1.
1763 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. Robert Lloyd is in Fleet Prison for debt, approximate date – Chinese Qing dynasty scholar Sun Zhu compiles Three Hundred Tang Poems, an anthology of poems from the Chinese Tang dynasty. The Scottish place-hunters were as much alarmed as the actors had been in 1761, an Epistle to William Hogarth was in answer to the caricature of Wilkes made during the trial. In the poem, Churchill attacked Hogarths vanity and envy with an invective which David Garrick quoted as shocking, Hogarth retaliated with a caricature of Churchill as a bear in torn clerical bands hugging a pot of porter and a club made of lies and North Britons. The Duellist is a virulent satire on the most active opponents of Wilkes in the House of Lords, the Ghost, was an attack on Samuel Johnson among others, calling Johnson, Pomposo, insolent and loud, Vain idol of a scribbling crowd. The Conference The Author, highly praised by Churchills contemporaries
2.
1762 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1762. The Académie française produces a new edition of its dictionary of the French language, in Paris, the Comédie-Italienne is merged with the Opéra-Comique and performs at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Benjamin Victors adaptation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is staged by David Garrick at Drury Lane and it is the earliest known performance of that Shakespearean play in any form. Christoph Martin Wieland begins publishing his prose translations of 22 Shakespearean plays, hugh Blair is appointed first Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh by King George III, the first such chair in English literature
3.
1761 in architecture
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The year 1761 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings. Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers are jointly appointed Architect of the Kings Works to King George III of Great Britain, aina Mahal in Bhuj, Gujarat, India, built by Rao Lakhpatji. Christ Church, designed by Peter Harrison, is completed, st. George Church, Moldavia, with a 99-foot high bell tower once gilded in 18-carat gold. Penicuik House in Scotland built by Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet
4.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
5.
Charles Churchill (satirist)
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Charles Churchill, was an English poet and satirist. Churchill was born in Vine Street, Westminster and he was admitted to St Johns College, Cambridge on 8 July 1748. He became curate of South Cadbury, Somerset, and, on receiving priests orders, two years later the elder Churchill died, and the son was elected to succeed him in his curacy and lectureship. His emoluments amounted to less than £100 a year, and he increased his income by teaching in a girls school and his marriage proved unhappy, and he began to spend much of his time in dissipation in the society of Robert Lloyd. He was separated from his wife in 1761, and would have been imprisoned for debt but for the help of Lloyds father. Churchill had already done work for the booksellers, and his friend Lloyd had had some success with a didactic poem. Churchills knowledge of the theatre was now made use of in the Rosciad and its immediate popularity was no doubt largely due to its personal character, but its vigour and raciness make it worth reading even now when the objects of Churchills wit are forgotten. Incidentally it contains a tribute to John Dryden, of whom Churchill was a devotee. He deprecated criticism by showing every possible civility to Churchill, who became a terror to the actors, thomas Davies wrote to Garrick attributing his blundering in the part of Cymbeline to my accidentally seeing Mr Churchill in the pit, it rendering me confused and unmindful of my business. Churchills satire made him enemies, and brought reprisals. In Night, an Epistle to Robert Lloyd, he answered the attacks made on him, the Rosciad had been refused by several publishers, and was finally published at Churchills own expense. He received a sum from the sale, and paid his old creditors in full. He now became an ally of John Wilkes, whom he regularly assisted with The North Briton weekly newspaper. His next poem, The Prophecy of Famine, A Scots Pastoral, was founded on a paper written originally for that newspaper. This violent satire on Scottish influence fell in with the current hatred of Lord Bute, and the Scottish place-hunters were as much alarmed as the actors had been. When Wilkes was arrested he gave Churchill a timely hint to retire to the country for a time, hogarth retaliated by a caricature of Churchill as a bear in torn clerical bands hugging a pot of porter and a club made of lies and North Britons. The Duellist is a virulent satire on the most active opponents of Wilkes in the House of Lords and he attacked Dr Johnson among others in The Ghost as Pomposo, insolent and loud, Vain idol of a scribbling crowd. In October 1764 he went to Boulogne to join Wilkes, there he was attacked by a fever of which he died on 4 November
6.
