Barrow Bookstore Presents: Concord Trivia

QUESTIONS

1 Who was the royal monarch of England when Concord was founded in 1635? a) Queen Elizabeth I b) King George II c) King Charles I d) King James VI/I

2 Louisa May Alcott shared a November 29th birthday with her father, Amos Bronson Alcott. On Bronson’s 61st and her 28th birthday, Louisa gave her father a ream of paper. Bronson gave Louisa: a) A tame barn owl b) An apple c) A new pen d) A picture of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Questions 3-5: Victorian trends that you should never try at home.

3 Poisonous yet practical. If you lived in Victorian Concord and were preparing your house for holiday visitors, you might use alum, an aluminum compound, for which of the below? a) Making Christmas trees sparkly b) Adding to bread batter to make the bread heavier and whiter in color c) Cleaning boots

4 You own a small apothecary shop in 1870s Concord. A lady comes in looking for something to make her pupils larger and her eyes more seductive. What might you sell to her? a) Witch hazel b) Extract of mistletoe c) Atropa belladonna d) Rose water

5 New Year, new you! You’re a wealthy Victorian lady who is striving for a deathly-pale, about-to-keel-over look because that’s high-fashion at the moment. To attain this look you might try: a) Eating arsenic wafers b) Bathing in deadly nightshade c) Consuming 20 raw egg-whites mixed with Prussian salt d) Sitting outside in winter moonlight until you get consumption

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6 True or False: In Colonial era Concord, winter decorations of evergreen boughs and wreaths would be decorated with oranges, lemons, and limes.

7 The year is 1818. You live in Concord and are planning a holiday dinner party. Your guests will include 15-year-old Harvard College sophomore Ralph Waldo Emerson, who will be home on break. Which of the below special drinks might you serve? a) Welch’s Concord Grape Juice b) Negus with wine c) Negus without wine d) Sweet tea

8 One of Louisa May Alcott’s favorite writers was also known as “The Father of Christmas.” Was he: a) John Bunyan b) Charles Dickens c) Goethe d) Ralph Waldo Emerson

9 Need inspiration for a holiday gift? In his essay “Gifts” (Essays: Second Series, published 1844), Ralph Waldo Emerson says the “genius and god of gifts” is: a) Friendship b) Marriage c) Love d) Short visits

10 Even though this column is written by a bookstore, we admit that some books are boring. But if you lived in early to mid-17th-century Concord and wanted a gossipy-good read, you might want to get your eyes on a copy of Thomas Morton’s book The New English Canaan. However, the book was hard to find because: a) There was a paper shortage due to taxes by the king b) The book was banned in New England c) Everyone was illiterate d) This must be a trick question because if you can’t find it, how do you know it’s not boring?

ANSWERS

1. c) Charles I. Born on November 19, 1600, Charles may have wished he hadn’t waited around to be crowned in 1625 and instead had hopped on the Mayflower in 1620 and landed safely in Massachusetts, because when he did become King, he angered a lot of people in England and Ireland and was parted from his head against his will.

2. d) A picture of Ralph Waldo Emerson. From Louisa’s November 1860 journal entry: “Our birthday. Gave Father a ream of paper, and he gave me Emerson’s picture; so both were happy.” A contemporary of Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson was an encouraging and much-admired presence in Louisa’s life, leading her to once call him “the god of my idolatry.”

3. All of them! In Victorian times, sparkly Christmas trees were the rage. To make branches sparkle, you could dip the branches in boiling water mixed with alum, let soak, dry, and repeat as needed. Alum was also added to bread mixes to make the bread heavier and whiter in color. Sparkly Christmas trees and shiny boots were nice, but consuming alumlaced bread could lead to severe and prolonged digestive problems.

4. c) Atropa belladonna, also known as deadly nightshade. Atropa belladonna eyedrops might dilate high-fashion Victorian women’s eyes, but they could also cause blindness or permanent damage.

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5. a) Eating arsenic wafers

6. False. While Colonial residents might have decorated their homes with evergreen boughs symbolic of spring’s return, oranges, lemons, and limes would have been too precious to waste on décor.

7. b) or c) 15-year-old Ralph Waldo Emerson could enjoy a hot Negus drink with or without wine as there was no legal drinking age in early 1800s America. Popular in the Regency era, Negus is a hot mulled wine infused with sugar, lemon, and nutmeg. Reportedly named after its creator, English Army Lt. Col. Francis Negus (16701732), the drink was served with or without wine. As found in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 How to Mix Drinks: or The BonVivant’s Companion, you would make Negus by starting with a pint of port wine and adding 1/2 pound loaf sugar, 1 lemon, and grated nutmeg to taste. Mix the wine, sugar, lemon, and nutmeg, and pour 1 quart of boiling water over the mixture. Cover, and serve while warm. For a nonalcoholic version, replace the wine with cranberry juice or apple cider. (If you guessed a) Welch’s Concord Grape Juice, you’re only a few decades away from being correct. The Concord grape was first grown in 1849, and the first Welch’s Grape Juice bottled in 1869).

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8. b) Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol published in 1843

9. c) Love

10. b) It was banned in New England! Born in Devon, England, in 1579, Thomas Morton was a lawyer and writer and came to New England in 1620. He founded the town of Merrymount (current day Quincy) and tried to establish a friendly community integrated with the native Algonquins. This, combined with his stance against some of his acquaintances’ actions that included their selling indentured slaves to Virginia, angered his fellow Puritans and he was labeled by Governor William Bradford as “The Lord of Misrule.” In 1628, Morton was arrested and charged for selling guns to the Native Americans. He was banished to the Isle of Shoals in New Hampshire where he was dropped off and left to die. But his Native American friends provided him with food until, by a stroke of luck, Morton was picked up by an English fishing ship and taken back to England. He returned to America a few years later, where, now very annoyed, in 1637, he wrote The New England Canaan which cast a very poor light on his fellow Puritans and their way of life. The New England Puritans responded by banning the book, eventually recapturing poor Morton and trying him for sedition. Slowly dying, Morton was granted clemency from prison and spent the rest of his days in Maine.