This has been one of those stories that practically write themselves. While researching the historical context for this tale, it was almost impossible to stop reality from taking over and turning into a better plot that any fiction I could devise.

Apart from the obvious fictional figures I have created, and apart from some streamlining, most of the events I have described here actually happened. Mendel did become Abbot, and one of his friends did go to America. Synthetic dyes were invented in England, and the Germans both copied and improved on them at the time and then later. There were secret police files kept on the monks of St. Thomas's, and Brno did have a number of important cloth weaving mills.

To begin with, the Victorians were amazing people, in so many ways. They "invented" almost everything we take for granted in our so called "modern" society. Spend a few hours researching patents for common inventions that we use every day, and you quickly find that the Victorians discovered or invented them first.

Hard as it is to imagine, before the Victorians invented it there was no advertising, no brand names, and children were treated more like slaves than "little darlings". If you go to a modern public school, you can thank the Victorians; if you wrap your children in protective headgear before allowing them ride their bikes, thank the Victorians for changing our attitude to youth and how it should be spent.

If you or your bride get married in a white wedding dress, have a wedding cake, march to Mendelssohn's Wedding march down the aisle; thank the Victorians. If you are bombarded by spam; thank the Victorians; if you use public transportation, thank the Victorians; if you travel over metal bridges; thank the Victorians. If you wear brightly colored clothing; thank the Victorians; the list goes on and on and on.

We have a lot to be thankful for, and most of it is due to the seismic shift in moral, societal, and scientific values established by these remarkable people.

Sadly, most people today, if they think about the Victorians at all, think about them in almost a cartoon stereotype fashion started by the author Lytton Strachey, and then perpetuated by a lot of bad 1950's Sherlock Holmes movies. This is a big pity and grossly unfair.

They did get some things wrong, however. Synthesis of chemical compounds started with Victorian scientists and, as this story tells, they created the synthetic dye industry and for a time they profited from their remarkable discoveries. But, for some reason I cannot explain, they never followed up or exploited their breakthroughs any further, and allowed German industry to take over this whole field of research (and all the profit!).

It was not until the shock of the first World War woke the British (and American) government up to the fact that dozens and dozens of extremely valuable substances were being made in the factories of their enemy, and not in their own, that funding and backing were given to the starving British scientists.

In the history of British science this is not an isolated incident. No one in the British government wanted to build the Spitfire, the airplane that saved them during WWII; the British government gave the Americans the idea, and working versions of, everything from the jet engine to antibiotics, and never profited from these inventions themselves, and then ended up buying back their own inventions at great cost and expense after the war.

In this one respect, the British are a very strange people!

But what about Mendel becoming an Abbot?

As this story tells, the election of Mendel to the Abbacy of St. Thomas's monastery, was an event of some drama. At that time, and where Mendel lived, people were ethnically polarized between the native Czechs and the minority Germans, who held all the positions of power. The Empire was recovering from a disastrous war with Germany, and the church was a major force in both the spiritual and physical matters of everyday life.

All the considerations I outlined in the story of Mendel's election were real; ethnicity, youth, police dossiers on the monks, taxes, pride, and lots and lots of politics. However, I was not a fly on the wall at the time of the voting, so I cannot say that the participants actually said or did exactly what I suggest. But so long as human nature has not changed much in 140 years, I strongly suspect that I am not far from the truth.

Almost the first act Mendel did as the new Abbot was give Mateous Klacel the passport he desperately needed to leave the country and go to America. His story is definitely not over! Interestingly, I have not been able to find the police dossier on Klacel, despite the fact that it must have been very thick and must make very interesting reading.

Both the female characters in this story are fictional, but based on real people of the time. Women scientists were rare, but they did exist (Madame Curie, for example) and for the most part did their exceptional work only if "supervised" by a male partner or mentor.

Victorian women were exceptional in more than one way, and in ways that we appreciate much more today than they did then. It would take many more stories such as these to give them their proper tribute. Mendel's monastery was definitely not anti-feminist (as far as I can tell), and may indeed have employed a female cook who was popular enough and successful enough to have become quite well known in Brno and its surroundings.

Women Czech nationalists did exist and did exert considerable influence on the awakening of Czech identity and politics, but I have taken the liberty in this story of using only one of them as my guide. She was real, and she did know the Klacels quite well, but perhaps she did not behave in quite the extreme way I paint her here.

My descriptions of the weaving "manufactories", the slums where the workers lived, how they lived, and the conditions in which they worked are as accurate as I can make them. There are many accounts, and official reports written during this period, that document the life and times of this new class of industrial worker, and they all make for horrific and amazing reading today.

"Tommy-shops" really existed as did the various roles of the semi-skilled workers that I describe taking place in these slums. "Trade Unions" (as we understand them today) were only just beginning - in England especially - and were not very well received by the factory owners, nobility, police or the politicians.

All in all it was a turbulent time for Mendel to take over the monastery, and I'm sure we will be finding out how he manages in later episodes and chapters.

I apologize to all those of you who have e-mailed me asking when the "next story" would be placed on the web for you all to read. I hope this latest tale has been worth the long wait and I'm sorry for the delay. As you may have noticed, there is a "missing" episode (Chapter 6) which is lurking in the back of my mind, but you can find hints as to what it will tell by examining other parts of this web-site.

Until then - thank you and I hope you continue to enjoy these stories.

© 2003 Professor John Blamire