David Garrick
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He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeares Richard III, audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and a number of roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal. He remained with the Drury Lane company for the five years. This purchase inaugurated 29 years of Garricks management of the Drury Lane, at his death, three years after his retirement from Drury Lane and the stage, he was given a lavish public funeral at Westminster Abbey where he was laid to rest in Poets Corner. As an actor, Garrick promoted realistic acting that departed from the style that was entrenched when he first came to prominence. His acting delighted many audiences and his direction of many of the top actors of the English stage influenced their styles as well, during his tenure as manager of Drury Lane, Garrick also sought to reform audience behaviour. While this led to discontent among the theatre-going public, many of his reforms eventually did take hold. Garrick also sought reform in matters, bringing an overarching consistency to productions that included set design, costumes. Garricks influence extended into the side of theatre as well. Critics are almost unanimous in saying he was not a good playwright, in addition, he adapted many older plays in the repertoire that might have been forgotten. These included many plays of the Restoration era, indeed, while influencing the theatre towards a better standard he also gained a better reputation for theatre folk. This accomplishment led Samuel Johnson to remark that his profession made him rich, Garrick was born at the Angel Inn, Widemarsh Street, Hereford in 1717 into a family with French Huguenot roots in the Languedoc region of Southern France. Garricks grandfather, David Garric, was in Bordeaux in 1685 when the Edict of Nantes was abolished, revoking the rights of Protestants in France. David Garric fled to London and his son, Peter, who was an infant at the time, was smuggled out by a nurse when he was deemed old enough to make the journey. David Garric became a British subject upon his arrival in Britain, some time after David Garricks birth the family moved to Lichfield, home to Garricks mother. His father, a captain in the army, was an officer stationed in Gibraltar through most of young Garricks childhood. Garrick was the third of seven children and his brother, George. The playwright and actor Charles Dibdin recorded that George, discovering his brothers absence would often inquire Did David want me, upon Garricks death in 1779, it was noted that George died 48 hours later, leading some to speculate that David wanted him
7.
Thomas Davies (bookseller)
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Thomas Davies was a Scottish bookseller and author. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and was for years on the stage. It was here that in 1763 he introduced Boswell to Dr. Johnson and he wrote a successful Life of Garrick, which passed through four editions, and Dramatic Miscellanies. He was born about 1713, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh, in 1736 he appeared in George Lillos Fatal Curiosity at the Haymarket, then under Henry Fieldings management. He then tried bookselling, but failed and returned to the stage, on 24 January 1746 he attempted the part of Pierre in Venice Preserved, which was performed for his benefit at Covent Garden. He next became an actor, and married the daughter of an actor at York. Davies performed at Edinburgh, where he was accused of monopolising popular parts, in 1753 he was engaged with his wife at Drury Lane, with some success as understudies. In 1761 appeared Churchills Rosciad, in which the line He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone which, according to Samuel Johnson, Davies apparently left the stage in 1762, when he again set up as a bookseller at 8 Russell Street, Covent Garden. Here in 1763 he introduced James Boswell to Johnson, Davies died on 5 May 1785, and was buried in St. Pauls, Covent Garden. Johnson punished him for an indiscretion by observing contemptuously that Jonathan Swifts Conduct of the Allies might have been written by Tom Davies. Davies republished the works of authors including William Browne, Sir John Davies, John Eachard, George Lillo, in 1773 he published Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces, in two volumes, and advertised them as by the author of The Rambler. Johnsons writings, without authority, formed the bulk of this collection, Davies then appeared for the last time as Fainall in William Congreves The Way of the World. Next year Davies dedicated his Massinger to Johnson, Johnson later encouraged Davies to write the life of Garrick, supplied the first sentence, and gave help with Garricks early years. The book appeared in 1780, passed through four editions, and brought money, with anecdotes of Dramatic Poets, Actors, &c.3 vols. A second edition appeared the same year, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Davies, Thomas
8.
