Introduction

Two hundred years ago today….

The initial idea was mad: to tweet about what transpired every second, minute, hour and day as it happened some two hundred years ago in 1812. A tweeted remembrance of some universal memory, like some (his)story of Borges. This was an ambition that would have made Icarus blush but inspired this more modest but still quite mad undertaking. I will attempt to tweet each day, over a period of a year, events from two hundred years ago as they happened in 1812 to the day. Writing this I am aware of the utter paltriness of what is being attempted: to capture some discarded ruins, curios, a dimly recorded or understood sense of things that long ago vanished. Strangely, to do so in 140 characters, highlights the randomness, subjectivity and impossibility of the undertaking which is itself useful.

The tweets follow as the information is gathered and time permits. The commitments of the present will further limit what I can do.

I will try, with what success we will see, to provide some context in this blog again time permitting.

I will try to record the source of the information. If I do not, please call me on it.

Lastly, when I make a mistake, which will happen and probably already has happened, you can be as censorious as you wish provided you provide me with the correct information.