Tulpehocken Evangelical and Reformed Church, Richland, Lebanon County

How would you like to be able to pay your rent in flowers? 

'Red rose rent' is specified as being a type of "quit-rent," which is not a commonly used term nowadays. It has its roots in feudal Europe, in which a tenant either worked the land or provided military services for his liege lord (either the king or a lesser noble) in lieu of paying rent or taxes on the property he occupied. In essence, the quit-rent took the place of feudal services. The practice continued all the way into colonial America, where the quit-rent was more or less a kind of land tax. In the case of 'red rose rent,' though, it's a merely symbolic gesture, usually because the person creating the rental agreement was being generous for one reason or another. For the princely sum of one red rose every year, the renter continues to have the full use of a specified building or tract of land.

I don't think there are too many modern examples of 'red rose rent' being used anymore, the economy being what it is. But here in Pennsylvania, there are a number of historic locations which still pay homage to the tradition, and one of these is a church in Lebanon County.

Catherine Drinker Bowen, Bethlehem, Northampton County

I'm writing this week's post in the company of my parents' cat, Edgar Winter. My friend Ed is technically a cat, but we like to call him "the cog" because he acts like a dog in many ways. He wags his tail when he's happy, which combines very oddly with the purring. I also maintain that he's part Klingon, because when he wants attention he is very hard to deter. (He clings on. Therefore, a Klingon.) He also really dislikes to be home alone for extended periods of time, so here I am.

Anyway, he's supervising this post, in between monitoring squirrel activity in the side yard and taking his fifteenth nap of the day. My subject has nothing to do with cats, so he's not overly enthused. I, on the other hand, am delighted with it. Today we're talking about a woman born and raised in Pennsylvania, who spent part of her life in Northampton County, and who lacked much in the way of formal training yet nevertheless emerged as a prolific, talented, and acclaimed writer of history. You know, kind of like I'm trying to do.

The Mills Brothers, Bellefonte, Centre County

It's not a very comfortable day here in the beloved commonwealth. As of this writing, our air quality is in code orange status, meaning that I'm not looking forward to going outside. Just as it was two years ago this week, our air is again being a bit clogged by smoke drifting down from the Canadian wildfires.

Things are busy here. Last week, my mother's last surviving aunt, my very dear Great-Aunt Gene, celebrated her 100th birthday! Naturally, we've been very caught up in preparing for that. One of her sons even arranged for her picture to appear on the Jumbotron at a Phillies game (she loves the Phillies). She's not a reader of the blog, but she's always been interested in hearing about the things I learn while researching my posts, so I thought it was fitting to mention her here.

This week's post is a bit of an odd one, because the Pennsylvania connection feels to me like a little bit of a stretch. The subject itself, however, is quite interesting.