Cymbeline
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Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance or even a comedy. Like Othello and The Winters Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence, while the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611. Cymbeline, the Roman Empires vassal king of Britain, once had two sons, Guiderius and Arvirargus, but they were twenty years earlier as infants by an exiled traitor named Belarius. Cymbeline now discovers that his only child left, his daughter Imogen, has married her lover Posthumus Leonatus. The lovers have exchanged jewellery as tokens, Imogen now with a bracelet, Cymbeline dismisses the marriage and banishes Posthumus, since Imogen, as Cymbelines only child, must produce a fully royal-blooded heir to succeed to the British throne. In the meantime, Cymbelines Queen is conspiring to have Cloten, her cloddish and arrogant son by a marriage, married to Imogen. The Queen passes the poison along to Pisanio, Posthumus and Imogens loving servant, No longer able to be with her banished Posthumus, Imogen secludes herself in her chambers, away from Clotens aggressive advances. If Iachimo wins, he will get Posthumuss token ring, if Posthumus wins, not only must Iachimo pay him but also fight Posthumus in a duel with swords. Iachimo heads to Britain where he attempts to seduce the faithful Imogen. Iachimo then hides in a chest in Imogens bedchamber and, when the princess falls asleep and he also takes note of the room and Imogens partly naked body to be able to present false evidence to Posthumus that he has seduced his bride. Returning to Italy, Iachimo convinces Posthumus that he has successfully seduced Imogen, however, Pisanio refuses to kill Imogen and reveals to her Posthumuss plot. He has Imogen disguise herself as a boy and continue to Milford Haven to seek employment and he also gives her the Queens poison, believing it will alleviate her psychological distress. In the guise of a boy, Imogen adopts the name Fidele, meanwhile, Cloten learns of the meeting between Imogen and Posthumus at Milford Haven. Dressing himself enviously in Posthumuss clothes, he decides to go to Wales to kill Posthumus, and then rape, abduct and these two young men are in fact the British princes Guiderius and Arviragus, who themselves do not realise their own origin. The men discover Fidele, and instantly captivated by an affinity for him become fast friends. Outside the cave, Guiderius is met by Cloten, who throws insults, meanwhile, Imogens fragile state worsens and she takes the poison as a hopeful medicine, when the men re-enter, they find her dead. They mourn and, after placing Clotens body beside hers, briefly depart to prepare for the double burial, Imogen awakes to find the headless body, and believes it to be Posthumus due to the fact the body is wearing Posthumus clothes. The treacherous Queen is now wasting away due to the disappearance of her son Cloten, meanwhile, despairing of his life, a guilt-ridden Posthumus enlists in the Roman forces as they begin their invasion of Britain
9.
James Macpherson
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James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the translator of the Ossian cycle of epic poems. He was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation, Macpherson was born at Ruthven in the parish of Kingussie in Badenoch, Inverness-shire. On leaving college, he returned to Ruthven to teach in the school there, at Moffat he met John Home, the author of Douglas, for whom he recited some Gaelic verses from memory. He also showed him manuscripts of Gaelic poetry, supposed to have picked up in the Scottish Highlands. Dr. Hugh Blair, who was a believer in the authenticity of the poems. In the autumn he set out to visit western Inverness-shire, the islands of Skye, North Uist, South Uist and he obtained manuscripts which he translated with the assistance of a Captain Morrison and the Rev. Gallie. Later he made an expedition to the Isle of Mull, where he obtained other manuscripts, temora followed in 1763, and a collected edition, The Works of Ossian, in 1765. The name Fingal or Fionnghall means white stranger, and it is suggested that the name was rendered as Fingal through a derivation of the name which in old Gaelic would appear as Finn. More forceful denunciations were later made by Dr. Samuel Johnson, who asserted that Macpherson had found fragments of poems and stories, further challenges and defences were made well into the nineteenth century, but the issue was moot by then. Macpherson never produced the originals that he claimed existed, in 1764 he was made secretary to the colonial governor George Johnstone at Pensacola, Florida. He returned to Great Britain two years later, and, despite a quarrel with Johnstone, was allowed to retain his salary as a pension. He enjoyed a salary for defending the policy of Lord Norths government and he entered parliament in 1780, as Member of Parliament for Camelford and continued to sit for the remainder of his life. For a time Macpherson desired a seat in Parliament and he received it in the 1780 general election. On 11 September 1780, he became member for Camelford. Later he became the member in the results of the April 1784 election. He stayed in position until his death. This suggestion is more or less backed by letters corresponding with other suggested government scammers of the such as Paul Benfield. In 1783 he also held a position as an agent working with Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, in his later years he bought an estate, to which he gave the name Belville or Balavil, in his native Inverness-shire, where he died at the age of 59
10.
