The Academic Companion Piece to The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely
Showing posts with label Lord Eustace Likely. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lord Eustace Likely. Show all posts

Friday, September 07, 2007

A Walk in the Park

Good day, history lovers!

Today's enthralling chapter of Lord Likely's Astonishing American Adventure features some real-life history, thus it has me as excited as a dog in a fire hydrant factory.

In today's chapter, Likely meets Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead, the joint designers of New York's Central Park. Of course, in 1856 the park was yet to be built, and his lordship makes a decent attempt at designing it himself. It's rather a pity the pair did not take Likely up on his plan, as it would have made for a rather unique-looking attraction. Ah, well.

To read more about Central Park's history, go HERE.

Further fascinating tidbits from his lordship's diaries are cropping up everywhere, especially regarding his own family. Already we have been introduced to his American half-brother, Ludlow Likely, learnt more about Lightnin' Lance Likely (the outlawed Likely, who also features in this blog, here) and discovered that in 1856, Lord Eustace Likely, the father of the clan, is still alive and pumping. Exciting times!

The Likely family tree is less a tree, and more an entire forest. I wonder what further revelations await us?

Stay tuned!...

- Prof. Julian Syngen-Smythe.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Chapter One: Who Exactly Was Lord Likely?

Before we begin, we should first answer the question: Who Exactly Was Lord Likely?

Not much detail about Lord Likely had been available until now, with some historians believing Lord Likely was nothing more than a Victorian-era myth, made up to terrify school-children and entertain convicts. Yet, from the recent discovery of Lord Likely's journals and other artifacts, we have been able to piece together some biographical information about the great man.

Lord Likely was a Victorian aristocrat, and son of Lord Eustace Likely, the well-respected explorer and trader, who famously introduced pornography to the tribes of deepest, darkest Africa. Eustace Likely disappeared from England not long after his son's fifteenth birthday, leaving his heir with a large country estate and the Likely fortune.

Likely Junior grew up in opulence and decadence, never needing for nothing and living a life of unparalleled luxury. However, he soon grew bored of the daily routine and the rigmarole of high society, and so on his twenty-first birthday, Lord Likely took to traveling.

Not much is known about Lord Likely between the day he left the docks at Dover, and his reappearance some twelve years later. All that can be ascertained is that Likely returned to England a wiser man, and that on his travels he also acquired his long-time companion and man-servant, Botter, as well as a curious strain of gonorrhea.

Likely remained based in England thereafter, but still frequently journeyed to foreign climes as his mood took him. It was through his love of travel, and his eagerness for adventure, that Likely became well-renowned throughout Britain and Her colonies, garnering the nick-name the 'Aristocratic Adventurer'.

Finally, these adventures can be told, right here on the super-web highway.

- Prof. Julian Syngen-Smythe.