The Pale Horse - Facts

 

Mark is witness to a fight between two women in a bar in Chelsea. Chelsea is an area in West London,. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames. Chelsea's modern reputation as a centre of innovation and influence originated in a period during the 19th century, when the area became a Victorian artists' colony. It became prominent once again as one of the centres of the "Swinging London" of the 1960s.

The book, which was published in 1961, mentions Beatniks. Beatniks were members of a mid-20th-century social and literary movement that rejected American consumerism, conventional conformity, and traditional values in favor of bohemianism, jazz music, and intense artistic self-expression.

Mark and Hermia goe to see McBeath at the Old Vic. The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal Victoria Palace. It was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 and formally named the Royal Victoria Hall, although by that time it was already known as the "Old Vic". 

Osborne goes to live in Bournemouth, which is near Much Deeping. Bournemouth  is a coastal resort town in Dorset, on the south coast of England.

Mr Osborne mentions Sir Edmund Hillary with admitation as he was the climber who reached the top of the Everest. Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, he and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. 

Mark goes to see Tommy's stepmother on the excuse of writing about her house which is a Nash House. John Nash (18 January 1752 – 13 May 1835) was a British architect of the Georgian and Regency eras. He was responsible for the design, in the neoclassical and picturesque styles, of many important areas of London. 

The characters mentioned Madeleine Smith, who poisoned her husband. Madeleine Hamilton Smith (29 March 1835 – 12 April 1928) was a Scottish woman who was accused of murdering her lover with arsenic in a sensational murder trial in Scotland in 1857. 

Another historical figure they mention is Typhoid Mary. Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), commonly known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born cook who lived in the United States from a young age and is believed to have infected up to fifty-seven people with the bacteria that cause typhoid fever. The infections caused three confirmed deaths. She was the first person in the U.S. to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of Salmonella Typhi bacteria.

Mark discovered that all the people on the list were poisoned with Thallium. Thallium is a chemical element. Soluble thallium salts  are highly toxic and they were historically used in rat poisons and insecticides. Thallium poisoning usually results in hair loss.