Last week we discussed the symbolism of "Pandora's Breeches", an image on one of the "Three Thomas's" Middlesex token. Thanks again to Ray Williams for suggesting the topic. -Editor

"Just a comment about the three Thomases. All three, (Thomas Spence, Sir Thomas More, and Thomas Paine), were prosecuted by the British government for their writings.

"The stuffed woolen breeches, as far as I understand, were found in the House of Commons in 1792, trying to set the House on fire. They called them Pandora's breeches because all the ills in life (including the American Revolution) came from a Pandora's box."

Thanks. Peter also passed along an excerpt on the topic from his 2020 book, Colonial History in Your Hands .

Next up are some notes from Ron Haller-Williams. Thanks. -Editor

"Had Guy Fawkes struck again? When smoke billowed through the lobby of the House of Commons on 9 May 1792, some smouldering breeches stuffed with straw were found crammed above a lavatory ceiling. Suspicion immediately fell on Thomas Paine, the well-known revolutionary who had just completed his (metaphorically) incendiary Rights of Man. 'Guy Vaux' caricatures sneered at Paine's calls for equality, ..."

"Pandora's breeches were a powerful symbol because the notion of a woman wearing trousers was outrageously funny, yet also frighteningly possible. The same year, the writer Mary Wollstonecraft published her own inflammatory book with a similar title to Paine's: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ..."

Thanks, everyone. -Editor