arnim's book The Enchanted April became a best seller recounting an idyllic month of April spent by a group of English ladies escaping rainy London for the delights of the Kingdom of Italy in the 15th century castle 'San Salvatore' or Castello Brown in Portofino.

A century later, this article may be read by nobody, about a worst seller of a palazzo apartment in the month of August 2023, when a group of travelers fled the humid sticky heat of the summer in London for the less humid and sticky but even hotter summer heat of Central Italy. Not only were none of the triumvirate of gentlemen English ladies (just one drama queen) even if the American whose father worked in Hollywood had substantial English ancestry and the Western European whose father worked at the opposite side of the iron curtain had insubstantial Scottish ancestry (if any), but they all came from different continents and religions (if any) and of course as the trip progressed they got on like a house on fire, especially after one of them bought a two-thousand-two-hundred-and-twenty-second-hand apartment in a centuries-old palazzo there or Castello Grigio or Palazzo Toad or Palazzo Rospo or Palazzo Toadini-Rospigliosi, and they more or less lived in it for more or less a week. The grand old American and the aristocratic European did not mind the lack of modern comforts, only admiring the architectural beauty of the palace, while their non-European companion only could see the lack of modern comforts and lasted a couple of nights in the palazzo, then moving to a nearby hotel, a humbe town house, to the relief of all concerned - the non-arrival of the drama queen...

Stunning mountain views, Campari Spritz, eating out delicious local food with local wine and sightseeing in a rather unspoilt and authentic part of Italy without too many tourists and some charming local people helped - la dolce vita. Italians are good cooks and crooks, as would be discovered soon enough. 

Octopus

. 

Italian plumbing a century ago seems to have been more functional than that in August 2023, non funziona, an expression which soon became very familiar to the new property owner in the Stalinissima Repubblica with some Soviet quality facilities and infrastructure. His palazzo apartment plumbing was leaking to the apartment below as he was told only after buying the property rather than from the survey he had commissioned beforehand while possibly everyone else in the small town of Troppo di Machiavelli may have known that the plumbing started leaking a decade ago and the water was switched off - water under the bridge. 

The new Patrono was left envious of the Venetian plumbing of Lord Marchmain also a century ago:

A tremendous explosion drew us next door. We found a bathroom which seemed to have been built in a chimney. There was no ceiling; instead the walls ran straight through the floor above to the open sky. The butler was almost invisible in the steam of an antiquated geyser. There was an overpowering smell of gas and a tiny trickle of water. ... the unrecognized merits of the geyser... (pp. 93-94, Brideshead Revisited)

Incidentally the bathroom in this palazzo also had an exceptionally high ceiling. The wall was so high that not only one window was on it but there was a smaller decorative window on top of it even if some Stalinissima interior decorator had covered it from the inside but outside one would see the beauty of it - yet another fine aristocratic feature to rescue from the Repubblica. 

Somewhat mild compared to the original book on this point is the 1981 filmatisation of Brideshead Revisited:

The pericoloso bath in San Salvatore is shown with full rigour in the 1991 filmatisation of Enchanted April - so much for salvation! 

Maybe the new owner should follow the guidance of the natives of Corfu in the 1930s to the Durrells - also fleeing England for the Mediterranean - "what do you need a bathroom for when you have the sea?"  

The new owner had spent time looking for stylish pictures and antique prints to hang on the walls and was pondering whether to have a lion or a Roman Goddess face for a brass door knocker, but he had not noticed that there was no sink in the bathroom and that the sink in the kitchen was disconnected from the mains which oversights were nevertheless the lesser problems with the plumbing. On the first night of residence the only running water seemed to be urine, but the next morning fortunately some repairs could be done to ensure cold water in the kitchen sink and shower and a slightly better functioning lavatory.

Somewhat ironically the one thing that did work perfectly was the electronic doorbell but with sophisticated plans for a door-knocker the environmentally conscious grand seigneur was specifically planning not to pollute the world with an electricity-consuming door bell.  

