Breakfast Links: Week of May 23, 2011

Since this is a holiday weekend for many of you, we're serving up our Breakfast Links a bit early so you can enjoy them at a more leisurely pace. Lots to explore here in our customary collection of historical this-and-that, gathered up from other web sites, blogs, and news stories from around the Twitterverse. Please enjoy!

• In honor of Queen Victoria's birthday this week - a rare photo of Her Majesty smiling: http://bit.ly/iKPSII

• A stylish grate at Fairfax House was key to keeping Georgian Englishmen warm. http://bit.ly/lAtWMo

• Love plaid? So did these guys: http://ht.ly/50B1S

• The full list of England's historic buildings is now online & fully searchable - a fantastic resource! http://deck.ly/~8aHoV

• Love this "futuristic mechanised toilette": An 1899 view of female cosmetics in year 2000. http://twitpic.com/51icz3

• A five-guinea gold coin in your pocket? That's substantial jingle, even in 1791: http://bit.ly/iVIki3

• Robert Louis Stevenson gets revenge on sneaky literary agent 120 years later : http://bit.ly/iVbdOd

• If the Founding Fathers wanted to visit Body Worlds. . . http://bit.ly/kd6fMF

• Shades of purple & plum: Check out this elegant 2-piece Worth dress c.1890 http://bit.ly/m5ZHeb

• Colorful names for questionable meals; food aboard ship c 1820 http://bit.ly/jMtphV

• Buckingham Palace and State Banquets http://bit.ly/m9RnZp

• Eerie - yet formal - display of children's clothes from the windows of Lord & Taylor, NYC, 1935: http://bit.ly/mQybcB

• Jane Austen Film Locations: The Hunsford Rectory,BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice: http://wp.me/pGJsu-1EA

• ‘The Somnambulist' by Pre-Raphaelite J.E.Millais on the auction block; did it inspire Wilkie Collins? http://bit.ly/kXIIBj

• The Bearded Lady:The Legend of Saint Wilgefortis http://goo.gl/O9VMS

• On this day in 1969, John & Yoko launch their bed-in wearing Le Château jumpsuits: http://natpo.st/ctZ6n9

• A conversation and a game of tennis from an Elizabethan English/Italian phrasebook: http://bit.ly/kNPWtp

• Go Baroque! Create your own 17th century still life: http://bit.ly/9Htspc

• 18th Century Umbrellas: http://t.co/gl9

• Show to every kid who complains how bored he/she is: American Child Labour c.1900-1937 http://tinyurl.com/3va7eh4

• Wickedly delicious: 'Sinners Grand Tour':10 sexy places the guidebooks won't tell you about http://huff.to/lo4GwO