Fingal
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Fingal is a county in Ireland. It is located in the province of Leinster and, within that, is part of the Dublin Region and its name is derived from the medieval territory of Scandinavian foreigners that settled in the area. Fingal County Council is the authority for the county. In 2011 the population of the county was 273,991, Fingal is one of three areas into which County Dublin was divided in 1994. Large urban centres include Blanchardstown, Swords, Balbriggan, Castleknock, Howth, Malahide, small rural settlements exist in the northern and western parts of the county. The motto of the arms of Fingal reads Flúirse Talaimh is Mara meaning Abundance of Land, the motto reflects the strong farming and fishing ties historically associated with the area. It also features a Viking longboat, which represents the arrival of the Norse in Fingal, Fingal is bordered by County Meath to the north, by Kildare to the west and by Dublin city to the south. At the Strawberry Beds, the River Liffey separates the county from South Dublin, Fingal varies enormously in character, from densely populated suburban areas of the contiguous Dublin metropolitan to remote rural villages and almost-unpopulated agricultural townlands. Fingal County Council is also responsible for the northern-most parts of Ballymun, Santry, the part of Kilbarrack now known as Bayside, along with Sutton and Howth, were transferred from the city of Dublin in a somewhat controversial move. The name Fingal derives from the territory of Fine Gall. The Vikings referred to the hinterland of Dublin as Dyflinarskiri and it has also been claimed that the origin is from the distinction between Dubgaill and Finngaill, Fionn Gall means fair foreigners while Dub Gaill means dark-haired foreigners. Seventeenth-century historians were generally of the view that the Dubgaill were Danish while the Finngaill were Norwegian, the Dubgaill, dominated by the Danish Vikings, expelled the Fionngaill from Dublin town in 851. In Ireland, the usage of the county nearly always comes before rather than after the county name, thus County Clare in Ireland as opposed to Clare County in Michigan. The local authority uses all three forms, fingallian is an extinct language, a hybrid of Old and Middle English and Old Norse, with Gaelic influences. It was spoken by the people of Fingal until the mid-19th century, not until the Norman invasion of Ireland did the settlement and its hinterland become an administrative area. In 1208 the Lordship of Fingal was granted to Walter de Lacy by King John of England, the modern county of Fingal was established on 1 January 1994 with the division of the administrative county of Dublin under the Local Government Act,1993. The four entities collectively comprise the former entity known as County Dublin, the former County Dublin, which had been created as a feudal entity in the 12th century, was abolished under the Acts. Fingal is within the remit of the Eastern and Midland Region, established in 2015, in the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy identified Eblana as the capital of a people called the Eblani
11.
Ossian
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Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson from 1760. Macpherson claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in Gaelic, said to be from ancient sources, Ossian is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a legendary bard who is a character in Irish mythology. Contemporary critics were divided in their view of the works authenticity, the work was internationally popular, translated into all the literary languages of Europe and was highly influential both in the development of the Romantic movement and the Gaelic revival. Macphersons fame was crowned by his burial among the giants in Westminster Abbey. Ker, in the Cambridge History of English Literature, observes that all Macphersons craft as a philological impostor would have been nothing without his literary skill. In 1760 Macpherson published the English-language text Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, later that year, he claimed to have obtained further manuscripts and in 1761 he claimed to have found an epic on the subject of the hero Fingal, written by Ossian. The name Fingal or Fionnghall means white stranger, according to Macphersons prefatory material, his publisher, claiming that there was no market for these works except in English, required that they be translated. Macpherson published these translations during the few years, culminating in a collected edition, The Works of Ossian. The most famous of these Ossianic poems was Fingal, written in 1762, the supposed original poems are translated into poetic prose, with short and simple sentences. The mood is epic, but there is no single narrative, the main characters are Ossian himself, relating the stories when old and blind, his father Fingal, his dead son Oscar, and Oscars lover Malvina, who looks after Ossian in his old age. Though the stories are of endless battles and unhappy loves, the enemies and causes of strife are given little explanation, characters are given to killing loved ones by mistake, and dying of grief, or of joy. There is very little information given on the religion, culture or society of the characters, the landscape is more real than the people who inhabit it. Drowned in eternal mist, illuminated by a sun or by emphemeral meteors. Napoleon and Diderot were great admirers, and Voltaire wrote parodies of them, thomas Jefferson thought Ossian the greatest Poet that has ever existed, and planned to learn Gaelic so as to read his poems in the original. They were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical writers such as Homer, many writers were influenced by the works, including Walter Scott, and painters and composers chose Ossianic subjects. One poem was translated into French in 1762, and by 1777 the whole corpus, goethes associate Johann Gottfried Herder wrote an essay titled Extract from a correspondence about Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples in the early days of the Sturm und Drang movement. Complete Danish translations were made in 1790, and Swedish ones in 1794–1800, in Scandinavia and Germany the Celtic nature of the setting was ignored or not understood, and Ossian was regarded as a Nordic or Germanic figure who became a symbol for nationalist aspirations. It was his translation that Napoleon especially admired, and among others it influenced Ugo Foscolo who was Cesarottis pupil in the University of Padua, by 1800 Ossian was translated into Spanish and Russian, with Dutch following in 1805, and Polish, Czech and Hungarian in 1827–33
12.