"Everything is better after gelato" - the purchaser only watched Love and Gelato (2022) quite some time after buying the property, then immediately realising why whe Italian estate agent was telling him to have gelato after buying the property, not only because of the extremely hot weather on the day of purchase, leaving him also worring if his 90-year old friend would make it back alive to London,  wondering if he had the faintest idea what he was doing... in any event, that was the only good advice the estate agent provided - only in Italy, thank goodness it was Italy, such bonus would not have been forthcoming anywhere else.

Our genteel impoverished aristocrat thought he had found a place dignified for him within his means with historical character without being too bothered about the state of repair as long as it did not collapse before him. Omitting to get the door knockers however may have resulted in not keeping out an evil spirit as would soon become evident. 

​The Carnival in Rome (antique print, 1848)

Lack of functional heating or a cold shower was not a problem in the extreme of enchanted August but in enchanted April or during the winter it might be a challenge along with having a bath in the sea in Central Italy. 

So the palazzo apartment turned out to be more or less uninhabitable, even if the estate agents would still insist it is habitable which in fairness to the estate agent may indeed be correct technically and strictly by law - de jure - the law being an ass (no offense to asini) - but it certainly was not habitable de facto! The water was switched off as soon as possible to avoid paying expensive damages to the neighbour downstairs. Also the purchaser was told that the government had a program to fix the structure of the palazzo through earthquake repairs. While not having to pay for such expensive repairs was good news, the problem is that it could all take many years or a decade.... During the works one is not apparently even legally permitted to enter and entering while building work is done would in any event be pericoloso. So little instant gratification, but maybe a long-term investment, to look at the bright side - a centuries old building with a great future in decades to come for future generations of the childless owner, the end of his line and the fee tail.

Another long-term investment might have been to take the previous owners to court for not disclosing that the property was de facto uninhabitable but the first thing the prospective avvocato would say is to get an extremely expensive survey to prove what seemed to already be proven beyond not only any reasonable doubt and one could question what would it add to the survey that already existed. In any event, the court process could have taken even longer than the earthquake repairs, not to mention costing more than anything else, so maybe best to just "take it on the chin" and bin any chance of justice. 

Great misfortune is also to come across a local holding themself out to be a consulente, consul relentless, sinister supporter, Grimelda Madeleine Merdini Gremlini, a descendant of local highwaymen. She takes over high handedly, brutally grabbing the reins and the whip, and overtakes, a screaming bossy mad witch, domicidal maniac, dominatrix, bulldozing bully of a night[(/)]mare probably impossible to rein in and control even with a bull's dose of the whip or ox's dose of the nerbo. 

While she may discover problems the sellers did not disclose, difficult as it is to tell if anything one is told by anyone there is true, Gremlini will seek to profit even more by trying to make the owner spend as much as possible to redo everything in the apartment to convert all the fine original features to cheap modern plastic and like, which would make the earthquake damage over the centuries look cosmetic and idyllic in comparison - daylight burglary, a common burglar would do less damage. Unwittingly and too focused on seeking to maximise her profits, she does not seem to see how totally she puts off her Lord and Master and Lady Margarita. It seems that even the mental asylum where she must have come from could not take her, as she was fashionably at large in the community, seriously threatening the sanity of the new owner. 

Gremlini plans to rent out the property without telling the owner and keeping the money of course, as she does for other absentee landlords and ladies overseas - Cosa Nostra - more than a lion, a liar of a Roman devil's face for knocking down everything. She tries to get all or most of the keys for the property on the pretext that the old key she has does not work on the door, as she is too greedy to even spend money on spare keys to use when she rents out the property without the absentee landlord's knowledge. 

For Gremlini, the customer is always wrong and she is always right. Yet she forgets to remind or even tell the owner to pay the property tax but fortunately the owner did not rely on her to do it. She would tolerate no dissent from the owners who according to her should do exactly as she demanded and she would bully them as far as she could and get extremely offended if she was challenged on anything, for example, things she had done without telling the owners or disobeying instructions. 

The new owner's good will disappears soon. First he tries to be kind and do favours for Grimelda expecting business partnership and cooperation, once his own property is found uninhabitable offering to stay in one of her properties on Viadotto Purgatorio to provide her income, hoping for a good price, but receiving a very high quote, deciding then to stay elsewhere in another town. 

