From the reign of Charles II to the early 19th century, a curious Almanac - part 'teach-yourself mathematics', part political satire - promoted the use of science in everyday life and trades. Benjamin Wardaugh tells the story of the rumbustious 'Poor Robin of Saffron Walden', and the rise of popular science in Georgian England.

Narrative satire was one of the dominant literary forms of the 18th century, but it came to be displaced by novelistic and historical forms of narrative. Palmeri (English, U. of Miami) argues that these new forms defined themselves in opposition to satire, but also by appropriating elements of satir

Being some observations on life and manners in Vew England a hundred years ago, suggested by reading the earlier numbers of Mr. Robert. B. Thomas's Farmer's almanack, together with extracts curious, instructive, and entertaining, as well as a variety of miscellaneous matter.