Sunday, 11 October 2026Est. MMXXVI · One story, every day@historicjots
historicjots

A field journal of history that refuses to end

The Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, where the Crown's oldest rents are still counted out on a chequered cloth each October. Anthony M. from Rome, Italy · Source · CC BY 2.0

Today’s Story·No. 1·Still Happening

1211

The Rent Is Six Horseshoes

Every October the City of London pays the Crown six horseshoes, 61 nails, a billhook and a hatchet, and a judge in a tricorn hat counts them.

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The Atlas

1 story, 1 country, one map

Every story is pinned where it happened, or where it is happening still.

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Recurring

The Series

  1. I.

    Still Happening

    Ceremonies, offices and laws that outlived their purpose and kept going anyway.

    1 story