Gremlini also tries to get the new owner to quickly buy every possible expensive equipment for the property like washing machine, fridge, television etc. which she can then keep herself as the property turns out to be uninhabitable and she says refunds are not possible... the housekeeper from hell! 

To the new owners she says that all the furniture and other objects left by the previous owners are worth nothing even if the new owner's art dealer friend believes that at least some of the unmarked furniture may be worth contacting an auction house about. In any event, the wine glasses and porcelain disappear already after the new owner's first visit and eventually all the furniture is gone, as Grimelda sells it and keeps the money. 

At least in Crete the locals waited until Madame Hortense was dying before they started stealing her possessions from her home in Zorba the Greek. Grimelda had no such inhibitions, as the owner for all his misfortunes was not showing any signs of dying. She tries to persuade the owners to throw away mattresses she says are no good as she wants to take them herself. Meanwhile she tries to sell all sorts of tacky rubbish to the owners at high prices. Once the apartment is deemed uninhabitable she uses the large rooms as free storage for stolen goods she is selling. 

The new owner wishes to remove the hideous Stalinissima Repubblica style 1950s lowered ceiling of the entrance hall, as it is not the local Conservative Club with lowered standards but the intended residence of a real Conservative, not concerned about how cold it might be in the winter, but Grimelda strongly states that cannot be done, that planning permission is necessary.... but she says the ceilings must be lowered in the two beautiful drawing rooms with beautiful arched high ceilings. No planning permission seems to be needed for that.  

Grimelda tells the new owner that he absolutely must spend at least ten thousand euros on a completely new bathroom and plumbing and add another bathroom for the 2-3 bedroom apartment, while the owner could observe that the bathroom in Grimelda's own property definitely did not cost anywhere near the quote! She also expects the owner to spend more than he paid for the property. 

She does all she can to discourage the owners from coming so that she is free to serve herself as much as possible. She arrogantly undermines her employers as much as possible, promoting herself as indispensable. Yet she is common, envious, simple, and unsophisticated and her cooking is awful, considering how good Italian cuisine can be, definitely a crook more than a cook, a nasty piece of work. Machiavelli and Mussolini would be embarrassed by her. 

One of the witch's tricks is that when she is asked a specific question even in writing to challenge her or check if something is done or even just asking about something generally, she does not reply to the specific question but talks about other irrelevant matters, repeating how much the owner should be spending on an infinite amount of unnecessary things, and also rather rudely implies that the owner is not understanding something when it is her who is either not understanding or manipulating and trying to avoid the question... Quite impossible to work with such a person! Condescending - con descending - sinking low - a hysterical maniac who cannot even speak calmly and normally, just to hear her virtually screaming voice is draining - barking mad! 

To ditch the bitch, getting the keys back from her is a major operation. First it takes her a long time to send anything with a succession of excuses, including being very busy while her WhatsApp status shows her relaxing on the beach. Then when some keys finally arrive, not all are included and some of the keys do not even seem to be for the property.... Changing the locks seems the only option in the end and selling the place and fleeing as far as possible from the town never to return anywhere near and never consider buying a property in the Repubblica Mafiana or do any serious business there. 

Gremlini will not do anything she is asked to do but does what she is not asked to do and does not even tell the owner - Madeleine who thinks she is the Châtelaine of the Casa Nostra. After hiring her, it seems impossible to fire her short of burning the witch on a stake!

Apart from her title role in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) or Janet at the end of the film, she also appears in Brideshead Revisited:

The consular porter strode arrogantly ahead with his light swinging and his tall cane banging... 'Very dirty peoples,' the porter said scornfully... 'No education. French leave them dirty. Not like British peoples. My peoples,' he said, 'always very British peoples.' 

For he was from the Sudan Police, and regarded this ancient centre of his culture as a New Zealander might regard Rome. 

