THE turning of the year has set us thinking on times past—and there’s plenty to commemorate in 2024. For reasons unfathomable, a 1970s prog-rock band named themselves after agriculturist Jethro Tull, born 350 years ago, without whom the British Agricultural Revolution may not have happened; he patented a horse-drawn drill that sowed seeds in neat rows. Celebrated dandy Beau Nash and Isaac Watts, the hymnist credited with Joy to the World, were born the same year (1674) and poet John Milton died.
Vanbrugh’s Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, was completed 300 years ago and it has been 250 years since the birth of Romantic poet Robert Southey, known for the anti-war poem and . The same year, 1774, Bath’s Royal Crescent was completed and cricket’s leg-before-wicket rule kicked off.
