Two freaks

It came to my mind this morning, on the second cup of matinal tea, that Ancient Athens and Victorian England were two freaks of history, both occupying transient places in the scheme of things, with transient importance out of all proportion to their physical size.

On the basis, in both cases, of trading empires. In the case of Athens, the result of convenient location on the western perimeter of the Aegean, in the case of England, the result of convenient location on the eastern perimeter of the Atlantic. Both places having fine harbours and neither place being so hot and steamy as to inhibit manufacturing and commercial endeavour.

Perhaps we in England, or rather in the UK, should bear in mind the subsequent fate of Greece in our dealings with the rest of the world.

I was moved to get out the newish-to-me Times Atlas, first noticed at reference 1, to see about the Aegean, snapped above. I was reminded of the rather large and pretentious type faces used in the first few pages. And I learned that in 1895, when the atlas was first published, it was actually manufactured in Germany, then considered to be the leading country in matters cartographic. Which I found surprising, given our lead in navigating the world, the invention of longitude, chronometers and so forth. Germany was clearly on the up and up!

PS: Athens is to be found, just to the right of the centre fold, just below the middle. Not such a superior atlas that they bothered to do away with the centre fold, in the way of the atlas which had been bought a few weeks previous and noticed at reference 2. Not so up and up.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/bank-holiday.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/books-from-honiton.html.