(Brideshead Revisited, p. 202-3, emphasis added)

If one then gives up and decides to sell, and if one is lucky enough to find someone as mad to buy, one may discover that the one professional one thought might have been reliable, the Notary, turns out to have committed the maybe most expensive mistake. Despite oral instructions to the contrary, the Notary writes into the deed that the gentleman purchased the property in communion with his absent wife, which he is told means he cannot sell it without his wife's written consent, even if they have since divorced, potentially halving any money (if any) that may be left for him, as if she had not bled him dry enough! Marriage is one of the quickest ways to get much money and also lose much money quick. Lex loci celebrationis!

A property next to the graveyard in Brexitland might have been better - in Hartlepool, Blackpool or Pontypool. However, if the Italian authorities did carry out the repairs in even as qucik as about three years and remade the plumbing, the new owner might still have the last laugh at least over his purported consulente trying to rip off tens of thousands of euros off him for plumbing.

Yet another Italian job! How such a charming unspoilt place in Italy could turn into such a nightmare! Of a different kind - The Unfinished Palazzo - Life, Love and Art in Italy! Of course worse things could happen in any country. There are dishonest common people in all countries, even Italy, but not all countries have the charm and elegance of Italy which triumphs even all the adversities of a property purchase. 

Italy can be a country of surprises! Apart from the over 500 euro bill for scratches to a rented car so minor as to be invisible to the purported offender both in person and by photo, and this was after a recent eye test, the gentleman who in Portugal was overtaken by a hearse, except when trying to impress a lover usually driving a car like a 70-year old while horse-riding like a 17-year old, did to his surprise receive his first ever speeding fine at an embarrassingly old age, from Italy of all places, considering the reputation of Italians for driving fast with their Ferraris and Maseratis. The speeding fine however arrived nearly a year later, rather slower than the offending in question - by signed delivery just before Christmas, dashing any hopes of a Christmas present even if such a present had been delivered so to speak earlier that week with the news that apparently repair work on the palazzo paid by the Italian State had finally commenced which he would believe when he saw it, an excuse to travel to Abruzzo again for more delicious local food and wine - Italians do get away with a few things. 

A Superficial Crack at Fashion

Cracking off the New Year in equestrian style from top to crop, tip-top, whip-top, Davide Dato, the Italian Principal Dancer of the Staatsoper, performing at this year's Wiener Philharmoniker New Year's Concert, as seen on TV.

The 14^th Duke of Bedford said that a gentleman should have no less than 30 pairs of shoes so as not to have to wear any of them more often than once a month. 

Portrait of Louis-Auguste Baron Schwiter  (1826–27) by Eugène Delacroix in The National Gallery, London 

The First Lady of The Philippines, Imelda Marcos might have said that every lady should have at least 300 odd pairs of shoes so that she would not have to wear them more than once a year.

Nike Air Force Ones (low top) the original classic from Harrods but one can get them from Louis Vuitton also. Nike is of course the ancient Greek goddess of victory in any field including art, music, war, and athletics, Victoria in Rome, now a god or goddess of sneakers 

Chelsea boots 

Play Comme des Garçons Converse high tops

Timberland boot in nubock and a Polo Ralph Lauren cap

Old Skool Vans (low top) Anaheim Factory 36 DX Edition - Der Hosenkavalier

Adidas Superstar Originals - Adidas is of course named after the German Shoemaker Adolf 'Adi' Dassler who's shoes Jesse Owens wore at the 1936 Berlin Olympics 

Vegan sneakers are now available like these Adidas Superstars, if not Originals but Organics 

French Aigle Coupe Saumur riding boots are fine for English wet weather also 

Air Force One Mids

Converse 70s high tops

Maroon Converse high tops

More recently, Admiral General Aladeen (as played by Sacha Baron Cohen in his 2012 film, The Dictator) is in a sense one of the best dressed contemporary world leaders.  

Regency uniform in the King's Bedchamber at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton 

Even more recently, face masks have significantly contributed to general elegance during the pandemic by hiding many ugly faces - even better than sunglasses. So many people would look so much better if they covered more of their faces and bodies while the opposite can apply to others. Some people look so good that even the worst clothes do not quite spoil it while arguably more or less the opposite can also apply. 