Bard
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For example, William Shakespeare, and Rabindranth Tagore, are known as the Bard of Avon and the Bard of Bengal respectively. The word is a Celtic loan word from Scottish Gaelic bàrd, Irish bard, in 16th-century Scotland, it was a derogatory term for an itinerant musician, but it was later romanticised by Sir Walter Scott. The equivalent Cornish bardh was retained in English in the form of the drollteller, in medieval Gaelic and Welsh society, a bard or bardd was a professional poet, employed to compose eulogies for his lord. If the employer failed to pay the amount, the bard would then compose a satire. In other Indo-European societies, the function was fulfilled by skalds, rhapsodes, minstrels and scops. A hereditary caste of professional poets in Proto-Indo-European society has been reconstructed by comparison of the position of poets in medieval Ireland and in ancient India in particular. Bards were those who sang the songs recalling the tribal warriors deeds of bravery as well as the genealogies, the pre-Christian Celtic peoples recorded no written histories, however, Celtic peoples did maintain an intricate oral history committed to memory and transmitted by bards and filid. Bards facilitated the memorisation of such materials by the use of metre, rhyme, in medieval Ireland, bards were one of two distinct groups of poets, the other being the fili. According to the Early Irish law text on status, Uraicecht Becc, bards were a class of poets. However, it has also argued that the distinction between filid and bards was a creation of Christian Ireland, and that the filid were more associated with the church. By the Early Modern Period, these came to be used interchangeably. Irish bards formed a professional caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicenn, the bardic system lasted until the mid-17th century in Ireland and the early 18th century in Scotland. In Ireland, their fortunes had always linked to the Gaelic aristocracy. The early history of the bards can be known indirectly through mythological stories. The first mention of the profession in Ireland is found in the The Book of Invasions, in a story about the Irish colony of Tuatha De Danann. They became the aos sí, comparable to Norse alfr and British fairy, during the tenth year of the reign of the last Belgic monarch, the people of the colony of Tuatha De Danann, as the Irish called it, invaded and settled in Ireland
13.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
14.
Samuel Johnson
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Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentlemans Magazine and his early works include the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755 and it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship. This work brought Johnson popularity and success, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnsons was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him, after a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Born on 18 September 1709, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller and he did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborns health, his aunt exclaimed that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street. Since it was feared that the baby die, the vicar of St Marys was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen, Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, Johnsons health improved and he was put to wet-nurse with Joan Marklew. He soon contracted scrofula, known at time as the Kings Evil because it was thought royalty could cure it. Sir John Floyer, former physician to King Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the royal touch, however, the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body. Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust. His education began at the age of three, and was provided by his mother, who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. When Samuel turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, a year later, Johnson went to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin. During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his years
15.
John Armstrong (poet)
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Dr. John Armstrong was a physician, poet, and satirist. Under the pseudonym Launcelot Temple, Esq, he published Sketches, or, strangely what must have been once the small town of Castleton, with a castle, church, manse, regular licensed markets and many homes has now totally disappeared. In the churchyard, however an obelisk stands to the memory of John Armstrong. It reads, If yet thy shade delights to hover near The holy ground where oft thy sire hath taught, And where our fathers fondly flocked to hear Accept the offering which their sons have brought. Proud of the muse, which gave to classic fame Our vale and stream, to song before unknown, We raise this stone to bear thy deathless name, to learning, worth, and genius such as thine, How vain the tribute monuments can pay. Thy name immortal with thy works shall shine, And live when frailer marble shall decay, doctor George Armstrong is the Father of modern Paediatrics, and the Founder of the Worlds First Hospital for Sick Children. He died in London where he had given his life for the children of the poor This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Cousin. A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, London, J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource The Border Magazine April 1926 Liddesdale, Historical and Descriptive, by John Byers,1952 John McQueen and son, Galashiels Chambers, Robert & Thomson, a biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen. Works by John Armstrong at Project Gutenberg Works by or about John Armstrong at Internet Archive