Quite rightly traditional finely tailored fashion has been praised and some more casual modern or contemporary fashion has been criticised if such a black and white contrast is rather simplistic as any style can look good or bad. Excessive formality is not always good any more than fashion casualty of the opposite kind. 

There is a time and place for everything from the formality of white tie and tails with decorations to the informality of no head or tail or tie and white sneakers - from classics to Asics, from old balance to New Balance - fashion casualties. While some people stick to traditional styles of being well dressed, others never do, being always casual, but some of us can enjoy both - each to their own.

Light destroys the white colour of sneakers to yellow but light makes the wearer's hair white over time! 

Sometimes even the old and new can be mixed elegantly even if some care may be taken to avoid bad taste, even if tastes also vary. One can combine informality with glamour, for example. There are doubtless many combinations, for example, mixing hipster sneakers with whipster equestrian style, but rather than an American baseball cap, the European whipster would call it a polo cap or jockey cap as in Master and Margarita while having to accept that the Americans are rather strong in sneakers like Converses and Vans and the Nike Air Force One while the German Adidas Original is a Superstar... Meanwhile jeans are originally of course an American cowboy's riding breeches, now riding high in fashion for decades.

Sneakers or trainers seem to have become an increasingly global, gender and otherwise neutral, modern or contemporary fashion hit of the time - scarpe diem [sic], rising from sports and informal wear to be increasingly smart or even formal as in paired up with a suit, so called dress sneakers, a crisp white brand spanking new pair with a suit to even get married in. Once upon a time not too long ago, a new employee would be booted out to get a suit on their first day in the office if they had not arrived suited and booted but now sneakers have very much stepped into the office.

Princely Indian glamour spicing up London before and during the swinging 60s 

Jagat Singh, Raja of Isarda, was described as ‘the dazzling Prince with flowing locks and flashing eyes, attired in jewels and jeans, turban and tshirt’ (Maharanis, Lucy More, p. 291). How far one might combine the traditional and the modern may be a matter of taste on which views differ. 

But the world's most fashion conscious animal is the moth who only eats the newest and best-quality clothes not touching any old rag.

National dress enriches fashion. The whole world does not need to dress the same all the time like every individual does not need to dress the same all the time. It is somewhat unfortunate, for example, that the bowler hat disappeared from the City of London. While it does not need to be worn with nationalistic totalitarian uniformity, it would nevertheless contribute to a touch of old world elegance. Maybe a Zack Pinsent will yet invade the City?

At least the English Barrister's wig is surviving 

Traditional things to wear can be combined with modern and contemporary clothes. Universal fashions can on the other hand have a unifying and maybe even egalitarian symbolism. On the other hand, Zack Pinsent of Brighton has wonderfully restored Regency elegance, adding to contemporary variety.

Fashion also evolves. In the 1980s it was youth fashion to wear no hat even in the coldest times of the Nordic winter with older people wondering if youngsters had lost their hat or head or which one they lost first. Nowadays they wear doubtless ripped jeans in the freezing cold winter - so cool that a cold may follow! A quarter of a century later the opposite is youth fashion, wearing a woolly beanie even indoors and in the warmest heat of the summer - while they clearly have not lost their hats, one may wonder about the head as much as a quarter of a century ago.

The English Singer Adam Ant (Stuart Goddard) appeared in outfits of long equestrian boots and swagger stick or cane as a charming prince. The lyrics included:

Don't you ever, don't you ever

Stop being dandy, showing me you're handsome

Prince Charming

Prince Charming

Ridicule is nothing to be scared of

There is something uniquely and supremely stylish about slim equestrian figures, man, woman and beast alike - the human being is such an ugly animal that it must wear clothes to look beautiful and even then losing the race to the horse (with some exceptions)

Grand Duke Dmitri of Russia 

Imperial Austrian Cavalry Officer 

One can wear anything or nothing, the skill is to know when to wear or not to wear whatever if anything. Any hair style can look good or bad from a long whip of a pony tail to short cropped hair. 

‘I love everything beautiful’ – Jean Sibelius said. One may not need to specify too much.

Both the world of fashion and the Court of Chancery are things of precedent and usage... (Bleak House)